Label: A little more...about the trip and on the railroad

I thought I would mention a little more about the Chattanooga trip. As I said before, it was a railroad buff's paradise. When we went through the tunnel, the conductor said to shine our cell phone lights out the window. He went on to say that the tunnel sides were only about six to eight inches from the sides of the car. It looked like he was right. The wall was right there! Let's go back a few minutes. We started out by getting our tickets in an “old fashioned” train station. It was actually a new building I believe. Then we went out to the yard area in front of the station. We actually walked through this area to get to the station but I wanted a further look at all the equipment. What a collection! Everything from a 4-4-0 American to modern diesels. The trip took us on the old abandoned Southern right of way to the TVRM yard and turntable. Along the way we could see the old roadbed of the pre-Civil War railroad that was parallel to the roadway we were on which was parallel to the new Norfolk Southern roadbed(s). Lots of railroad action that day. The TVRM also runs along the Georgia Railroad for a little bit. Hope you readers can check it out.

     Meanwhile, back at the ranch. Our shifter rework is well along. Right now we have the lower frame with wheels. The boiler has been jacketed with the crown sheet. Drilling for stack and dome attachment has be done. The cab is underway. Progress continues. omscaler

Label: Back in time

This week’s blog is about a little trip I took with a family member. We went to Chattanooga Tennessee. There we visited among other things, the Tennessee Valley Railway Museum. What a rush! We had a sunny but very cool day. The wind was from the north right out of the blizzard states, like Iowa. Some of the train passengers were from Ohio. They said they thought they would enjoy the warm Southern April weather. Such was not to be. Anyway, back to the excursion. It was great. Such history! From before the war for Southern Independence, “The Waw” (colloquial term), aka, the American Civil War to the changes brought about by the great Southern Railway, all could be seen on the property. Really!  The grounds were stuffed with classic and vintage rail equipment. All was inspiring to your blogger, omscaler. Who, it seems, needs a little inspiration now and again. Well, we got it. Now I am ready for a big push to get immediate goals accomplished. Until next time, all aboooard! omscaler

Label: What's taking so long?

Good question. What is taking so long? Your omscaler has been waiting/working weeks on a reworked 0-6-0 shifter (switcher). To remind readers, it was severely damaged due to a back fitting of track retainers. So, Microlotive©, where is the beef (old Wendy's Hamburger tag line)? Well, as it turns out, a large real life locomotive has around ten thousand moving parts. Yep, that many. And, Microlotive© is insisting on doing a first class job. The last shifter was a “quick and dirty” project. So, again, patience is called for. Hopefully the results will be worth it. Keeping you posted, omscaler

Label: The Towns Along the Way

The current dilemma: where to put the railroad? I don't mean I don't know whether to put the railroad in one room or another. I mean, where should the model railroad be situated as far as depicting a location. As many of you know, I model the GM&O during the late forties. The current idea is to put a “staging” yard at a farther point on the model railroad. This area will represent both a large northern destination as well as a southern destination. In model railroad usage, this area will be used to build respective southbound and northbound trains. Many modelers use this technique. It gives a lot of planning flexibility with regard to making up trains. But the real question now is what actual locations to use on the modeled portion of said layout. I currently have diagrams for the Union City Tennessee freight house, which has been built, and the union station. I also have a diagram for the Humboldt Tennessee freight house. Right now my thinking is to build Union City on the layout. Have Humboldt as well. And, lastly, I am considering Murphysboro, Illinois. I have pictures of the passenger station here as well as a track diagram showing the location of shops, roundhouse, freight house and other buildings. Looks like things are shaping up. (Aren't you glad I didn't say on track?) omscaler

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