Hi guys nice to meet you all! I'm very new to this forum and am still doing my daily rounds on here to proceed in learning all I can before starting threads and such. My name is Matthew (Rush) is my nick name, I love BNSF railroad and any other cool looking diesel's. I began working with N, as I learned from my father who has been collecting for 40 plus years. He owns cars from WWII era and vietnam era. My fav car I used to play with as a kid I am now (22) years young, the Lionel moving Aquariam car, and his bank robber/cowbow freigt. I would spend hours upon hours playing with his trains! He still has all his trains mint in box and no problems with them at all. He always kept all his trains and track in prestien condition. He never was really big into heavy/realistic scenery our balast so he managed to keep everything mint. I'm the exact opposite, I love realism and the use of trees, balast, cement roads, telephone poles, painted cars and trucks, weathered brick buildings ex. I started working on N layouts the basic oval with turnouts for stations and yards. Then began more complex 10 by 14 layouts that were built with 4 heights of ground multipul bridges and tunnels, many turn outs ex... I love building my structures and car/truck kits to make them look as real as possible. But enough about my start. I got bored with N and just recently moved onto Z!!!! And boy am i ever so addicted. The size amazes me. Never really gave Z a chance up until about 3 months ago. Since then I've purchased a bunch of lasercut metal and wood structures, and marklin track kits. (No german structures) all american! I love the hobby and love the size. The detail on Micro trains RS and Structures are out of this world. I'm still learning a lot of new tips and secrets. I just finished 10 structures and kibri/marklin car and truck kits, still waiting for my main street strip buildings such as movies, bank, hotel ex.. I can't wait to get the valuable info I need to complete my dream Z scale layout. Some of you guys work is amazing. I hope you guys welcome me to open arms upon this small Z scale community in growing. I'm currently picking out my track plan, and need help on a design. I'm on a dinner table type table that is 5x 3x. I want to include a yard, multiple switches 3-5. A river or lake with dock, industrial area, and main street town. I also want to include atleast 1-2 tunnels and 3 inch elevated ground for the main line. If you guys could help me out with some ideas or pictures I would greatly appreciate it. By the way im 22 years old and retired at 21yrs, I dropped out of college at age 21 from the University of James Madison. I hit the NY state Lottery jackpot of 112 Million Dollars. So I have the space and money to spend. The reason I'm telling my Z scalers this info, because I'm always open to donations or business ideas if the right one, in expanding the Z scale community. Unfortanatly I only got to keep 67.36 Million out of 112 . So please feel free to P.M me with ideas for cool Z projects, stores/businesses, websites, customization/creating buildings/cars/structures. Any ideas you guys may have! If you don't read the whole thing here are cliff notes: Name- Matt Years MRR with Z- 3 months Started with N scale need something more challenging Hit NY state lotto of 112 million at 21 years old Want to learn a lot of teqniques from the best! Need help planning my first Z layout 5x 3x Looking for business ideas in expanding the Z community! Im in love with Z! Heres a fire house I built and primed then base coated light light brown/cement grey, then dry brushed brick red. heres my saw mill
Hi Matt, Welcome to Trainboard! You've come to the right place to share, learn and meet new people. By the way, I'm 49, unemployed and most importantly looking to be adopted -- looks like you just hit the lottery again!!!
Matt, Welcome to Z scale at Trainboard. A whole bunch of very talented folks hang out here and share. I don't see your pictures, where are they? 5'x3' will give you a very nice portable layout.
Rush, Welcome to TrainBoard! I've learned alot from the people on this board, and I'm sure you will too. But its also very true that we learn by doing, and any techniques learned take a few tries to get right. You may want to consider getting a vacation home in the Bay Area. For some odd reason quite a few of our best modelers live around here. Fremont, CA seems to be the nexus. -Curn
Congrats on your rendevous with Lady Luck! The biggest name in Z, Marklin, is looking for a buyer, having been run into the ground by an investment banking firm. How would you like to drive the Marklin train, make the decisions that affect model train hobbyists in Z, HO and Gauge 1 for the next 50 or so years. Have your people get in touch with with their people, or maybe get in touch with Liónel´s people first as part of a team to run Marklin. They have been reported to be looking at Marklin. How cool would it be to partner up with Neil Young! Warren Buffet thought he´d like to play with airplanes, and his quote is appropo to model trains: If you want to make a small fortune in airlines, (model railroading) start with a large fortune. But ya know, he is also buying up BNSF (The really big train company) On portability, Start off with a NOCH Tessin Z layout in a metal briefcase, about $1500-$1900 depending upon the store. After you´ve worked with that for awhile you can place a special order or build the pike you´d really like to run (American Style), but the Noch Tessin is a good representation of both the plus and minus´es of Z railroading all in one case. Why portable? it is THE PLUS to Z scale railroading that no other scale can match. You can build the greatest pike in the world, but if you are sitting at your ski chalet in Aspen and your best layout is firmly affixed to the floor in a trainroom at your winter haven in Boca; might as well just get a bigger scale to run on that boat anchor. Z however lets you carry a pretty niced size layout with you wherever you go! (of course you can always make a copy of your layout/duplicate your rolling stock at every residence you maintain - jumpin jimminy, its hard to think how to operate with unlimited resources!) http://zscalehobo.com/website/noch/88280.html Most of all: have fun, you´ll know what to buy when it makes you smile!
