How to Build a Small Layout for Your Z Scale Trains

How to Build a Small Layout for Your Z Scale Trains.
I needed a break from wiring my 2x4 foot N Scale Layout, so I spent a week building a small 18” x 24” Z Scale layout! This was a fast and straightforward layout to build, taking less than 10 hours of work time. I built the layout using a starter set (link below) from American Z Line I picked up at ztrackcenter.com, along with an additional bridge and small track pieces, and then a bunch of scenery materials I already had on hand.
American Z Line Starter Sets: ztrackcenter.com/starter-sets
Clump foliage from Woodland Scenics: amzn.to/43wAvKF
Other clump foliage I used (great, but expensive): amzn.to/3PQG6Ii
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Check out my website: www.steves-trains.com
Note that while I have amazon affiliate links for most products, often you can find them at hobby retailers for cheaper. I like fiferhobby.com and modeltrainstuff.com but check other stores as well. Note that as an Amazon affiliate, I receive a commission on any sales make through those links.
TRAIN SETS:
N Scale Kato Amtrack Set: amzn.to/3iyCbBt
N Scale Kato Super Chief Set: amzn.to/3B4ISS7
Kato N Scale Track and Controller Set 1: amzn.to/3B61UHF
Kato N Scale Track and Controller Set 2: amzn.to/3Y5hflZ
More Kato Track Sets: amzn.to/3OYcZQJ
HO Scale Rail Chief Train Set: amzn.to/3OVJizQ
O Scale Lionel Polar Express Train Set: amzn.to/3EQLcNu
O Scale Lionel Hogwarts Express Train Set: amzn.to/3Y5hM7t
KATO TRACK:
Kato Unitrack (N Scale): amzn.to/3kl9msS
Kato Unitrack (HO Scale): amzn.to/3kl9msS
CONTROLLERS:
Battery Powered Controllers that work great for N scale too: amzn.to/3umqFfa
Awesome DCC Starter System: amzn.to/3gZVbbp
LAYOUT KIT:
HO Scale Grand Valley Kit: amzn.to/3uiPvN1 (my first adult railroad project)
Track set for Grand Valley Kit: amzn.to/3VPyzsS
Building set for Grand Valley Kit: amzn.to/3F1b8WQ
N Scale Scenic Ridge Kit: woodlandscenics.woodlandsceni...
N Scale building set: amzn.to/3BsZMu3
TOOLS:
Benchtop hot wire cutter: amzn.to/3Voq1tk
My Resin 3D Printer: amzn.to/3gT2PEH
My Filament 3D Printer (upgraded version): amzn.to/3Uroph6
Snap-off Blade Utility Knife: amzn.to/3OXM1cj
Cordless Dremel Set: amzn.to/3VO86Mm
My DeWalt cordless drill: amzn.to/3gW5i18
My Dewalt cordless saw (current version): amzn.to/3H73Jbo
My Dewalt cordless miter saw: amzn.to/3VNnzfL
My DeWalt Cordless Brad Nailer: amzn.to/3XBvltD
Speed Squares: amzn.to/3IxfJ6h
Hot glue gun: amzn.to/3ZFcTmk
VIDEO AND AUDIO GEAR:
Rode Wireless Mic: amzn.to/3KhNlCy
Shure MV88 Portable iOS Microphone (Great external microphone for iPhone): amzn.to/3LmWw67
Smartphone vlogging kit: amzn.to/3rTXyPf
Selfie Mirror to see phone screen when recording self with back cameras: amzn.to/3KiCgRU
Canon SL3 (nice basic DSLR): amzn.to/3kdBHy1
LED light panels: amzn.to/36NZBNy
More Items:
NEC PowerCab: amzn.to/3acwox9
Digitrax DS74 Units: amzn.to/3M7KBbW
Pneumatic door lift stay: amzn.to/3x0AAb8
Toggle latches: amzn.to/3aiFt7P
Carry Handle: amzn.to/3GCsUAi
Drawer slides (Home Depot): thd.co/3M6XTpk
Drawer slides: amzn.to/3PYRjV4
Push Buttons: amzn.to/3M9eEQG
As an Amazon affiliate, I receive a commission on any products purchased through Amazon links.
Music: Epidemic Sound

[@blakemastrud5085]

My obsession with this stuff as a kid should have been a big clue to my eventual AuDHD diagnosis lol Absulutely love the channel man!

[@jeffreyholmes4287]

I love your tiny layout builds! Gives me the feeling like I might actually be able to build a layout of my own one day.

[@feminazislayer]

Be a cool end table with a lamp 🔦 either fixed to it or to the wall over it. One on either end if sofa, with glass tops. And a corresponding coffee table. Like 3 parts of one town

[@StevesTrains]

Good idea!

