Z Scale: Loads of new stuff from MTL

[tom mann]

Unless Haunted Hamlet floats your boat, better make the switch over to Z:

http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=88839

[Sokramiketes]

Unless Haunted Hamlet floats your boat, better make the switch over to Z:

http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=88839

What a useless mix of passenger equipment.  I think I'll be sticking with N afterall.

[Pray59]

Come on Mike, you, better than most, know there is no challenge left in N passenger trains. It's all been done already. At least Z is uncharted territories.

Don't you remember the North Coast Limited that Mark Jirousek built for Steve Cleere out of a bunch of mix and match cars? That was the heyday of N. That was about 10 years ago or so. That was making due out of what was available.

Right now, we don't even have any trucks, much less core car kits and car sides in Z, but getting something affordable out of MTL, that we can use to bash lots of other cars is the starting point for the fun that Mark had back then.

I still task you to build a train in Z. Any passenger train you like. And there is a good possibility you will be the first one to have done it. In N, the remaining choices are growing obscure real quick.

Take a look at what Chris Schmuck is doing in Z. He is knocking down Erie prototypes, one after another at record speed, having a blast doing it, and still finding time to keep up with the Jones's in N!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

But it makes you wonder just how much time IS spent into researching things like this before doing them.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

All been done?!? Where are the observation cars? Where are the Horizon/Comet cars? Where are the surfliners? Where are the Amfleet IIs? Where are the Budd cars? Where is anything that isn't ATSF, or UP specific? This really ticks me off. Many, mostly west coast modelers belive we have everything available in N scale when virtually nothing is available for east coast modelers. There are still only 2-3 truck styles that are accurate for passengers, most using incorrect 33" wheels. Modeling anything modern is a joke.


MTL has put cute and quaint above real modelers for far too long, this is just the latest examble. For christ sake, how many Z scale widebody SD40-2 are they going to sell? Does anyone honestly think this will sell better then an N scale CF7?

[wcfn100]

I always thought that Micro-trains just did their Z scale stuff as part of their fantasy/novelty stuff.  Not to be taken any more serious than "Smokey the Bear" or "Happy Birthday".  ;D



Jason

[Chris333]

The only thing that slightly excites me is the shell of the E8 so I can try to make a better F7 shell out of it.

[Sokramiketes]

Come on Mike, you, better than most, know there is no challenge left in N passenger trains. It's all been done already. At least Z is uncharted territories.

Don't you remember the North Coast Limited that Mark Jirousek built for Steve Cleere out of a bunch of mix and match cars? That was the heyday of N. That was about 10 years ago or so. That was making due out of what was available.

Right now, we don't even have any trucks, much less core car kits and car sides in Z, but getting something affordable out of MTL, that we can use to bash lots of other cars is the starting point for the fun that Mark had back then.

I still task you to build a train in Z. Any passenger train you like. And there is a good possibility you will be the first one to have done it. In N, the remaining choices are growing obscure real quick.

Take a look at what Chris Schmuck is doing in Z. He is knocking down Erie prototypes, one after another at record speed, having a blast doing it, and still finding time to keep up with the Jones's in N!

Actually, there's a lot of challenge left.  There's even a good amount of challenge left in HO too where I spend some time, and have been waiting patiently for my IC diner to show up from Walthers to finish a City of Miami consist.  Heck, IC passenger car decals are a challenge in HO still.  In the meantime, I've been coloring over the pale Microscale decals with colored pencil in order to make them bright yellow.  That was a problem that I had fun solving, and I'm pretty sure no body has done it before.  John Pitts (Mr. IC) even got such a kick out of it that he's doing it himself while he waits for his special run decals to show up. 

There's problems to solve in any scale.  We've all heard that MTL is in Z so they don't have the competition like they have with N these days.  They had a chance to step up to the plate and remain the Cadillac of N scale.  Rather than upgrade their products, they "charted new territory" in Z where their lazy methods are doing fine because there is such a small amount of competition.  But hey, that's their choice.   

[wm3798]

Although I'm impressed with the work of Tom, Chris and others, Z scale appeals to me not one iota.

And I can't remember the last time I bought any MT rolling stock that wasn't thrown in with an auction lot.
The WM hoppers they offered recently were okay, but the lettering was too short, an obvious inaccuracy.  I can deal with an extra rib or slightly tall car body, but the lettering should have matched the Atlas car, which is right on.  The street price of over $12 is also a little stiff for fleet building.

If the Pepsi, Smokey and States of Matter series underwrite the coupler packs, I guess that's okay since they're the only MT items I get with any regularity.

Lee

[Sokramiketes]

The WM hoppers they offered recently were okay, but the lettering was too short, an obvious inaccuracy.  I can deal with an extra rib or slightly tall car body, but the lettering should have matched the Atlas car, which is right on. 
Lee

Did anyone else pick out the comment, "When we design a car we try and find a common photo and use that to dial in all our drawings....since we don't always get builders prints."    That's fine if someone with some experience and an eye for proper proportion is in control.  It's not always possible to get erection drawings, especially if there's a deadline to meet.  BUT, if you just have some non-railroad employee in the art department doing drawings off photos, it's going to be really easy to mess up the WM lettering, or have a modern boxcar body that is too short, or put an ACF number on a P-S car, etc.  The Dorothy Segal ads are a prime example of an apparent non-railroader attempting to hit railroad subjects, and turning them into proportional nightmares.  Now I'm beginning to think that MTL has the same issue, especially with comments like the above.

[tom mann]

George will be stepping in here shortly...

[umtrr-author]

 

What would be the point in saying anything?


Seems to me a lot of minds are already made up.

[Pray59]

  I guess that means more Z for Mike, Chris, and myself !  ;D  ;D 

What about you George? Have we got you interested in collecting Z yet?

[ljudice]

George, without taking anything away from what MTL has done, you have to admit that they could at least they could correct obvious mistakes like the too short sided modern boxcar and the bulkhead flat - and the ride-too-high problem.

If these were fixed, for me, at least there would be a point to get excited about MTL again...

Lou

[umtrr-author]

Lou, please see above. 

Robert, I do have that set of Micro-Track that I was discussing "elsewhere", but alas, it remains in the box.