Hello from Murphysboro Illinois!

Well, not really. As I have mentioned before, the main Omega Scale Railway module is modeled after Murphysboro, Illinois, with a number of modifications. Specifically, the module is twenty-two percent of a mile long. This leaves less room than you would thing, even for The Omega Scale Railway with it’s great size of 1/384. Therefore, the freight house has been modified also. There are two reasons for this. First is that the original real freight house had pavement right up to the vehicle loading door side. As a matter of note, the passenger depot had the rear wall set at the pavement line as well. This possibly can be seen even today. The second reason is that the few photos that I could find were from only one perspective and your dear old omscaler had to interpolate the actual dimensions to work from. See, didn't I tell you that working on these projects was fun! Having fun as ususal, until next time, omscaler

What a difference a day makes redux

Yes, The Omega Scale Railway is a learning experience. It seems like within the hour after I finished the covered hopper, I came up with a better idea for the needed components. How ironic that it was after I finished the railcar that I got the idea. But, sometimes, that is how it is. Anyway, the new component is something I have wanted for a long time now. What it does is combine the coupler pin with both shoe retainer pins into one unit. This saves space, saves time, uses material that is both cheaper and easier to use, looks better, is easier to build. Am I leaving something out? Maybe not. However, this has caused me to put some cars into the backshop to refit the new component. Oh, well, we will get her done. Til next week, omscaler

A covered hopper?

As you read this, a covered hopper is already installed on The Omega Scale Railway. Again, we are very proud to have another common car type on the layout. This actually gives us a variety of rolling stock. Omscaler loves variety. Variety is the spice of life. Back to the covered hopper. Covered hoppers were used to haul commodities that would be damaged if it were to become wet. Cement powder comes to mind. Perhaps you, the reader can do omscaler a favor and use the comment section to inform us what other commodities were transported using a covered hopper. Also, all readers are invited to comment, good or bad, on the blog. Hoping to hear from You. until next time, omscaler

Another day, another railcar

It’s finally here. The 50 ton, thirty-four foot hopper. Complete with reporting marks. The hopper is owned by the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. The car number is 32018. The color is solid black. We are very proud to have this example of a common type railcar on the property. We plan to build many more, relatively speaking. So, where to now? As omscaler has stated before, a number of needs for the OSR are always competing for priority. But since we are on a roll with railcars, the next car project wil be...(drum roll), dah, tah, dah, dah, a covered hopper. Truthfully, I hope to have parallel projects working. Having done the hopper, omscaler thinks he can do this. Wish me luck! again, optimistic, omscaler

Back on track

Yes, we are back on track after the major debacle. And yes we are posting from home. Many of you probably were not aware that I have using the public library to get online. I am happy to report that now things have improved so that I can get online at home. Oh happy day! Speaking of a happy report. Let me give you a little report on a train show I attended recently. The show seemed better that last year. Turnout was favorable. I was glad to see old friends and meet new ones. I even took my youngest grandson. I took a number of pics. A good time was had by all. If you have the opportunity, go to a show in your area. I am now working on the planned hopper. Going slowly, that’s s l o w l y. Too slowly for me, but slow down I must. Yours, slowing down, omscaler

Holy cow, another disaster!

Yep, we got bit. Fortunately, it was one of those times when I decided to post ahead. Last week’s post was already posted and scheduled before disaster struck. I posted early due my plan to attend a local model railroad show. Boy was I glad I did so. The only thing was, I had placed the newest railcars on the layout without reporting marks. If you recall, I mentioned this last post. After the disaster occurred, I realized I still needed to do this. I tried not to remonstrate myself too much and worked on the problem as best I could. The problem, in fact was the failure of my personal computer. No booting, no nothing. I took it to a local vendor of electronics. They were nice enough to get an initial prognosis. Same thing. No booting, no nothing. There was power and the screen kept coming back to the “choose last good configuration setting”. That was all it did. Dead in the water I was. Well, the upshot was, it was time to buy a new processor. Oh what fun! The thing came with a new key board and mouse. Our friendly manufacturers always change the connecting hardware it seems. So, no use of old peripheral with the exception of the monitor. (But give this time as well. }:>) The bright spot in all this was that I had a major backup of all files. The only exception to this was that I had to grab the last two blog posts off of my “carry” jump drive. If I had not done this, I would have probably voluntarily committed my self to Belleview*.  Anyway, I worked and worked and got almost everything sorted out, with one exception. (Enough exceptions, already.) My camera transfer software had to be downloaded from the web. No web at my home. This may be changing soon. I did get to transfer pics with the new processor. Another win for the omscaler. Planning to win some more, omscaler

*Historic New York hospital for the insane :)

Getting good marks

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that the gondolas were on the property, i.e. on the layout. I also mentioned that they were without reporting marks. No, the gondolas were not attending school. How would they raise their hands to respond to the teacher anyway? No, reporting marks as I have probably already mentioned, have the initials of the owning railroad as well as the individual car number, or equipment number if a locomotive or other vehicle on rails. These marks are mandated by Federal law. Sometimes the car will have the initials or roadname in large letters on the side of the equipment if there is enough room and the owners chooses to do so. How many of you readers know of an actual example of what I am referring to? Please post your response in the comment section. I will get us started. The SOO railroad comes to my mind. Looking forward to some fun examples being posted, omscaler