Now that the dust has settled and Cuyahoga is safely back in the store shed I can sort through all of the weekends stuf so here is:-- Zedex 2010 The 10th of October 2010 saw this years get together of British Z scale modellers at Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor village hall in Oxfordshire. Now established as the best venue to meet up and chat with fellow modellers this years event saw no less than twenty layouts and demonstration stands and four specialist traders. The show was organised by the Oxford and District Model railway Club with long time Z modeller Peter McConnell at the helm. Once again the club members wives and girlfriends did an excellent job of supplying the food and drink. Setting up from just after 8 o’clock the doors opened to the public before the advertised 10.30 and once again the show used the main hall, stage and the Elkins room. As well as Z scale layouts there was also a good selection of Nm and Nn3 layouts. Topics of interest were the announcement of Intermountain coming into Zed, Rokuhan’s track system and the rapid development of Japanese Zed. I put on a display about Z-Bend with a view to kick-starting the concept in the U.K and also showed the story board for our new ‘Shasta’ project. Andy from Z-panzer came along to deliver my M113 APCs and M48 battle tanks and showed his superb Z scale military models including the German rail mounted gun and armoured train which generated a lot of interest. I’ve talked him into doing the GMC 6x6 truck next, a very useful models. Graham Jones has now retired from his ’Day Job’ and has set up as ‘Northants Model Railway supplies’ . Graham was, of course, the founder of Z-ClubGB and will be producing British outline kits and accessories in resin and white metal. He was showing a resin cast replica of the now defunct Elmar 47 with a new range of decals to suit. I showed my pre printed private owner wagon sides which are an offshoot of our ‘Midsomer Mardy ’ exhibition layout . This is just a taster! I have a lot of layout pics and descriptions to put on this thread so please keep coming back fand having a look for a couple of days cheers KEV
Kev, Great report and good to see the active status of Zed there. That SP Shasta route was very well done, with so$e great reference views that have lots of dynamic depth. Joe D'Amato is going to have a tear in his eye from joy. The Z Bend is a nice way to go, but there are times I wish we had more straights and 90's. I *really* love the Europe (and Zmod of Norway) narrow (1', 1/4m) depth rather than our 2' depth Z-Bend Track modules. We're forced to have the double mainlines front and backside at fixed locations. Zmod has them fixed near the edge but many people cross over to 'backside' or combine two of their modules with the pair crossing in the middle. Our East Coasters use the narrower modules too, with track down mostly the middle. All of these concepts have a loop at the end. I feel the biggest drawback though is the lack of altitude change, with all the track on the same plane. Sure, you can make mountains and valleys, but nothing beats trains snaking around all the levels. We have some set up that way, like Loren Snyders big End (hey now). It looks great with the trains snaking in and out of tunnels but long trains are hard to (reliably) pull or keep on the tracks with snakey curves. Either way, you get to run your trains.
part 2 Chris Atkinson brought his ’a small part of Switzerland’ which is set on a main line in the Mittleland and featured some scratch built rolling stock . Ken Jones brought along his ’Kendorf’ layout set in the mountains of Germany and representing a busy tourist line Paul Kent has his ambitious ’Winterthur ’ layout set on the German-Swiss border and features a busy four track main line.
part 3 ‘Blumendorf’ is set in Germany with main and branch lines , presented by John Baines it fits neatly into a suit case. Mick Dale named his layout ‘Z head 2 ’ it used a a mix of Kibri, Vollmer and Marklin buildings to represent the Swiss German border. Amongst my personal favourites is Brian Yallop’s ‘Nevermoor’ layout, One of the U.Ks most innovative Z modellers he has scratch built London and North Eastern Railways rolling stock on Marklin chassis to run on a four track station with main line and suburban trains.
