I've been lurking for a couple of weeks and thought it was time I introduced myself. I'm just starting out in Z Scale after having an HO scale layout 10 years ago. I started briefly with N Scale a few years back, but recently decided to go even smaller after moving into my new apartment (I'm beginning graduate school this fall). My road of choice is the D&RGW, so I recently picked up an F7 A+B combo, an MTL PS-2 hopper, MTL Cookie Box, and the Pennzee hopper set to go along with my lone MTL gondola that I bought a few years back on a whim. I'm planning to start with a small diorama, perhaps modeling a small section of the Tunnel District on the Moffat Route until I can devote the space required for a proper layout (hopefully in a year or two). I've really appreciated reading all the posts on this forum over the past few weeks. This is a great place to learn about Z scale and I'm sure I'll pick up a lot of valuable tips in the future. Hopefully I will be able to be a regular participant in the coming years, and I'll try to provide some pics when I get some stuff up and going. -Brandt P.S. If I could throw a request out, it would be for MTL's next locomotive to be an SD40T-2. Or some steam. Whichever.
greeting brandt, from another fellow Rio Grande modeler. Micro-Trains is going to make SD40-2s but not tunnel motors (T-2s). we'll have to do that on our own. but at least we'll have a great frame and parts to work with. If i can make a good tunnel motor configuration to add to an SD40-2 chassis, i would pursue having it cast so that others could more easily have their own tunnel motor. it's a ways off, but we'll see how things go. welcome! this is a great group and a great time to be in Z! dave f.
Hi Brandt. Welcome aboard. We are all hoping for more steam but it can be expensive unless Marklin makes it with their economy of scale. A few companies have threatened over the years but you may have to dig up an AZL steamer and repaint. Sorta a harsh way to go for a student. Many of us repaint or modify locos as we can't wait for whatever road or someone wants this detail or that. Have fun, we do !!!
Dave, Conversion kits for a tunnel motor would be great. The Intermountain TMs were one of the things that drew me to N Scale from HO in the first place. I wish I had been around a few years back and had been able to pick up one of the AZL SD40T-2s, but they might have been out of my price range at the time (still are, I would imagine). I am a little bit of a completist, so when I see something in my scale painted up in Rio Grande colors, I want to have it. One of the things that attracted me to Z was that there was less of a history of stuff to collect. I figured if I get in now, I can build my collection over the years with new releases without having to go back and try to pick up as many old, out of print releases at the same time. Of course, I also want a basement empire, fully scenicked, with several hundred locos pulling thousands of cars around the track someday.
i've been thinking of doing this every since joe at micro-trains announced development of the SD40-2s. the best way would be a simple "cut off the radiators of the stock shell and glue on the tunnel motor casting. " that would, however, leave the modified unit short by about 3(?) prototypical feet. it would still be the best way, overall, so people wouldn't have to worry about lenghening chasses and lengthening the sill/walkways. i think we could "eat" a couple of scale feet. it would hardly be noticable and it would make the conversion much more available to the masses of modelers. of course i'd LOVE IT it if MTL made tunnelmotors, but the development costs would be significant. that said, there were/are a LOT of railroads which ran/run tunnel motors, since SP and Rio Grande were assimilated by the borg (UP). Intermountain has sure made a living off of that one body style (in N scale)! dave f.
Hello Brandt; Welcome aboard!!!!! Nice to have another Grande fan thats into Z scale. Like David F., i too am a big Grande fan, and like David, live in a town once served by the Reble of the Rockies. Where do you live????? Are you out here in the western USA???? I'm in Park City, Utah.....David is a Colorado boy.....all old Grande country. Gwyl B. (AKA zztop) and i have started a modular Z scale layout that comprises both current UP lines and much of the aquiered D&RGW tracks here in Utah. We plan to haul coal drags over Soldier Summit just like the Grande, and run unit trains and frieght on our modules of the UP Overland Route thru Utah. Gwyl B. lives in Logan, Utah which is UP counrty via the OSL and Pocatillo lines (OSL= Oregon Short Line). So where all local rail fans that like to model the world around us......How about you???? Tony B... Wasatch Z Club PS: Jurg has one of the best Z scale Grande collections out there, so watch for his pictures, and be prepaired to drool.....LOL PS #2: I am seceretly still trying to recruit David F. to start work from the eastern end of the D&RGW line in Colorado, and build modules to meet up with us in Grand Junction or Green River.......How about it Dave...... want to build and empire.....LOL
Tony, I actually have lived in the midwest all my life. However, I love the Rocky Mountain area, and when I was younger my family took a trip on the Cumbres & Toltec RR during a family reunion. I've been interested in the DRGW ever since. Brandt
Brandt; There is no doubt that the inter-mountain west is some of the prettiest counrty in the world, and an incredable setting for one of the most famous railroads in the world. People clamer aboard both the Cumbres and Durango narrow gauge lines every year to catch a glimps of a by-gone past, that is still alive today. The rich history that is still so young when compaired to the eastern US, is very exciting and something you can still touch in most places. My town here, Park City, is rich with its famous silver mining history, which is proudly placed next to Carson City as the second richest silver strike ever found in the US. As a mater of fact, the last surveys from the 1970's when the mines offically closed put the estimated silver ore deposits that were untaped were worth over 4 billion dollars!!!!! The cost to get it out was estimated at even more due to the deep depth and large quantities of water. At the end, the twon had both a D&RGW and UP depots. Our present day city park is built over the joint yard the railroads used, and the old UP depot is now a fancy resturant owned by Robert Redford......Go figure... Any way,enough rambling about the west..... Tony B.... Wasatch Z Club:shade:
