times since the counter was installed.
NOTE: Page size is limited by HTML to some 30kB;
thus, I have been forced to add new pages just for Z-Scale, more Z-scale, and articles about Z-scale.
This index has been truncated to save space; see the full index on the Main Z Page.
(04 Jan 04)
Z-Scale model railroading, at an incredible 220 times smaller than life size, or slightly under half the size of the familiar HO scale, with rails only 6.5mm (~¼") apart, continued ...
Z scale is about 2½ times smaller than HO! In Z scale, a scale ¼-mile is exactly (and only) 6 feet; in other words, a mile is only 24 feet!
See the separate BEDT page for the story of the BEDTRR
Ztrack Magazine
The Newsletter for Z Scale Model Railroading
Ztrack now has a separate page of its own - ztrack.html.
The BEDT in Z
Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal RR
Starting with a paraphrase (rechronologized) of a letter to ZTrack on 04 Mar 92:
Speaking of 24', did you realize that a mile in Z is EXACTLY that#? - I never did until last week {this was in 1992} when I started planning out an exact Z-scale version of the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Railroad. It should fit on two 3' modules, plus a 2-footer to represent the Domino sugar plant. My friend's dad was Hugh Gerard (Jerry) Callaghan, a dour Scot who was the Chief Electrician of the BEDT. The friend hung around the yard with him each Saturday as a teenager. She was determined to include the Domino silos; old man Havemeyer used to come down to the BEDT yard to assure his best interests. I've old maps and aerial photos to determine the trackage.
Currently (18 Apr 92) looks like two 3' (by 2½') modules to cover from north to south and from the waterfront to Kent Avenue, plus a Domino module, plus several 1½' long wharves as add-ons. Resultant "footprint" will be 8' long by 4' deep overall.
05 Dec 93 - Can't find anything written up on number of turnouts on BEDT. From xerocopied enlargement of USDI/GS Brooklyn Quadrangle map of 1967 (photorevised 1979 - didn't change trackage), as redrawn, there are 60 tracks and 59 turnouts {???}. At $25 per manual turnout or $40 per solenoid-operated turnout {$25.50 and $45.50 in 1997!}, that could run from $1,475 to $2,360! Not bloody likely!
02 Apr 98 Comment: Sure doesn't look promising, unless some commercial firm underwrites it; Märklin evinced no interest in such a project (can't IMAGINE why not!).
See Z page 6 for BEDT #15 in Z.
| ======== | ========= | ======== | ========= | =========== | =========== | ======= | |
| Z-Scale | Z-Scale | Z-Scale | Z-Scale | Std. | |||
| Exact | Exact | Actual | Actual | Approx. | Approx. | Märklin | |
| (metric) | (English) | (metric) | (English) | (English) | (metric) | Track | |
| ======== | ========= | ======== | ========= | =========== | =========== | ======= | |
| 6.5mm | 0.2559055" | 0.295455m | ¼" | (n/a) | Gauge | ||
| 0.1156mm | 0.004545" | 1" | 0.005" | ||||
| 1 | 220 | (absolute) | |||||
| 1.38545mm | 0.054545" | 0.3048m | 1' | 0.05" | |||
| 13.8545mm | 0.545455" | 3.048m | 10' | ½" | |||
| 25mm | 0.984252" | 5.50m | 18.04452' | 1" | ¼-tangent | ||
| 25.4mm | 1" | 5.588m | 18.33333' | 27.5mm | 1.082677" | 6.050m | 19.84908' | 1" |
| 27.709mm | 1.0909" | 6.096m | 20' | ||||
| 55mm | 2.165354" | 12.1m | 39.69816' | 2-1/8" | ½-tangent | ||
| 55.4182mm | 2.181818" | 12.192m | 40' | ||||
| 108.6mm | 4.275591" | 23.892m | 78.38583' | turnout makeup | |||
