On the Z-Scale Articles page:

On the Ztrack page:

On the first Model Railroad page:

On the second Model Railroad page:

You may also wish to see how I take the detailed photographs on the these pages; see my model RR page 4.

On separate pages:

88290        \        88291        /        88292

The leading U.S. manufacturer of Z is still Micro-Trains; they have introduced a trio of Z-scale SP 2-6-0 Moguls that is simply scrumpious!

Here's a teaser:

Micro-Trains® photo used by permission.

However, a lot of Z equipment comes from Germany and a good Eisenbahn- und Modellbahn-Wörterbuch - Deutsch-Englisch (Railroad and Model Railroading Dictionary - German-English) is available courtesy of Chris Ozdoba.

One of the leading smaller German manufacturers of Z-scale railroad models is Harald Freudenreich in Sanitz (Mecklenburg); his Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik (abbreviated as FR), which has its own Website, is also covered on my Freudenreich page, et seq.  I have an abiding interest in a number of things, including, especially, Z-scale (this page, et seq.), the Long Island Rail Road, Long Island history, and the earliest production diesel locomotives, known as oil-electric boxcabs and the American Locomotive Co. (ALCo), builder, with General Electric and Ingersoll-Rand, of those first boxcabs.

This multiplicity of interests leads to an interesting dilemma; where do I cover FR models of historic LIRR oil-electric boxcabs?  The answer?  On all those pages!  Many are cross-linked but I commend to you checking out all of them.  Here, for a teaser, is the first mating of the custom FR body shell to the custom FR chassis of LIRR #401, the world's first diesel road switcher, the second production diesel locomotive, and the first diesel locomotive to make a long-distance revenue run:

(photos 31 Oct 02 by and © 2002 S. Berliner, III)

That's a "gold" dollar for comparison and the clerestory roof is only sitting there, not yet properly emplaced.

The LIRR #401 was soon followed by an unsuccessful #402 (returned) and then an eminently successful #402, and a pair of tiny units, #403A and #403B; they all (even the first #402, but for the GT&W) soldiered on well into the mid-50s.

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There are so many German firms in Z but another one that caught my eye is MARSILIUS®-Line GmbH in Krefeld; they make U.S. prototype ACF and Pullman Standard 85' passenger cars in Z.  Their smooth side cars come with full interiors, operating diaphragms, and MTL couplers:   (22 Feb 08)

(Marsilius Passenger Car)

Their website ist nur auf Deutsch but Ztrack carries their line, including spare parts for repair, kitbashing, or scratchbuilding!

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This is a wee bit hard to believe, but doing a search 11 Jun 98 on HotBot for "Ztrack" yielded exactly 220 hits!

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(Image by and © S. Berliner, III - 1999, 2001 - all rights reserved)
(Typo in fractional rail height corrected 21 Dec 01)

Märklin Z miniCLUB Track Dimensioned Cross-Section

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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!

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HO is a mix of metric and English measurements in a scale of 3.5mm to the foot or 0.138" = 1', which is about 1:87.1.  HO-gauge rails are 16.5mm or 0.650" (<¾") apart.

Z is still the smallest production scale available today, but - - -

Don't tell anyone but there just MIGHT be a "Half-Z" 1:440 scale coming out of Germany, if they ever get it off the ground!  2' 4" Z-scale narrow gauge, anyone?

Incidentally, I joke about Zn3 narrow gauge; Micro-Trains issued an Nn3 D&SL Mogul on a Märklin Z 2-6-0 chassis; even at nearly $500, it sold out instantly!

For Zf (Zn2) 600 mm (= 2') [2.75 mm (= 0.11") in Z] narrow gauge, Z meter (metre) guage [1m = 39"], and sub-Z-scale (1:440, 1:900, etc. {etc.?}), see the Sub-Z-Scale page.

Railex made (or proposed to make) a Z-scale model of the famed "Glaskasten" (Glass Case) tank loco of the K.Bay.Sts.B. (Royal Bavarian State Railroad) Class Ptl 2/2:

[That's a German pfennig (penny) for proportion!]

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More exactly, (TOO exactly!),

HO is 3.5mm = 0.1377953" = 1' (1:87.08571428571)
[Which might well turn out to be a repeating decimal].

