Murphy is the author of Murphy’s law which states “If anything can go wrong, it will.”
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So if you leave a solder joint less than perfect, it can go wrong, so it will.
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There are many derivitives of Murphy’s law, like “The odds of a dropped piece of toast landing grape jelly side down are directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.”
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Murphy’s law is used in all kinds of important planning/strategy meetings. The basic principle is to figure out what can go wrong and then do everything that can be done to prevent it. Don’t just hope it will not go wrong.
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In my experiences with layout building, Murphy generally shows up in track work. There is just so much that can go wrong.
I was helping out at an open house this past Saturday (8/19) and Murphy did indeed crash the party. The layout owner wanted me to oversee the running of trains while he schmoozed with the guests. Right off the bat, I discovered that the remote switch machines weren’t working. Fortunately, the layout owner had simply forgotten to turn on the power to the switch machines. Throughout the rest of the day, frequent derailments plagued all who ran trains, and this on a layout that is operated regularly with various crews and few, if any, operating flaws. On one train that is used the same way nearly every session, a suddenly drooping (Kadee) air hose caused the entire coupler to be torn out of the rearmost passenger car when backed through a turnout. Why this coupler (which is never actually used) chose this day to come loose, I guess only Murphy can explain. Later in the day with a couple of other operators running trains, one of them managed to activate a turnout control which is taped over so it can’t be activated. The result was a cornfield meet inside the helix! They managed to get the trains separated and the “don’t touch” switch control back in place, but then managed to derail inside the helix anyway! Fortunately, Murphy didn’t manage to do any permanent damage.
How do you get rid of Murphy, you don’t. You just ignore him and let him think he has gotten the best of you.
Several years ago my son and I were putting a model togther and we came to a piece that just wouldn’t fit. After many tries I suggested we call it a night and try the next night.
We did and my son picked up the part and it snapped into place on the first try.
Sounds more like human error and negligence maintenance then Murphy.
As a example that drooping coupler was already there and nobody notice.It would have showed up at the next regular op session… This is why frequent inspections is needed.
I don’t believe in trash talk of making excuses using a old wives tale.
Everything happens for a reason due to many reasons from lack of maintenance to electrical or mechanical failure.A part gets old and worn its subject to fail at any time.
Me too at one time until I realize I was the real Murphy so,I lean to fix problems before they cause embarrassing problems when a guest engineer dropped by.
The most embarrassing was forgetting to plug in the T-6 before giving my guest engineer the handheld throttle. After that embarrassment we had smooth trouble free switching.
Murphy can’t be blamed for my own stupidity for forgetting to plug in the power.
Absolutely correct. It cannot be avoided. So… Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
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All you can do is what is suggested… do not leave anything to chance. Then you are not avoiding or ignoring Murphy’s Law, you are obeying it, and trying to prevent things from going wrong.
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If you are relying on “luck”, “I hope it doesn’t break”, or “that looks good enough”, you are still obeying Murphy’s Law, but things are going to go wrong because you left the opportunity open for wrong things to happen.
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Always keep Murphy’s Law in mind, and prevent as much from being left up to chance as you possibly can. It is just good advice. We use it in training examples all the time.
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If anything is left up to chance or luck, it will fail.
Kevin, A simple thing like preventive maintenance can stop failures. A faulty switch machine or relay should be replace before your guest arrives.All equipment should be inspected on a routine bases especially before your guest arrives.
I fully agree never depend on luck or chance that’s why before the club’s open houses I inspected my equipment and that’s one reason I could put a train on the layout and forget about it as it ran loops for eight hours without issues. Even though my ISLs operate flawlessly I still inspect the trouble area like switch points to insure all is still as it should be.
Above all accept nothing but 100% trouble free operation to accept anything less is inviting trouble and blaming a old wives superstition when things gone wrong is a cover up.