Hi The rocks are great! What I don't really like are the white plastic thigs on Your catanary. What are they for?
I've seen a lot of functional Märklin catanarys in my live, but never those plastic cubes. May be You've got this wrong.
I have never seen that in Marklin Z. I have just done as described http://www.guidetozscale.com/html/catenary.html
Nice work ! Now you would want to hide turnout side motors, painting them or even better, embedding them under soil or grass... Dom
That is a great idea. Do you know of any examples of how this is done? I've got lots of Marklin turnouts I'd like to use/reuse. I did read somewhere a long time ago, the mechanism can be removed and installed under the layout. I'd like to see how this is done. Jim
Jim, See on my website. Copy the URL to your web browser. It show how I have lowered the switch engines on my old layout. http://www.frank-zscale.com/zscale/z.htm Regards, Frank Verstuurd vanaf mijn ANE-LX1 met Tapatalk
Thanks, Frank I have not seen this before. What I had read about was removing the switch machine and attaching it to the bottom of the layout and wiring it from down under. Your method looks much easier and a lot less work. I'm still not sure what you have done. How well does it operate? Can you share a step-by-step how-to? I have more than enough Marklin turnouts to experiment with. Excellent work. Jim
I did cut the switch machine loose. Cut off one end of the cover. Glued a notch underneath the exciting throw bar for the wire that throws the switch. The switch machine is lowered into the cork road bed. When the switch work reliable you cover the switch machine with thin styrene or cardboard. /Frank Verstuurd vanaf mijn ANE-LX1 met Tapatalk
Yep.. Jeffrey Mac Han, a veteran Z-scaler, has hidden turnout motors on his Val Ease Central RR (http://www.val-ease-central.com/) using cut rail amounts or various stuff put on motors. Otherwise, if you want to stick with Marklin turnouts (I understand you still have many of them), the page below will help you to kitbash them putting their motors undertable (on my first layout I did the same, but using Tortoises rather than their original solenoid motors). http://www.zscale.org/articles/undertable.html Dom
Thank you, Dom This is more of what I have in mind. Disguising them with scenery is more likely for me. I have 6 Peter Wright switches for a small 2' module. I will use Micro-Mark switch machines for them. I have zero experience with them. Has anybody else used them? Do you like them? I am waiting for the Atlas switches to arrive. From what I have read the geometry of them is slightly different than others. Since I have not laid any track down yet, this should not be a problem. I intend to use mainly Atlas flex track for most of the layout. I'm inching closer to an actual running layout. Thanks for your input. Jim
Hi Jim, you can easily work with Marklin switches and convert them to underground driven switches. I did a little test with underfloor switch machines, my step-by-step photo sequence and short film might be helpful, check out my album: https://myalbum.com/album/4Tl5aLHPa2Cq I really like the switch motors by MTB (https://www.mtb-model.com/pages/mp5.php?lang=en) Matt
