 |
| Omnivagant interurban layout designed by Bill Schopp* |
Omnivagant: A track plan that goes everywhere and connects everyplace.
Usage: Each neighbourhood on his omnivagant streetcar layout had a least one car-stop.
Source: The word was first used to describe a trackplan in a story about a layout design called the Decatur, Jackson & Newton by Linn Westcott in the May 1940 issue of Model Railroader magazine.
A prominent editor in the model railroading press once suggested to me that the use of omnivagant in Mr. Westcott's article was a mere typographic error of the time. However, the line where it's used in the story, Provision is made for point-to-point, once-around, triple loop, omnivagant (wandering anywhere and everywhere), and switching operations, suggests that it was no error as Mr. Westcott included the accepted non-railroading definition in the sentence. Also, it's noted that although omnivagant is an archaic word, it has a history and evolved into our extravagant.
Omnivagant is not to be confused with spaghetti, which is a trackplan created for the sole purpose of covering a layout with as much track as possible to maximize train, engine, and car carrying capacity. Spaghetti layouts often become so through unrestrained additions of track over a period of time.
A prominent editor in the model railroading press once suggested to me that the use of omnivagant in Mr. Westcott's article was a mere typographic error of the time. However, the line where it's used in the story, Provision is made for point-to-point, once-around, triple loop, omnivagant (wandering anywhere and everywhere), and switching operations, suggests that it was no error as Mr. Westcott included the accepted non-railroading definition in the sentence. Also, it's noted that although omnivagant is an archaic word, it has a history and evolved into our extravagant.
Omnivagant is not to be confused with spaghetti, which is a trackplan created for the sole purpose of covering a layout with as much track as possible to maximize train, engine, and car carrying capacity. Spaghetti layouts often become so through unrestrained additions of track over a period of time.
Omnivagant track plans are often characteristic of electric street and electric interurban model railways. When applied to traditional steam and diesel layouts they can devolve into spaghetti trackplans. Not all electric street and electric interurban model railways need be omnivagant.
*This plan appears in the 1957 3rd printing of Louis Hertz's The Complete Book of Model Railroading.
from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 1st ed.,1959.
No comments:
Post a Comment