Marching toward completion

As of last week, five of the nine boxcars slated for upgrades have been finished. As this post is being written, a Rock Island boxcar is set up for construction. Hopefully, it will go smoothly. Next will be three GM&O boxcars. Omscaler is considering making these with reporting marks only as this is the home road. However, checking the group of reference photos shows at least the road name as well. What is noted is that the ampersand is some of the pics is the standard font. Not the unusual ampersand seen which resembles a Cyrillic character. Omscaler does not recall any Russians involved with the early railroad. But, you never know. See you next post. Omscaler

 

In and out

As of last week, the picture of the L&N boxcar was taken down and the ATSF boxcar was put up. Seems like progress on The Omega Scale Railway has speeded up a little. At this point, the next ATSF boxcar needs a roof and running gear to be placed into service. Next, omscaler plans a Western Pacific boxcar. Then come Rock Island. GM&O will bring up the rear. Working away, omscaler

 

Not yet

Omscaler is still working on a pair of ATSF boxcars. One of these was referred to last post. Part of the delay was due to the decision to rework the railroad name and slogan on the L&N boxcar. Omscaler knew better (but got excited). Readers may want to check the top pic on the blog and see if they think this is an improvement. Also, omscaler decided to make all the needed logos for the boxcar upgrade at once. This proved to be harder than first thought. More than one attempt was needed on more than one boxcar. As of this post, it looks like we are good to go. We will get them done, omscaler

 

 

A slow start

Last week was more parts making. This week is getting started a little slowly due to the Groundhog Day holiday. However, the ATSF box car will be started this week and maybe completed. Omscaler believes he has enough parts to get everything done. Omscaler is also looking at another turnout redesign but that is on the back burner. Also, this past weekend, the GM&O consolidation (2-8-0) that was in for repair was returned to service. It is now working in Union City. Gearing up to go, omscaler

 

Another one done

Omscaler is proud to announce the completion of L&N 15628, PS-1 boxcar. To restate the highlights, we have laser cut sides, doors, and ladders. Total parts count is approximately sixty-six. The boxcar also features the new side frame construction method. A new stirrup step building method was used as well. Omscaler is thinking the next boxcar upgrade will be an ATSF of the same type. Continuing to build, omscaler

 

More progress

Omscaler is delighted to report that the next boxcar rebuild is making good progress. As of this post, the main portion is done and the roof will be built next. After that, the running gear will be built and installed. A picture should be posted on this blog as soon as possible. Hoping the new year is going well. See you next post, omscaler

 

A (another?) cautionary tale

Hello again faithful readers. This week’s caption does indeed indicate some unexpected challenges. As mentioned before, a major boxcar upgrade project is in the works. The first was a Southern Railway PS-1. This project turnout pretty well. After this, omscaler was going ahead to work up a batch of car sides in sufficient number to complete the upgrades. Last Saturday afternoon omscaler set up the laser cutter cut file and decided to use the project outline feature in the software to make sure the cardstock was in the correct position. The button was clicked on. The laser head moved to the vertical position and then...nothing. No further movement. Omscaler got somewhat agitated rather quickly. A check of the laser operating software was done. Another trial outline was started. No go. At this point, omscaler began looking over the laser itself. It was discovered that the right-side x-axis pulley belt was not engaging. To find out why, omscaler disassembled the housing. The so-called belt tensioner. What was found was about four cracks total in the bottom and top of the pulley bracket. Omscaler definitely became very puzzled at this point. There was a vague recollection of bumping the laser cutter frame while moving it off the table to clean that table. What to do? First idea: check price of an entire replacement laser cutter. Doable but very reluctant. Second idea: check price of a replacement belt tensioner. Very affordable but decided to wait. Third idea: get out the super glue and go to work on a repair. This was fiddley work. However, patience and persistence were rewarded. Now, the laser cut boxcar sides project is over fifty percent completed as of this writing. After getting the laser cutter back on track, literally, another issue reared its ugly head. What was happening was that when the cardstock was cut, some details were burned beyond recognition. This was very puzzling due to the success with the first boxcar. Different laser settings were tried. Not successful. This after cutting just one boxcar side. Finally, omscaler thought, “Let's get real basic and use the preview feature." When this was done, what was seen was that some cut lines were to be cut multiple times. This was what was burning the details off. Somehow, what appeared to be one thick line on the cut diagram was actually “stacked lines”. The cut diagram was gone over line by line, and all unnecessary lines were eliminated. This took several tries. As mentioned above, the project got back underway. Omscaler is still unsure how multiple lines got put in the diagram. It probably happened when the basic cut diagram was converted by hand from the preliminary diagram. Omscaler says you always pay for your education.