PAGE INDEX

On this Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik Z-Scale Page:

On the Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik Z-Scale Continuation Page 1:

For other Z-scale links, see Z-Scale Summary index, below, or the full Z-SCALE INDEX.

Z scale is about 2½ times smaller than HO!  In Z scale, a scale ¼-mile is exactly (and only) 6 feet; in other words, a mile is only 24 feet!

Because much information about Z scale is in German, you might find Chris Ozdoba's Eisenbahn- und Modellbahn-Wörterbuch - Deutsch-Englisch / Railroad and Model Railroading Dictionary - German-English of value.

One of the finest craftspersons working in Z scale is Harald Freudenreich, proprietor of Freudenreich-Feinwerktechnik [Freudenreich's Fine Work Technology - or words to that effect] in Sanitz in Mecklenburg, in the far north of Germany.

Because I have posted so many images of his incredible work on my regular Z-scale pages, q.v. (index below), they are overloading and the coverage is scattered; this page is a perhaps-vain attempt to organize my FR coverage and free up space on my other Z pages.

Hey, who needs 1:440 or 1:900 scales?  I received my Boxcab loco kit from Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik and it's a jewel!  Look at this!

(photos 07 Oct 99 by and © 1999 S. Berliner, III)
[Instead of thumbnail images, I give you both scale (on my 14' monitor) and enlarged images.]

I take excruciatingly-close photos, especially of microscopic details on my Z-scale (1:220) equipment, such as:

 
(photos taken 16 and 18 Oct 99 by and © 1999 S. Berliner, III -
with digital SLR with stacked Zeiss Proxar lenses on a home-made adaptor)

Here's some details for an FR Z reefer:

(photo taken 14 Dec 01 by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)

[With this kind of close-up capability, who needs enlarged images?]

Freudenreich recently (2001) moved to larger quarters in a nearby town in northeastern Germany (Sanitz, in Mecklenburg) and here is his "huge" new plant:

(photo by Freudenreich 2001 - all rights reserved)

Well, I have fallen behind; FR expanded again this time last year (Nov 2008), adding another two containers; here are the extant four containers with the pad prepared for two more, offloading the fifth, offloading the sixth (no U. S. OSHA there, eh?), and the newly enlarged huge FR plant:   (14 Nov 2009)

(photos by Freudenreich 2008 - all rights reserved)
[images taken on a dark and stormy day; lightened by SB,III]

WOW! - There is a Z-scale (1:220) boxcab model!

Image of development model from Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik
with FR Z-scale hopper cars!

[Thumbnail image - click on the picture for the full image.
Photos by H. Freudenreich - all rights reserved.]

{Note that the stacks are now properly offset - gee, I wonder what boxcab fan(atic) pointed that out?}

Well, now, guess what arrived on 26 Jan 01 on VERY special order from FR?  Yup, a custom, one-off chassis for the 100-ton #401!  No one else came on board so I had to go it alone.  Here is the new chassis (with the drive gears on the inner wheels and a bigger flywheel), the two chassis compared, the two with the 60-ton body shell propped in place, and a not-quite-sharp-enough extreme closeup of the commutator end, plus a blatant photofake of how the reworked body shells might look:

(photos 27 Jan 01 by and © 2001S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Instead of thumbnail images, I give you both scale (on my 14' monitor) and enlarged images.]

{Having run out of room on my Z-Scale page 2, I put the pictures of my new (03 Mar 01) Märklin #88065 V 32 001 Diesel-Pneumatic (compressed air) locomotive on Z Page 6.}

[There just "happens" to be a second chassis and body which will be available later in 2002 just in case anyone else is desperate for a #401 of their own in Z; let me know if you're that person (and serious - it won't be inexpensive!).]

Now, for LIRR (2nd) #402 in Z (custom FR chassis projected for early Winter 2002 cancelled in favor of chopping up a brand-new Märklin #88690 chassis)!

