We moved the pre-1997 portion of this file to a seperate page.
Added scans of 427, 428, 429, 430, 431, 435, 439, 670, 816, 831, 4001, 4002, and 4003.
Günter has a new list. The really new stuff is at the top and bottom. Many prices have come down on the leftovers from last time stuff.
The Z Scale mailing list has a home page.
The second list of the collection being sold by Allentown Toy Train has been typed in.
Rob - the Z guy has put up Z:220, a great site where among other things he chronicles "The Project".
wbarr@leland.Stanford.EDU has started a Z Scale mailing list.
JScherb@tribune.com has put up a nifty Model Train Magazine Article Database. Go to Keyword Search and type "Z" to see the titles of all 8 articles which appeared in Model Railroader (6 of them were actually one article continued over 6 issues).
We received our batch of MIC RO STRUCTURES. So far we've almost completed a phone booth. We haven't filed, glued or painted it yet. But we did run out and get an airbrush today. Tomorrow we'll try to find some paint.
The price of the crazy Gold locomotive in North America has finally stabilized somewhat. Märklin, Inc. dealers will be able to purchase it almost directly from the factory at or (presumably near) the then going exchange rate. Some dealers are quoting firm dollar prices now. They're betting on the FX rate or have purchased DM futures. Others are quoting the price in DM.
This concludes Marklin Z list #1 for 1997. At least 3 other lists will be issued throughout the year due to the sheer volume of inventory we have acquired...We were in a business meeting when we opened the envelope. It was the longest meeting we ever sat through. The list included eveything from a Gold 1972 loco to a Voith Set and all the LICs we typically see in the US and then some. The MacDonald's railbus and Continental Airlines car were already gone by the time we got to a telephone. We had hoped to type the list in today but we were distracted by MICRO STRUCTURES. Maybe tomorrow.
We had a long discussion with Robert "Ztrack" Kluz the other night. He pointed out a few things we didn't realize. For instance, all the Insider locomotives (8834, 8835, 88183) were supposed to come with certificates. We didn't get any (we looked inside the boxes too). Did you? If not, try calling your regional Märklin Club or Insider Club. If you do, get two of each for us. We can't seem to get it together to call. After a while Robert remembered why he called. He directed our attention to the MICRO STRUCTURES ad.
When we arrived at work the morning following our conversation with RobK we heard an impassioned message from Bill Ott, and email - CALL ME!! Bill had received the 12 page color catalog from MICRO STRUCTURES and had already scanned it in. (Those are his most excellent scans we're using). An amazing coincedence as only the night before, even before we spoke to Mr. K., Bill was musing about the customer he had recently tried to find from New England a long time ago who said he was going to build American structures in brass... We're positive it was Bill's psychic energy that made them appear only days before.
Last week Chris Miller's MICRO STRUCTURES introduced a line of brass American structures. If mere mortals can build these kits to look like the photo on page 93 of the April 1997 Model Railroader then all the litle Merten, Preiser and Noch people will be rejoicing for years to come. And if the mortals can't, Chris will, but he's charging a high fee to discourage that. He'd rather spend his time working on the next series of structures, Victorian Houses. In any event, he seems to still have time to answer our lay questions. The answers are. Crazy glue with accelerator, airbrush, pastels applied with a Q-tip. We've already placed our order and received a paltry, yet better than nothing, discount from MOH, Inc.
The suggested retail price of the crazy Gold locomotive from Märklin, Inc. dealers is ever in flux. First it was $9,000. Yesterday it was $7,935. Stayed tuned for some official word it will drop dramatically from there once and for all.
The 2nd issue (Volume 3, Number 1) of the once again born again Ztrack is out. There's a nice article about lighthouses for your layout. Here are recent tables of contents.
We uploaded some drawings and pictures of our layout. The enclosing square is 9' x 9'.
We added a link to Chris Ozdoba's Dedicated Z gauge WWW sites on the main page.
There's now a blurb about Reynauld's Euro-imports in the vendor pages.
Check out Jan-Eric Nystrom's Z layout.
The Small Scale Works story. The bottom line is SSW is effectively gone. We're looking for a mention on COPS or America's Most Wanted. The good news is what's left of company's resources are in what appear to be excellent hands. We spoke with Hans Riddervold of Norway who has set up a new firm to take over for SSW. The name is Rogue Locomotive Works (subject to change). The GP38 will be the first item produced. There will be 4 different road numbers, 2 powered and 2 dummies. Plastic body, Faulhaber motor, split frame. If enough units sell, other projects will go into production. This looks to be great stuff. Hans really seems to know what he's doing. We have a good feeeling about this, this time.
Well over a month ago (sorry, we've been busy working on the layout) the latest issue of Ztrack came out. It was the best issue we've seen. The entire 20 pages was fun and interesting and best of all, it was all about Z! We were so impressed we fired off email to the editor. Oops! - wrong editor. A week or two ago we spoke to Robert Kluz who has taken over publication of Ztrack and if future editions are as good as his first (Volume 2, Number 10) we've got another first class Z publication. Try a subscription.
added scans of S006, 026, 079, 082, 164, 289, 324, 326, 408, 419, 441, 456, 463, 466, 533, 543, 570, 618, 705, 738, 748, 762, 790, 864, 865, 866, 885, 886, 909, 910, 982, BMW - yellow, BMW - white, Jaguar, Porsche - white, Volvo, Porsche - gold, Mercedes-Benz - white, Saab - white, Mercedes-Benz - silver, Audi - brown, Saab - red, BMW - gold, BMW - silver, Seefisch, Peterainier Ripoldsauer, 98000, and 98001.