Z to HO = 2.5262467:1 (use 2.5 for quick approximations).

HO to Z = 0.3958442:1 (use 0.4 for quick approximations).

For the other purist/perfectionist/maniacs out there, HO scale is exactly 3.5mm to the foot (3.5mm = 12 inches); yes, it is a cross-system dimension!  Dividing 3.5 by 12 inches/foot and then again by 25.4 mm/inch yields a reduction factor of 0.0114829 and inverting the result (on a simple calculator - I used a far more powerful one in my computer to get the full eleven decimal places, which appear to be a repeating decimal, 857142) gives the final inch-to-inch conversion factor!

That's how one gets to it, but I wouldn't sweat it if I were you!  1:87.1 is more than good enough.

(Berlinerwerke)

The BERLINERWERKE SAGA, the story of the HO Berlinerwerke pike,
is now on its own page with the Horseshoe Curve story.

(Berlinerwerke-Z)

The full BERLINERWERKE-Z SAGA, the Z-scale pike story
now appears on its own page (and continues onto two more).

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Visit these courtesy and official home pages:

Long Island Sunrise - Trail Chapter
(National Railway Historical Society)

Sunrise Trail Division
(Northeastern Region)
(National Model Railroad Association)

Ztrack Magazine
The Newsletter for Z Scale Model Railroading

Long Island Live Steamers

Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Railroad

Degnon Terminal Railroad

Marion River Carry Railroad

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You may also wish to jump to SB,III's RAILROAD Page,
SB,III's MODEL RAILROAD Page, or
SB,III's second MODEL RAILROAD Page

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Z-Scale Miscellany

Brian Redman's Z-World, which is simply fantastic, especially his Märklin mini-club Finder, with its actual-size pictures of most Märklin Z production and custom items, in numerical order.

Dr. Christoph "Chris" Ozdoba's equally fantastic and comprehensive Z site.

"The Z Collection", Joris Ilegems' indexed illustrated list of Märklin Z items.   (new URL 11 Jun 08)

Rob Albriton's complex Z:220 site; ya gotta see his track development sketches!

Stan Jones has an interesting site at Z Model Trains.

I heard (Jan 99) from Graham Jones, Chairman of ZClub(GB) {Great Britain}; they now have a Web site and are a member of the Railroad Web Ring.

Another Web Ring, but one devoted solely to Z, is the Z-Ring of the Z-Modul Team Rhein-Ruhr {Deutsch} ( English); this and other RR rings are listed on Joris Ilegem's Index page (new URL 11 Jun 08).

A Märklin enthusiast's site, with some Z, is at Modellbahn Collectors.

A sampling of some of the finer (and tinier) Z accessories can be found at Microscopic Z Accessories on Z Scale Continuation Page 2; Miller Engineering material formerly here has been moved there.

(Image by and © S. Berliner, III - 1999 - all rights reserved)

Märklin Z-Scale Wiring Hookup Convention

Standard Märklin Z-scale miniCLUB DC (track power) wiring has the Red (Hot) wire going from the "B" (Hot DC) terminal to the right-hand rail and the Brown (Neutral) wire going from the "O" (Neutral DC*) terminal to the left-hand rail for forward motion of a locomotive;
remember - RED = RIGHT.

AC (accessory power) wiring is Yellow/Gray (or Gray/Gray) to the Common Leg of the turnout from the "L" (Common AC) terminal and Blue/Red to the Reverse Side of a turnout and Blue/Green to the Normal Side of a turnout from the "O" (Hot AC*) terminal, each through a controller (switch).

[ * - Please be certain not to confuse the Neutral DC "O" terminal
with the Hot AC "O" terminal on Märklin transformers
{what a dumb way to label terminals!}.]

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Z-SCALE VEHICLES and MÄRKLIN RUBBER AUTOMOBILES

SCHNABLE CARS - please note that the Märklin 8620 "Depressed-Center Flat Car" isn't such at all!  It is a SCHNABLE car!  Click on the link for more about these and other strange giant freight cars.

Image from Z-world

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Willis Hobbies in Mineola - I bought my first HO engine and power pack (as an adult - both still in use) ca. 1960 from the late Karl Boehringer, founder, and have continued with Willis through the successor, Al Ford, and now his sons, Steve and Ken!

