today i was running my 4019big boy & stupidly i left off theside guard along side the bridge , well it derailed at crashed to the floor , it runs but im going to spend some time
bring it back to life with the plastic details .
I learned a valuable lesson today, [Expression removed by moderator] i know im not alone[:'(]
Floor model.
Been there; done that.
It’s sort of a tradition.
Mine was a Mantua Pacific.
Ed
Been there. It’s like age spots on your skin…you’ll get 'em eventually. Duck, weave, flee,…makes no never mind, you’ll get tagged. And you’ll drop at least one engine, or let it run off the layout. In my case it was three of them.
Sorry for your pain. It’s a great lesson. I guess…
Oddball wants you knock it with them negative waves.
I had an all brass Balboa Mike take a nose dive from the second level of My layout in a tunnel to the concrete floor below. The tunnel interior was hollow, did not have any track guards installed yet! Expensive lesson learned. Was never able to get it right again…too much damage to the boiler front and frame…still have it though in pieces in glass jars…[xx(]
The train on the top level coming out of the tunnel…the brass was going in:
I was going to paint it all rusted up and set it next to the roundhouse maybe some day…
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Too many to mention.
I thought about putting a net beneath the roadbed.
I’ve had a couple such mishaps.
This one, a Bachmann Reading Consolidation, with a pancake motor, dropped about 5’ to the floor, on a former layout…
Despite its current appearance, it sustained no apparent damage, and is still a decent runner, although it’s not currently in use.
On my current layout, I was doing a little switching in South Cayuga (see drawing below), but thought that I heard another locomotive running somewhere else…
I can’t see the whole layout from that location, so I walked around the peninsula to check that all other tracks had their power switched off (straight DC operation, with all fascia-mounted toggle switches in the “OFF” position).
I returned to my switching, spotting and picking up cars, the locomotive shuttling back and forth as required. I thought that I could still hear another locomotive moving, but because that wasn’t possible, dismissed the thought.
After a while, it was time for the train to move on to the next town. As it trundled out of town, I thought that I heard another locomotive running and a few seconds later, heard something hit the concrete floor.
Not sure of where the mishap was, I came around the peninsula and discovered that a locomotive, similar to the ones shown below, was on the floor near the entrance to the room…
…at the time, the area shown was a single track. I usually parked my “coal train” there, as the power to that siding was controlled by the turnout, near the doorway, and it was always<
Somewhat similar to Wayne’s scenario, except that it can happen in DCC as well.
I was making a quick layout check of a newly acquired locomotive. Don’t recall which one now but, of course, the DCC address was the default 3.
With the new engine on the main I prepare to “dial-up” address 3 and I make a quick mental note… “any other locomotives on the layout with address 3? Nah, can’t be.”
Well, after a minute or so I “think” I hear another locomotive moving, but I’m convinced this cannot be so. Then— I hear the dreaded crunch.
My one-and-only MTH locomotive, which had been giving me fits when trying to set a different address on it’s [8o|] DCS decoder WAS still on address 3!
As Murphy would have it, the engine happened to be on one of the few tracks that curve close to the edge of the layout. That NYC Empire State Express engine took a hit square on her nose and mashed in the front cowling.
Pretty much 90% of the engine is die-cast zinc alloy. After a little disassembly I was able to carefully coax the bent portion of the framework right back into position [Y] if I recall the tender’s Kadee coupler took a hit, too.
Having the engine disassembled gave me the chance to yank out the silly smoke-puffer, too. I finally figured out how to change the address to the engine number, too, so all is well in that department.
Cheers! Ed
This thread is exactly why I:
With that being said, I’ve carried buildings to the layout and thinking that I cemented the roof on, had the rest of the building hit the floor.
Having a pretty secure layout as far as driving equipment over the edge forced me to find other creative ways to creat mayhem. This little scratch built freight car repair shop was in the harms way when a masonite back drop panel decided to fall into the layout. You can see the panel leaning up behind the flopped over train in the back of the picture.
I picked up every last sliver of damaged wood from the building and sorted it all out.
And reassembled it.
It’s been relocated for other reasons, but the panel has been secured so it can’t do that again. Dan
I only had 2 of the 4 sides of my old layout done and was demonstrating a loco with a short train. In reverse. I killed the throttle but the loco coasted more than expected, dumping the last 2 cars right off the edge to the cement below.
