attempting to model, tehachapi loop, and am looking to have trains with common semi current train consists, looking for above and suggestions,
American Z Line is the leader for 'current' Z scale rolling stock and motive power. They offer bi-level and tri-level auto racks, 73' center beam cars, 53' Thrall intermodal cars, RTTX 89' flats, ACF 3-bay covered hoppers, ACF 4-Bay covered hoppers, PS2-cd covered hoppers, 23,000 gallon funnel flow tank cars, 60' beer reefers, 60' high cube boxcars and 3564 gondolas that very much fit into the current era. Here is a link to their site: http://www.americanzline.com Micro-Trains offers 50' boxcars, Gunderson double stacks, 60' bulk head flats, 50' gondolas, and PS2 covered hoppers that are fit in you era. Full Throttle offers 3-bay cylindrical hoppers. InterMountain offers 4-bay cylindrical hoppers. You can find examples of all of these products on our retail site or through any authorize dealer: http://www.ztrackcenter.com/ Rob
I have not modeled a FRED in Z nor do I model the era that has them, but I think it would just be a matter of getting the circuits that are out there and mounting a tiny red LED to the last car on on train and hooking it up. Skimming the internet, I see a few of them. Some use 9 volt batteries, too big for Z. I guess the choice would be would you have a circuit that used a lower voltage and a small battery and a reed switch, or one that feeds off the tracks, where you would need some wheel wiper type pickups? Those big modern cars certainly have enough room to work with. There is a company in Germany that makes Z FRED, same one that makes the LED lighting circuits for the Märklin engines. Ill find it after a while, or someone could chime in .
I built one for a double stack car using N scale parts http://youtu.be/2AdyLW9pz-w http://youtu.be/xy_hyvE7SSQ
http://www.detailsnscale.com/z_lighting_products.htm I can't vouch for the manufacturer, as I have yet to purchase anything from them (though I'm tempted), but the site looks up to date ie: the copyright date on the page is 2013.
Long ago I purchased N scale FREDs for my future Z scale projects, infortunately they're in my vacation house. They are RTR, and powered by a small cylindrical flat battery, the same brand than those you find in a quartz watch for example. If you're still interrested, please raise the subject in 2 weeks. Dom
