The area taped out on the floor was 90'x70'. We had about 70 people working on the modules and BYOZ area, including 5 kids and 12 women, from 12 clubs (8 brought modules to set up and 1 more brought BYOZ), representing 15 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. We've had Z modelers from as far as Oregon, Washington, and California, to Florida, Canada, and the complete East Coast. The measurements of the modules came out to about 280 linear feet of modules totaling about 28 scale miles of mainline (approximately 680 feet), almost 5 miles of which are on the 7 helixes of the new, improved Swiss Gothard Line modules. I haven't calculated how many miles of tunnels there are yet. I hope someone shows up with an odometer car because I don't know how else we can measure it. Speaking of measuring, I believe the highest point on the Gothard Line modules is about 9 feet above the floor, that's around 1100 scale feet high! We've had at least 6 BYOZ layouts and we were set up right next to the Poorville & Debt City, Val Ease and Dave George's modular layout. These 4 shots are the complete Z Scale area starting with David George's ZBT modules at a lower height for the kids to better see: Here is Bill Kronenberger at this end of the modules, running around fixing a few electrical bugs: In the foreground is Terry Sutfin's layout, with one corner of Rob Allbritton's new Gothard Line modules towering above his crew in the background. The crowd was totally blown away when they seen the Matterhorn modeled in Z! The Gothard line has 7 helixes inside, and is just plain huge! I helped lift one of the 12 foot by 6 foot modules in place with 7 other guys, and it was the heaviest module I ever helped move in my life! The guy responsible for these modules (Rob Allbritton) was literally dwarfed by their towering stature: And they were very well detailed too: Unbelievable!
I have lots more if you guys want to keep going: A Z Scale Drive In Movie running Gone With the Wind was this diorama on display at Rob Kluz's place on the layout tours. All the structures here are hand drafted and assembled from paper by Stan Jones: As were these, in fact there were several modules operated by Stan Jones and Jeffrey White featuring Stan's fabulous work: Stan's yard was populated with Alan Curtis's new spine cars, Tim Beuhring's new Road Railers, and trains were being switched with Lajos Thek's new SW-1 switcher in this shot: ALL PAPER MODELS here except the building under construction which was scale wood! Catenary power substation: There are drill holes in the face of the rocks where blasting was done while building the right of way:
WOW!! That farm scene is awesome and incredible!! What an inspiration for me and others!! Keep em comin' if you have more pics.
Those paper buildings, are they readily available or just made off of someones computer? Some of those are really nice!!
The detail on those layouts are fantastic. It makes me want to consider a small Z scale layout in a 2x4' space or a 2x6' . This size would probably be huge in Z scale. Who makes high quality Z scale track? Stay cool and run steam.....
You know, the Micro Trains track they are releasing any day now looks pretty good. It's a Kato Unitrack style of track, but having seen it at the NTS, I am impressed. It loks like it will be a few more months till we see the turnouts though, but talking to Joe from MTL, the turnouts will be a #6. It is not clear if there will be another turnout size offered in this style track, but I feel a #6 is a good choice. PS: when this topic gets large enough for another page, I will post more photo's. The reason I don't do it sooner is becaus this page already had a long load time for all these images, so reply away guys! -Robert
Yes, from what Joe said, the #6 is the same as a Marklin turnout. I did not realize this at first look, because the Marklin turnouts are so small I thought they were #4's. I guess I am just so used to N Scale turnouts. Well, back to the garage... I'm building a new ZBT module, this time a deep module with a wooden trestle. -Robert
More, more, and more pic's please!! I keep coming back to these pages for more and more ideas. I just noticed recently that highway,(the Autobahn?), is even detailed! If I didn't know anybetter, I would say that is N-scale or even HO from a distance.
Yes, Z Scale! All Z! OK, I'm working on more pictures right now. I have to shrink them to a size that is resonaboe for the forums. -Robert
They are simple to draw by hand or on a computer. Just remember that a box has six sides and you are on your way. I have many of these that a friend of mine made for N scale. I use them until I can replace them with more detail. Also, he uses 120 pound paper which is thicker than normal paper. There may have been earlier threads on this? These buildings are excellent, IMHO.
BTW, what is the difference in BYOZ and a Z scale module? This is a really great display. It is a LOT of work!!
BYOZ stands for "Bring Your Own Z" which was started by the Northwest Pacific Z Scalers. What it is is some tables setup for guests and non module builders to display their small layouts to shows. Since the tables are lower, they allow the smaller visitors to get up and close to the action. The little kids really like to see the tiny train sets, and this is their opportunity. The elder visitors really like the BYOZ tables too, as we setup chairs where they can take a load off, and talk trains for a few minutes. A welcome oasis in the vast jungle of trains at these shows. Most of the Z-Bend Track clubs setup their BYOZ tables, and bring solar sets, silverware case layouts, hat box layouts, cigar box layouts, etc. Our club includes the BYOZ tables too. The ZBT modules are more for the bigger people, at a height where they can get their face closer to the action and see what is really going on. Here are some more ZBT modules to enjoy: These next 3 photos are from the same module. The houses under construction were really interesting, and one of the houses even has a basement. And the builder manages to get some nice trucking action fit into the scene: What I really liked was the choice of scenery colors to lighten up the scene without becoming the main attraction: These next 3 photos are again 1 module. What I found interesting here was the modules employed small ceramic decoration statues, which were seamlessly blended in with conventional Z Scale scenery to yield very detailed and convincing scenes. Hard to see, but the bay behind the ship is filled with swimmers, some wearing classic 1900's swimming attire. The statuary waterfront was seamlessly blended with a larger hand painted bay to enlarge the scene. There was also a nice farm scene on the other side of the module: Here is a Father Son team in the true spirit of Z Scale. The operating teams were composed of 4 people, with an engineer operating the trains, 2 spotters walking along to address break-away's, derailments, or other possible hazards, and an ambassador to talk with the public. -Robert
