Updated:
19 Nov 2015
23:35
ET [Page converted 17 Nov 2011 original AT&T Worldnet Website begun 30 May 1996.] |
URL:
http://sbiii.com/z-scale2.html
[was at "home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/z-scale2.html"] |
S. Berliner, III
Consultant in Ultrasonic Processing "changing materials with high-intensity sound" |
[consultation is on a fee basis]
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
- The vast bulk of my massive Web presence (over 485 pages) had been hosted by AT&T's WorldNet service since 30 May 1996; they dropped
WorldNet effective 31 Mar 2010 and I have been scrambling to transfer everything. Everything's saved but all the links have to be changed, mostly by hand.
See my sbiii.com Transfer Page for any updates on this tedious process.
S. Berliner, III's
sbiii.com
Z-Scale Model Railroad Continuation Page 2
Z-SCALE MODEL RAILROADING
NOTE: Page size was limited by HTML to some 30kB;
CONTINUED
thus, I had 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 Z Index Page.
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 2003 and these are the kinds of tools that make one wonder how he or she ever got along without them! Naturally, my scanner refused 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?)!]
There is also a 12" ruler, which I am ordering, but I regret to announce that José notified readers of Ztrack Magazine with its Jul-Aug 2012 issue that he is closing his doors on 31 Dec 2012!
If you read this in time, place your orders soon!
(11 Sep 2012)
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 1999 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 1999!
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 1999; 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.
On 15 Mar 1999, 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!
(25 Feb and 19 Nov 2015)
Larry Hoff of PORTLAND RAIL CAR (the guy that made 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 called all of them coaches) with Micro-Trains or Märklin couplers and Märklin trucks, and a brass bobber caboose {I wanted it! I still want it!} and was also working on a Brownhoist 25-ton crane and work car!
I regret to advise that on 28 Jan 2015 I heard from Lerry Hoff's son-in-law that
Larry had passed away in 2001 from cancer.
I had to have been nuts or something, advertising a stranger's products,
but that bobber and crane are so exquisite that I put back the picture of the crane:
Larry Hoff's Z-Scale Crane
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.
WISH LIST
If no one wants to just give me a new Rogue LIRR GP38-2 or C44-9W or the M-T SP 2-6-0 outright, I guess I'll just have to settle for buying a Chicago Railcar Z8601 Bobber
Caboose. Anyone have either of these? As to the bobber, I'll "settle" for a pair of Larry Hoff's bobbers (see above)!
MT Z SP Moguls
Micro-Trains was kind enough to allow me to reproduce their photo of the new Mogul (my wish list topper - thanks, M-T!) here:
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 were pictured on their Moguls page (but hurry back, y'heah?). That wa slong ago; they are collector items now!
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 1999 - 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
Visit these courtesy and official home pages:
Long Island Sunrise - Trail Chapter
Sunrise Trail Division
Ztrack Magazine - The Newsletter for Z Scale Model Railroading
Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Railroad
You may wish to visit the Railroad Continuation Page, et seq.
See Copyright Notice on primary home page.
Contact S. Berliner, III
(Junk and unsigned e-mail and blind telephone messages will NOT be answered)
© Copyright S. Berliner, III -
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2011, 2012,
2015
- all rights reserved.
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:
(National Railway Historical Society)
(Northeastern Region)
(National Model Railroad Association)
of this series of Railroad pages.
LEGACY
What happens to all this when I DIE or (heaven forfend!)
lose interest? See LEGACY.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! -  Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
To tour the Z-scale pages in sequence, the arrows take you from the first Z-scale page to the Z-Scale index, then to this page,
continuation pages 1 and up, the Z articles page, the 6 BW-Z saga pages, and, and finally to the former then-current Ztrack page.