With today being the last day of 2007, I thought I would share our plans and thoughts for 2008. First, I would like to announce that two long running columns will be ending. Jeffrey MacHan's Last Spike will end with the January/February issue. This long running column has chronicled Jeffrey's VEC and travels. Over 40 articles have appeared in Ztrack during the past 7 years. It has been an amazing run. John Bartolotto's Z Web Search column is also ending. At this time, it appears the November/December 2007 column will be his last. John has been sharing amazing Z scale-oriented web sites in every issue of Ztrack. John is moving on, as is his column. Of course both will live on in our back issues! We are sorry to lose these outstanding columns, but we are very grateful for the work Jeffrey and John have done. Thank you to you both! With one door closing, another opens. I feel there are areas of the Z scale community and interests that we need to enhance our coverage on. The first area is track plans. We have been trying to increase track plans in Ztrack, but with little success. We are looking for track plans of Marklin track, Micro-Trains track, flex track and even module configurations. Ztrack is also looking to add a column for someone who can help us create track plans, associated art and graphics as well as conceptual plans. If you are interested, please contact us offline. The second area we would like to focus on is module clubs and modules. We would like to see at least one article in every issue of Ztrack dedicated to modules. This would include club news and a featured module of the issue. I think modules are one of the most exciting aspects of Z today. I think it is important we share the work of module builders with the Z community. The November/December 2007 issue of Ztrack will feature Robert Ray's Time Saver Module. We hope this article will be a kick off to regular module features. The third area is increased coverage of European Z layouts. About 40% of our readers are interested in European prototypes. We need to increase our coverage of these areas. Finally, we are looking for more how-to and instructional articles. We see so much amazing work being done on the forums, that it is amazing. I do hope and encourage those doing this work to submit articles to Ztrack. A large portion of our readers do not follow the forums and we would love to share your creations with our complete readership. Ztrack is also working to increase our page count and content. Deane Shepard is working extremely hard to bring in new advertisers, which will allow Ztrack to grow and increase our content. This is not necessarily an easy task, but Deane is already doing an exceptional job. Thank you Deane! The last area I want to talk about is the web. John Cubbin has created two outstanding websites for us. Ztrack.com is a beautiful site that promotes Ztrack incredibly well. We are planning to increase content on the site. John has visions of creating an HTML newsletter and we will be working on that in the new year. Ztrack Center is our new retail web site. Look for new products to appear in 2008. Ztrack is in the process of bringing in two new lines from Germany, which will add almost 200 more products to the site. Thank you John for all of your hard work and dedication! Ztrack will continue to offer subscriber specials on AZL new releases and special imprint cars from FR. We are also looking to continue special car runs with Micro-Trains. As we move into 2008, it looks like another exciting year for Z scale. Ztrack is growing and adapting as the scale grows. It is a wonderful time to be in Z! Happy New Year! Rob Kluz
I hope I am not overstepping my bounds by making a suggestion, but maybe you could have a scratch bult section in your magazine. I think a lot of people in this forum and others could give plenty of material. Just look at what Tim, has done with that MOW truck. That is absolutely insane! Some good stuff.