| 110mm | 4.330709" | 24.2m | 79.39633' | 4-1/3" | 1x-tangent | ||
| 110.836mm | 4.363636" | 24.384m | 80' | ||||
| 112.8mm | 4.440945" | 24.818m | 81.41733' | turnout makeup | |||
| 138.556 | 5.45" | 100' | |||||
| 220mm | 8.661417" | 48.4m | 158.7927' | 8½" | 2x-tangent | ||
| 221.673mm | 8.727273" | 48.768m | 160' | ||||
| 1 | 220 | (absolute) | |||||
| 323mm | 12.71654" | 71.060m | 233.1365' | crossover radius | |||
| 490mm | 19.29134" | 107.8 | 32.85744' | 19¼" | turnout radius | ||
| 660mm | 25.98425" | 145.2m | 447.5853' | 26" | 6x-tangent | ||
| 665.018mm | 26.18182" | 146.304m | 480' | 3' (36") | ½-mile | 6' (72") | ¼-mile | 12' | ½-mile |
| 7315.2mm | 24' | 1.60934km | 1 mile | ||||
| --------- | --------- | --------- | ------ | ||||
| 7260mm | 23.81890' | 1.5972km | 5,240.16' | <1 mile | 11 x 660mm | ||
| 55mm | 2.165354" | 12.1m | 39.69816' | <40' | 55mm | ||
| [0.2mm | 0.078740" | 44mm | 1.732284" difference (~1¾" actual, shy)] | ||||
| 7315mm | 23.99934' | 1.6093km | 5,279.86' | 1 mi. approximated by (11x660mm)+(1x55mm) | |||
| ======== | ========= | ======== | ========= | =========== | =========== | ======= | |
| Z-Scale | Z-Scale | Z-Scale | Z-Scale | Std. | |||
| Exact | Exact | Actual | Actual | Approx. | Approx. | Märklin | |
| (metric) | (English) | (metric) | (English) | (English) | (metric) | Track | |
| ======== | ========= | ======== | ========= | =========== | =========== | ======= | |
I have mine! They arrived 02 Jan 03 and these are the kinds of tools that make one wonder how he or she ever got along without them! Naturally, my scanner refuses to work, so here's a quick snapshot of them; the smaller (full) circle on the card is exactly 3/4" (19.05mm), for reference on your screen:
[Technically, the "rule" (or "ruler") is not that at all; a rule rules straight lines (it is a "straightedge"), while a scale measures distance, but, as José himself pointed out, common usage rules (did I really say that?)!]
BIG TIME!
Hey, Don Hammond with the half-giant-suitcase (the one that makes up the monster suitcase set with Nat "Bud" Taverna's) and the end case that allows it to run without Bud's) were featured in full color in a 10 Jan 99 cover story, "Right on Track" by Peter Goodman, Staff Writer, on page B9 of Long Island's NEWSDAY, one of the Metro area's most influential newspapers! Unfortunately, Goodman has the scale as 1/222 but, hey, it was good plug for Z at the Great South Bay Model Railroad Club show in the Freeport (Long Island) Recreation Center, on 10 Jan 99!
Well, I went to the show (it was mobbed!) and there was Don in all his glory with not TWO, but THREE suitcases! He's gone and built a 4' extender case! He and Bud were both to be at the "Grumman" show in Bethpage (Long Island) on 23 Jan 99; couldn't wait to see this monster up and running! Well, Bud couldn't make it and Don was there with "only" his case-and-a-half!
Image of first production model from Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik - note that the
symmetrical arrangement of the stacks has been corrected to the offset of the prototypes.
Much more on this model moved to my FR page at FR Boxcab Oil-Electric Locomotives.
See also my BOXCABS page, et. seq.
On15 Mar 99, I received my NYC and N&W hoppers from
Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik, together with a kit and decals/transfers{?} for an
L&N car; oh, my! These are GEMS! They even include
coal* loads; more about them to follow.
OVERTON COACHES, BOBBER, and CRANE in Z-SCALE!
