It is handled in the U.S. by Marklin-USA in New Berlin, Wisconsin.

The leading U.S. manufacturer of Z is still Micro-Trains.

One of the most prolific (and amazing) lines comes from Harald Freudenreich, who makes the most incredibly fine brass Z-scale locomotives, cars, signals, and catenary at his Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik in northeastern Germany.

However, so much other Z equipment also comes from Germany; a good Eisenbahn- und Modellbahn-Wörterbuch - Deutsch-Englisch (Railroad and Model Railroading Dictionary - German-English) is available courtesy of Chris Ozdoba.

Many other top-notch manufacturers of Z, both here in the U.S. and abroad, are featured throughout this site.

This is a wee bit hard to believe, but doing a search 11 Jun 98 on HotBot for "Ztrack" yielded exactly 220 hits!

The BERLINERWERKE SAGA, the story of the HO Berlinerwerke pike,
is now on its own page with the Horseshoe Curve story.

(Berlinerwerke-Z)

There are several excellent Z-scale sites or pages on the Net; here are some of the best:

Brian Redman's Z-World, which is simply fantastic, especially his Märklin mini-club Finder, with its actual-size pictures of most Märklin Z production and custom items, in numerical order.

Dr. Christoph "Chris" Ozdoba's equally fantastic and comprehensive Z site.

"The Z Collection", Joris Ilegems' indexed illustrated list of Märklin Z items. (new URL - 11 Jun 08)

Rob Albriton's complex Z:220 site; ya gotta see his track development sketches!

Stan Jones has an interesting site at Z Model Trains.

I heard (Jan 99) from Graham Jones, Chairman of ZClub(GB) {Great Britain}; they now have a Web site and are a member of the Railroad Web Ring.

Another Web Ring, but one devoted solely to Z, is the Z-Ring of the Z-Modul Team Rhein-Ruhr {Deutsch} (English); this and other RR rings are listed on Joris Ilegem's Index page.

A Märklin enthusiast's site, with some Z, is at Modellbahn Collectors.

David A. Karp has a simply-fantastic Z site at " Do It Yourself in Z Scale", replete with fully-illustrated tips and construction articles!

There is a site exclusively for American Z products run by a gentleman who has valid professional reasons for remaining anonymous, so I am linking the site anyway.  The site is coded for Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher, only, but a No-Frames version is offered (not every page is viewable and not every page has Home links or works with the Back button, but I am assured that they will work on these pages).

John Bartolotto notes, in the Nov/Dec 2004 Ztrack, George J. Irwin's Irwin's Journal, which includes the UMTRR (The Unofficial Micro-Trains® Release Report - NOT affliated with Micro-Trains® Line, Inc.), a compilation and archive of ALL M-T Z-scale offerings (as well as N - unfortunately, as with M-T, they are scrambled).   (15 Jan 05)

In addition, Irwin's Journal links to Kurumi's SignMaker, which allows one with a good computer, an image processor, and a color printer (or access to one at Kinko's or the like) to create and print "Big Green" Interstate, federal, or state highway signs!

Miller Engineering has a site at http://www.microstru.com; if you are not familiar with their line of jewel-like etched brass structures, a business block, Victorian houses with gingerbread, a bank, a hotel, a movie house, even a stainless '40s diner and a microscopic telephone booth, be sure to visit the site!  For a preview, see the Z-Scale Continuation page.  [Also in HO and N Scales and 1:144 Collector's Scale.]

Harry van Galen in Amsterdam (Netherlands, not New York) carries the Artitec line of Z accessories at his Dutch hobbyworld.

Should you run across a Z-Auction (I found it on the HotBot search engine), it has nothing to do with Z-Scale; it is an electronics, computer, and Beanie Baby (really!) auction!

Best regardZ,  S.B.,III

© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 - All rights reserved.