Happy Anniversary!

That's right, TWO YEARS! We have been blogging for two years! Wow! I wasn't sure I would make it this far. Well, I was somewhat sure, but you never know. Some of you may recall that the actual start date was in fact on Valentine's Day, 2017. What a great Valentine to the model railroad and miniaturist community, I debated whether or not to post the anniversary post on February 12^th, but decided that later was better than early. Somewhat arbitrary I know. Just seemed better. Looking back, I can only say, “wow!” We have come a long way. When I first started thinking about this, it seems almost a foggy memory. I had returned to college. Working part time. Limited budget. I was visiting model railroad train shows and collecting magazines. I often got them at a large discount. Sometimes free. And look at us now. We appear to be the premier 1/384 scale model railroad site in the world. Boastful, maybe. But the facts support the claim. I have been unable to search out other omega scalers after a number of attempts. That is why I say this. Come join the fun as we move forward. Be the first kid on your block to have your very own omega scale railroad. (borrowed from old time comic book ads.). Yours, a reasonably humble omscaler

An engine and ten

Hello blog readers, model railroaders, friends and neighbors. The lead line on the week's blog is “an engine and ten”. What does this mean, you may wonder? Well, by the time this is posted I will have completed retrofitting of the newest coupler onto the shifter and ten boxcars. This will be the foundational rolling stock for The Omega Scale Railway. As mentioned before, other components are in the works. However, this part was critical for further progress. I have also mentioned that retrofitting is a time consuming effort. Fortunately, I was able to set things up to fabricate coupler hooks a little quicker. To explain in more detail, retrofitting involved removing the entire wheel trucks and old coupler if equipped and fitting new couplers and trucks. The shifter was even more difficult and some damage had to be dealt with. But, now all is well and moving forward. Elated, omscaler

More Holidays!

Hello readers! Hope the new year is well begun for you as it is for me. Hope you had a great Ground Hog Day. One of my favorite holidays. What's not to love? Festive food, meeting friends and family. Weather prognostication to boot! And it just gets better! This very day, in our hemisphere, it is Lunar New Year! This year is the year of the Pig! Wow! The Pig is a symbol of prosperity, wealth and plenty. In Asian culture, a person who is born in this sign is very welcome in the house. I have a feeling that The Omega Scale Railway will prosper this year. Last year was the year of the Rooster, a sign for getting out early and getting busy. We basically did that. Now for the fruits of out labor. Lots coming. See you next time, omscaler

More about upgrading

As previously mentioned, we redid the coupler. Also, there is a list of things that need upgrades as well. We have a better idea for turnouts (switches), subsurface chamber and conveyor components. Better steam locomotive frames too. Retainer shoes are up as well. And some more stuff. Here we go. We are off and running for 2019! Hope you are too. Getting organized and getting going, omscaler

Success again!

Yes, folks, we got it. And boy am I relieved. As you readers know, I was upgrading said coupler. This almost became a thorn in omscaler's side. Omscaler doesn't like thorns. Challenges are okay. Thorns, no. Anyway as promised, the erstwhile coupler is doing what it was designed to do. Always a good thing. Now what? Now I have to decide about “retrofitting”. The question is, “Is it better to build new or fit a new coupler on old equipment?” Maybe we will do some of both. Until next time, pondering and working, omscaler

Improving the process

That's what it's all about. Right? It seems this writer is working on another coupler improvement yet again. It had to be done. We cannot tolerate faulty equipment. It has to work and work right. Right? So anyway, this year is well underway with the previously mentioned upgrades being scheduled even as I write this blog post. What are your plans for this year? Have you thought about it. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail someone said. At this moment I am considering an entire rework of the Murphysboro module. I changed a critical specification. As you probably already know, when you do that, all specifications may be affected. At least as far as the relevant component is concerned. However, this change should improve operation. Also, the change will correct some earlier flaws that got  built in by mistake. Learning is always fun! Until next post, a learning omscaler