Freudenreich Z-Scale Model Railroad Continuation Page 1 keywords = Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik Z scale model rail train mini Club Ztrack Western Fruit Express WFEX Great Northern GN Pennsylvania Pennsy PRR Berlinerwerke
Updated: 14 Apr 2003, 15:35 ET
{many missing images restored - 16 Jan 03}
(Created 14 Dec 2001)
[Ref: This is zscalfr1.html (URL http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/zscalfr1.html)]

FREUDENREICH FEINWERKTECHNIK
Z-SCALE MODEL RAILROADING
Continuation Page 1

This site has now been visited

times since the counter was installed.

NOTE: Page size is limited by HTML to some 30kB;
thus, I have been forced to add new pages just for Z-Scale, more Z-scale, and articles about Z-scale;
but this is getting ridiculous! This brought me to 225+ pages!

PAGE INDEX

Some internal links, which work fine on my home page and others, may not work here! I'm working on it, but haven't a clue; I even just copied the working links over and they may not work here. So, scroll away, if necessary!

On the Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik Z-Scale Page:

FR Boxcab Oil-Electric Locomotives.

On this Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik Z-Scale Continuation Page 1:

FR Freight Cars.

Z Meter Gauge (Zm).

Other FR Products.

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

FREUDENREICH FEINWERKTECHNIK
Z-SCALE 1:220 MODEL RAILROADING

Z-Scale model railroading is modeled at an incredible 220 times smaller than life size, or slightly under half the size of the familiar HO scale, with rails only 6.5mm (~¼") apart.

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 continuation page is yet another perhaps-vain attempt to organize my FR coverage and free up space on my other Z pages.

See the preceding Freudenreich-Feinwerktechnik Z-Scale Page.

See also FREUDENREICH FEINWERKTECHNIK's own site:

http://www.fr-model.de/

Almost coincidental with the initiation of this new page, Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik opened a completely new Website, linked above; it is available in English
(as well as auf Deutsch).

(Please note - the (English) Gallery page has some German text; that will be rectified soon.)

Just for starters, and out of any sequence, here are some images of his detail work:

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!

Z 60-ton Boxcab with Shell

(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.]

Harald used a simple hook for a coupler because there's no room for a coupler box; I can't live with that and am busily inventing - wait and see!

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

[photos taken 16 and 18 Oct 99 by and © 1999 S. Berliner, III -
with digital SLR with stacked Zeiss Contaflex I Proxar lenses (ca. 1960) on a home-made adaptor]

Here are some details for an FR Z reefer:

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

FR BOXCAB LOCOMOTIVES

I am a big fan of the early (first) oil-electric (diesel) locomotives that vanquished steam and laid the ground work for dieselization. Their story is told in great detail beginning at my BOXCABS page and the FR versions are on my preceding Freudenreich-Feinwerktechnik page.

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

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

FR FREIGHT CARS

WOW! - There is a Z-scale (1:220) GN/WFEX reefer model!

FR Z WFEX Reefer

FR Z WFEX Reefer
Images of developmental 50' models from Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik.
(images courtesy Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik)

[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.]
Image of pre-production 50' model from Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik (21 Oct 99)

and, of course, my ersatz 40' one (see my Berlinerwerke-Z Saga:

BW-Z GN/WFEX Reefer
"Ersatz" Z classic 40' GN/WFEX reefer (actually an MTI boxcar)
by and photo by and © 1999 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved

More on that Great Northern/Western Fruit Express 50' Wood Reefer, the first American reefer in Z! As I am a GN/WFEX nut, I have a good bit of information on these cars, with pictures, at Great Northern/Western Fruit Express Reefers; however, here is FR's latest pre-production model (23 Jun 99):

Here is my brand new (17 Nov 99) production unit:

and here is a detail shot of the "B" end, showing the incredible detail (just look at those ladders, roofwalk, ice hatches, and Dreadnought end with brake platform and staff/chain, and free-standing brakewheel(!):

Photos of production unit by and © 1999 by S. Berliner, III - All Rights Reserved
[Grab shots - will be lighted properly and reshot (promise!)]

I reshot the 50' GN/WFEX car and it's two ends on 14 Dec 01; the latter to show the brakewheel and ladders better:

Z Reefer End Detail 1 Z Reefer End Detail 2
(photos taken 14 Dec 01 by and © 2001 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)

Grey ends and roof and silver door instead of mineral red and reefer yellow? I'm checking. I have a kit which I'll cut up into a standard 40' car and the doors will be yellow and the roof and ends red, and there will be the standard black rectangle under the doors, as on my "ersatz" Z model:

I finally got around (15 Dec 01) to reshooting the 40' fake on the M-T boxcar body:

"Ersatz" Z classic 40' GN/WFEX reefer (on an MTI boxcar)
by and photo by and © 2001 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved

As noted, Harald was here at the Northeast/Mid-Lantic Z get-together at Ron Ruddell's London Bridge shop and factory on 21 Jun 01. Here are some of his latest gems:

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

WANT A LAUGH? - In one of the funniest typos (or mistranslations) I've ever seen,

the editor of the May/Jun 1999 issue of Ztrack Magazine

writes that the ZB312 kit comes UNDERCOATED!

