Brian (Allegheny 2-6-6-6),
This is an exellent topic. At times I could swear that Murphy was born and bred in my basement, but when I have taken the time, I can usually find the culprit for many wierd happenings. One example was when Allen Keller came to shoot Volume 12 on the Piermont, we had all sorts of problems. Just about every shot resulted in some kind of derailment, but when Keller and crew went back to the lodge at night, we found that we could back up 30 car trains at 25 knots with nary a problem, but the next day, the same disasters all over again! Why?? Some of the problems were traced to his very hot lights which caused several areas of track to go out of gauge. Then one huge mountain with heavy foilage and tight clearances turned into the world’s largest Chia Pet…again from the heat This greatly hampered train travel around this curve… Then there are the “footballs” left by the many “G” scale mice that love to railfan the layout leaving their gifts of appreciation on the roaded. Hitting a mouse dump at 20 knots would be tantamount to the prototype hitting a similar gift left by a brontosaur. I have also found that chunks of scenery stuff sometimes break loose and foul tracks.
One thing that has greatly reduced problems was to convert to Proto 2000 trucks on all freight cars. Also adding weight and making sure all wheel sets are metal greatly helps. I’ve have tossed out the weight rule of one one ounce per inch of rolling stock and now weigh all freight cars at 6 ounces and passenger cars at 8 ounces, With good trucks, and clean wheels, haulng this weight is not a problem…especially with re-motored older locos and today’s greatly improved diesels. I make sure all passenger cars are triangulated…meaning that one truck is a bit looser than the other.
Another problem I have noticed that just about disappeared entirely was glued ballast some times rising which caused obvious problems. When I convert
We need a Gremlin Dispersal Unit here as well.[|(]
Actually, if I ever find Mr Murphy hanging around my layout I’ll waste the chump!![soapbox]
Didn’t you read the manual? [:O]
A better question might be “Does anyone NOT have gremlins playing with their layout”? We all have them, and the likelihood of their appearance is directly proportional to the number of people observing.
I think some of my Gremlins are 12oz. cans related.
Do Not Feed Any Pills To Cat Either!![(-D][(-D][(-D]
I sent the Cat in to get the gremlins and this is what i got:
HZ,
Ah but those big furry gremlins that live with you may have a lot to do with things happening in your basement. All those kitty’s and still mouse turds? I’d be sending them kitty’s to the unemployment office.
On a similar note my step son literally almost got the you know what scared out of him tonight. We decided to fire up one of the y3’s pulling a 60 car consist to test out some newly laid main line track. and the Big old Y3’s came around a bend and entered into the only completed tunnel on the layout. Just before exiting the tunnel I gave a couple of blast on the whistle and out ran a baby field mouse at eye level with this 17 year old who let out a scream like the guy on the capital one commercial. I don’t know who was more scared him or the mouse…lol I had to stop the train to sit and catch my breath as I could not stop laughing. The mouse is now named what else Murphy.
No, I don’t have them messing with my layout. They just keep moving things; I know I had that ________ just a second ago, only to find them right where I left them. That one used to drive me wild; one of my mother’s favorite quotes, “…probably right where you left it.” [banghead]. Last night for example, I used some tacky glue, only to lose the cap to the bottle. After spending a 1/2 hour, frantically looking for it, I found it stuck to the masking tape.
I’ve read some of other posts; exorcism stuck out, though. Although, I think the cat would do a better job. Maybe I should check the fan in the basement for little arms with swords in their hands (vague reference to the cat in Stephen King’s “Cat’s Eye”).
I will add one tale of what I thought were “gremlins” I had just with the help of others switched to Dynatrol back in the mid 80’s. It was a major happening as I have (and probably still have) a multi analog block control mindset). Of course I was a bit nervous and not quite sold on this system…then the cost!!!
After all was finally up and running, everything went down and really down. I brought in all of the local experts at the time. We changed power supplies, rewired many blocks and turnout motors that were suspect, and finally isolating the problem to one block…still not being able to find the culprit. I was ready to try to again make friends with my discarded MRC Mark 10, promising never again to doubt its realibility. Then the big guns…in the form of Roy Brakmann (now deceased). After four packs of Luckies, and a barrage of four letter words…still nothing!!
After several months, I decided to rip the system out and send ot back to Mr. Lotti with not great comments. I figured I’d give it one last go before I started with the wire cutters…It worked fine!!!
Ten minutes or so of scratching my head (and other parts) I noticed a tipped over Labelle freight car with CV trucks. I had several cats then and now, but they ain’t allowed in the train room. Obvioulsy one had gotten through the many barriers.
This particular cat must have sensed my (and other’s) frustrations and decicided to solve the problem thus showing all of us up as idiots. Sure enough he tipped over the car which was on a rarely used siding and had its metal wheel spanning a gap.
Cats and gremlins…they do have a place!
HZ