[@u2bear377]

IMHO a tunnel in the curve behind the hill would be perfectly at home. There is a lot of space for scenic photo spots on the straight section of the track at the rear of the layout.

[@edwardstd52]

Darn you Steve! Now you have me thinking of more ways to spend my money! 😄 Great work as usual!

[@StevesTrains]

Thanks! No shortages of ways to spend money in this hobby. That is for sure.

[@marksinthehouse1968]

They have chopping board that size in our local Poundland what you call a 5 and dime or similar to cloud 9 in the show superstore ,I’m tempted but I may either do a navada type dessert where my colleague from Royal Mail moved to or Cumbria which is our Lake District but BR Z gauge is hard if not impossible to find RTR ,and permission from the officer in charge (wife)😂 All the best Mark

[@tonykane8866]

(Brother Steve) u officially gave me a new thing to try.

[@StevesTrains]

My work here is done then. Lol

[@glennledrew8347]

Very nice! 😊 Being able to keep the forest cover so simple due to the small scale is a real boon. Especially for larger layouts. I wouldn't have been able to avoid the desire to give the mountain a cliff somewhere, and to impart a generally greater asymmetry.

[@sergioarroyoguerrero5434]

Z scale small layout. I love the Z scale train set.

[@Trains-With-Shane]

Nice work as always!

[@ajandrade1]

Fantastic work. You put great fun on it. Thanks

[@sparkyslandscaping]

Great video thanks for your work

[@Prairieshutterbug64]

Thanks for the excellent video. Love your layout.

[@zachallerton1724]

Excellent job and fast moving- loved watching this! Thanks for posting!

[@murob2347]

That's a really good idea to just mix all of the ballast together

[@StevesTrains]

I just do that so I don’t have sharp discontinuities in ballast color. Sometimes even the same kind of ballast varies in color one package to the next.

[@Lee.Willcox]

Wonderful !

[@nocapper]

Wonderful video and detailed just enough. Especially love your pace here as well. Nicely done and thanks!

[@kenshores9900]

Great video. It inspires me to put the 3 modules I have together. Again thanks.

[@stephenmaraldo2347]

Steve, you are amazing! What detail on that layout! Absolutely beautiful! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise.

[@paulupson2899]

Looks great Steve, what a fun project

[@theliato3809]

Wonderful

[@Trainspotterusa]

Nice work.A lot of simple ideas build towards a greater whole. Excellent micro layout!

[@JeroenJillissen]

Fantastic, inspiring me to try out some z scale. 🎉

[@sergioarroyoguerrero5434]

Z scale small layout. Good work.

[@rohankeenoy2199]

Perfect for an office/study!

[@RobertKluz-rb3xl]

Steve great video and build! I LOVE Sculptamold. It has been my go to for 40 years! Well done!

[@0z33y]

Thank you , really was inspired by watching this , it’s gotta go on my bucket list

[@dalsbury1979]

Beautiful and simple layout

[@djwarren5081]

An inspirational video. Makes me think that I should have a go. Hi from the UK.

[@RichardBrooklyn]

Excellent video. You make it look easy. Once I get some confidence in this hobby, I'll try something like this.

[@davidhjortnaes2000]

Walthers has rail joiners that work great. No soldering or melting of the base. Atlas joiner 150-2539. These have wires already soldered on.

[@MultiDudeman]

Great video, and a good looking set up! I can think of so many places I could put a little set like that.

[@wayneeschbank2895]

Steve thank you for a few tips on how to ballast my track and make a few hills on my N gauge layout. Love your videos and look forward to the next new layout or upgrade to an old one.

[@David_a_journeyman_curmudgeon]

Very cool!

[@michaelpuffin]

Nice! Thanks. 🙂

[@tommyhunter1817]

This is nuts. Something that small would drive m nuts.

[@StevesTrains]

I can’t argue that it won’t! Stuff this small certainly isn’t going to work for everyone, that is for sure.

[@jasonganis4033]

Very cool! I’m going to be modeling PA as well, in N scale. I think I’m going to copy your terrain here.

[@loispadgett6306]

Very nice video sounds like alot of fun to build. Will keep searching for that Z scale train set and then build layout. Hoping to find a steam engine set. Thanks for sharing how you built that layout. GOD BLESS 🚂💖🚂💖🚂💖🚂💖

[@min3160]

amazing i wana try it

[@timmallon4268]

Great video! Saw the We Are! Must reply, PENN STATE!

[@StevesTrains]

Yes!

[@gatoreye2000]

😁WE ARE!!!😆......nice reference

[@StevesTrains]

The two pictures of the forested hill/mountain were of mount nittany so I had to sneak that in there.

[@LesTrainsduBalbu]

Hello ! Nice layout ! It gave me an idea for a Z-scale project 🙂👍. Thanks for your video ! You won a new subscriber 😁! Greetings from France 🙂!

