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Sunday, August 29, 2010
The Ztrains Change Is Coming
This morning as I was having my coffee and stopping by my favorite Z scale websites for a look to see what was new, I saw an announcement that one popular Z portal, Z Central Station, is currently up for sale. The owner of the site said that his busy work and family life have been preventing him from dedicating enough time to ZSC to keep it in good and growing shape.
I sympathize with his position. Running this website takes up a surprising amount of time, effort and money. I'm fortunate in that we have very good web traffic here, between 300 and 700 unique visits per day on average. We also have some great advertisers who believe in what we're trying to do here at Ztrains and we're grateful for their support.
Can we do more here at Ztrains? Can we take this successful Z kernel of an idea and open it up more? This is what's been on my mind for several months now. At the heart of this question are the Z scale trains which I have a real passion for, as many of you do as well. Can we take the quantum leap and make Ztrains a viable, if modest, honest-to-God business? Again... this is the question I have run circles around.
I contend there are two ways to run an entity such as Ztrains... either purely as a hobbyist or as a business owner. Now in Z, once the word "business" is brought up, many people think you're the enemy. I've always thought that wildly unfair. Information, articles, tips, techniques... these are the lifeblood of a good TV show, magazine and a good website. We pay for cable TV, we pay for magazines... but information on websites should be free? If that website is part of a bigger commercial entity, maybe. When a website is standalone proposition however, free generally spells the end of that website.
We've all seen these... websites that look good and started out strong and then gradually fell by the wayside. They don't get updated or tended to in years and are eventually forgotten. Call it arrogance, pride or just plain stubbornness... but that isn't my plan for Ztrains.com. To make sure this doesn't happen things at Ztrains are going to change. Yes, Ztrains will become firmly rooted in the commercial world. There are a world or articles and article series I'd like to address, specific how-to's, maybe even a video series or two. Maybe some of these will be offered as individual article downloads for a modest fee, maybe make part of the site subscription-based... again for a modest fee but for a fee of some sort.
The reality of it is... Ztrains is fast becoming a bona fide small business and to survive it has to be profitable. Passion for the trains alone isn't enough, there needs to be a business plan in place which insures a consistent state of health and growth. Once this is in place it's very much a win-win. Ztrains.com grows and the readers / subscribers get more information, articles, tips, techniques.
Our new plan is now being looked at but before I jump and change things for the sake of change, this plan needs to be finalized. What I can tell you is that these changes will benefit both the visitors and readers here at Ztrains.com as well as insure the continuing stability of our little corner of Z scale model railroading.
As always we welcome feedback on our editorials: Tell us what you think!
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Z Scale Basics to Micro-Trains is one of the best resources available to beginners and advance modelers alike. It provides a solid foundation of model RR knowledge that addresses specific challenges encountered when working in Z scale. Breaking down the individual steps in the way these article do really takes the fear of the unknown out of these projects and enhances the overall experience. Making this kind of information readily available will only help the growth and popularity of Z scale to continue Ben Thielemann Micro-Trains Line Marketing Director |
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Learning About Z Scale... Step-By-Step
We began the
Z Scale Basics series as a way to share information with others involved in, or looking to get involved with, Z scale model railroading. No one jumps right into a hobby and has all the answers... everyone is a beginner at some point. This goal of this series is to illustrate some common Z scale projects and situations and how I work through them. Often there's more than one way to get a job done, this series will show some of these ideas.
Many of these articles and ideas are not 100% original, in model railroading we tend to learn and build on what others have done before. We're all still learning and every good modeler I know asks a lot of questions. I'd encourage you to ask questions as well if you don't understand a particular aspect of an article or if you'd like to see a specific article written. Above all... enjoy yourself! It's a great time to be in Z scale model railroading. We'd like to thank Micro-Trains Line for sponsoring these Z Scale Basics and for their continuing support of Z scale.
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
We're busy here building the kits for our desktop layouts. At this point we'll have near-daily updates from one of our 3 laser manufacturers kit builds. You can follow each update through Twitter or by stopping back often to see what we've posted for the day.
Z Build Corner: 3 Laser Manufacturers, 3 Project Builds
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Wednesday, September 1, 2010
A Traction Tutorial
Here's a video from our Ztrains advertiser, Bullfrog Snot. See what happens when a Model Power 4-4-0 slips and slides pulling a single car prior to a bit of Bullfrog Snot being applied. After application check out how many cars this 4-4-0 pulls up the same grade.
Bullfrog Snot
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Monday, August 9, 2010 Elevated or “EL” Model Railroading I received an email from a reader who attended the recent train show in Milwaukee, WI., and they told me about a new company called: Imagine That, Laser Art Productions. This new company is producing laser cut “EL”, or elevated train kits and components for several scales. I wrote to them and asked about the possibility of working in Z scale and was told that this may be in the future works for Z. Check out their site and maybe drop them an email if you'd be interested in this decidedly cool idea. Coffee Break Archives |
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