Hello All We are please to announce the completion of our new web site and the offical public notice of our new company, North American Scale Models Inc. Please "click" here for a link to the site http://www.nascalemodels.com On our new site we have listed the first of our new products including an all new steam Z scale locomotive, the USRA Mikado. We are very excited about this new loco, and are please to infom everyone that this new engine is going to be offered in both regular DC and factory equiped DCC with sound. Thats right, DCC and sound! We are very please to announce that we will be providing Soundtraxx Tsunami DCC decoders in our Mikado's as well as all future steam engines. This will be a first for the Z scale hobby and sure to rase the bar on all future Z scale locomotives. Roadnames and pricing will be announced closer to release date. Release date; Early Fall 2008 Thank you for taking a look at our new site, and please do not hesitate to submit your email address to us for current production news and future releases. Tony Brucia President/CEO North American Scale Models
Congratulations on both the site and your future Z plans Tony, I look forward to seeing the steam! John Cubbin Ztrains: Z Scale (1:220) Model Train Layouts
Oooh, can't wait! A Z scale steam loco with factory equipped DCC sound... I feel as if I've died and gone to heaven.....
Tony- thanks for answering Jim's questions-Z Central-- It's nice to know we have a REAL new Z supplier with a depth in manufacturing and not a "Rogue" outfit. Pun intended. Fred
I hope that Mikado looks nice! When can we see some test shots? BTW the proto locomotive photo on your site is a "light" mikado not a "heavy"
i dare you to stick your finger under one of the drivers and tell me how light it is! heh heh heh. just kidding. so how do you tell a heavy from a light? dave f.
Dave, Most details are relatively the same, but mostly a "light" has a smaller dia. boiler and taller skinny domes. A "heavy" has a larger dia boiler and fatter looking short domes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USRA_Heavy_Mikado http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USRA_Light_Mikado http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:USRA_Heavy_Mikado_diagram.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:USRA_Light_Mikado_diagram.jpg I'd rather have a Heavy cause Erie had about 25 of them. I'd still take a light cause I could give it a few things to make it look more Erie. I believe a light and heavy Mikado share the same body as a light and heavy pacific respectively. So I could take this Heavy mikado body and put a Marklin 4-6-2 chassis under it to pull my PAX train. This mike would be sweet with a string of hoppers in tow... My Erie N scale heavy mikado: http://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/NScale/photo#5080109431351060594
Thank you all for your interest in our new company. The heavy and light Mikado are primarily the same engine with the most notable difference being the max boiler preasure. The overall size of the boiler is only slightly large on the prototype, and is so small in Z scale as to not make a difference. We plan to offer the Mike in various roadnames of the more popular roads, and will also offer what we are calling a "fallen flag's" unit that will come with several less popular roadname decals for folks to make their own favorite road. Here's our answer to the guys that like L&N, Erie and other less popular roads. As stated, the Pacific is very close to the Mikado and shares many of the same demensions (not drivers). For this reason the Pacific will be the next steam loco we offer followed by the Northern and Mountain. Tony Brucia North American Scale Models
Tony, For me the roadnames aren't a concern. There are N scale Erie decals that will work for Z, but I like your ideas and appreciate it. Light, heavy, I will take either, but hoping you follow the heavies dimensions ; ) Oh and a Pacific next... Oh no, could I seriously sell my N scale? PS Erie was one of the only RR's to buy Heavy Pacifics: Now about those F3's...
Hot Damn !!!! Steam !!! Check Please ! Tony, Doc and Barry: Traction. Are you using traction tire on one of the 4 drive axles? Any car count pulling tests? I assume all wheel inlcuding tender pick up. Just bring samples to NTS. The BAZ BoyZ modules await you. BTW: are you signed up for NTS??? Booth prices are based on company revenue. Since you are the non-revenue, you get the dirt cheap price for the same size booth as the big boys !! .
Jeff No there are no traction tires. We plan on using a higher mass engine to obtain traction (no I won't tell you how we're doing it....).
You shouldn't need a traction tire. A Z scale 2-8-4 Berkshire I made from a Marklin 2-8-2 can pull 37 cars since I added weight to the boiler: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfRZUyCIL4I"]YouTube - Z scale Berkshire train testing[/ame] http://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/ZScaleBerkshire
Well I know most are excited to see steam, but I for one am looking forward to the Twin Stack Container Cars. More Intermodal!
This is a very exciting project. Many of us want better looking steam than what marklin provides. I am sure many like me just drool at the AZL steam, knowing the price is too much. Our only hope is to pick up the MT moguls at around the 300-400 range. Which a few years ago was a posibility but not anymore. If these come out and are price around the same marklin or slightly higher I think you'll have a winner....and a customer here!
Anybody know what happened to this company? Their domain name is dead. *sigh* Steeeeaaaammmmmmmm........
