Insider information

 This week, omscaler has some inside information for blog readers. The info concerns the car reporting marks for the hopper group. More specifically, the individual car numbers. They are: 60501, 60504, 60506, 60511, 60517, 60523, 60525, 60529, 60537, and 60541. Readers will note that these numbers are not consecutive. This was done purposely to have a more realistic group of cars. It has been omscaler’s experience that when encountered in real life, it is rare to see consecutive numbers. However, the series of these numbers is based on actual GM&O open top hoppers. Also, the hopper group is being built somewhat slowly. This is due to different reasons. Nevertheless, omscaler is committed to completing this important project. Continuing the work, omscaler

 

Winter is over? Really?

Last post omscaler said winter was over. Omscaler made a large blunder. Snow on the ground last Saturday. Remind me not to be a weatherman. And headed toward seventy-five degrees two days after this will be posted! Oh well. Anyway. Been busy around here with non-model railroad stuff. Had to be done. The good news is that with the stuff out of the way, we can resume with the important work on the hopper group. Omscaler is still working on the end slope sheets. Next will be the middle slope sheets. The method we are using now has us making the car components from a thinner card stock for ease of cutting. The normal black stock is 110# weight card and is a bear to cut. This stock will also delaminate if it needs to bend. The current stock is white so the added step of tinting it off black is needed. This is not too much trouble. The end result is a better-looking railcar. Continuing this important work, omscaler

 

Winter is over!

Yes. Fine weather is here. Lots of folks are getting outside and enjoying the sunshine. Omscaler is one of them. The walking track at the local park has been visited a number of times already. Gotta’ keep fit to enjoy the model railroad. However, there is a dark side to this. With the occurrence of fine weather, the temptation is to just be outside all the time. This lessens the time put in on The Very Small Railroad. The good news is that there is a silver lining to this dark cloud. April showers bring indoor work time for us who are diligently laboring on The Omega Scale Railway. All we have to do is put some time in every day if we can. Usually not a problem. I think I hear a fish jumping! Setting my resolve, omscaler

 

Headed for the slopes!

Next week we are headed for the slopes. Just for the record, omscaler does not ski. This is due to growing up in the deep south. However, next week, omscaler will be working on the slopes. What is being referred to is slope...sheets. We will need to complete the side assemblies then on to the slopes! Let’s see. There are two end sheets. Two center sheets. Two beam cover sheets. Times ten cars. You get the picture. As an aside, the car markings came out pretty well. Well, on to the slopes! Omscaler

 

Happy Anniversary!

That’s right! It’s us again! We are marking five years this month. Actually February 14^th. Since the fourteenth was on a Monday, omscaler decided to mark the event in this post. We are very proud of what we have accomplished so far. Frankly, omscaler had no idea how much work would be involved to bring this dream into fruition. We knew it would not be easy. We believed then and now it would be well worth it. The Omega Scale Railway continues to inspire us. Talk about continuous process improvement. Even as this is being written, ideas that save time and effort are being used. In this specific case, the ten-car hopper project needed both a railroad name and reporting marks on each side of the car. Initial trials called for one hundred sixty appliques to get the job done. Omscale knew this could be improved upon. We got ‘er down to twenty. The new design is much easier to install. This is a major tour-de-force for the building department. This is the kind of innovation that has become the hallmark of The Very Small Railroad. Other ideas are already waiting in the wings. This is what keeps us excited around here. Itching to go, omscaler

 

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