Anyone here that are Z-scale moslty are subscribe to Model Railroader magazine? I am, since the last 6 years, and I'm starting to be disappointed on the lack of z-scale coverage. Ok, they have a lot of info, that can be used and transfered to Z, but they don't talk much about it. I have the full 1986 year which had a year long Z project coverage, and then nothing. Are you subscribers, still happy with the magazine? Ben
Ben, I take MR for what it is, a general Model Railroad publication. It does give me good ideas plus I do learn quite a bit. I know MR's attitude towards Z scale is changing. For instance, they have at least 2 Z scale articles in the hoppper. I am not sure when these will appear in print, but MR has done on the photo shoots and already has the text. The 1980s were special. I loved all the Z MR had. Andy S. killed that when he took over in the 1990s. I think Terry will change that. I have already seen very positive changes with MR since Terry has taken over. Rob
The magazine I really miss is Continental Modeller. I lost my access when my local hobby shop stop carrying it. It would carry z scale articles every couple of months.
John, I endend up subscribing to Continental Modeller. I LOVE it! After Ztrack, it is my favorite MR magazine! Rob
Id subscribe to Z-track if they returned my phone call sorry Rob. So I still stick w/N-scale railroading Nick
Nick, I do apologize if we missed your call. Drop me an e-mail with your phone number and I will give you a call when I am back in the office next week. The e-mail address is ztrack@aol.com. We also now offer secure online subscriptions through our web site, www.ztrack.com Rob
Nick, Rob's a busy man. He's at shows, conventions, vendors, etc. and has been on vacation. Yeah, he doesn't have a change of message and it doesn't forward to his mobile phone but he, some of us try to maintain quality of life. He usually gets back to you by phone or e-mail within a few days. As he says, you can subscribe on-line. BTW: you think he is slow to respond? You need to try our German and Swiss colleages. They do things personally and often do not reply to e-mail for days as they just don't use that impersonal communications method. And on top of that, it their name is in the CC field, you can guarantee that you won't even get a comment. Drives us nuts !
Hey! hey! You're talking about our German friends! I've work there for 1 month back in 2002, and look it this way, they won't die of stress pretty soon, unlike us in north america, were we are used to do things real fast, but on the other hand our stress level is way higher than in Europe countries. Ben
I picked up a "Model Railroad News" issue for free at a trainshow, and subscribed the next day! Every issue averages 2-3 things about "Z".
I think you all are in a lower level of the same boat the N folks had been in a while back. Especially regarding MR and MRC, their coverage is in good measure driven by percentages within the hobby, where HO simply dominates. N has seen quite a good overall coverage of late, but I'm sure the O and S folks could easily commiserate with you. All I can suggest is to keep plugging at the publishers, maybe write some stuff up or send them some pics. Who knows what you may start?
MR gives me a lot of inspiration, and the scale does not matter. But it is strange that I see very impressive Z layouts in this forum, and nothing about these layouts is being published in MR. On the other hand: the magazines in Holland only cover HO and some N, and other scales just don't exist. Reading MR I found out a lot about O scale, and S.
Yes, great magazine, and they have a great archives showing their old issues http://www.modelrailroadnews.com/pages/archives.html Ben
MR can't publish what it doesn't receive. There are great layouts on here, but the builders probably haven't sent any articles into MR for publication.
I've been reading MR in a regular basis for 7 years, first as a regular buyer, then as a subscriber. It's true Z scale coverage is pretty low, but in my opinion it's not time to give up with this magazine: I notice that there is more and more Z scale themed input years after years: ads, still a very few layouts (those I have in mind are Lyn St Laurent's SP and Jeffrey Mc Han's Val Ease Central), but now we see Z scale stuff in the new product review, and finally a 2-page coverage of the MTL GP35 a few months ago. And in the latest issue, in Terry Thompson's editorial, about small layouts, Z scale was evocated as well as N. And it's true none of this should have occured only 3 or 4 years ago. So let's keep tuned! I should not be surprised to see an AZL SD70 in one of the next product review. And for all the time I've been reading MR, I can say I haven't seen more coverage for S scale, and only a few more for O scale. And meanwhile, not the least coverage for TT. So let's keep tuned, I'm now believing Z scale is gaining it's consideration within MR staff. Dominique
I agree with Dominique that MR has made progress in respect to Z scale over the last few years. I also know for a fact that at least one Z scale article is in their hopper and they are "waiting for the right time" to publish it. I might add the the DEC issue also had an Nn3 article in it. Mike may be correct though, in that MR can't publish what it doesn't receive in submittals. The DEC issue had a really nice photo section toward the back with something from every scale except Z and TT (even had G scale). I think many of the photos shown here (especially Robert's and Jurg's) are just as good if not superior to those that were published. My photographic skills suck, or I would submit some shots myself, but let's hear about some photos being sent in for the trackside photos section at least. Walthers catalog is another place that photos can be submitted to. It seems like the only Z photos published in the catalog this year (and most other years as well) were from Lars Ringqvist (sp?). Randy
S is practically non-existent everywhere outside of North America, unless something's changed radically in the past few years.
I think it is only a matter of time before MR dedicates more real estate to Z. As the scale grows and many of us who have decent Z scale collections (industry focused - be it passenger, intermodal, freight, etc.) get our rears in gear and make some layouts MR will be happy to post articles. Bottom line - they appreciate anything quality, regardless of scale. Side note: I'm just really happy that Rob is doing a great job with Ztrack. I look forward to the time when Z has grown enough that more advertising dollars roll into Ztrack so the issues can get larger and full color. I give it a year, two at max.
Nope. Same old, same old. Probably due to it's deep American Flyer influence. There are one or two people, outside of North America, doing Sn2. Beyond that, just a few S standard scalers scattered around the world. :sad: Boxcab E50
And a good friend of mine, here in the stinkin' cheese eater country, who has a wonderful freelanced Sn3 point to point layout named "Degulbeef & Cradding RR", standing in 1929 in a fictious country, the "Brutalic Colorumbia", BTW between Canada and the US....:shade: This guy is named Alexander Zelkin, for those who have heard of him... Dominique
