Label: Time to couple up        

that's right, time to couple up. No, I don't mean cuddle up. Unless you're with your sweetie. And you may be as you read these exciting posts. I mean time to couple up the railcars and locomotives. I stated earlier that the coupler model needed a rework. And rework I mean. Fidgeting and fiddling and finally getting it right. That's what's critical. Getting the right operation down to a tee. Just a little more tweaking and hopefully an announcement of completion. omscaler

Label: Laaabor Daaay!

Whoo hoo! It's Labor Day day after. Summer's official end in most folks mind. Schools are back in session. Vacations are mostly complete. The weather, thankfully, is a little cooler. Some warm days still to come but not as warm now. I was glad to note that The Omega Scale Railway hobby was very enjoyable in the super hot weather. I was inside in the air conditioning of course. Plugging along as usual. What is going to happen now is that great fall days will compete for time with the OSR. That's okay, I need to get out more. Ah yes, end of summer. And don't forget, The Apple Festival in Murphysboro is fast approaching. Mark your calendars. omscaler

Label: Coupler redux, again?

As mention last post, a coupler rework is in progress. However, progress has been slow. Probably due to a little down time I had to take for personal needs. Nothing serious, just necessary. What we are looking at is a coupler that is two feet in height, about the same across the widest point and may be three or four feet in length on the real thing. What this works out to is 1/16th of inch high by 1/16th inch wide and 3/32 long more or less. We need to have an internal latching mechanism so the outside will look as realistic as possible hopefully working similarly to the real thing as well. We will start big and work our way down. I once saw a bit of graffiti in an old railyard that was on a small yard shed. The graffiti said, “Start at the bottom and work your way down”! Sounds like someone was discouraged. Not me. Onward and downward, omscaler

Label: A little backtrack?

Is that another pun? Again? Sorry folks. What I am talking about is this. Last week's post referred to work cars. We're definitely still gonna' do that but, in tandem with another project. That is, we are going to rework our couplers. This is frankly a bit of a challenge, but challenges are what we do here. The old couplers were a little quirky. I therefore feel an upgrade is called for. A little pain now will have big rewards later. No, I am not really going to hurt myself. You know what I mean. Going forward, omscaler

Label: Getting work done

Last post I made an important announcement about a milestone on The Omega Scale Railway, the Murphysboro module. I put a picture at the top of the blog showing a good portion of the module and made an announcement on Facebook directing readers to the blog. I did this because I wanted to give blog readers a first look at what had been accomplished. So far so good. Also, blog readers may have noticed that the posting came out about six hours late. This was so I could coordinate everything I wanted to show. Plus there was a delay due to a personal problem that was not serious. What your omscaler is looking at now is....drum roll please, work cars. “What do you mean?”, you may be asking yourself. I am referring specifically to a least two flat cars. We need these to carry rails and ties to construct the main line to other destinations. Obviously, I have been doing this without any work cars so to speak, but I wanted to have them on the layout for authenticity. Still workin' on the railroad, omscaler

Label: A home of their own at last!

That's right. We got it. It is still basic I know, but we are there. This week's blog is accompanied by pictures of the Murphysboro Illinois module. Right now it looks like a snow storm or a massive white sand beach. Obviously the underlayment is primarily white. But as you can see, all track work is there. Grade crossings are complete as far as the parts adjacent to the rails. We still need some between the roadbeds themselves. This is evident in the photographs. I expect this to be done by the time this post is published. What we are looking at next is the grade crossing fill in mentioned above, streets and either dirt lots or lawns. And then buildings. Also, we are headed both north and south on the main line. All aboooard! See you later, omscaler

Label: More progress

Another update. Last time I related the trackwork progress. I did finish all the the straight trackage in the module. Then I began to work on the turnouts (switches). At first it seemed that I had hit a mental road block. I pondered, I meditated, I studied. No go. Then I decided to rest my brain for a day or so. That was it! I was able to mentally picture a completed turnout. Lesson learned. A common way to overcome brain lock. Put the thing down! The issue seemed to solve itself. Still working, omscaler