Rib redux and “the battle of the ampersands”

Readers may recall the account of the rib installation. Omscaler is delighted to report a more innovative method was used to make side ribs. Faster to do and seems to appear more realistic (perhaps?). Glad the ribs are done. What happened the following Thursday was a tale to be told. The following account is from a post omscaler did on a popular forum. It is presented here “in the vernacular”.

Wow! Am impressed again! So much going on. I finished the rib application phase for the open top hoppers. Thursday was "the battle of the ampersand". First a little background. A while ago I ran short of letter size printer paper. When I went to the office supply store, somehow, I got into a conversation with the lady in the print shop department. She said the print shop now used 24# paper as the 20# paper used too much ink. I explained that I used the paper for the model railroad. The upshot of this was that she just gave me a number of sheets of the 24# paper as a free sample! Happy, happy, joy, joy! Next, the ampersand. The GM&O ampersand is not the standard ampersand. It was apparently designed by a drunken Bulgarian (my apologies to drunken Bulgarians). It looks like a Cyrillic "yeh", a backwards three, with a little inverted "T" tail on the right bottom. I could not find it on the interweb, even to purchase. So, what we did was scan it in as black on white (I need white letters on black). Two tries on the scan (needed jpeg, not pdf). Pulled it up in Paint 3D. Got the colors reversed. Manipulated it with a snip and cut app as well. Imported it to the spreadsheet where reside the reporting marks and Etc. And voila' we got a good test print. Fyi, this had to be reduced from a font size seven at a thirty percent reduction. So, you see, I have been having fun! This is the 'mostest words I ever put on here. Sorry it is so long. Be well, safe and fun to be with! 

 As readers can see, we won the battle. Omscaler is optimistic we can indeed apply the road name and reporting marks with the original ampersand. Omscaler strives for realism as much as possible on The Very Small Railroad. We continue to labor, omscaler

 

Do you mind a little ribbing?

In the Bible, Adam gave a rib. Omscaler is going to give a rib or rather give one hundred and forty ribs. “Let's have a barbecue!”, the reader may say. Great idea! However, we might do it after the ribs are installed on the hopper cars. Each side has seven ribs. There are ten hoppers being built. Each rib has to be cut to size and installed. An exacting task but as always, omscaler will “get ‘er done”. See you on the rib side, ‘er on the flip side. Omscaler

 

Hopping on hoppers

 The work on the open top hoppers is moving forward. We did a yeoman’s job on the coupler specifications. This included making a coupler height gauge as is used on many model railroads. Never hurts to borrow a good idea. The couplers tested well and omscaler expects reliable performance in real life. At this writing omscaler has begun cutting out the side sheets. We are working slow and careful. Omscaler uses cutting guides to help keep things moving along. Some adjustments had to be made to the guides to improve accuracy. So far, so good. Never hurts to double check and check again. We are not sure exactly when the hoppers will be done. We just have to wait and see. Patiently working, omscaler

 

A hook in time saves nine?

 As per last post, omscaler is working on a batch of ten fifty-ton, thirty-four-foot, twin bay, open top hoppers. The draft gear is complete. What is going on now is the fine tuning of the coupler hooks. The Very Small Railroad actually uses a simple swing latch hook for the coupler. Simple. Seems to work. However, at this point omscaler is trying to make the couplers in a more accurate size. Small couplers require small adjustments. If the couplers are made too large, they don’t work well. If the couplers are made too small, they don’t work well. Seems like a Goldilocks situation. If the reader compares the real life coupler to The Omega Scale coupler, several differences will become apparent. The OSR coupler has no moving parts. The Janney coupler has the main part, the knuckle and a knuckle pin. Omscaler at this time does not know how to replicate the real coupler in 1/384 scale. Maybe one day? That is why a simple swing latch is used. We continue to work on the current project. Getting it done, omscaler

 

We’ve been framed!

 That’s right! We have been framed! Let me explain. All new road equipment on The Omega Scale Railway have the newly designed side frames. This actually began with the M&StL boxcar. This side frame eliminates three parts. It is easier to make. It also has a thinner profile. Estimated time to make these is shorter as well. All these attributes give The Very Small Railroad a better looking rail car. Just in time for the new batch of open top hoppers! Well, let’s hop to it, omscaler

 

Of mice & men & ampersands

 Do readers remember a reference to mice and men and best laid plans? Omscaler is now including ampersands. Why ampersands the reader may wonder? Well as of late the safari hunt for the fabled GM&O ampersand has been ramped up. Recent efforts have been less than successful. This ampersand is a very unique squiggle in its own right. Omscaler has never seen anything else like it. An internet search for the elusive ampersand came up with zilch. Purchasing the animal has turned out to be a non-option. Why is this font so unusual? For one, it has an appearance of a Cyrillic “E” or a backward three or some other thing. The second thing is that at the lower right it has an inverted small “T” with a bent tail. This character is a character! An odd bird indeed. The serif is strange too. Omscaler had to back up and make ready to punt, so to speak. At this writing, some old GM&O Historical Society publications were pulled from storage (a hutch drawer) and scrutinized closely. Book by book. A likely candidate was found. The plan is to scan the offending ampersand into the desk top computer and try to manipulate it to the correct dimensions. We will see what we will see. Moving forward with optimism, omscaler

 

Happy New Year!

It is time for a new beginning. Time to dust off the dust of last year and start anew. Omscaler actually begins planning for the next year in November. Saves last minute rushing. At this time, we like to reflect on what did and did not get accomplished and set our goals anew. As of now, The Omega Scale Railway has sixteen goals, some with sub-goals pushing us above twenty in actual number. The work before is plentiful but joyful. We are expecting great rewards for great effort. The last week of twenty twenty-one saw the completion of a dual rod flaring tool. This should speed up production of coupler/retainer rods. A pretty good way to end the year for omscaler and The Very Small Railroad. The current project underway is a group of ten open-top hoppers. Busy, busy, busy, omscaler