Hello everyone!I'm Marius, 29 years old and living in France. i'm fairly new to railroad modeling. I've worked a bit with H0 material. I came to this forum mainly to exchange information within a "large scale" community on everithing related to the railroading hobby.I've recently decided to start a layout in Z-scale. I enjoy the idea that it allows modeling a complex track in a confined space and that it implies a bit of personal touch in order to overcome a reduced stock of detailing objects (as compared to the richness in H0). At this moment the layout is in a conceptual stage: I'm still wondering about the era, the theme ... one thing is sure it will employ european rolling stock. I've purchased a Marklin starting set to get used to this scale's properties. I've already encountered a problem that seems to be more frequent on Z scale locomotives: difficulties in power pickup. To be honest, I've never encountered this in H0. I have a BR24 locomotive that works fine at higher voltage, but when I run it at really slow speeds it reaches some points of the track when it stops (not allways the same points). The lights go out and even by getting the power to max it doesn't move, except with a small manual push. So I suspect bad power pickup from the tracks. Before opening it and maybe messing with the copper brushes or even wiring the tender wheels for additional current, I wanted to know if, in your opinion, these symptoms are signs of bad power pickup.In the meantime, I'll look up the posts for information about this and other subjects on Z scale.Happy new year!Marius
Marius, welcome to Trainboard! Though I can't help with your modeling questions, I am one of the very few here who cannot. I am sure the talented modelers will chime in and you will find answers. :happy:
Marius- Welcome to TrainBoard! Definitely go over to our Z Forum and talk with the folks there. They have a lot of expertise available to help you.
Welcome to Trainboard Marius. I just started to model Z scale after years of N scale and some HO. You'll find folks here quite helpful Hope you enjoy Glen
Welcome aboard Marius. As has been mentioned, the Z Scale forum would be a good place to ask about the locomotive's problems, as at least a couple of the folks over there probably have the same one. And maybe you'll favor us with some pictures of the local 1:1 scale stuff?
Thank you for the worm welcome! Browsing the forum brings up a lot of usefull information. I'll keep you up to date with my layout's progress once it starts to take a material form.
Hi Marius, Welcome to the TrainBoard, we're glad that you are on board. Regarding your power pickup problem, it is possible that the cause is the wheel size of Z-Scale locomotives being too small to span gaps in the rail at turnouts. Also Z-Scale locomotives being small and light do not have the momentum to carry them across these gaps. I suggest that you exam the rail where the problems occur to determine if such gaps exist. If so, try to close or shorten the gaps. Bon Chance.
