Label: Still trackin'     

Work in downtown Murphysboro, Illinois is still coming along. This has indeed been a busy process. It seems like you do a lot of work but don't get anywhere since everything is in the old M&O rail yard. Of course you're gonna' need a lot of track to hold numerous rail cars so it must be done. The flip side of this is even when you get done, you're going to run out of room. Ironic I know. But, as previously mentioned, bounds must be set. Still, I've been fabricating track after track. There is a man named GEORGE SELLIOS, who has built a very fine model railroad layout with a very high level of detail. I read in an article about the model railroad that he put a company name of a large downtown office building as I.M. Boren. He said he got very bored making all the windows for the building. I get it. I can relate. Nevertheless, persistence wins the day. By the way, if I have not already mentioned, on September 12^th, the annual Murphysboro, Illinois Apple Festival starts. The 12^th through the 15^th I believe. Mr. Apple will be there. Parades, competitions, demonstrations too. Oldest non-alcoholic festival in southern Illinois. Over 45,000 in attendance. Mark your calendars! Until next time, omscaler

Label: A turn in time?

Just one more gotcha' to share. I am currently working on laying track on the module. I did some preliminary work with grade crossings as already mentioned. Next came turnout planning. All well and good. I did the layout. Checked my work. Then asked myself, “If the train can cross over to this siding, how does it get back on the track it came from?” No answer except, “It doesn't!” After rechecking, guess what? The planning engineer (me) had skipped a set of crossovers. Wow! This won't do. To compound the problem, a crossover to a parallel track that extends alongside both ways actually needs two turnouts. Boy is my face red. See what happens when you get in a hurry. Glad I caught this in time.  Until next week, omscaler

Label: Jus' walkin' down the street    

This week we look at some more details about the current project. Besides railroad track, we are also working on streets. The streets back in the day were simply dirt or chert or clay or sand or crushed sea shell. In Murphysboro, after the initial dirt or clay streets, the city laid down paving brick. That is correct, brick. Similar to what is used in house construction. The bricks were made in a brick plant located south east of town. The company made bricks for many municipalities all over the United States. And as you might surmise, after the advent of Macadam roads (asphalt), the company became less important and eventually closed. What this means for the Omega Scale module of said town is that we had the need to ascertain what tones and colors are needed to simulate a paving brick road. Should we indicate each and every brick. Oh no! We ain't gonna do that! We think that would take forever! So what we decided was to use a textured surface with a variation in tones. So far, so good. Yours again, a relieved omscaler

Label: A little update.

This week's post is just a small update on progress. We did complete the preliminary prep work and also we did get the grade crossings installed. I am working late on this part as I write this just having installed the aforementioned grade crossings. Next is the roadbed and track proper. Until next week. Staying busy, omscaler