Gentlemen, and if there are any ladies lucking in the shadows, I address this to you also. I could write a book of comments, but I'll try to keep it some where under the novel length. I have not been on Train Board for quite a long time, but I can shed a little light on the subject of collections. My name is Loren and I go by Tealplanes4me. Gave myself the name because my favorite color is teal and I was interested in trains so of course it was all 4me. I loved Z scale when I first saw it back in the early times of Marklin production, but didn't like the looks of European trains since I was often a visitor to the round house in Eugene Oregon where the 'huge' (to a little kid), black monsters would sit there all fired up and hissing leaking steam. To a little guy a 72" or so driver is quite the thing to stand nest to. My dad would chase steam up and down the old highway 99 from Albany to Eugene, Oregon right along side the tracks and we thrilled to keep pace with those beauties of yesteryear, when vising our grandparents. Thus my favoritism of American steam. How I wish I had taken pictures when young. Fast forward to about 2004 when I almost drowned testing a 9' RC model of the USS Missouri one November. Note to self, I should not have taken my boots off and swam out to retrieve the model when it blew a fuse. observation......."'ll likely never finish this monster of a model so sell it"..........and I did. One day not long after, I wandered into the local hobby shop and to my delight and surprise discovered MTL Z scale sitting in a display case. Store owner complained of not selling a single Z item. Needless to say I got a good deal and since I live only 10 miles from Micro Trains I made a call to Mony at MTL and quickly became a dealer (to save money of course). I went to a train show somewhere and soon had quite a clientele and Ebay was a decent avenue for selling back in 2005. Wasn't too long before I was in the top 10 dealer list for 2 years in a row. Anthony of Z Monster now has the honor I believe Of #1. I do sell my tunnel portals still from his site, but that is another story. I was ordering at MTL's front desk one day when Joe D'Amato walked by and said "What the hell do you want?" And believe it or not, we became friends and I even got him to build a module and we went to our local Thanksgiving show, plus we had a ball at NTS in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2005. Side note, Joe is one super talented modeler and I honestly think he is solely responsible for much of MTL's success. The GP35 was first shown at the Cincinnati show. Going back a ways, I had met this really neat guy at the Seattle NTS in 2004 named Robert Ray. Actually met a lot of neat Z scale guys there. Anyone who walks buy where you're sitting and gives you a free laser cut kit can't be too odd,.......or can he? I could go on and on about this Robert guy, but suffice it to say I've attended a number of shows with him and have watched his creative genius and love of Z turn him into what I consider to be one of the very best ambassadors for Z scale. And yes, I think he holds the dubious distinction of being the all time Z hog......sell, sell, sell. He introduced my former wife and I to lasers and we owned three once, but I won't go down that rabbit hole. This is too long, but a book can't be written in one sitting. Last saw Robert at Salt Lake NTS. Still the same great guy, fantastic modeler and now that I've seen his collection I must admit he does have problems more than most of us. One comment of Robert caught my eye when he mentioned he couldn't spin cast and he didn't have 3D printing like Joe does at MTL. The 3D is getting better and better and I think there is a tremendous future for 3D in Z and other scales. I am a dental technician by trade and I spin cast gold all the time making gold crowns, (a dying art form in the dental field)..........BUT, I have cast brass, silver, gold and even non precious train parts..........ever seen a gold air horn on a HO Geep? Didn't think so. If anyone of you fine modelers are interested in any spin cast parts, perhaps I could be of service. A normal plastic like you see in trinkets burns out in the oven cleanly and the mold can be cast in different metals. Walt Smith sent me some air horns and other items to cast, but they were made from Shapeways material which does not burn out cleanly. I would like to explore the possibility of providing some spin cast parts if you have items that are not too awfully tiny or too awfully large. I once took a 40' MTL gondola apart and cast the entire thing piece by piece in gold except for the coupler springs. I filled it with placer gold nuggets from Alaska and it made quite a unique display in a local jewelry store. Well, that is part of my story, but more than enough and I'm sticking to it.. Loren PS Robert, you need to thin that herd!!
Good to hear from you Loren, and boy do I wish that Shapeways material would burn out so we could make replacement USRA shells for Marklin DB steamer mechanisms to add to the US style steam choices.
Great to hear from you Loren! Sure do miss you around these parts. And are you still modeling? Showing? Collecting? Anything? Don't be such a stranger!
Loren, I really enjoyed your novel! I wonder if you have ever met my father, George? He was a big ZHead making his own US steam out of Marklin locos and being involved in Rogue Locomotive Works. As others have said, like to hear more from you. Scott
Robert, Several years back Walt drew up some monorail support columns for a monorail I am working on for a new BYOZ layout. If memory serves me right Walt shared his drawing with Joe at MTL and Joe was able to 3D all the columns. If Walt would be willing to share his drawing with Joe I think maybe Joe could be coerced, I mean convinced or talked into making some with 3D. Now i haven't tried burning out 3D material yet, but if it works then we could have those parts. I know you and Walt are working together on some projects...........you lucky guys, and maybe together we could get those parts made in brass, gold, or silver, etc. I have no idea why my computer loads pictures sidewise, I rotate the image and it still comes out on the side view. ..........grrrrrr. but you can at least see the 3D column Joe made. Do you recall that gold rail spike I gave away to some lucky winner at the 2010 convention in Medford? That was originally made of plastic with added wax for contour, it burned out in the oven cleanly.
