Nelson Gray's Z Scale -- Does anyone own any?

Do any of you guys own any of the original Nelson Gray Z Scale releases?

Finding information on the web is very difficult. How were these packaged? (Please post a photo if you have one).

What roadnames were his rolling stock and F7 released in?

As I already mentioned, there is very little web information on his huge contributions to Z Scale.

The January/February 2007 issue of Ztrack has an extensive article on Nelson Gray and his contributions to Z scale. The article includes photos of his original rolling stock releases and work shop. The cover photo is actually of his personal F7. As I recall, the rolling stock was only offered as undecorated. I don't believe he offered any finished pieces. Here is the link to the back issue. These are still available.

www.ztrack.com/issues/issues_07.html

Rob

proud2bnokie wrote:

Do any of you guys own any of the original Nelson Gray Z Scale releases?

Finding information on the web is very difficult. How were these packaged? (Please post a photo if you have one).

What roadnames were his rolling stock and F7 released in?

As I already mentioned, there is very little web information on his huge contributions to Z Scale.

Stephen Schweighofer's article in Ztrack Magazine is the best source of information and you can find pictures of some of Nelson Gray's rolling stock on this web page. <www.nn3.ca/stock/stock-freight-p1.htm> All of what Nelson produced except the Nn3 caboose was usable in Z-scale as a N Scale Narrow Gauge car of 30 ft scales to a 40ft Standard Gauge Car in Z. But not all were usable in Nn3 such as bulkhead flat, the railbox, and the F7.

None of Nelson's stuff was formally packaged for sale on a hobby shop shelf. Nothing was decorated or assembled. I first met Nelson at a Syracuse Train Show about 1977 and that led to meeting Bob Sloan and that got me into Nn3 from N-scale and I converted a Bachmann 4-4-0 to run on 6.5mm track for Nelson as well as several for myself and others as it was a less expensive entry point than Modifying a Marklin Chassis and putting on a Sloan Kit or later a Gold Rush Kit from GHQ in Minneapolis/St Paul.

I also lived close to Rochester living on the Canadian side of the border at Niagara Falls. So on several occasions I got to visit Nelson's basement shop and collected all sorts of parts in return for building something for him. Yes I had my hands on the 3 bay hopper car and the E8 and a few others. My interest in Z did not come until 2002 so I have no examples of the railbox but I had the F7 shell and a number of his cars and I still have 35 to 40 of his cars in my collection and lots of his original archbar trucks. He also made a very fine knuckle coupler to scale but it was too fine for operational running.

The last time I saw Nelson was in 1985 about the time his wife's failing health caused him to get out of the business and he sold his molds and equipment to three people two being Keith and Dale Edwards who got the Z and Nn3 stuff. Nelson was also in Gauge 1 and made a very nice truck and operating knuckle coupler plus drivers for steam engines and other equipment.

Thanks for the magazine link and information ZTrack.

Garthah, great story. You saw history happening right in front of your eyes.

I saw this listing come up on EBay today (MTL Railbox from Nelson Gray's injection mold).

cgi.ebay.com/Z-Scale-Micro-Trains-Rail-Box-SUPER-RARE_W0QQitemZ150404441463QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item2304cda577

The seller embellishes a little too much, but it will interesting to see what this will go for in the next 6 days. (Hope I didn't break any board rules by posting an EBay link. Guess I need to read the board rules).

proud2bnokie wrote:

Garth, great story. You saw history happening right in front of your eyes.

I saw this listing come up on EBay today (MTL Railbox from Nelson Gray's injection mold).

cgi.ebay.com/Z-Scale-Micro-Trains-Rail-Box-SUPER-RARE_W0QQitemZ150404441463QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item2304cda577

The seller embellishes a little too much, but it will interesting to see what this will go for in the next 6 days. (Hope I didn't break any board rules by posting an EBay link. Guess I need to read the board rules).

Sorry but this is not a Nelson Gray Car. This is after Micro Trains purchased the mold and changed material in the trucks and wheels so maybe the car body is from the original mold but trucks and wheels are not the same.

I would not purchase this as a Nelson Gray Car. It would have to be unpainted to qualify as such in my book.

Steve, No rules broken. Unlike other websites, we allow common sense usage of Ebay links and the Ebay name for that matter. We will continue to do so as long as these listings are made in the context of Q&A's in the Forums. We do NOT encourage entrepenuers to list for sale items in the Forums. We do have a classifieds section for those who need to sell stuff. I don't mind an infomation sentence guiding one to those Classifieds in a Forum post however. Cheers, Jim CCRR:)

garthah wrote:

proud2bnokie wrote:

Garth, great story. You saw history happening right in front of your eyes.

I saw this listing come up on EBay today (MTL Railbox from Nelson Gray's injection mold).

cgi.ebay.com/Z-Scale-Micro-Trains-Rail-Box-SUPER-RARE_W0QQitemZ150404441463QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item2304cda577

The seller embellishes a little too much, but it will interesting to see what this will go for in the next 6 days. (Hope I didn't break any board rules by posting an EBay link. Guess I need to read the board rules).

Sorry but this is not a Nelson Gray Car. This is after Micro Trains purchased the mold and changed material in the trucks and wheels so maybe the car body is from the original mold but trucks and wheels are not the same.

I would not purchase this as a Nelson Gray Car. It would have to be unpainted to qualify as such in my book.

Never said it was a Nelson Gray car. I called it an "MTL Railbox from Nelson Gray's injection mold". Rightly giving him credit for the tooling, that's all. These have been long unavailable.

Socalz44 wrote:

Steve, No rules broken. Unlike other websites, we allow common sense usage of Ebay links and the Ebay name for that matter. We will continue to do so as long as these listings are made in the context of Q&A's in the Forums. We do NOT encourage entrepenuers to list for sale items in the Forums. We do have a classifieds section for those who need to sell stuff. I don't mind an infomation sentence guiding one to those Classifieds in a Forum post however. Cheers, Jim CCRR:)

Whew! Thanks.

I met Nelson Gray right before he sold his molds, etc. to MTL. He was a big reason to the start of American equipment a long time before even Marklin made US pieces. I still have all of the pieces he gave me, including the scratch built pieces. He was such a good person to talk to about Z. I still have the converted marklin 8878 into an F unit, and it runs well. A true pioneer for American Z

JD

proud2bnokie wrote:

I saw this listing come up on EBay today (MTL Railbox from Nelson Gray's injection mold).

cgi.ebay.com/Z-Scale-Micro-Trains-Rail-Box-SUPER-RARE_W0QQitemZ150404441463QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item2304cda577

The seller embellishes a little too much, but it will interesting to see what this will go for in the next 6 days.

Final auction price was US $33.00. (Click link and scroll to bottom). That same car with Marklin couplers had an MSRP of $12.30 when I purchased one in 1987.

proud2bnokie wrote:

proud2bnokie wrote:

I saw this listing come up on EBay today (MTL Railbox from Nelson Gray's injection mold).

cgi.ebay.com/Z-Scale-Micro-Trains-Rail-Box-SUPER-RARE_W0QQitemZ150404441463QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item2304cda577

The seller embellishes a little too much, but it will interesting to see what this will go for in the next 6 days.

Final auction price was US $33.00. (Click link and scroll to bottom). That same car with Marklin couplers had an MSRP of $12.30 when I purchased one in 1987.

How about this one: A Michigan Central 38-foot M-T gondola that originally listed for around $12 in March '85 sold for over $120 on eBay in July '09. Of course, these cars could rightfully be declared collectors' items since the mold is kaput.