The good news, both cars were Kato covered hoppers. You may remember these came as kits, which more or less snapped together, no glue necessary. So, after locating all the parts, I basically got to build them all over again. They used a tough engineering palstic that most glues don’t touch anyway, so even parts like the stirrup steps bench and detached rather then broke off. And since it was a springy plastic, returned to normal shape. Still have them, still run perfectly fine.
–Randy
This is a fun and possibly educational thread. Years back when I completed the line to Union Camp through a long tunnel which ran up to the ceiling, many of my cohorts came over for a mini celebration complete with beer and pizza. I assmebled a short work train with all scratch built cars headed by an OMI brass B&O S1 2-10-2. No sooner did the train enter the tunnel from the north side, we heard all types of screeching and the second worst sound on the planet…a brass loco hitting concrete after a 600+ ft scale drop. This was then followed by probably the third worst sound…5 scratch-built wood cars hitting concrete. During this period of complete mayhem, 15 of us witnessed the world’s first HO scale earth quake as rocks, bushes, trees, and whatevers began cascading down from the huge slope.
Unknow to us, Sam, my 26 pound Maine Coon cat was in the tunnel sleeping right on on the mainline. The S1 most likely plowed into him driving Sam straight up to the inboard ceiling of the tunnel. Being the cat lover that I am, I did not cook Sam the cat that evening, but did devise a fool proof cat door which has served well for the last twenty years.
Enjoy and hopefully learn…
HZ
This happened a few years ago when I decided to wire up the two new staging yard tracks and unfortunately it did not go smoothly. Wiring up the track itself went fine. I ran the wire to the control panel and soldered it to the track feeders. The problems started when I went to run a test train around the new track. I noticed the train (really a light engine) would stall on the second turnout in the yard ladder. I took out my multi meter and checked the turnout. I ultimately came to the conclusion the common rail wasn’t getting power.
At any rate I decided to solder in some new feeder wires to the short spacer tracks between the turnouts. One soldered on with no problems. The other? Well, see for yourself…
The second feeder wire decided to put up a fight and refuse to solder to the rail. I ultimately ended up causing the ties to melt and the wrecked the whole spacer! So I spent the next hour cutting a new track and then gritting my teeth and cursing under my breath trying to get it in place.
If that wasn’t bad enough, in the process of fighting with the track, I manged to give the table a bit of a bump. This resulted in the N Scale equivalent of 10.0 on the Richter Scale. Several cars of a freight train parked at that end of th
SMASHBOARD Signals.
Give the traian crew one last chance to pay attention before their train runs off the edge of the bridge…
Make them strong enough tosop your train. : )
On layout of LION:
Train ain’t getting past this station.!
ROAR
[swg]
For many years, I wanted a brass model of the Great Northern P-2 mountain locomotive. When I finally got one, I had it pulling a train of tank cars across an unscenicked area of my layout. It hit a dirty section of track and stalled.
Since it was not within easy reach, I nudged it with a piece of flextrack - right onto the cement floor below!
The thud when it hit almost made me sick. I still remember that sound.
It cost me a couple hundred dollars to get it repaired.
This has happened to me twice, you could say i am not a fast learner. I don’t even remember details, except that the first incident involved an Atlas GP7; broke the couplers, bent the frame. Before I could fix the loco, I found a replacement at a train show. Second incident involved a Kato C44W-9. Several parts were broken, but a phone call to Kato had replacements on their way, and today the locomotive is good as new.
I remember an incident at a modular set up at an early Dallas train show at least 35 years ago. We were building a layout that today would be best classified as Free-Mo, all handlaid track, and using the Onboard control system. During setup, when no locomotives were to be run, someone just had to run his brand new brass steamer. He was told to stop running several times. He didn’t listen. It nose-dived off one end from about 4 feet onto bare concrete. Ouch!
Never had the happen, however I have knocked plenty of good stuff off the layout etc. Got some damage from some of those too.
So far I’ve been lucky but then I run my trains very slow and never turn my back on them. I do however have a friend that had a French TGV fly off the layout and hit the floor. It cracked the wind screen and dinged the engine shell all up…
As a youngster, for some reason I used a turnout as a section of curved track. No known reason why. Somehow it got turned to straight and pre-war Lionel 0-6-0 dove to the floor, damaging connection with tender. Dad was able to repair, but have been cautious about dives ever since.
Good luck,
Richard
