Label: Solving a “sticky” problem

More progress. The previously mentioned boxcar gaggle (group) got done. However, your developer noticed a profound friction of motion in the group as a whole. Well, omscaler got busy with another supplemental idea and wouldn't you know it, most friction went away. Fortunately, this modification was a simple one. Results were somewhat impressive. Boxcars are in rework mode and getting back on track (sorry again for the pun). Moving forward again, omscaler

Label: Progress at last!

As you readers know, last post indicated that the project underway had hit a bit of a rough patch, to borrow from the British. Well, whew! Things are now moving along according to plan. This writer was able to fabricate a couple of work holders. One of which increased the rate of production enough for us to move forward at a better speed with a test batch of production boxcars. We should have a group of ten or more by the time this post is published. And another thing. When I was at a previous company, I and others noticed that the prototype developed was often a good bit more shall we say higher quality than the production run. Oh, well, art (or is it craft) imitates life. Until next post, a chipper omscaler

Label: A passel of boxcars      

As many of you know, omscaler has been very forthcoming about development efforts of The Omega Scale Railway. So it is in the vein that I am sharing the current state of affairs. At this point I am working on construction of one dozen boxcars. Things are not going smoothly. If any of our readers have worked in manufacturing prototyping, they will recognize this as normal. The reason is this. When you go from prototyping to production, the product produced is never like the prototype. No matter how hard you try, production is always below the prototype. In this case, new material and method had to be incorporated in the product. On the positive side, things are beginning to work and we are moving forward. When this phase is finished, production standards will be in place to facilitate the construction of any type of rolling stock needed. Looking to the future, omscaler

Label: A little more inspiration:

To continue our anniversary celebration, another oldie but goodie:

This a glimpse of the early challenges we worked on.

The coupler quandary, persistence paid off. To start with, I almost named this post “The Battle of The Coupler”. How melodramatic. Well at times to be honest it did seem like that. I finally realized that I had delayed a most crucial component. By leaving this part to the last, I was not able at that point to make any real progress on the development of the very small railroad, i.e., The Omega Scale Railway. The coupler became the sole effort some three or more months ago. I tried one idea then another. Nothing looked right or worked. Finally I got out a diagram for a railcar and enlarged it. I also found pictures and diagrams of the Janney coupler online and studied them. I continued working. At last, a working coupler emerged. It looks similar to the prototype coupler but releases with a bottom clip spring. More about the spring another time (unless I get inquiries). The coupler still definitely some fine tuning but looks realistic and will let the project go forward now. For a final detail, the coupler was installed Sunday, January 29^th, 2017, at approximately 3 P.M. Your ideas for improvement, questions as well as general comments will be welcome.