I have this sudden urge to build a Z-scale layout... too bad my slowly ageing eyes won't let me!

Mark:

I know what you mean! I'm amazed at what the N-scalers and Z-scalers are accomplishing these days ... but my aging eyes do appreciate HO more as the years go by.

I'm excited to be including N scale modeling content in the new magazine - even a column dedicated to N scale. I regularly pick up issues of the N scale modeling magazines at the hobby shop. Some of the most innovative and exciting modeling is being done by those modeling N scale and Z scale!

Us HO guys are missing a lot of impressive modeling techniques if we're not following what the N scale and Z scale crowds are doing. Most of these modelers have abandoned Model Railroader and flocked to their own magazines. The N and Z scale magazines are what MR used to be 20-30 years ago with lots of great new techniques that push the envelope and truly take the hobby to the next level. The fact much of this modeling talent has abandoned MR has hurt their content, I believe.

I hope to enlighten us HO guys as to what we've been missing by getting some of this great content into MRH!

I ended up buying a MicroTrains GP35 at the show and a bulkhead flat in the auction.... I think you'll be seeing them later.

The reason I kept pushing Ben on locomotives for Z scale was because their chief engineer, Joe D'Amato had admitted that they've got E-units coming down the pike to go with the passenger cars.

 I think this was our first interview, so I was still trying to figure out what to do with that microphone....

Hi Joe,

Over the past year I've tried to contact MR more than once regarding Z scale... the emails go unanswered. Really it's much more a case of MR abandoning (or ignoring) Z scale than the other way around.

I'd think MR would want to grow the hobby of model railroading in its entirety. From my own experience this is not the case.

John Cubbin

www.ztrains.com

John:

Glad to see you here on the MRH site!

Guys, if you haven't already, go check out John's ztrains.com site. It's very well done, and has some great content ... even a few things from yours truly!

Speaking of Model Railroader, it's pretty clear that the scales who now have their own magazines, namely N and Z scale, have largely siphoned off most of those readers from MR. Then there's the Narrow Gage guys who have their own magazine. If you take that population and add it back into MR's old circulation numbers, I bet you'd get a number approaching their old high-water circulation days. And if you add back in non-subscribers who now rely on the internet, it's possible their current circulation numbers would exceed their previous top circulation numbers.

There's a philosophy that I keep in mind: Caring about small things is not a small thing. All too many businesses (especially larger businesses) these days try to do things by the numbers: focus on the masses and ignore the "small markets". In my opinion, this philosophy can be deadly for hobby publishers.

In reality, we're all part of some minority interest and it's just a matter of how you chose to slice and dice your readership that can include or exclude certain people. If you guess wrong as to what categories, you can lose significant readership by excluding certain "minority interests". The problem with this nickel-and-dime approach is those nickels and dimes add up to some real numbers when taken as a whole. In this case, it could be 25% or more of MR's previous readership.

To make matters worse, by losing the N scale and Z scale modelers, MR's lost contributions from some of the best and brightest talent in the hobby. Just pick up a few copies of the N scale and Z scale magazines to see what I mean. Shades of the Linn Westcott days at Model Railroader - there's that difficult-to-define spark of passion and cleverness in what these guys are doing.

One of my missions with MRH is to wake the HO guys up to what they've been missing. Many of the techniques the N and Z guys are doing can be used also in HO - and if they can't be used, the sheer creativity of these techniques are sure to trigger some HO inspired adaptations of those ideas.

I'm hoping MRH will push the hobby envelope, but to do that we need your help. (Potential contributors, especially those not in HO, are you listening?) I hope each and every issue gives you many fresh new ideas for how you can get the very most from your model railroading efforts!

Great and truthful comments everyone.  I have been a long time train entusiast but gave up the HO layout stuff after graduating from high school.  During travels, I discovered Z and the ideas of that suitcase idea stuck with me.  Nothing doing until '89 when the catalog had all these cool idea layouts in acoustic guitar cases, etc.  So my wifey buys me a starter set.  Nothing doing tho for years until 3 years ago when one of my customers (micro-automation freak Kim Vellore [www.kimsartshop] was a Z scaler.  Show next month an I was TANKED.  Now with Robert Ray, Jim Manley and a host of other Bay Area Z scalers (The BAZ BoyZ), I have very complex Z-Bend Track interface modules with dozens of custom turnouts, all DCC, etc.

I love it.

As for MR, if they don't have a clue, well, it's their loss.  I switched to Railroad Model Craftsman.  If MR took a couple full depth of field pictures we shot along with some classics from Jürg Rüdi (www.rosetown.ch) and put then in a text-less article with the caption under the last photo reading: "oh, by the way, this is Z scale" would floor many people.

BTW:  I like your website header caption: "Yes, this is a model . . " 

Jeff

SF Bay Area Z

"Caring about small things is not a small thing."

Great slogan, Joe - I'm hanging it over my desk.

Thanks Jeff for reminding me how to pronounce "Z" I guess being Canadian became obvious at that point.

But whether it's Zee or Zed, I agree everyone should take a look at the layouts segment and you will see a Zee Scale layout, Free-mo style even, that is out of this world.