Happy New Year!
Tracks-1-23 -- Model Railroading Newsletter
January, 2023
Articles in This Issue:
Milwaukee Road by Mark Nieting
Dwarvin Fiberoptics vs. Just Plug Lighting
Modeling Tips
Z Scale is Growing Up
More Great Videos
Survey
WELCOME to the January, 2023 issue of Tracks - a monthly newsletter published by Building Your Model Railroad, devoted to providing breaking news and tips to model railroaders of all ages and all gauges in a quick and easy-to-read format. Resources are always credited where appropriate.
I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Mark Nieting's HO scale Milwaukee Road layout recently. He models the area from Jones Island to Milwaukee in the winter with very realistic-appearing snow and leafless trees along with intricate details like telephone lines, signs, street lights, and fences. His "dirty" snow actually looks like what I remember when I lived in Ohio. More information about how he created his scenery is located on page 17 in the July-Aug 2022 issue of The Local . Here are a few pictures...
I have been experimenting with both Dwarvin fiberoptic lighting and Woodland Scenics Just Plug lighting for my layout. So I have about half of my structures illuminated with fiberoptics and the other half with Just Plug wiring. Here's what I have discovered so far.
The Dwarvin fiberoptic set up requires at least one light box (Lamplighter 1 or the more powerful Lamplighter 2) which you plug into a wall outlet. The light box is an LED light source which you could potentially make yourself, but I purchased two of them from Dwarvin. I will likely need to buy one more. The only other item you need is the fiberoptic cable. You just slide one end of the cable into the light box and the other end into the bottom of the structure that you wish to illuminate. There is a limit to the number of cables (10-15) depending on the diameter of the cable that you can physically fit into the opening on the Lamplighter box. There are a number of other accessories that you can purchase, like street lights, outside door lights, even signals.
Just Plug requires a main control box (Expansion Hub) plugged into a wall outlet. Four other control boxes (Light Hubs) can be attached to the Expansion Hub. Each of those four control boxes can be connected to four LED lights. Each light can be individually controlled with a dimmer switch on the box. You could potentially have multiple main control boxes daisy-chained together. Each of those main control boxes could connect to four peripheral boxes (Light Hubs), each of which then controls four lights. Again, there are multiple accessories available, such as street lights, billboard lights, outside door lights, extension wire, battery cases, etc.
Add these to your notebook of favorite model railroading tips:
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Z scale seems to be increasing in popularity recently. There was a rather large Z scale layout on display at the last 2022 Mid-Eastern Region Annual Convention that I attended in October. I was amazed to see highly detailed locomotives on that layout with DCC and even ditch lights. The availability of Z scale locomotives and rolling stock appears to have increased exponentially over the past few years. I have been wanting to have a layout in my briefcase for quite a while now. So, this Christmas, I bought myself a set of Z scale tracks by Marklin (made in Italy) and a train set consisting of an ES44AC NS Heritage along with a 4-car runner pack of Greenville 60' scale NS boxcars. Once I get that all set up and add some scenery to it, I'll send you some pictures.
Z Scale (1:220) was first started in 1972 by Marklin with a track gauge of 6.5 mm or 0.256 inches. Z scale trains use 0-10 V DC and with decoders installed, they can now run on DCC and can operate just like any other model train.
How is it different from N Scale? N scale is larger with a scale ratio of 1:160. Z scale works well for modelers who have very limited space. For example, a Z scale modeler could have a very nice-sized layout inside a guitar case, or on a corner of a desk. It's very portable. You could take it almost anywhere.
The small size and weight of Z scale trains may make it more difficult for them to stay on track. However, you can get longer trains and a more realistic layout with more landscaping and scenery with Z than you can with N scale. Grades have to be kept small.
The availability of Z scale locomotives and rolling stock is much better than it was only a few years ago.
Believe it or not, there is another gauge smaller than Z that was introduced at the Tokyo Train Show in 2006, called T gauge (1:450 or 1:480), noted to be a "Third of N scale". They have sectional and flex track available and a considerable assortment of scenic items including figures, bikes and boats. Houses are assembled and pre-painted. The T scale locomotives have magnetic wheels which allow them to climb steep grades, as much as 45 degrees.
This is giving me eyestrain just thinking about it!
The CB&W Club in Grafton, VA is close to where I live. I visited there recently on December 26 when they were having an open house Christmas celebration. I took a lot of pictures while I was there, but I think this video presentation gives you a better idea of the scale, the depth, the multiple scenes, and the many details of the layout.
We hope you enjoyed this issue of Tracks. Feel free to pass it on to your friends, family and other model railroaders. If you have a great tip or article that you would like to publish on the website, please let me know - The more, the better. Any comments or suggestions are always welcome. You can either go to the Comments/Contact Page and enter your suggestions there or contact me directly at [email protected]
Thank you for your support and for subscribing to the free newsletter for Building Your Model Railroad.
And, as always, thank you for visiting the BYMRR website at
https://www.bymrr.com. We are committed to providing all the newest techniques, tips and articles to help YOU build your own great model railroad!
Take care and be safe.
Greg Warth
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