Z For Sale 23Q4

Uh-Oh ! Jumping ship?

Hey Doug, 

Could you post a picture of the 
Marklin "Downtown Row"  

As I have tried to find it through
web searching with no luck. 

Not sure if I would be interested 
until I can see it. 

Thank You 
James 

Hello Doug,

Thank You for that.

Sent you a message here
on AZL Forum

James Ian

Thanks Greg.   As I mentioned, I'm not completely moving on at this point.  I very much see a scenario whereby I keep my Z layout for running at home, and then do the N FreeMoN modules as time permits at shows and such.   For sure that will be the m.o. for the next couple of years.

AZL "are what they are".   They make great stuff.  Hopefully they'll eventually get to the key pieces I need to even attempt my dream layout in Z.   If so, and if other factors align (e.g. I can still get some of the stuff I'm passing up now) then great...maybe I'll give it a shot.   And if not I'll attempt it in N.  We will likely be moving in 4 years or so and that is when I'll probably get on one side of the fence or the other.

I've been in various scales over the years, but mostly in N.  I anticipated going back to HO if I ever left Z, but a couple of things swayed me back to N.  First, sound got good enough in N which was one of my attractions to HO.   Also, after watching a friend's 80's TOFC train on his gargantuan HO layout, I decided I really wanted to go back to my origins of my youth as a railfan in the late 80s and do 89ft flats.   Given my perpetual space issues and the large radii needed to run such cars effectively, it made more sense to choose N once again.  Finally, I still had a key set of Atlas unit coal gons that I had kept from my days in N "just in case", and so everything just fell together.

1. GE Diesel Locomotive in BNSF Heritage-II.   Either ES44AC or a GE "Dash 9" C44-9W.   It would not be overly dramatic to say "end of list" here.   Really, this would tip me back in the direction of Z at least.  But since I have your attention, here are a few other things that are "key"...

2. Trinity 5161cf Covered Hoppers.   The 5161 (and some later derivatives) are THE grain hopper of the 21st century, and almost a requirement to model BNSF.   Made famous early by the BNSF "Earthworm" trains in the 90's (solid unit trains of BNSF's reddish/brown cars resembling a worm) but later acquired by most other railroads and many Co-ops, plus the wonderful BNSF "Heritage" cars.  You can look at Intermountain et al's release list to see the variety, and being a unit train car helps with the sales too. 

3. Bethgons
-Burlington Northern- Silver With Green Rotary ends.   If you need information about this car, I can literally write you a book.   Far and away the most common bethgon (from any railroad) and this one is major on my list.
-BNSF Mineral Red (Early) - similar scheme to your BNSF Green cars, but with the Mineral Red ends.
-BNSF "Cooper Block" - silver with 4 black boxes with large white B N S F letters in the respective boxes.   Black rotary ends.
-BNSF Mineral Red (Late) - Later scheme with mineral red boxes on the rotary end, versus the entire ends painted.
-TGNX - Identical to your PNJX cars, but with orange vs blue rotary ends (and diff reporting marks/numbers)
-CCTX - Virtually identical to your CHTT cars, just differing reporting marks and a tiny logo.
-Others - EGSX Black/white ends; FURX silver/green ends; FPPX silver/yellow and LCRX silver/orange; et al

See azlforum.com/post/20297 for some pics of the above.

ALSO, if you decide to re-run the BN black/green bethgons, please fix the decoration first as they have a glaring error.   Reach out if you decide to do this and want more details.

*******************************

Others.   Not really "key", but things I would buy, trying to stick mostly with existing tooling...
-Rerun of BNSF, UP ES44AC's and SD70ACe's.   Obviously H-II BNSF ES44's would be nice, but also "Red Sill" UP ES44's would be great.
-More PS2CD's.  BNSF Circle, BN Spartan, Rock Island (faded MWCX ideally), D&H (again faded my pref),KYLE, various others
-More R-70-20 Reefers (BNFE Green, BNFE White)   These may already be sitting in boxes somewhere for all we know
-More Beer Car schemes - BNSF Circle, ATSF Modern, Mfgs Railway, CryoTrans
-Application of close/semi-proto schemes to Corn Syrup cars. (Tate & Lyle, HOKX, et al)
-Older JBHunt Scheme for Jindo 53's (sans Green "INTERMODAL" lettering)
-More 53 Trailer Variety eventually
-AutoMAX Articulated Autorack cars
-57ft AP Spine Cars