Label: The Legion vast

     As previously reported, freight car reporting marks were elaborated upon. This part of the project has indeed expanded. This is due to research in rail car numbers as well as road name reporting marks mentioned in the preceding post. What was determined was that railroads had hundreds to thousands of rail cars in service. This fact, though seemingly obvious, becomes acutely to the forefront when one starts this kind of research. The problem is, which do you include and which do you leave out? In my case, I will be injecting some of my personal favorites just for fun. You would do the same if you were me. Still, the preponderance of choices is immense, very immense. Further still, we at The Omega Scale Railway specialize in overcoming challenges. We believe that we can reach a balance that will be both enjoyable and practical at the same time. The work has begun! Or, should I say, “The fun has begun!”. Your omscaler

Label: The devil in the details

That's right, the omscaler has been working on the details. “What details?” you may wonder. Well, what I did was compile a list of freight car reporting marks series. A rather extensive list by the way. I did use some abbreviations to ease the task of course. Real railroads, they were large, had thousands of rail cars. The reporting marks were required by law. They were simple identifying letters and numbers for each car. The minimum required reporting were the railroad's initials and the individual car number. These were required to be placed in a specific place. Some railroads had just these reporting marks. Others had logo's, the railroad's motto, i.e., Ship it on the Frisco!, Etc. some went so far as have advertising or a blurb for the railroad's name passenger trains, “The Broadway Limited”, for example. The Santa Fe had a stylized partial route map with popular passenger destinations featured. Many variations on the rail cars appeared. So for right now, we have just the basics. Further details will be posted. Omscaler

Label: The one to three eighty-four landscape

It has just occurred to this writer that the Omega Scale landscape might be sparse indeed. I was thinking back to the article that got me started down this road. I have only seen one “live” example of the scale some years ago since then. I guess I am looking forward to the day when everyone has a least a little knowledge about Omega Scale or has even seen it if not owns some of it. But still, I can't help wondering, “Who else is out there?”.  Where are the fellow developers users? Am I like the fellow in the nursery rhyme, with lantern in hand, “...searching all through the night...”? Well fortunately, I can see the sunrise and it indicates a clear blue sky. And speaking of landscape, what will I build the grass and trees from? And what about buildings? And what about water features? And what about lighting? See, the fun never stops on The Omega Scale Railway. Until next week, omscaler