Gold Coast Hobby, in Glen Head - nearest to me; owner Charles Gonder has an incredible stock of abstruse items I find useful in model railroading, such as architectural and ship modeling supplies.

Also, there is a combination hardware store and hobby shop in Ridgewood, Queens, that has a goodly stock of Märklin Z rolling stock and track; while not expert in all aspects of Z, they discount Märklin at 30%!  Convenient to the M train for Manhattanites and other NYC dwellers and accessible to those willing to brave the parking situation in darkest Queens (30 miles from Glen Head):  Hobbies 'R 'Us, in Nagengast's Tru-Value Hardware at 68-02 Fresh Pond Road, Ridgewood, New York  11385, Phone.: 718-821-1319, Fax: 718-386-2910.  They are a ½-block south of the elevated Fresh Pond Road stop on the southwest corner of 68th Avenue and a few blocks north of the LIRR's Bay Ridge branch, off Jackie Robinson (ex-Interboro) Parkway for LI'ers, between Myrtle and Metropolitan Avenues, with limited parking on the south side of 68th Avenue in front of three garages just to their west.  Hans Nagengast, Jr., is the knowledgeable person with whom I work.

All of these shops are strong on special orders from Märklin and Z mail orders (with discounts).

The Caboose, Inc., in Huntington has closed effective 15 Dec 02; I bought my first Märklin mini-Club Z-scale equipment (an 8907A starter set listing for $99.50!, less its awful 6727 power pack) from owner Charles Schaeffer in 1980.

A shop that had opened in Melville on Route 110, J & D Hobbies, at 522a Walt Whitman Road has closed (as of 14 Dec 02).

A top mail-order house that specializes in Märklin mini-Club and Z imports from Europe is Roman Plaszewski's Reynauld's Euro-Imports, Inc. at 113 S. 3rd St., Geneva, Illinois  60134, 1-888-768-6872 for orders (except from Illinois or Canada), 1-600-262-0771, email at: eurotrains@inil.com, FAX:  1-630-262-0778.  Reynauld's carries Roland Kimmich's Railex Z items but there is no information forthcoming to put up on REI's site*.  REI has several other URLs, including "http://www.Fleischmann.com/" and "http://www.Liliput.com/", but they all bring up Reynauld's and RoCo (which REI distributes).

Dave Paegelow has prefab and custom Z layouts, Z cork roadbed, Z display cases, and some other neat stuff at his IBL Products (Itty Bitty Lines) site.

Tony's Train Town at 575 Pompton Avenue, Cedar Grove, New Jersey  07009-1720, Tel.:  973-857-2337, FAX:  973-857-0772, tpunt@prodigy.net.  is a multi-line train store but specializes in Märklin, in service, and in hard-to-find items.

Also, Z aficionado William Dean Wright, d.b.a. " Full Throttle", specializes in American prototype Z equipment (although he also services Märklin locos); he is at 128 Burma Island Road, Leesburg, Florida  34788-2914, Tel.:  352-589-0303, e-mail:  dewaa128@aol.com.   Will has a large and constantly changing stock of out-of-production Märklin and Freudenreich items (American prototype) as available.  Will has turned into quite the manufacturer, as well, with a major line of Z freight cars of many styleZ.

For the story of the Berlinerwerke-Z (my layout), see the Berlinerwerke-Z Saga page, et. seq.

For tall tales of the BW and its equipment and such, visit the Berlinerwerke Apocrypha page.

BreakfaZt of ChampionZ!

Hey!  How come there are H-O Quick Oats but no Z Quick OatZ?  AHA!  I went grocery shopping on 23 Feb 2005 and you won't believe (you'd better not) what I found:

(photo by BW-Z Art Department; with apologies (sort of) to
GFA Brands, Inc. - all rights reserved (but to whom -
and would GFA even want to acknowledge this?)]

Should you run across a Z-Auction (I found it on the HotBot search engine), it has nothing to do with Z-Scale; it is an electronics, computer, and Beanie Baby (really!) auction!

Oh, Hell!  Wouldn't you know!  Amazon.com now has some feature called zShops, whatever they might be (I can't find any explanation on their site).

Best regardZ,  S.B.,III