[@shawnpowell5876]

Great video Steve, I've said it before and I'll say it again, your talent of doing these layouts are unbelievable! Even though its something simple, I like it! Your attention to detail on the trees, ballast, rails and water is spot on! I almost want to do one of these Z Scale layouts myself. Cheers from Laurel, Delaware USA. I also wanted to ask if you'd be able to donate a sticker to my railroad room I'm creating in our new home. I'm a disabled Delawarian due to a hereditary nerve disease and don't get out much bcuz of it.

[@abradley6653]

Nice. Thnkx

[@davidsheriff8989]

Amazing....

[@BarrySolomon-mj1qh]

Z looks hreat I can't wait to build my layout

[@stormbowman7148]

The gap at the end of the river. You could paint the lower part with gloss varnish as well, put in some stones, and have a little drop in the river's flow.

[@StevesTrains]

Yeah, I’ll need to touch that up at some point.

[@silverfox9948]

Santa would love to have you at the North Pole during the Christmas season.

[@mynx_uk]

beautiful work, Question, weird question, what cryptids do you have legends of in your area? i am doing a fantasy layout of, after man has gone and the cryptids return. so i am trying to incorporate them in to the build. Thankyou.

[@user-ur7et6no3s]

Great Video!!! Glad to see a "Central Pennsylvania" layout. Btw: We Are!! (caught that in your video) -but alas, my reference is Hail2Pitt. Cheers from Centre County!

[@wilsonbroughman850]

I can do everything excepting the ballasting. I cant get the dang color right. SAME for my river or creek beds. I wish you would do a series just on that for the different seasons. I LOVE the creek bed on this layout. Excellent work Steve!

[@StevesTrains]

Good video idea!

[@wflinner]

@@StevesTrains Yes, please do a ballasting video! I can never seem to get it right either 😭

[@paulw4259]

Thank you. This is a brilliant introduction for a beginner like me. I'm not in America, so I would love it if you mentioned the types of glue you are using, rather than just the brand name. I can recognise the yellow glue, but I have no idea what 'tacky glue' is. Then again you put so much work into the video, I guess I can at least google the brand names.

[@StevesTrains]

Those are good points. I’m not actually sure what the “tacky glue” is made of. It is like extra sticky PVA glue. It has an immediate tack to it. It is almost closer to a latex caulk than a PVA glue.

[@onkelmichl3300]

tiptop

[@farmcentralohio]

I've always wanted a z scale train. Maybe one day I'll be able to afford one, little suckers are pricey lol

[@BriansModelTrains]

Fun!! 😀

[@eliasblum753]

That's a very nice layout, but it really needs some buildings to give it life: a little cabin in the hills, a track-side section crew shed, maybe even a little halt-stop.

[@StevesTrains]

Only reason I didn’t do that was to try to get the layout done in a week to keep my Tuesday morning upload cycle.

[@eliasblum753]

@@StevesTrains Ah. Maybe you could go back to it and add some buildings, and then post an update video? I'm actually quite inspired by this. (Z is too small for me, but I have a desire to build something similar in TT120).

[@u2bear377]

Disagree. The layout is a pure beauty of pristine wilderness.

[@eliasblum753]

@@u2bear377 Fair enough. De gustibus non est disputandum' and all that.

[@barrygauci9933]

Bro that is fantastic 😊 puts my warhammer to shame.. and as it should it's immaculately done 👍😊 took me a while to learn that placing everything deliberately really ruins the feel of things some times chaos works in harmony 😅... Also haven't any trains yet but is that ballast functional or just for aesthetics?

[@MZTrainsChannel]

cool

[@christopherbeach1123]

Hey Steve. I follow you on youtube. I decided to get started in z scale after seeing your video on it. I bought the azl starter set you used. The question i have is that does your GP-30 only start to run after about 60% input from the rokuhan controller? I also feel that the GP-30 runs kinda slow at full speed.

[@StevesTrains]

Yeah, it takes a bit to get any locomotive going with that controller, but I think it is under 50% with mine. It doesn’t run that super fast with mine at full throttle, but fast enough. It sounds like either your locomotive isn’t running as it should, maybe something is binding up a bit. Or perhaps your controller isn’t putting out as much power as it should. You could check what voltage is on the track with a voltmeter if you have one. I would also recommend breaking in the locomotive for a while (just let it run for an hour or so) if you haven’t already. Could need a bit if lubrication or something as well on the gears, hard to say. I will say that it runs a little slower than my sd70 that I have.

[@sergioarroyoguerrero5434]

Z scale small layout for run trains. Z scale layout with remote switch. AZL Z scale train set. Z scale locomotives. Z scale freight cars. Z scale passengers cars. Z scale autoracks.

[@reefwalker3381]

After all the construction spraying, dusting and gluing over and on the rails, how do you finally clean them? Abrasion? Solvent?

