Between 2018 and 2020 I built a set of modules that joined up to form an oval of track: two 180° corner modules (450mm x 670mm) using Rokuhan super elevated 270mm and 245mm radius curves, and two straight modules (250mm deep, 575mm long, 250mm overall height).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  The two 180° corner modules never made it past the stages of tracklaying and basic scenery; they turned out to be rather chunky and very storage-space hungry, so with a new layout project on the horizon they were both disposed of in 2023. The two straight modules were fun to build and watch trains run through, and provided great backdrops for some photography; they both remain in storage.  
 
 
In 2015/16 I built a 20"x40" (50cm x 100cm) "dogbone" end connecting to the small 2014 module. In functional terms it was one of two 180° loops required to turn a string of straight modules into a continuous run layout.

In structural terms, it was a minimum size layout with two unconnected levels of track; the upper level providing continuous running in a figure eight folded back onto itself, and the lower level mostly hidden from view making up the 180° return loop.

  
 
  As a train runs onto the lower level track from a connecting module it turns away from the parallel double track alignment and runs out of a tunnel.

Passing a disused and overgrown former team track siding the train glides underneath a truss iron bridge and then leans into a curve which takes it into another tunnel, from which point the track turns back to join the incoming track in parallel.

This allows a train to run back out onto the module from which it entered the loop - or vice versa in the other direction.
 
 

 

 
The upper level track appears as a stretch of double track on one side and as two single track lines on the other. Being a folded figure eight the train completes a lap on one loop before crossing over onto the other loop. In order to make this - by no means ultra exciting - track arrangement a little more visually interesting, no track ever runs in parallel to the edge of the layout but is always slightly angled.
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
The module was fun to build and the upper level provided some relaxing continuous run trainwatching; however, the size of its footprint proved prohibitive for a second 180° return loop module to be built. The modular dogbone concept was abandoned, and the layout put into storage.
 
 
A few days of watching CSX trains roll through Wildwood in Central Florida changed my perspective on what a Z Scale layout could look like. I started to think more in linear terms - not unlike what Wildwood yard looked to the trackside observer.

The logical equivalent in modelling terms was a modular approach, and in 2014 I built a small "proof of concept" module.

Imagined as fitting into a dogbone layout shaped with 180° turn-around ends, it proved the modular concept was workable - but since the end modules never got built, it essentially remained a singular prototype and remains in storage.

  
 
 
 
Since the micro layout concept didn't really work, I switched to a more conventional 2ft x 4ft (60cm x 120cm) layout approach in 2013. It was a fun build and worked well, but it reminded me of why I had delved into the realm of the micro layout in the first place - I quite simply did not have the room for a permanent layout built on a large solid base. Before the layout received any scenery it was dismantled, the track saved, and the rest disposed of.
 

 
 
My dormant interest in Z Scale was awakened in a flash when I came across David K. Smith's Z Scale James River Branch layout and website whilst idly browsing the web in late 2011, and then completely kick-started in the early days of 2012 when I learned about the existence of Rokuhan track and the several different locomotives available from Micro-Trains and AZL. The James River Branch layout put me in a micro layout state of mind, but several attempts influenced by the very tight curve radii available from Rokuhan produced layout concepts that looked enticing on paper or on screen but in reality hit one or more roadblocks early into the construction phase. Nevertheless, the interest in North American Z scale was back and kicking.
 
 
 
 
In the early 2000s, following a hiatus of several years, I got back into Z Scale by way of Märklin's rather exquisite range of Swiss models, and moved from a classic micro layout to modular concepts. Ultimately, though, nothing really made it past the initial construction stages, and none of it survives today.
 

2008
 

2004
 
 
My first actual Z Scale layout, built in 1991, was a straightforward clone of Model Railroader's 1985 Z Scale project layout, the Pennsylvania & Pacific.
 
 

 
 
Whilst I stuck to the track plan, I left out the scenic divider running down the middle of the layout. And since I had since acquired a Micro-Trains F7 in New York Central lightning stripes, I named the layout "New York & Atlantic". It was fun to build, but the detail scenery never happened, and the layout no longer exists.
 
 
  I got into Z Scale quite by accident in 1990. A toy store was dropping the range and had their inventory priced to sell, at less than half price. I knew about Z Scale, and found Märklin's US models quite attractive - but also rather pricey. I also had no intention of moving into a different modelling scale. But seeing that Amtrak F7 and a complete rake of coaches at a very reasonable price, I couldn't resist.

Having no idea what to really do with these tiny models, I came up with what seemed to be the go to approach: build a small "layout in a briefcase" in order to see the models actually run. So I put down a circle of track in a repurposed (wooden) briefcase. The fun derived from this "novelty layout" wore off very quickly, but I had been bitten by the Z Scale bug.
 
 

 
 

page created 8 December 2023
page updated 6 March 2024