Z scale at the 2011 National Train Show

What a momentous occasion for Z scale model railroading. On Thursday morning they had an unrecognizable pile of crates and wooden objects piled on the floor of a humungous space. Among all of this there were three panels that should become a three module set for an unbelievable Z scale train yard.

It was decided that two separate groups of modules would be erected. One group operating with DC controllers and the other with DCC. The DC modular group was mostly composed of the guys north of the California/Oregon border. If you have never viewed their modules you have missed some great model building. Since they live in the Pacific North-West they have trees. I don't remember how many modules they had but the trees that covered their mountains are more than all of the trees planted on the Z scale DCC modules. Probably more than all of the scale trees in the whole convention center. That's what you get when you try to model the Pacific Northwest.

At first there was some confusion about how many modules made up the DCC group. I counted 30. David L counted 60. Now I know that David was far more accurate than I. I counted the 3 yard module as 1. I also counted each quad as one. Even if I counted the yards as three or the quads as 2 each, I still would have undercounted. The problem is when we count each peninsula we have to be careful not to count the same module twice. I know that we brought up 26 modules from ZoCal plus the new yard. To that we have to add the BAZ Boys modules and maybe a few more. Totals to an excess of 50 modules.

Everyone seemed to agree that there were 30 scale miles of mainline track. Two loops of 15 scale miles each. I think that David estimated an additional 10 scale miles of track if we include all of the yard tracks and all of the sidings.

As all of us down here in Southern California know that there were no yard track modules (except for David's) four weeks before the NTS. Chuck H. graciously allowed a crew of guys to invade his garage in order to build the yard tracks from the ground up in just three weekends. It was not completed when the components hit the convention center floor on Wednesday. It required wiring and some tweaking of tracks so that the tracks on the modules would connect. The yard building crew worked feverously on completing the yards while the rest of the BAZ Boys and ZoCal and who ever else could be rounded up, worked on setting up the other modules that comprised the whole DCC set of Z scale modules.

For the modules in this group, this was the first time that many of them were ever located in the same room. For many of them it was the first time that they were even in the same county. The crew worked from 8am to 8pm+ on Thursday. On Friday, the doors opened to the NMRA members in the morning. They were still getting the bugs out of the electrical wiring. At 1:00pm a little after the doors were opened to the general public, they got the first train to negotiate the entire 15 scale miles of one loop of the modules.

What saved the Z scale group was that the South Oregon, the Portland/Vancouver and Seattle guys had their modules running before the show opened. Their modules were completely sceniced and operating. Add to that, Loren's mountain freeway and rotating helicopter blades so Z scale was not entirely without excellent representation.

By Sunday evening everyone was TIRED. Don F. could hardly drag himself around. Karen from StoneBridge models couldn't keep herself awake during dinner but she woke up in time for desert!

There was a lot of news about new Z scale products. The Stonebridge line up of products has grown. The problem is that Z scale is small so when they display their stuff on a display wall, it doesn't take much space. It is similar to a display of HO scale cast detail parts, except in Z each little package is a whole house or commercial building. The booth next to Stonebridge was not occupied so they were able to spill out and fill that table also. Stoney Smith had a few shells for the L.G. Thek power truck. One was the Thomas the Engine shell and a model of two streamliner observation car ends stuck together so that it looked like and eggshell. Stoney also has Z scale trucks and airplanes. Searails is also contemplating shells for the power truck. Intermountain is excited about creating more Z scale cars. AZL talks about introducing more models at a lower price. The most exciting visitor was Mr. Tony Ichikawa and his engineer from Rokuhan. He was busy speaking to everyone. Mr Ichikawa is the owner of Rokuhan and he wants to enter the North American market but he must be careful so that he can survive with his business. He knows the Japanese market and he can survive there but the American market is still a large unknown to him.

The excitement at the show was everywhere. Z scale was not the same-ole, same-ole. Even after more than 30 years we were the new kid on the block. For a lot of the old time HO scale guys, they commented often that this was the first time that they saw Z. It just proves that we were completely missed at the other shows. It is still an uphill battle.

This report on the 2011 NTS will continue. Lots more to be written about.

Bill
El Toro, CA

Already an excellent description of the show, Bill. Makes me almost feel as if I was there...Hey! Wait a minute! I was!

Thanks for posting- makes those of us that weren't there almost feel like we were
Look forward to future reports
Fred

BIll good to see you in some of the pictures of the show and with your words and stony's pictures helps many of us who could not make feel like we got a slice of it.

Look forward to the next installment

John,
Thanks for the link. I was there and couldn't begin to attend all the sessions I wanted to. And for those who haven't checked it out, there are a number of excellent documents at the site, particularly on using LEDs.

Mark