http://www.eurorailhobbies.com/erh/eurorailhobbiesdetail.asp?pageid=&MN=1&CA=9,32&SC=Z&stock=8510 It's their standard small radius. Remember, they're a European company, so curves smaller than the "sharp" standard (18" HO, 9-3/4" N, or equivalent) are to be expected. Much of their HO equipment is designed for 14-1/2" radius.
About the PC ties, Robert chopped his own with a Brake Press if I remember correctly. I used PC ties from Fasttracks, they matched the height of Robert's laser ties. If your gonna use a Fasttrack jig, you can buy a laser cut tie sheet that can be glued to the rails. These should also match Robert's ties as well. Will you be using spline roadbed on this layout? If so take photo's. Don't think I've seen that with Z scale before.
I'll probably cut my own jig for the turnouts. I have enough travel on the Sherline to do Z, and a #6 should be a good for everything. I don't mind laying separate ties for the switches, but man does it get tedious elsewhere. I like Robert's solution. The last small layout I started was an Nn3 layout with cookie cutter Masonite like you did on your Z layout. Spline would certainly make the grading easy and give a well supported track base, but it's probably way overkill for this layout. Speaking of the Nn3 layout, maybe I should dig that out and lay the track... maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that.. now I sound like I have "Chris333 multiple small layout disorder" ;-) It's probably been three years now since I touched it.
I used strip wood under my turnouts, not that bad. Here you can see the darker ties are Robert's, lighter ties are cut strip wood: http://zcentralstation.com/modules/xcgal/albums/userpics/10120/Zlayout8.jpg The Masonite is holding up for me. I would paint it so there are no surprises when you wet it down for scenery. It's attached to the foam with construction adhesive, for this Z scale layout I used Loctite "Quick Grab" Either way, take some pic's of the construction.
I received a box of goodies from Z Scale Monster yesterday. We don't stock anything Z at Des Plaines Hobbies, and ZSM got them to me faster than M-T would have shipped an order to the shop. His prices weren't too bad either. The F-units look like good fodder. I think the different details between the A and B's are going to cause me to do some shell crossbreeding. It's one of those itches that just needs to be scratched. Does anyone know if M-T will sell the shells separately? The A units appear to have FARR style side grills, while the B units have the typical horizontal grills. Also, the fans up top are quite different. It doesn't look like it would be too hard to graft the nose of the A unit onto the rear of a B unit shell. Do it once and resin castings can be made from there. I have to be careful though... I was staring at the warbonnet F's running around a test loop last night and all I was thinking about was CGW maroon and red and how neat a 6 unit lash-up would be in Z! But alas, the midwest is no local to use on a small layout that doubles back on itself. The only place I could think of would be the Dubuque crossing of the Missisippi figuring that between the tunnel, the bridge across the Mississippi, and the IC, Q and CGW converging and then splitting off again that a folded layout might work out OK and still have continuous running. Nah, someone hit me with the "no new projects" stick.
Mike, keep dreaming and bring that 6 unit lashup out to the BAZ BoyZ or CZM land where we each have much more than 50' around the modules. My Wye+ Offset + End is 14' itself, each direction, with 15" minumum radius.
I'm not listening... hum hum dee hummmmm... :wink2: Nice looking modules though, and Z should travel well...
The A unit shell is about 100 years old and the B was just tooled recently. Someone here may know how to order parts, but you can try E-mailing Joe from MT. He hangs out at the Yahoo Z scale group (shipsure2003) Joe said I could order brake wheels and stirrups, but we never got into just how to order direct. BTW, I just remembered... what about that code 30 rail you gave me such a hard time for not using :lightning:
Thanks. I know the 2mm association sells code 30, but it doesn't have a rail profile... its just flat bar stock. Not that you could tell as it is only .020"x.030". I thought I remembered some code 35 rail offered somewhere, but google is not helping me out today. Your code 40 does look pretty good, much better than the M-T circle of track I bought for testing locos. I guess I'll just go with that. Now, where are we going to get smaller couplers?? I wonder if the M-T rail can be replaced with ME code 40 rail...
Mike, Just bustin your chops. One thing you might try to improve on is the rail joiners, mine stick out like a sore thumb. With your resistance soldering you might come up with something that goes under the rail, comes up around the base, but doesn't curve around to the web. At the very least leave all your rail long off the turnouts so you don't have a group of 6 joiners concentrated to that one area. I have both ME (code 40) and MT (Z scale) joiners and they look to be the same.
Thanks Charlie and (*_*) Mike <---that Mike with his hands over his ears. I forgot to mention: the reason for the crossovers and the Wye inside tracks is that you can run around 12x in various sections without repeating, 7 combinations in the other direction. Ah, the things you can do with DCC
Someone in the 2mm Assoc used the ties from PECO flex and slipped code 40 rail in to it. The photo I saw using this was actually for 4.5mm gauge with the ties sliced open down the middle and some taken out and glued back together at the narrower gauge. Much less expensive than from Aspen. ;-) Randy
Jeff I notice the Heliport.I've been thinking and thinking about using the motor assembly of an Air Wick room deoderizer-- shaped like a flame. the motor can be set to run constantly or in shot time frames. it runs on batteries and has a large resivore for the stinky stuff. Not being an electronic genius- I opened it up and didn't understand a thing-- some electronic board in there. I Just know it's a nice silent motor and with reconfiguration-- bashing and crashing-- and a shaft running up thru the helicopter to the rotor, it might work. the motor would be mounted under the helipad-- the pad could be removable to replace batteries. Well thatz my thoughtz and I'm sticking to em. Just thought I'd throw this out there for more diligent folks to dawddle with. The feature I like the best is the auto ON OFF cycle. the chopper could be preparing to lift off or landing. Just a side note... I had to go down to Norfolk for LSO school. I told Dragonlady I had to learn how to land helicopters aboard ship. She laughed in disbelief and said-"land them, you don't even know how to fly them. Enough palaverating- hope this idea might spark some one to "fly" with it. Best' Fred
When I was using the photo-etched joint bars on my last N scale module, I kept thinking that would be a good way to avoid the stamped railjoiners. Tin the backs, then just use the resistance tweezers to 'melt' them to the end of one rail, position the next rail, then melt that one. Could probably use brass strip stock or even just wire to do the same thing for cheaper. Just something to fit in the web that wouldn't add all the extra width to the base of the rail?