Kurt, Byram, Scott, Yes, it's been a long long time. I don't even recall when I changed my handle on here to Z Train Things, my portal business. Scott I never met your dad, but I did see some of the early castings here in Medford many years ago where Rogue began. Quite a story there. I retired my traveling show modules after the 2015 Portland NTS. I built two more corner modules, but never finished them. Trains ran on them, but there was and is a lot to do to make them look good. I have 10 modules now and need to sell them or do something with them as I turned my train room back into it's original design...a family room. Modules are stored in a storage facility at $130 bucks a month, a total waste of money, but I'll never run them again. I have over 11 years worth of construction in them. For now this is what the 10 modules looked like in 2021 when we had the house fire. No damage to the modules but we had to rebuild the house and I retired my trains to the storage then. As to new projects, I left off working on a small BYOZ layout before our house fire in June of 2021. It has a working rail line, a gondola ride, a Disneyland type of submarine ride, a two lane road race circuit, and an untested and completed monorail that Walt designed the cars for.
So Loren, lots of us Z-Bend Track guys are switching to T-Trak-Z modules. They are much smaller, and easier to store, and you can setup on a banquet table. Maybe you could dismantle your big modules and still fit in few TTZ modules out in your workshop?
And some OTHER of us Z-Bend Track guys are attempting to maintain the standard at shows, and perhaps simultaneously develop T-Trak-Z modules on the side for smaller display opportunities, so please don't dismantle anything just yet! (Assuming that Mr. Ray won't be picking up your existing modules) Please check your inbox here on Trainboard when you get a chance.
Bryan, I was the only Z guy in Southern Oregon that went to shows after Joe got busy with sculpting, and I just couldn't do it alone, so I brought them home and set them up in what is now the family room. That was the first time I had actually put my modules together at home during all those years of building. Robert doesn't need or want my modules, but I wish someone would take them off my hands before I have to dismantle them. I can save the trees, and perhaps the switches, but that is about all. And Robert, you recall that I did get into T track with that wide logging module, You mentioned folks like to see 'how I built it' threads so maybe I'll go through my photos and chronicle the BYOZ with animation that I started back in February of 2020 and set aside in November of that year. First I'd have to gather all the myriad pictures from many places and get them in order.......a task I probably won't enjoy. Oh well, it would be a start be a start.
That is a wonderful scene, Loren! I hope Robert can talk you into getting back out there in some form! And I'd love to see if we could work something out with your modules, though cleaning track in those tunnels must be a chore!
Bryan, When I clean tunnels and inside the mountain, I have to really think Zmall Only a couple of places present a challenge, the mountain top lifts off to reveal the inner workings. Sometimes some very strange things take place inside that mountain.........for instance, one time my cars quit coming out of the mountain and upon removing the top I found a 9 car pile up. blood and guts everywhere my bad
Got a question for you guys.......I plan to make a slew of those logs cars seen in the pictures. They will be outfitted with MTL Bettendorf trucks and the trucks will be weathered. The logs will be guaranteed bug and disease free and they will be packaged in jewel boxes with protective covers. The actual cars will look pretty well used with no discernable lettering on them and the cars will come with options....... car with wide support posts, car with pole supports, log loads will be extra. What do you think is a reasonable price to ask for them? I'd like to charge $500 per car, but somehow I don't think sales would be very good
Oh, I wish I did have room for your modules Loren, they are the best! I could be in heaven building the town of Dunsmuir on your modules, but I am in the same condition as Karin these days with severe arthritis, unable to wire underneath modules, pick up stuff I drop on the floor, or even move ZBT modules anymore. I will be dismantling all but 2 of my ZBT modules, the sawmill an drive in will be integrated in with my TTZ modules in the garage. My daughter's family is moving in to take care of me this spring and I only have a small 3 bedroom house, so my train shed is getting converted into a master bedroom, and I have to give up half of my garage space now too. Things went south Healthwise over the past year. That's why I am rushing to get my TTZ modules up and running so I can watch some trains run for a change.
Robert, I am sorry to hear about your severe arthitis. I hope you can get all your modules finished so you can enjoy them. I hope you will post some videos of you running them when the modules are finished. Scott
Robert. I am sorry to hear about this diagnosis. I hope that you can get it under control and that your good days outnumber your bad days. I'm happy to hear that your daughter is coming in to be with you. You are in my prayers. Jim