Next comes a powered Baldwin-Westinghouse LIRR #403A in Z ("Ike" - I don''t think I'll bother with #403B, "Mike"; one's enough and the married pair were separated early on) on a drastically-altered early Märklin #8800 chassis!

    {more coverage to follow}

Well, now!  Harald Freudenreich keeps on amazing me!  Here's a little cog railway boxcab electric loco he whipped up for the recent Göppingen (home of Märklin) show; it's on a modified ALCo-GE-IR chassis, drives on the outer axles, and may yet have (possibly-) working cog wheels on them.  It's the Swiss RHB (Rorschach Heiden Bergbahn*) Class DZeh2/4 and here are the drawing, the hand-made model in the shop, and the model on display at the show:

(Images Apr-May 01 by H. Freudenreich - all rights reserved)

* - NOT the Rhätische Bahn (RhB Graubünden),  The RHB is a 7 km (4.4 mi.) long standard gauge rack railway connecting Rorschach harbour (on the Bodensee) with the Heiden health resort about 400 m (1,312') higher up, while the RhB is a 1000 mm (39") narrow gauge network in the center of Switzerland.

While we're on the subject of the rack loco, here's a scrap (and unfinished) chassis I was using for an experiment; look at that beautiful machining (by Harald):

(photo taken 14 Dec 01 by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)

(Images 18 Jun 01 by H. Freudenreich - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail image - click on picture for larger image.]

Incidentally, although the boxcabs are on a rigid chassis with dummy inboard wheelsets (outboard on my LIRR #401), Harald does make normal (longer) chassis with rotating trucks; so I asked for pictures of an example of that and here is a bottom view of a production unit and some developmental parts from his 1997 issue of the Be4/4 B-B/Bo-Bo showing just how he does that (Märklin-style, but ach, sehr elegant!):

(Images Nov/Dec 01 by H. Freudenreich - all rights reserved)

I had noted that better boxcab couplers were in the works; here they are, semi-functional M-T couplers furnished as part of a revised truck cover plate, with an absolutely exquisite new buffer beam and front step etching (now with handrail and cut lever rod and the correct two-rib reinforcement):

(Dec 2001 images by and © 2001 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)

FR FREIGHT CARS

Image of developmental 50' model from Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik.
(image courtesy Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik)

(Image courtesy of Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik - all rights reserved)

(Image courtesy of Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik - all rights reserved)

(22 Jan 03 photo by and © 2003 S. Belriner, III - all rights reserved)

    {more freight car coverage is on the FR continuation page.

OTHER FR PRODUCTS

Major oversight!  I thought I had this somewhere but can't find hide nor hair of it.  Harald released his New Haven Class EY-3 Box Motor (Boxcab Electric) and complementary NH 55 Ton 33' Twin Bay Rib Side USRA Hopper (16 Jan 03):

Pictures cropped and enhanced from images courtesy of Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik)

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FR builds working Swiss RR signals and a complete Swiss catenary system; in addition, although not products for sale, Harald also presents on his site some really interesting ideas for coupler/truck conversions and for a 9V battery power pack.

FR has just (Aug 2003) released a new U.S. bunk car (in kit form only); here it is in the unpainted original and in two sample paint schemes:

Pictures cropped and enhanced from images courtesy of Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik)

You can let your imagination run wild with this car; use it in a work train, tow it in a freight, set it off on a siding as a tool storage car, add steps and make it a pay car, put it in the weeds as an off-line crew shack, etc.

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    {more FR coverage is on the

[This truncated index is for reference only; see the main Z-Scale Index.]

On the main Z-Scale page:

On the Sub-Z-Scale Page :

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 1:

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 1a:

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 2:

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 3:

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 4:

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 5
    (a page for the Third Millennium):

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 6
    (a page of the Third Millennium):

On the Ztrack page:

On the Z-Scale Articles page:

On the first Model Railroad page:

On the second Model Railroad page:

On separate pages: