Heading for the Denver Area early next year and was wondering if there are any Z Clubs in the area? Any local contacts? Thanks Joe MTL
SD70ACe Creator Joe, David Freehling resides fairly close to Denver. I believe he is about 2 hours south of Denver. I have his email if you need it. He has been pretty busy with work these past many months as I don't see much of him in the forums. As far as other Z scalers living in/near Denver, let them chime in!!!! Caboose Hobbies isn't a great supplier or supporter of Z, at least in the past they weren't. But, it is a great place to visit if you have never been there yet. I may have had a disturbing visit there once in 2005, but if I make it back up there, I will give them a second chance!!! Chime in Denver, chime in!!!!!! Hobo Tim
Joe, I have been there during a business trip.. too short... Visited CabooseHobbies, they got me actualy into USA Z-scale. I went home with the MTL UP GP35 and a couple of freight cars. They had a small corner with Z scale, but as we know Z-scale is not very demanding regarding space.. I never saw so much US models in several scales in one place, (but I am from Europe). Furthermore an interesting place: Colorado railway museum
Try Dave George. His kids live there and he spends a lot of time in the area skiing. He probably knows every train shop in that time zone. ...don
It's funny (and sad) how fast the subject changed from Z-scale modelers to train shops... As I know, David Freehling is the lone Z-scaler in the Denver area, but this is an almost three years old data, so there should be more Z-scaler.
hello joe. there are no Z clubs in colorado that i know of. Z is selling at caboose and at train shows, so there are many Z-ers in colorado ... but nothing organized into a club. N-trak has been strong here and there have been very active N scale clubs and groups up and down the state. there is/was an employee at caboose that was deep into Z. we had many good conversations, but he was not in a position to organize anything. sorry. i think we colorado is RIPE for a club. it's very hard for me to promote Z since i don't have sundays off, which is all but essential if you are going to participate in mall exhibits or shows. let me know when you're going to be here. maybe we could catch a cup of java together. doug, at intermountain, has been pushing for Z there and might know more about organized Z efforts in northern colorado. wish i could help more. wish there was a club i could be involved with. dave f.
I agree fully with Dave. We have seen a number of new subscribers from Colorado join the Ztrack ranks. Interest is definitely growing. I would be happy to put an announcement in Ztrack to see if we can start getting folks to connect. If someone wants to take the lead, let me know. Rob
Rob, it would be interesting to see a break down of number of subscribers by state/provice and/or zipcode. Especially for those that feel like we're living in a no Z land.....
Excellent Idea But instead of being in an issue of Ztrack, maybe better to have a webpage dedicated to Z membership, and have that info there. Could even put club contact info on it too. Just a thought!!! Hobo Tim Sorry for off-topicing the thread!
Just a quick check. There are 22 subscribers in Colorado. This is not a bad number at all. In comparison, California as 113 Ztrack subscribers. In general, most Z scalers tend to be very private individuals and not necessarily into clubs or meeting. But we can always try! Rob
Aren't California the center of the universe when we talk about Zscale?:bear-biggrin: Wile we're at it and if you don't mind, what about Quebec province and Ontario ? Just to see if I'm trying for nothing to convince local hobby shop to go into Z. Thanks Ben
And... I know at least a dozen hardcore Z-scalers (including the writer of this post), who are not subscribers, but getting the magazine from various train stores. Actually I let visitors "borrow" the last two issues of Ztrack at the Train Show a few weeks ago.
But Ben down south when you mention Ontario most of them think of Ontario California not the province in Canada. cheerz Garth Niagara Falls Ontario
I think the reason is simple: as Z-scalers we are like fennecs in the desert, with their ultra long ears: too far appart from each other to be something else than lonesome wolfs... And for us internet is fennec's ears. Myself I tried a while to federate potential modelrailroaders with the idea to create a club in order to start an american style US layout, but I quickly gave up... Dom
The ZoCal group enjoys getting together at shows. Then the BS really starts going! Then we go out to dinner both Friday and Saturday nights. Last year at Del Mar (San Diego GTE) we went out for dinner Saturday night. After we left, we all ended up going through a sobriety check point. The first person there was calling the others to try and warn them (we all made it through okay anyway). That show is coming up fast again. Looking forward to seeing the group again.