I love san fran! Such a beautiful place to go to. I'd take bay over deigo any day. The property is such a good price too. I just went on an 800$ spending spree for Z on ebay 20 minutes ago, anyone need anything haha Just bought the double pack gerd bridge micron brass kit. A bunch of trucks and buildings, bridges, cars, towers ext... they say buy gradually but eh what the hell why not buy what I like right haha. Can't wait for you guys to help me with my layout and see the end result! Idk whats wrong with pics. Weird.
Rush, Welcome Aboard.. You may want to check out Z Central Station also. It has a wealth of fotos and when the Archives get back on site you will be able to see many more modelers wonderful craftsmanship. Also ZTRACK magazine has alot of current Z information. Fred One last thought: Should your travels take you to the Washington DC area, you should Contact Rob Albrighton. The DC Z Group has the world's largest Z scale layout and was featured in Model Railroader Magazine
Well Rush, welcome to Trainboard. Perhaps you could help a company develop small steam. Moguls, Americans, and the like. They are much needed. Everybody here knows how much I treasure my MT moguls that were made years back with old Marklin mech and no tender pickup. But that is my angle
Welcome to Trainboard. Check out Jurgs website. He is getting out of z scale, and he is selling a lot of rare items that otherwise impossible to get. If I was you, snap up those Mi-Jacks first.
Hi Matt, welcome to Trainboard! Congratulations on your lucky windfall! I like N, and Z is my favorite scale now. I have spent the past seven years and all my spare money trying to grow Z Scale, and it's not as easy as you think. Often, several of us talk about what we would do if we won the lottery, and the 2 most popular things we come up with is: start a new model railroad company and hire the best Z Scale talent to work there, and the other is start a commune out in the desert somewhere and build a giant workshop and layout, where we would live on the grounds in trailers. Every morning we would go to the workshop for a continental breakfast then work on our models! Well those are nice dreams anyways. If you really want to grow the hobby, then we need another line of track components, and locos, all high tech. The track that will attract all the converts would use code 40 rail, and 3 foot flextrack. The loco design would be a modular construction with standard motor, and DCC programmable sound decoder in the center, and a sliding expander where you could drop in spacers, so the one mechanism design could be used for any diesel loco. There would also be a sub-woofer that connects to the DCC system that plays the bass sounds that go to any locos running on the layout, that way the tiny speaker inside the loco gives the directional sound you follow around the layout, and the sub would crank out the non-directional rumble, for a full range response! I got a million idea's to grow the hobby!
Welcome aboard Matt. We're glad to have you. Congratulations on the lottery win. That's great! Charlie
Welcome aboard Matt, Looking forward to seeing your work and collection. Nice to get new blood on the boards from time to time. Hopefully you'll take the time to decide exactly what you want out of Z and focus your efforts there. It's real easy in Model Railroading to get spread too thin and lose interest. Cheers Joe MTL
Matt, welcome. Like the idea that you want to do something good for Z...and BTW have the funds. I'm still waiting for the call from lottery...
Thanks for all the reply's and PM's guys. I can't wait to post up my finished structures and progress so far. I've had a really busy day today sorry I got back to you all so late. Had to go out on a nice relaxing helicopter ride to relieve some stress, also to see things from an above view of some trains on LIRR from an over view to get some new ideas . Please keep messaging me about how to make Z everyone's first choice of model railroading! Together we can make the change. I'm really looking into prototyping now as said by another member, which will allow Z'ers to purchase built structures. This allowing them to save much time and money, making painting there only issue. I'm going to get together samples of everyone's work who has a strong foundation and show them in a diorama to my local investors. A new company could be born real soon! Blowing every other company out of the water!
I'm a newbie to Z and Trainboard. I've been working N scale for quite some time. I really love Z scale. I'm hoping to see it grow. Built up structures in Z would be great for those of us that don't have alot of time for kits. Seeing a new company with new products would be great. Glad to meet you and keep us updated.
Welcome Matt to the wonderful world of Z. Should you have the time, a drive down to Emmaus Pa could be fruitful. lv ron (a-k-a "Uncle Guido") conducts classes for newcomers to z scale. Courses like "Intro to Z 101" and "fundies of tracklaying 301" can get you off on the right foot. You may also meet other intelligentsia associated with Z Scale. Stay away from the PA lottery though, no big winners! Emmaus ( the "Athens" of Pa. is only 127 minutes from Times Square. Best, lv ron
Hey Mike my team is still working on some new things right now we are working on a vehicle line almost like a tomytek type line or releases. I'll p.m you with updates. We're also working on tugs, fishing/shrimping/crabing, and sport boats/jet skis as well.
Congratulations on the lottery win. But try to keep something for your old days, 54$mill. in 1 year is already a number. Try to invest the rest and live from interest, even with currently 2%, is not so bad Just from investor to investor.
I would be happy to host you down here in DC if you would like to see what's possible in this tiny scale! Best, -Rob(A) AZL PS: Fred - thanks for the kind words!