Larry Hoff of PORTLAND RAIL CAR (the guy that makes the Z buses noted in Ztrack) had released four Z scale brass Overton "coaches" {sic) - actually a baggage car, a combine, a "business" car, and a coach (he calls all of them coaches) with Micro-Trains or Märklin couplers and Märklin trucks, and a brass bobber caboose {I want it! I want it!} and was also working on a Brownhoist 25-ton crane and work car!
DISCLAIMER@ - I don't know Larry and thus
this is NOT an endorsement, but if you'll look at just one of the several pix
he sent me (below), you might want@ to visit his site.
(23 Jan 05)
(23 Jan 05)
A sampling of some of the finer (and tinier) Z accessories can be found at Microscopic Z Accessories on Z Scale Continuation Page 2; Miller Engineering material formerly here has been moved there.
Shown: Item Number 16000, Southern Pacific Road Number 1798, Class M-6a,
Micro-Trains also has two other versions:
Item Number 16001, Southern Pacific Road Number 1785, Class M-6a,
and
Item Number 16002, Southern Pacific Road Number 1681, Class M-4,
Please visit the Micro-Trains site; more views and the other Moguls are pictured on their Moguls page (but hurry back, y'heah?).
At long last, a kind Z soul (the best kind) up in Canada (Jan 99) offered me his old
Märklin 8962 Dürnau Station. Thank you, Sir; this is pure obsession - I really
could have used another structure but I designed the space to fit Dürnau, and Dürnau
it had to be (and now is)!
V 32 001
We need no longer pray for (or plan on counterfeiting) a Z version of the Märklin HO
#3420/3720 1924 Diesel-Compressed Air tank locomotive DRG Class V 32 4-6-4T
Hudson-type, the Insider Model 1995 (see Page 33 of the 1995 New Items brochure)
- Ztrack for May/June 2000, page 13, announced that the Märklin Insider Z Model for
2000 is just that, #88065; the entire coverage of this odd loco has now
been moved to Z Page 6.
Read it and weep!
At the same time, I picked up five more 8620 Schnabel cars
to chop up for photos of the Schnabel loading
sequence - BUT - they are all different from the original 8620 and from
each other! They are from the 8688, 8689, 8690, 8691, and 8892 Regional
Sets and I can't very well destroy them;this overloaded this page and they appear
on
For Z-scale construction articles (but NOT this one), see my
Z Scale Articles Page.
Of course, if you really want a wish list pix and info overloaded this page so
it's all continued on Z Continuation Page 7
For the story of the Berlinerwerke-Z (my layout), see the
Berlinerwerke-Z Saga page, et. seq.
For tall tales of the BW and its equipment and such, visit the
Berlinerwerke Apocrypha page.
For more and better illustrations of the tall tales and such, keep in touch; I have my
digital camera (11 Jan 99 - a belated Xmas present - an SLR, no less!), the requisite
software loaded, and scads of server storage space. Now, all I have to do is
take more pictures.
See also the preceding page, succeeding page, and the Z-scale articles page.
For Ztrack Magazine, see its new separate page.
For 1:440 and even 1:900, see 1:440 Scale and 1:900 Scale!
Best regardZ, S.B.,III
Return to Top of Page
Hey; I picked up a 1975 Märklin catalog to fill in between my original of 1972 and the
1980 with which I worked when I bought my first mini-club equipment. This
one, a store copy originally from Ted's Hardware and Trains in Tampa, has most of the
Z prices inked in by hand and they're a hoot (or heartbreak)! Just for laughs
(ha, ha,- or sniff, sniff), here are a few representative items:
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
Consultant in Ultrasonic Processing
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
Technical and Historical Writer, Oral Historian
Popularizer of Science and Technology
Rail, Auto, Air, Ordnance, and Model Enthusiast
Light-weight Linguist, Lay Minister, and Putative Philosopher
To tour the Z-scale pages in sequence, the arrows take you from the Z-scale index page
to the main Z-Scale page, then to the Sub-Z-Scale page and continuation pages 1, 2, 3 and on,
the Z articles page, the 6 BW-Z saga pages, and, and finally to the current Ztrack page.