I'm so excited and grateful to have Robert's modules to add to the growing number of modules in the recently formed Colorado Z group. I'll be pretty quickly adding my own PCV adjustable legs to these modules so they can be displayed at either 30" or 50". The concept of the PVC adjustable legs came from Thom in St.Louis, and this is my own interpretation of that design, which I'm using for all of my Z-Bend modules. Similar to Kez, I also got a hint about Robert's modules from the "How Much Is Too Much Z" thread here. I admired Robert's work in various videos over the last few years. Passing thru Wyoming now.
Hmmmm, my daughter lives in Denver. Looks like I'll need to be looking these fellow "Z-scalers" up next time we make the run to visit her......
Currently the best way to find out the upcoming schedule for the Colorado Z Scale group is to join an e-mail board at: https://groups.io/g/coloradoz
Marmot, Would love to see some pictures of what you acquired from Mr. Ray, when you have a chance. Just a refresher on his work, you know? Congrats again. I know you have some quality scenes there to show off!
Oh, yes, these are quality scenes that I acquired. However, my photography of them isn't as flattering since right now these are shown sitting on my basement concrete floor. I acquired: - The end module called Hidden Palms with the small town composed of very high quality buildings. - The end module with the Orbitz drive-in theater. - The 3 foot long almost-straight module with the trestle on one side and the grain elevators/timesaver sidings on the other side of the module. - The 4 foot straight module with the Issaquah Depot on one side. The other side of a mountain ridge is unfinished/blank with just grass. Note that Robert kept his sawmill module so he could integrate that with his T-Trak-Z modules in some form. The combination of the 2 end modules that I acquired won the 1st place award of any scale for modules at the 2008 National Train Show in Anaheim, CA. Also, the trestle/timesaver module won 3rd place at the same show. I'll work on attaching some pics, but it's really much better to view a video from years ago that explains these modules: Within that video, Robert's modules are roughly between 8:00 and 19:00. But remember that Robert kept his sawmill module. The Issaquah Depot module isn't shown in that video since it's unfinished on one side.
It's been mostly trying to program all the signals and turnouts into PanelPro lately, but I've started on working on the platforms and lights for the passenger terminal. To this I've 3d printed a mock-up to test various paints, light temperatures, brightness etc. This will hopefully identify any issues before it's attached to the layout. There's going to be 3 platforms with the Atlas double streetlights being most of the lights with the single lights at the far end of terminal. The warm LEDs are a bit brighter than the cool ones (and not nearly so yellow in real life), so I'm going to try a little more resistor (currently 300 Ohms) and see how I like that. I like the warm lights for this as it'll be more era prototypical (even if the cars and track here are not). There will be 30 LEDs in total set up in a grid with each light connected to a different I/O pin. The plan is to be able to put on light shows. Adafruit makes an extender that includes constant current dimming, which will make for more interesting patterns without having to wire up 30 resistors, but I haven't tried it yet. It'll take a bit of work to program in those patterns. Once I get that set up, I can figure out how to light up the station, which will be next to the yard. As for the paints. I'm going with N8 neutral grey acrylic paint for the platforms themselves, with acrylic cadmium yellow warning strips for the platforms. I'm going to keep my eye out for some good details such as newsstands, billboards, and garbage pails to put on the platforms.
Nice platform and lighting! Have you checked out All Scale? https://www.allscaleminiatures.com/miniature-gallery?tag=Z Scale&category=Z Scott
Maybe mine in about 10-15 more years. I don’t think Matt can get another to help out of this WHOLE N. CALIFORNIA region! Likely end up in S. California (ZoCal) region as the have DOZENS of Z scalers! I’m staring on the home layout (also modular) but may not be transferable to another’s ‘10x14’ bedroom (chose the house purposely for its large rooms).
I just received some Z Scale Shopping Carts and Z Scale Checkout Stands for my Safeway Store project. Thanks to Walter Smith, they are available on his Shapeways Site:
It's summer, and I am remodeling my house so don't have much time for model railroading lately. So far this spring I have had a new bathroom with low step shower, big boy toilet, and new flooring installed. I had the AC compressor replaced due to premature failure, and the electrical panel upgraded from a 100A to a 200A service so I can power up both the Fiber Laser and the CO2 Laser at the same time. I also had a 50A 230V hot tub power drop installed, a new sidewalk leading to a new reinforced hot tub concrete pad installed, 2 giant trees removed, EZ Access Ramps (for old people) installed at the front and patio doors, and I paid for a brand new 50 year warranty roof for the main house, gazebo, and my 400SF train shed, as well as 5 yards of backyard concrete sidewalks to access my train shed still waiting to be installed. So, I am busy. But I do find a few minuted here and there to work on train stuff, and today I slipped away for a bit to work on detailing my Safeway store project. The latest is I made rastered groceries for both the checker counter and for the shopping carts, and I made a shopping cart return for the parking lot. It's kind of hard to see without zooming in, but there is a shopper checking out and you can see groceries on the counter as well as bags of goodies in her cart, and I also added the gumball machines that Clyde made. And out front I made a shopping cart return to fit Walter's shopping carts: Here's another angle of the shopping cart return next to cars for size reference. I guess next time I can break away, is to come up with signs for the windows, the cart return, etc.
I finished up a Showcase Miniatures Trolley kit. I did not use the decals provided. Really a fun little kit to put together and paint. And if you decide to paint it for the Pacific Electric, masks for the doors are provided. -Matt
