Modules in Z-scale

After having being working on modules for H0 a while i realised that it would be time to try another challenge....
So what about trying modules i Z scale??!!
I have bought quite a lot of Z scale bits over the last two years.
Tracks, locos and cars in two bigger boxes. I tried to pull together a couple of layouts and gave them a run on my desk.

My colleague Anders Delstam is also a avid Z-scale-collector. He is surely participating in the project and will be populating some of the modules with not just tracks.

As of March 2009, I do not have any Z-scale equipment anymore. I now do modules in scale H0 and N. Z is nice but simply to small and unreliable.

Mar 18 2008 Gettin serious with the electrickery
My colleague Anders and myself have been baning our cleaver heads together to sort out the electrical standard fro our modules. Unfortunately the ZMOD-standard is VERY wolly when it comes to the nitty gritty part of "how are you to connect up a controller", "how do you segment tracks" and so on. We feel that we had to reinvent the missing wheel.

We work from the assumption that most of the fiddling is done in the station (timesaver) modules. We have 2 of them and it is very likely that they will be place at the outskirts of the layout. In between and adjacent to them we will have line modules. We want to power tha line module tracks from the station modules. Therefor we have two switches in every linemodule that is to be used to identify from where power is taken. As we do have two separated tracks on the modules we thought that we do not need to be able to connect up more then two controllers into a stationmodule. As you can see from the scematics to the left we have switches there that are to be used to define what controller there is to be used to power the relevant track. And with the "West/East-swiches" we are to determine from where the power is coming for the tracks on the line-modules. And YES we are running analogue. Running can be done by connecting up the same controller to both tracks in a module. Clever ehhhh !! Comments are welcome !!

Mar 9 2008 Tracks are passing the ravin
Today I have again spent some time with the model railroad. First I did spend some time finetuning my Gliesmarode module (H0) and having doen that I went into my homeoffice and did spend some time fiddling down the tracks on my firnd (Anders) ravine module. As you can see from the picture below it looks really good with the bridges passing the ravine. Now with tracks sweeping teh very nicely decorated module. To the right you can see the ravine-module passing into the curved modulen and then onto another line-module of Anders. That one does not have any tracks yet though. I have to track down a switchout that is missing. Zscale and modulebuilding is both challenging with the small scale. But for sure it is very nice with the small modules, being very light and offering ample of space for putting loads of details.

Feb 15 2008 we are connected!
As you can see, things are surely but slowly progressing on the modulebuildingfront. To the right you see that we now have two timesavermodules to play with. In the picuter you also see the curved module. Quite a handy little thing as it also contains two switches - Clewer ey! So now we have two stations (timesavers), 3 linemodules and the curved module.
One great thing with working i Z-scale is teh possibility to work on modules in very limited space. Below, a picture from my homeoffice where I today worked on in total 4 modules. Great isn´t it !!?
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Feb 1 2007 Time flies when you are having fun. Over the last couple of weeks my dear friend and colleauge Anders has spedn quite a number of hours in my workshop. We have both been working hard on buildig and enhancing Z-scale modules. Below you see Anders "bridge over not yet troubled water". To the right you have the module for "taking a turn".They are both not yet decoradet as you can see.

Jan 6 2008 Today I did put aside some electronics projects in favor of the Z-scale modules. On the back end of the timesaver I have now put some grass and trees. The back end of the box will be having a clear sky painted by Anders in a near future. After doing those decoradtions I had a go with a couple of engines in need for treatment. The lublicants in the engines had siezed so I hade to dismantle tehm and clean up the mess. Fresh lube and off you go. All as new !
In the pictures you can see the engines, but also the green grass on the back end of the module. Likes neat, not just int picture but also in real life. I have used speaker mat that I have painted green with a simple spray can. The mat is somewhat "wolley". So that makes a good grass look a like.

Jan 2 2008 Going on into the new year Iam busy with the modules. Today my good friend Anders came along and payed me a visit. We had great fun for a couple of hours, tryding out the tracks, the two modules and of course some rolling stock from our collections. In the picture you can see Anders having a go on the two modules joined together.

Knowing that Anders would come a long, is rushed with the work on the line module to the right in the picture. Both where bolted together and the trains did run down the tracks very nicely.

In the picture you can see that all the work is going on in my homeoffice on the side of my desk. Amazing with z-scale. There is not much space needed to work with the modules. Only drawback is that I have to have extra magnification to see all the bits working with the modules.

Dec 31 2007 Having 5 x 1 meter straight modules might run the project into troubles i thought. So what about building a curved module so that the landscape can be housed in a normal room? Here we go. To the right you see that it does not only make 90 degree curve it also contains 2 turnouts so that you can switch track.

Here you can see a picture from below the timesavermodule. Here you can see all the vires needed to run the 7 turnouts. Looks colourfull and messy... But I ´ll get that sorted out, no worries.

Dec29 2007 Now you can see that I have colored the grass. I have actually used simple spray bottles with a couple of different tones of green. Between the tracks I have also coloured the grass. The mat looks pretty close to "real grass. As you can see I have also placed some bushes alongside the tracks on the small hills. I now need to place some houses, trees and maybe a car or so in Z-scale... What I also miss now is some "good old DIRT". But I need to get hold of "proper sized dirt in scale 1:220.....
On the underside I have also worked pretty hard with all teh vires for current to the tracks but also all teh wires for the swich-motors. Quite a number of vires coming trough. I have to order quite a number of switches from ELFA of the type 35-305-40. I will be putting the on the front of the case for logical usage and easy wiring on the underside.

27 Dec2007 More action today. Here you can see that I have cut out the banks and filled with "grass". You can also see that I have stuffed bits of foam under the grass-mat. Next step would be to put some colour (variants of green) on the mat.

I have put some mashinery on the tracks to give you a better feel for how things look like. On the back end of the module there are some buildings still missing. They are on their way from Germany (ebay).