Until recently, certainly back when I started down this path, there was little to pick from in the way of American prototypes modeled in Z. There is ever so much more now and the amount and variety is increasing, but back when I learned of Z scale, European and especially German prototypes were the norm. After all, Marklin just about did it all. At least it seemed that way.

Steam had continued to play a big role in German railroading up into the mid '70s. This and European railroad electrification provided Marklin a broad spectrum of prototypes to model covering a long chronological breadth as well. The result was that by the time I had discovered them, there was a lot to pick from in the two railroading modes I prefered; steam and electric (probably influenced by my interest in traction). Even now, years after I set my course, with fast growing numbers of American diesel engines on the market, there are still only a small number of American steam engines and most of those have been limited production runs.