I don't use salt on the Berlinerwerke-Z and doubt anyone else

uses salt, so we really don't need undercoating.

I have a sneaky feeling that the editor or Harald Freudenreich meant

UNDECORATED!

After moving his plant to Sanitz, this was one of his latest jewels:

FR-Z Reefer Detail

(photos by Freudenreich 2001 - all rights reserved)

Well, I don't particularly care for the grossly-oversized Märklin hook couplers, even though most of my Z stock still uses them, so I asked Harald to send me a picture of the reefer with the not-quite-so-grossly-overscale M-T MAGNEMATIC couplers; mucho méjor, no?:

[Instead of thumbnail images, I give you both scale (on my 14' monitor) and enlarged images.]

Somehow, I mixed up the 50' GN/WFEX reefer and that absolutely magnificent 50' Rr-37 reefer; here is another picture of the latter:

{The older version of this image turns out to have been shown at "Even More Z" on my Z-scale page 5, near the top, all along; it is now shown above.]

[Incidentally, the 50' Rr-37 was NOT a production model when I loaded these images; however,

it now appears in FR's "In Preparation" list as a Santa Fé "The Chief" car.]

WHOOIE!!! - Harald Freudenreich really outdid himself! For a conversion of the 50' reefer into a more conventional 40' GN/WFEX reefer, I got the kit and here are the brakewheel, a ladder, and a roof icing hatch on another U. S. penny:

(photo taken 18 Mar 00 by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
{to be reshot under better light]

The wheel is under "LIBERTY", the hatch at the bottom, and the ladder above "2000".

Done! I reshot it (on a different penny) 14 Dec 01, plus an even closer view of the hatch to show the open hinges(!):

The wheel is again under "LIBERTY" (deliberately), but now the the hatch is on Abe's ear, and the ladder over "1999". Actually, the open hatch hinges show fairly well even on the penny.

O.K.! Now, for his next trick, Herr Freudenreich has completed a Gunderson Husky stack car, the well of which will accept standard Märklin containers; here is a production sample (an ample sample):

and here is a pre-production sample showing well and end detail and the production end detail:

FR Husky sample FR Husky sample detail FR Husky prod detail
(photos by Freudenreich - all rights reserved)
{middle enlargement by SB,III}

Just look at that tread plate, hand rail, and brake wheel!

This gem is currently planned for pad-printed TTX (in yellow, r-t-r, at about $60) and undecorated (with decals, in kit form at about $20); let's hear from you if you are seriously interested.

And here is Harald's latest hopper, decorated for the Frisco:

Freudenreich completed (Dec 99) a 36' Coke Car (with extended side and end sheets) to go with his 60-ton Boxcab decorated for U. S. Steel and ARMCO (American Rolling Mills).

Sorry; the blue L&N hopper shown here previously turned out to have been non-prototypical and has been withdrawn (12 Jul 00).

Among other 2001 Xmas presents FR sent me (for a price), these two hoppers came, a standard PRR car and an N&W car with peaked ends:

I tried to shoot these to show the inconceivably-delicate lacework under the ends but the N&W car is really black. and no amount of lighting the model (short of melting the solder) or lightening of the image could show anything much.

There's a real treat in store next! In fact (27 Nov 01), there are several treats a'comin'!

This isn't the big treat, yet, but it IS pretty neat! Harald has just (28 Oct 01) released a new hopper body style, the 31' Fishbelly type:

One of the surprises is the Boxcab M-T coupler shown at the bottom of the main FR page and the other is this elegant 31' Northern Light and Power Co. two-bay hopper with Reddy Kilowatt "Reddy to serve YOU!":

{News of a New Haven box motor and hoppers is on the main FR page.}

14 Apr 03 and another "Päckchen" arrived from FR; in it were a bunch of brand-new 20' ACL containers (from a limited run), which I show here in and around an FR Husky Stack Car (with stock Märklin 40' containers in the right rear):

(14 Apr 03)

You can barely make out the stacking pins; unfortunately, I still haven't found my close-up lenses so you'll have to take my word for it that there are matching sockets in the container tops and in the Husky floor! For his next act, Harald has just completed his mold for a 40' Refrigerated Container: (14 Apr 03)

Another BW acquisition is this FR ZF310k C&O 33' USRA 2-bay hopper: (13 Sep 03)

This car was from a run specially decorated for "Uncle Will" Wright.

Z METER GAUGE (Zm)

Well, now (02 Mar 2002), here's the big surprise! Harald Freudenreich has come out with a line of METER-GAUGE in Z! Meter gauge is slightly broader than 3' (36") narrow gauge, scaling out at 39.37" (or 0.177"/4.5mm* gauge in Zm). A track system is offered by Halwa Feinmodellbau in Stuttgart; their site is, however, nur auf Deutsch. If you can read German, the new Zm track is on a pop-up screen; it has straight track, 220mm and 300mm R curves, right and left turnouts, and a 20° Z-to-Zm crossing.

