Merry Christmas!

Yes! It’s that time of year again. What a great Holiday! We can celebrate the birth of The Messiah, Immanuel, Jesus Christ The Lord and other honorific titles we use to describe Jesus. Did you know that in the Old Testament, Jesus is Joshua. What has all this got to do with model trains? Well it is this. The great message of The Gospel is this, people can be forgiven their sins and people do not have to sin. This was the groundbreaking message of the Great Reformation, the two-pronged Gospel. In ancient times, pagan people were forever knocking on trees, throwing salt around the house, trying not to knock over the salt, all in order not ot offend a deity. They were also ruled by some kind of overlord in most cases. It was through The Gospel that people began to rise out of the mud. Because their minds were renewed, they began to invent and innovate. Some will point out that other groups not associated with Christianity also innovated. Not a problem as I can see. Progress is progress. Anyway, technology came to the fore. Then it became commonplace. Then most people had modern conveniences. Then I had a model railroad. A compact account I know. Currently we are enjoying the new freighthouse and have begun the historic Mobile and Ohio Railroad passenger station with the main headquarters located on the second floor. See the old building on google maps satellite view of Murphysboro, IL at Walnut and 17^th Streets. In the season, omscaler

“Summit Fever!”

Yes, your dear omscaler got “summit fever”. As some of you know, summit fever is what happens when mountain climbers get near the top of mountains like Annapurna and Mt. Everest and others. Sometimes this condition is fatal as the climbers are exhausted, low on oxygen, energy, water, and food. The climbers get giddy, ebulent and overly optimistic about their ability to complete the summit attempt. My case happened sometime after nine o’clock Sunday night. I was trying to wrap up the critical Murphysboro freight house project when suddenly it dawned on me that it was getting late. I looked at the clock. I looked at the project. I looked back at the clock. I looked back at the project. I thought to myself, “I’m gonna’ do it!”. So I went for the final push. When I got done, I looked at the clock again. The clock said ten o’ seven P.M. I was done! No altitude sickness, no frostbite. Now we have a temporary base of operations in Murphysboro. We can dispatch trains, organize repairs and ship freight. Soon, other facilities will take over some of this. Until that time, the freighthouse is where it’s at. Yours, planning more projects, omscaler

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