Hi,

As some of you will know, I've been building a Z Scale layout for about 18 months now. This is my first foray into Z Scale and many of my expectations have proved ill-founded, but in general I've been pleased with what I've achieved so far.

One aspect of Z scale locomotives that has surprised and disappointed me is the poor slow speed running characteristics. Admittedly, track and wheel cleanliness is a problem and I have yet to find a really good way of ensuring good electrical continuity. My current regime of polishing with a track rubber followed by cleaning with Track Magic does seem to be comparatively effective, though.

However, even when everything is making good contact, the slow running is not particularly smooth nor particularly slow. Much to my surprise, it seems that steam locomotives run much more smoothly at slow speed that (bogie) diesels. My 88943 0-10-0 is my best runner in this respect by quite a margin. The diesels also seem to suffer impaired contact especially on corners - it seems the pickup contact resistance between the wheel and the contact and between the bogie and the loco proper tends to vary quite a lot depending upon the inclination and orientation of the bogies.

I'm really interested to hear if this experience correlates with that of other modellers. I'd be delighted to hear of any tips to improve matters, though I suspect it's more or less inevitable given the small size and low mass of everything. As someone at Zedex said to me, Z scale isn't really suitable for shunting operations (though Gareth Rees' Mini Missoula layout seemed keen to prove that wrong).

Best Wishes to all


Chris

I echo rbw993's view. If you are running analog, switching to digital helps a LOT.

As is demonstrated by z-sven, in Germany: where he connects a digital decoder between the power to the analog track to the rack (so the decoder is inline to the track. Thus he can demo the difference between running the same loco direct from the power supply, and compare that with that same power supply powering a DCC system, which powers a single decoder, which powers the track loop.

The running characteristics one can achieve via digital are so much better than just direct analog.

Hi Chris,

How many track feeds do you have and are they far apart? Maybe adding a few more might help - a quick experiment could be done with a bit of wire and crocodile clips.

I note your points about clean tracks and wheels, but have you checked the mechanisms?

You can also try gently bending the contacts a bit more - after one of my locos ran into an obstruction, it wouldn't run anymore and I found the cause to be the contact from the bogie to the mechanism had got very slightly distorted from the impact. I bent the contact up a bit, and back to perfect running.

Carim

Sorry, I don't have any steam locos, so I can't say.

Carim

Hi, Chris I had Z from 1978 to about 10 years ago, and frankly I miss it.
I achieved some good slow running with mine, both of the live overhead wires and track. I developed my own system by first keeping loco wheels clean and the contacts from the bogies to the chassis. Using lighter fuel. And the Minitrix wire cleaner for the wheels. As far as the track is concerned I use a nail buffer to rub over the rails as it does not leave any residue. And a clean with lighter fuel on the points and inside edges of the rail on curves? The use of a Gaugemaster electronic cleaner and a Marklin track cleaning rail bus, got rid of any dust sitting on remaining rails?
This gave me good reliable slow moving trains😀👍🚂

I don't know if you or a previous owner took any of your locos apart before, but one thing that I found when assembling the mechanism on electrics is that you have to be very careful about how the bearings holding the worm gear are seated. Secondly, it is easy to misplace or over-tighten the covers that go over the worm gears. Get any of these points wrong and I found that the performance is substantially inhibited.

Carim