The Val Ease Central Railroad ©
Taking Z Scale to the Public Around the World
(Text and photos © Copyright Jeffrey MacHan)
NTS Sidebar: People make "Z" scale Great!
Strange as it may seem, I enjoy attending train shows not primarily for the trains, but for the people I meet. From the veterans to the newbies, the people of Z scale make traveling to and participating in a National Train Show an outstanding experience. Where else could you see so many smiling faces. Some we recognize from previous years, names can now be attached to others and lots of brand new smiles greet us from the crowds.
This year's NTS was enormous fun. Here are just a few of the GREAT people I had the pleasure of greeting or meeting at NTS2002.
Dieter Nolte travelled from Essen, Germany to attend the show and lend a helping hand as brakeman on the Val Ease Central RR.
David George returned to NTS with a larger and improved layout. His hard work paid off with three prizes: the Pizzaz Award from IHC and 2nd and 3rd place for individual modules.
Dean Wright, better known to some as Uncle Will, stopped by to chat with all the Z crowd.
Rob Kluz- Harald Freudenreich - Helmut Paule - Mitch Brownstein were busy running trains, chewing the fat and making new friends at NTS.
At the Ztrack booth, Lajos Thek was proud to show his preproduction sample of a DRB diesel shell drop-on for an 8805x chassis.
Rich Blandford jumped on a plane from L.A. just to join the Zelebrations on Saturday.
Karin Isberg and Carlee Hyett, 2 new recrutes to Z scale were astounded by the amount of Z found at the show.
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