Am I the only nut in this hobby who has to deal with Murphy of Murphy’s law. Now in my many decades of running trains, I’m getting rather tired of this fellow, Murphy. I rarely have a problem running trains when alone or with possibly just with one guest, but during an open house or when a new commercial video is being produced, everything that could go wrong does just that. I’ll be running trains for a shooting, and a derailment or electical malfunction is inevitable. After the day’s shooting or when visitors leave…nary a problem, and actually everything then runs to almost perfection. I just had to convert 4 DCC turntables (Chris Moran) to analog as they failed during shootings. Actually I recommend doing this as the Walther’s DCC 90’ turntable…well I hate to impugn any product, so lets say that analog and eyeball operation is more fun for me.
When Allen Keller was doing a shoot, I was able to trace problem to his very hot lighting as heat managed to warp some tracks, but still there were other problems like a main power supply blowing, and turnout motors being fried.
Does anyone have a theory how Murphy sneaks into the train room uninvited? If so, please do share.
As a loner I’m not use to having people observe my operation of the trains. When I have guests, usually relatives, I invaribly fail to position turnouts correctly and have difficulty uncuoupling cars ruining my guest’s experience.
No doubt, I’m tense without knowing it, which causes these errors.
No Howard you aren’t alone. Murphy has been looking over my shoulder for over 60 years. I have no idea how he found me and I don’t have any idea how to run him off. He has an uncanny way of figuring out how and where he can do maximum damage to any of my projects. He isn’t very picky either. His last trick was to coax me into dinging my left thumb using my table saw so now he’s on the top of my list.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
Sometimes I just throw my hands in the air and have a good laugh— turn off the lights and go read a book (or visit the MR Forum).
Just be thankful it is only our model railroads. Murphy is known to hang around the BIG railroads, commercial aircraft and, yes, even NASA space craft. With a bit more at risk than a toasted motor or a few broken handrails [:$]
You see behind every problem lays the cause eliminate the cause that already existed and he can’t visit that’s why I and other club members could run our trains for several hours a day for seven days during the County fair with zero issues.
The track warpage was cause by a careless mistake by placing those hot photo lights to close to the track. The other issues went unnoticed until the problems surface and could or would have happen at the next op session had Keller not shown up for a shoot…
OTOH those nasty gremlins could have been at play.
FYI, my wife was born and raised in England and she tells me Murphy’s law has nothing on Sod’s law - she should know, being from the UK. Whatever Howards problems have been, hers were worse - I’ve heard them all from her.
Bah! That’s a humbug and a old wives tale since anything mechanical or electrical can fail any time without notice. Place a heat source near the track and it will warp.
99% of the time the modeler is the real Murphy because he/she forgets something or keeps putting off replacing a faulty switch machine that causes a issue.
Amen to that! What is being overlooked here is that Murphy is not the instigator of problems, he is only the predictor. What he is predicting, as Larry points out, is that model railroaders like other humans, tend to screw stuff up when under pressure either real or imagined.
Call me crazy, but I like Murphy. He keeps me humbled and appreciative whenever I struggle to get something right and it finally works. Great for those who have a layout operating flawlessly the first time, but overcoming mistakes makes for great stories.
I tend to agree with Larry’s take on Murphy, but if you subscribe to Murphy’s existence, then he’s the part of you that doesn’t know quite as much as you thought you knew.
If you’re wise enough to realise that, Murphy becomes the part of you that makes you more knowledgeable about the subject on which he reared his ugly head.
I call Murphy gremlins and they hang around my shop 24/7. One case and point I can tell you about is when the curve in my tunnel kept derailing my locos. I changed the piece of track out that I thought was causing the problem but no such luck. So I got out my file and tried filing the piece of track a bit that I felt was causing the problem but still the engines derailed. I finally replaced the entire curve with flex track and so far so good. However, I’m sure that the gremlins are still there just waiting to foul something up for me when I let my guard down…
To those who say problems come from the builder, re-read the initial thread. Everything works to perfection and sometimes…and then some when I’m flying solo or just with one or two guests. I do feel as do others that there is some source or whatever that causes these problems, and there are literally hundreds of vistiors who will concur. I did not invent Murphy.
HZ,Stuff will fail on their own for many reasons to include putting off replacing a faulty switch motor or relay along with human error or lack of routine inspection and maintenance on cars,locomotives and layout as needed.
Murphy is nothing more then a convenient excuse we use for a normal mechanical or electrical problem or in my case forgetting to plug the power pack (a MRC Tech 6) in-I had been using a MRC CM 20 that had a master on/off switch…
Actually it is not Murphy. He doesn’t do electrical problems. It is gremlins. LOL.
If the problem is cause by electrical devices then you should consider using power conditioners for your transformers and put lights on a separate circuit. I am not an electronics engineer but I know that the DCC signal is in the DC current in the rails. This could be affected by the AC power going into your DC transformers.
Next time someone wants to plug in lights or other equipment tell them to run an extension cord from the kitchen or dinning room circuit instead of plugging in into the railroad room’s circuit.
I work at a TV station and also have a home recording studio. Electrical devices and lights can cause video noise, and hum in the audio so they might mess with a DCC signal as well. Fluorescent lights are the worst. Cheap light dimmers are also notorious for hum and noise. Get high quality DMX dimmers if you are going to lower the lights. Many devices can also cause a ground loop, like laptop computers, monitors and amplifiers. Sometimes the problem is solved by using a ground lift. It is just a small power adapter for plugging a 3 prong cord into a 2 prong receptacle. Other times the only solution is don’t have it plugged in.
At the station and in my home studio every rack has it’s own power conditioner. Some include an UPS for computer equipment while others are just a switch to turn off everything in the rack. Furman is the company that makes them. You can find them at Guitar Center or B&H Photo.
I don’t believe in gremlins. If you can recreate the problem then you can solve it. Figure out what changes when people are there and when they are not. Figure out what extra things are plugged in or turned on that you don’t usually use while by yourself?
