Ztrains: Z Scale Trains Just Right For Local Collector

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Z Scale Trains Just Right For Local Collector
By Joan Hershberger, Arkansas El Dorado News-Times Staff
Published: August 17, 2009

Jack Ryan likes model trains. He has liked them since playing with the Lionel and American Flyer sets given to him and his brothers as children. Those trains - along with his comic book collection and teddy bears - disappeared during a family move but Ryan's interest did not disappear.

As an adult, Ryan remained intrigued with the Red War Bonnet engines - sleek modern engines painted gray except the red paint over the engineer's cab. This precipitated his purchase of models of the engine in increasingly smaller sizes: G, O, HO and N scales. With that in mind, Ryan's brother, Dan Ryan, knew to call and tell him to check-out the Red War Bonnet Z scale engine he discovered on the internet - an engine for a train so small that a complete layout could fit in a briefcase.

The Z scale train measures 1/220 the size of a real train. One inch in Z scale equals 220 inches or over 18 feet in real life. In Z scale, a six foot tall adult figurine reaches 5/16 of an inch high compared to 1/2 of an inch for N-scale; 7/8 of an inch for HO scale trains or 3-1/2 inches for G scale.

Ryan liked the idea of a train set he could keep in a space as small as a briefcase. Larger scaled layouts require much more space for a simple circular track. He began searching the internet for online stores carrying Z trains and studying the prices on eBay auctions for engines, cars and accessories for Z layouts.

After his sons, Clint and Scott, graduated and left for college, Ryan - who teaches chemistry at South Arkansas Community College - had time to pursue the intense, detailed work of a model train layout and to document his hobby on his website. Ryan has collected over a dozen engines plus coordinating train cars, completed three circular layouts and is working on a fourth.

He built his first layout because he quickly bored of arranging the tiny tracks on the table and watching them go round and round. On his website, Ryan explains the steps he took and the experiences and insights he gained building the briefcase layouts. "Z scale is very small, so a good magnifier and steady hands are a big help", he blogged beside a picture of himself wearing a magnifier headset.

In October 2005 he began building his first layout. He used a train labeled Barum - not Barnum - Circus. In the center of the track, circus animals - giraffes, camels and elephants - stand on the grass and between the red and white striped tents. Because there were no Z scale animals at the time he built the set, he used N scale animals. On his web, he adds the cost for just the layout - without the train - to be around $600. Some purchases may have enough material or items to use in building other layouts. Complete trains begin at $300 to $400. The price reflects the precision engineering in the tiny engines.

After collecting a limited edition of train cars in bright colors with Happy Birthday and balloons printed on their sides, Ryan built a birthday cake layout. Due to limited interest, the company never sold the promised birthday train engine, so Ryan took a plain engine and painted it to match the rest of the cars. The birthday train circles around a hill about the size of a real birthday cake and runs through a cut piece of cake. In the triangular space it left, Ryan built a hobo camp.

His third completed layout captures a winter scene with the city and a farm and cemetery located on the surrounding hills. He used his favorite engine, the Red War Bonnet, as one of the trains in this layout. His wife, Dr. Janet Ryan, eagerly pointed out the new details she just noticed on the layout - a tiny ladder as fine as a spider web which leans against a Christmas tree as if someone walked away after beginning to string the lights; a minuscule snowman made from window caulking and the barn with the banner for Ohio's bicentennial in 2003.

Ryan's web notes on this set - built in a Samsonite suitcase - reflect the problem with the Z scale. The small train's wheels quickly stalled if the least bit of artificial snow landed on the tracks. Ryan said he spent a lot of time keeping the tracks clear of snow to insure the trains ran smoothly.

Ryan said the layout probably could be done in a couple months - if a person just kept at it - but he picked it up and glued or painted a piece or two, set those pieces down to dry and came back on another day to continue his work. With sometimes days or several weeks between work sessions, it took him about a year to do the winter scene layout with the two simple circular track layouts. He said he tends to make changes and adjustments to his plans as the work progresses.

On his website, Ryan wrote about painting, cutting and assembling the barn kit he received with his personal touch: the bicentennial banner on the bar. The state of Ohio's Bicentennial Celebration was in 2003. As part of the celebration, a barn in each county was painted with a banner announcing the bicentennial.

"I took a photo of the barn just a few miles from where my mother lived, cropped and worked on the banner to get rid of the background with Adobe Photoshop. I reduced the picture size so that it would fit on the end of the barn. I printed it out in color onto HobbyCal Inkjet water slide decal paper. I followed the directions for wetting the paper and placed the decal onto the end of the barn", he wrote. Ryan's website also provides extensive pictures and explanations of every aspect from shopping online to the final touches made to the layouts. He includes pertinent advice about shopping around and knowing the prices of desired items to be found in online stores before bidding on an eBay auction. Then for the novitiate to eBay, he explains how the auction works and gives advice for winning or waiting for the next auction.

Ryan is not a member of a model train club, but does subscribe to a magazine for model railroad enthusiasts. And he definitely celebrates National Model Railroad Month in November - and a bit more than the one Friday designated as "Bring A Model Train To Work Day". "I set up one of my Z scale layouts for the entire month", he said, "because it is so small, I can put the train on a desk or chair. My office is by the bookstore so students passing by see it and often stop in and say "That is neat".

These days Ryan is working on a western theme for his fourth layout. So far the town offers a saloon, an old hotel, sheriff's office, a blacksmith shop and some farm wagons. He began the landscape with a paper clip bent to look like a Saguaro cactus. He will build it up with modeling clay and paint it before gluing it to the desert floor.

Years ago, Ryan saw his first transportable model train layout when he took his wife and sons to a model train show in Ruston, La. While still in the parking lot, they discovered a man who slid open the door of his van to show off a model train layout built behind the driver's seat. A line of dads and sons waited their turn to see the transportable train.

When his sons, now 28 and 32, were younger, he bought them a model train and they put it on a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood, but mostly it remained stored under their bed. Knowing their father's interest in model trains proved a ready source of gift ideas through the years - including a boxed Lego set with directions for replicating Ryan's favorite train, the Red War Bonnet engine; a Lionel bank with a train triggered by a deposited coin; a wind-up pressed tin train that circles around on its track and a minuscule music box train.

Besides his Z scale trains, Ryan owns N scale trains and three different sizes of the Denver & Rio Grande Western locomotive and tender. All are easily tucked under his bed and out of the way when he finishes working and playing with them for the day.

Here is the original article location: Arkansas El Dorado News-Times
Here is Jack Ryan's personal website: Visit Jack Ryan's Z Scale Website

Monday, March 8, 2010
Build Your Own Zthek SW-1 Switcher

Lost Brass Frets... Found Here!

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