Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page
Vern Sargent built his 2 x 3-foot Z scale layout in a closet. See some of the detailed scenes on the Cale, Bear Mountain & Harrisonville model railroad, which is inspired by the Monon and the Milwaukee Road in the 1940s and 1950s.
wow, what a nice layout! I just wish the focus would have been a little more sharper to see all the details. Years ago when I worked in ‘postage stamp’ scale I thought it was challenging to get it believable to the eye, I could only imagine what it takes in Z scale.. very nicely done..
You have to down scale the brightness of colors of the trees to get a realistisc look in a smaller scale than in nature.
Everything looked great EXCEPT for the color of the fall foliage. I’ve read letters in MR complaining about the bright colors of foliage in various layouts featured in the magazine. Perhaps it’s the printing process in magazines that’s the problem, but in this video all the colors looked good except for the fall foliage. I’m not exactly sure why fall foliage looks so unrealistic in model railroads. Maybe the varied colors call attention to the limitation in realistically duplicating trees in HO scale. I believe the idea of background scenery like hills covered by trees is to have the foliage as a BACKGROUND and not something that draws one’s attention from the important parts of a scene. For me, those bright mixed autumn colors did not enhance the realism of the scene. I live in New Jersey and I’ve seen many hillsides in the fall and there is variation in colors because trees do not lose their leaves at the same time. BUT THE VARIATION IS FAR MORE SUBTLE THAN IN THESE SCENES.
The theme of your fll landscaping looks very real and convincing. Thanks for sharing.
Superb, I would love to see an overall shot of the layout. Hopefully there is an upcoming article in MR about it.
Incredible! The track and rails look so “HO Scale”. Normally, Z scale rails looks like “Code 250”. If you told me this was N scale or even HO Scale, I would have believed it within no afterthought. The trains run so smoothly. Great job!
Since the area you are modeling is just “right down the road” from me, I just had to take a look and I am really glad I did. Very nicely done and I was really impressed with how well you modeled this part of southern Indiana and the running quality of your trains was also impressive. It was great to see the Tulip Trestle and the INDR coal train, very well done!
Could you post at track plan? It’s hard to get a feel for the layout
Very nice work. The train(s) running at a reasonable speed. Must be interesting to try to cross the wood overpass on a wet day.