* - that's the bore size of my pellet guns!

Strictly speaking, Z meter (or metre) gauge is NOT a smaller scale, just the usual Z-scale 1:220; the rails are closer together and the equipment smaller to fit the twisty track that occasions narrow gauge in the first place, as in any narrow gauge.

Here's a teaser, two views of FR's Gondola class Fb of the RhB* (Rhätische Bahn Graubünden), complete with loads:

FR Zm Gons on track
(Images by H. Freudenreich - all rights reserved)

* - not to be confused with the RHB (Rorschach Heiden Bergbahn); the RHB is a standard-gauge 7km long railway connecting Rorschach harbor (on the Bodensee ) with a health resort at Heiden, about 400m (1,312') higher. The RhB is a meter gauge network in the center of Switzerland.

OTHER FR PRODUCTS

FR builds working Swiss RR signals and a complete Swiss catenary system (which, while not intended for actual electrical operation, could be made to do so).

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.

{Some material here on the GB&W 24' hoppers moved to the main FR page on 03 Jan 2003.}

Z-SCALE SUMMARY INDEX

(supplementing the Page Index, at top of page)
Some internal links, which work fine on my home page and others, may not work here! I'm working on it, but haven't a clue; I even just copied the working links over and they may not work here. So, scroll away, if necessary!

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

On the main Z-Scale page:

Z-Scale

Scale and Gauge

Scale Conversion Table

Z-Scale Miscellany

Z-Scale Wiring Conventions

Z-Scale Repair and Hobby Shops

On the Sub-Z-Scale Page :

Sub-Z-Scale

Z-Scale Narrow Gauge (really)

(moved from the main Z-Scale page 13 Nov 01)

Z-Scale Meter Gauge

Half-Z Scale - 1:440 Tiny Trains!

(moved from Z-Scale page 3 on 13 Nov 01)

1:900 Scale - Tiniest Trains!

(moved from Z-Scale page 3 on 13 Nov 01)

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 1:

Zictionary Part 1 ("A" - "M") - lotZ of wordZ

(moved from Page 4 on 31 Jul 00 and split on 28 May 01)!

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 1a:

Zictionary Part 2 ("N" - "Z") - lotZ of wordZ!

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 2:

Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal RR in Z

Z-SCALE DIMENSIONS (with how to approximate a mile of track).

Overton Coaches, Bobber, Crane and a Boxcab in Z! - plus other neat items.

Wish List - some goodieZ I'd like and some I have,

like Larry Hoff's Bobber Caboose and Crane!

M-T Z SP Moguls - the absolute top of the Wish List!*

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 3:

Z-Scale Vehicles and Märklin Rubber Autos

Power - Volts, Amps, Watts for Z.

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 4:

Some More Z (all the latest!)

including new HomaBed Z roadbed.

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 5

(a page for the Third Millennium):

Even More Z (all the latest!)

including Microscopic Z Accessories.

On Z-Scale Continuation Page 6

(a page of the Third Millennium):

V 32 001 Diesel Pneumatic in Z.

Yet More Z (all the latest!)

BEDT #14 in Z.

8800 vs. 8805.

On the Ztrack page:

Ztrack Magazine.

On the Z-Scale Articles page:

Z-Scale Hell Gate Bridge.

On the first Model Railroad page:

Schnable Cars

Sunrise Trail Division (STD) of the Northeastern Region (NER) of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA)

Long Island - Sunrise Trail Chapter (LIST) of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS)

Long Island Live Steamers.

On the second Model Railroad page:

Vest Pocket Railroads You Can Model:

Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Railroad (but see BEDT-Z above)

Degnon Terminal Railroad

Marion River Carry Railroad.

On separate pages:

Berlinerwerke-Z Saga
Berlinerwerke-Z Saga Continuation Page
Berlinerwerke Script

Berlinerwerke Saga (HO, included with Horseshoe Curve info.)
Berlinerwerke Apocrypha (tall tales of the BW and its equipment and such).
Schnable and other Giant RR Cars.

See the preceding Freudenreich-Feinwerktechnik Z-Scale Page.

See also FREUDENREICH FEINWERKTECHNIK's own site:
http://www.fr-model.de/

Best regardZ, S.B.,III

Someone else signs off, "Be Z'ing you!"

THUMBS UP!

THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!

The courtesy page for Ztrack Magazine is now on its own page, q.v.

S. Berliner, III

Consultant in Ultrasonic Processing
Technical and Historical Writer, Oral Historian
Popularizer of Science and Technology
Rail, Auto, Air, Ordnance, and Model Enthusiast
Light-weight Linguist, Lay Minister, and Putative Philosopher

To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.

To tour the Z-scale pages in sequence, the arrows take you from the previous page to the Z-scale index page, to the first Z-Scale page, then to the Sub-Z-Scale page and continuation pages 1, 2, 3 and on, the Z articles page, the 6 BW-Z saga pages, this FR page, and, and finally to the current Ztrack page.

Return to Top of Page

FREUDENREICH FEINWERKTECHNIK Z-SCALE MODEL RAILROADING Continuation Page 1