part 4 ‘Cuyahoga’ my Nickel Plate Road layout has had a good season at shows in the U.K and Zedex 2010 was its last outing until next year. Lots of favourable comments were received following its appearance in Continental Modeller magazine. Noted lady Z modeller Ann Silby seems on the mend from her recent ill health and returned with ‘Loosely Warren’ her British Z layout based on the great Western main line at Dawlish Warren, a popular holiday resort on the South Coast. Nm and Nn3 Amongst the Nm layouts (2mm scale models running on Z-track) was Simon Newitts metre gauge layout ‘Somewhere in France’ Simon’s hand built rolling stock runs on Marklin chassis. His evocation of French village life is very accurate. Also set in France on the metre gauge is Rodger Main’s ‘Metric meandere’. Based on Maganox Chateauneuf station on the Nice-Meyrargues line ‘ A line noted for its sharp curves and steep gradients all of the stock is hand built. This layout also featured in last months Continental Modeller more soon KEV
Link to video clips Sadly I couldn't get round all of the layouts to video them. I just ran out of time in the end,.So here is link to video diary of the layouts i did manage to film and a selection of stills KEV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN3W0j6O6O0 More soon
Hey now Jeff.....watch it about my big end ) It's more like my big front.....too many calories. Kev, Jeff is spot on regarding the lack of mountains with real grades.My end module does have a 2% climb but as Jeff noted, it is difficult for long trains to make the turns. I modeled that end module to represent Southern Oregon's CORP line. The track in that area does climb a 3.7% grade and has lots of curves. I think someday we will see home layout empires become a reality with true mountains and some real height to our scenery. Until then, we will have to simulate with modules like mine. Good for short trains only.
Oops! wrong picture Let's try again with;---- Also set in France on the metre gauge is Rodger Main’s ‘Metric meandere’. Based on Maganox Chateauneuf station on the Nice-Meyrargues line ‘ A line noted for its sharp curves and steep gradients all of the stock is hand built. This layout also featured in last months Continental Modeller also on the narrow gauge front - Brian Denton was showing his ‘Canard Newton’ layout under construction with hand built track and stock. ‘Harz Hamblin’ is Derrick Webb’s Harz mountain based german metre gauge layout. Again Marklin chassis provide the base for the scratch built stock.
On the American 3ft gauge Ian Burbridge has built a layout depicting a short line connecting Colarado Springs with the mines excavating Mica bearing rock Back with Z layouts organiser Peter McConnell’s ‘La Caisse ‘ was being operated by club members as he was rather busy! Based on northern France it allows him to run trains from anumber of other European countries. Tom Buck has extended his ‘Schom’ layout since it appeared in 2009. The layout has been built to represent Southern Germany
Glen Allen was in the Elkins Room an annex to the main hall and was showing ‘Hoch Feldberg’ a small terminus with two platforms. This layout has also featured in Continental Modeller magazine recently. He justifys the appearance of Swiss outline stock by having a line through to Basel. Dave Dash has set his layout in Bavaria and has a double main line and a branch line. he has christened it 'Samstadt'
Graham Jones had resurrected an early Z gauge exhibition layout. Katzberg was built by the late John Lewis and can run 5 trains simultaneously Tony Waitzman was again showing his California Dreaming layout and spent most of the day demonstrating the MTL sectional track system and running his West and East coast railroad equipment For those people who had money burning a hole in their pocket trade support was by Geoff and Alison from Contikits in the north east of England, Ian from Mount Tabor models in Derbyshire, Bob from AllZanDone and Richard and Judy from Model World @: Oxford. They also ran the club sales stand where modellers could dispose of their unwanted Z gauge. All in all a cracking good day out and hopefully to be repeated in 2011
Zedex 2011 Just been in touch with Peter McConnell at Oxford MRC. The fifth annual Zedex has been scheduled for October 9th 2011 Be there or be square!
Nice show report, and lots of interesting pictures. It's really nice to see that Z Scale is so popular there, and that there are so many fine exhibition layouts in one place. Thanks for sharing!
