bohus
New Member
Posts: 1
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Post by bohus on Sept 20, 2022 10:12:13 GMT -5
Hi there! I’m trying to learn more about the two Norman Rockwell Z scale train layouts that were put out by the Franklin Mint. There’s precious little info in the package itself or online. Not even what year they came out!
I’m a z scale fan going way back, but I’d not heard of these til a few years ago. I can’t find an ad or any promotion from the company. One person I talked to said that it was a co-production with Marklin, while someone else said Marklin sued TFM for copying some of their building models. 🤷♂️
They’re such a weird idea for a collectible. Super heavy, live water feature, 2 elaborate models that are slightly different from each other… They represent a huge effort, and yet there’s practically no info out there. TFM has changed hands and they don’t have any information either.
Id like to film a YouTube video to chronicle the history of this z scale oddity, so any information you folks might have would be extremely helpful. Thank you!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2022 10:42:18 GMT -5
About live water : I read in the past that one should, if possible, avoid it on layouts ! Humidity caused by evaporation is never good and can cause oxydation ... And all the way the behaviour of water cannot be "scaled down", so the smallest waves on the surface would look like a tsunami.
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Post by cwrr on Sept 20, 2022 16:24:51 GMT -5
The only one's I've ever seen, have been on Ebay. Very spendy.
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Post by zscalehobo on Sept 22, 2022 13:41:55 GMT -5
Norman Rockwell Train Sets in Z ... I've been around Z since 1999 and I don't recall seeing ANYTHING on these sets. Hard to find details about them, honestly. Usually "The Franklin Mint" put out advertisements in the comics sections of newspapers - I tend to think that's where the advertisements went. And there was no internet blasts at that time ... I'm guessing 2004-ish.
First, there were TWO offers:
* Norman Rockwell "Celebration of America" - Spring/Summer Scene - came with the same locomotive set as the Marklin 81466 set (CB&Q Burlington Mikado steam loco, tender, silver meteor box car, GN box car, green gondola and Burlington Route red caboose. The motor in the loco is a 5-pole same as in the 81466 set - so this is definitely post 2001 era.
* Norman Rockwell - Winter Scene - same "dog-bone" track arrangement as the Spring/Summer scene. Came with a PRR steam locomotive tender and PRR passenger car set. The steamer in this offer was a 5-pole motor meaning it's definitely post 2001 time frame.
I do have more knowledge of the SPRING/SUMMER scene as I have taken one into my personal collection back in September 2016, here's a video of it:
As for the rumors regarding litigation - who knows - that was a different Marklin and none of the USA staff remain from previous version of Marklin USA. But I will say that all of the buildings are standard Marklin buildings from the era (2004-ish) and the bridge is a variant of the 8975 arched bridge. It's a nice collectible but not a very useful layout other than a conversation piece.
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Post by zscalehobo on Sept 22, 2022 13:55:26 GMT -5
Interesting tidbit on the auction preservation site "worthpoint" that indicates the issue - I don't claim any knowledge of the problem ... more than likely, I would think a lack of sales led to them stopping the production ... $1875 is expensive NOW imagine what this chunk of change meant back in '02.
"This layout is number 525 out of 2500; although 2500 were never produced due to a patent infringement of the buildings Franklin Mint copied. This layout was released in 2002; retailed for $1875"
Buildings I see on mine that appear to be exact Marklin versions:
downtown structures
2-story house (3 of them, incl one that is converted to a watermill)
Barn
Church
Train Station
Arched Bridge
Items not seen in the Marklin line:
one-room schoolhouse
two-story town hall
farm outbuilding
baseball field
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Post by dave on Sept 27, 2022 17:11:26 GMT -5
I had one of these a few years ago that I got in a large Marklin collection. It is mostly resin and pretty heavy. The detail was nice. The live water feature was definitely a draw at train shows and I never had an issue with water going anywhere out of where it was supposed to. If I ever moved the layout, I would drain the water and then refill the reservoir when placed where it was going.
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Post by stevew on Oct 2, 2022 9:13:24 GMT -5
Someone just posted one for sale in the Facebook Z Buy/Sell group. $1500 USD, located in New Jersey.
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