[@StevesTrains]

Just used an alcohol cleaning wipe wrapped around a finger.

[@ewoodrailway]

Impressive, and so tiny

[@bobboskey6571]

Steve, do Z scale trains have comparable technology as larger scale trains? For example, do Z scale trains have automatic decouplers and remote controlled switches? Thanks.

[@StevesTrains]

Remote controlled switches are available. I don’t know if electromagnets are available for z scale directly or not. You can use regular magnets for the usual delayed uncoupling you would do with kadee couplers in larger scales I believe. I remember seeing a video where someone had electrouncoupling magnets that may have been modified n scale ones. I’m not sure.

[@more5347]

you've got all the things you used listed, EXCEPT the one thing I'm curious about, the sculpable. sculptable? is it like sculptable concrete? what is it? where do I get it?

[@StevesTrains]

This stuff: amzn.to/3rPPySq it is basically plaster and paper mache mixed together. You could just use plaster or something similar. The sculptamold has a texture that looks more like rock and it doesn’t crack as easily as plain plaster.

[@Passiona_Official]

Nick offermans wood shop mug?

[@StevesTrains]

Yep! Besides being an actor, he is a fantastic wood worker and has several books out on that topic.

[@joshuaglassman7558]

Yay, Z scale! Are you gonna build a bigger layout eventually?

[@StevesTrains]

Maybe eventually

[@joshuaglassman7558]

@@StevesTrains noyce!

[@csxnspittsburghdivision8580]

Can you build a z scale briefcase layout

[@StevesTrains]

Probably a good project to put on the list.

[@safeasmilk101]

What's the smallest Z scale circle? I'm thinking of a Santa train running around an iced Christmas Cake. Thanks

[@StevesTrains]

You can buy as small as 1.77” radius curves, but most stuff won’t work on that. A safer bet for a small loop would be the 120mm radius (4.72”) which would be a 9.5” diameter. You could go smaller, but a larger variety of stuff will make it around a loop that size.

[@paduag1782]

T scale next 😂

[@StevesTrains]

I’m building a T gauge layout on a hat right now. Video in a couple of weeks.

[@JagOfAllTrades]

Steve, where did you get that Z Scale set? I've been looking online, and it seems Z is hard to come by. Is there any particular website you usually shop from?

[@StevesTrains]

Link is in the description to ztrackcenter.com where I picked up the set (they have several different sets available)

[@JagOfAllTrades]

Thanks! This was an awesome video, and I'm looking forward to building a similar size layout.

[@JagOfAllTrades]

@StevesTrains, where do you get the part that you use to run a chord to plug into the power pack? I'm hoping to have my Z Scale set next month and I wanted to wire it the same way.

[@HumancityJunction]

How many layouts do you still have at home, of all the layouts you have made.

[@StevesTrains]

This one, my 1x6 HO switching layout, and the two N scale layouts under construction (the 2x4 and 1x5).

[@djwarren5081]

​@@StevesTrainsI'm looking forward to seeing your future videos.

[@michaelrollo6518]

I see you only build n scale and z scale I gather you belong to the n track do you build in any other scales besides n and z? t scale is even smaller are you going to try that?

[@StevesTrains]

I do HO too and have started with O gauge as well. I have a T gauge set arriving next week!

[@vicius9269]

Hi can you suggest someuseful book for beginners? Thx

[@StevesTrains]

I like all the Lance Mindheim books, especially “How To Build A Switching Layout”. I like “Building a Model Railroad Step by Step” by David Popp too. There are plenty of other great ones.

[@electricfootballhero1349]

So is there a way to enjoy this hobby without DIY skills and/or a workshop full of power tools?

[@StevesTrains]

You can buy a lot of premade things (structures etc) so you don’t have to do as much building. Of course that costs more.

[@cookingwithsamontheblackst3282]

i got a hole set for sale new its just to small for me

[@dnxsol]

Would be nice to have added a small point of interest on the layout, a small road up the mountain to a fire point outlook or the same.... Otherwise nice idea...

[@StevesTrains]

I would have done more had I had more time. I might go back and add something else at a later time.

[@robertlegacy7508]

Foilage or foliage? Lol

[@cbchodgson]

fo-li-age

[@derekdurst2146]

How totally boring! How about at least a small building somewhere or maybe a short siding to park a couple of train cars on for interest? I mean as long as you're putting that much effort into it, why not?

[@StevesTrains]

Yes, but I had to build this start to finish in less than a week. I eventually received a couple of building kits in the mail but not until after I had to get the first video out on the layout.

[@barrygauci9933]

Just saying the train would look cool as hell if it was. On fire while the mountains also on fire ... Cant remembrr the movie but it would replocate it well haha.... Nudge nudge 🫡😁

[@barrygauci9933]

Don't do that it's too awsome 😅