We learn through experience and mistakes. So, to help everyone learn without having to make as many mistake, I created this thread to share our mistakes and make each other smarter.
Some of my mistakes/lessons:
Check a turnout before you go through it, especailly if you might stop on it. I have gone through turnouts that were lined for the other direction. My turnouts will let you go through, but if you stop and go the other way, you will have the train stretching between two tracks, and you many not catch your mistake in time, and cause a derailment.
Don’t leave a tube of glue on its side, it will only leak and make a mess. Prop you glue tube upright, so it will stay in the tube. Also, don’t let the glue set up before you use it.
Here is a mistake I am sure alot of us make. And one I am not so sure I have learned yet… PATIENCE!
Another is dont leave your small parts in a micro-cleaner and take a lunch break thinking the extra time will only make them cleaner. It will destroy them! Ruined a set of drivers that way. Some happy meal that was. [:'(]
Never throw anything away (unless it is really trash)! Pack-Rat is an acceptable socialism in Model Railroading. Tossed alot of parts and left over supplies I wish I still had.
Well,suffice it to say after almost 60 years in the hobby I made my share of mistakes some costly,some not so much and the down right stupid mistakes like last week when I sliced my finger with a X-Acto knife…
Not so long ago, I started my what I thought to be my final layout - On30 shelf type switching layout. I took utmost care planning it, with many iterations. It was intended to be the epitome of my 50+ years as a model railroader.
To cut things short, it won´t be my final layout! Why?
Despite a quite solid foundation of experience in building layouts, I made a number of mistakes during planning and construction, mistakes which cannot be remedied easily.
O scale buildings require a much larger footprint that I thought they would
I chose the wrong type of track for my prototype
Track was laid and ballasted too hastily
I ignored warnings on minimum radius requirements
Now you will be asking how that could happen? I don´t know. I should have and I did know better! My best guess is I was so happy to be able to start a new layout that I rushed into building it, as I was too eager to see the first train running.
I will take down this layout and start all over again, this time hopefully avoiding costly mistakes!
Never stick your fingers in a blender without unplugging it first. I was chopping up some lichen a year or so ago when I did this bone headed move that sent me to the ER. Luckily I still have the top of my finger.
The old phrase “measure twice cut once” is timehonored yet it is still needed. So is thinking about where to measure, and how many guys scratchbuilding their first structure, or house car, forgot that either the end overlaps the sides, or the sides overlap the ends? So you cut where you measured (twice) but you failed to measure right. (Surely I can’t be the only one.)
One mistake that I have made and I know others have made is when designing a track plan. Few things are more misleading when drawing a track plan than having the track represented by a line. Lines can do all sorts of things that tracks – and the trains that run on them – cannot do. A yard made up of lines can give even a small layout a yard that looks like Enola or Proviso – and then actual tracks are laid and you realize – well no I cannot fit a 20 track yard in that space. I could fit twenty lines, but not twenty tracks.
And when actually laying track, once you progress beyond snap track and start laying flex track, or even handlaying your track, you start to encounter the marvelous things a saw or rail nipper can do - why, you can neatly join all manner of tracks so that they look great. And then you try to run a train or even a single car over it and discover you can create a kink of impossible radius or angle.
On the scale of little tiny mistakes that still irk, what of the nicely assembled craftsman caboose made of wood and small metal detail parts, nearing completion and then you realize that the instructions said nothing about adding weight, but weight is surely needed. And now the body of the caboose is sealed and glued and detailed. You “know” a caboose or any piece of rolling stock needs weight. But you didn’t “know” it when building this kit because the instructions assumed you knew, and said nothing.
Like most here, I have made my fair share of mistakes over the years, but I like to think I learened from them. Rather than list my mistakes, which would put most of you to sleep, I’ll share some of my favorite words:
See the Herny Ford quote in my signature.
“The man who mankes no mistakes commonly never makes anything.” (I think that was Mark Twain, but not sure).
“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” --Franklin D. Roosevelt.
“It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…” – Theodore Roosevelt.
I’m doing my first significant bit of scenery right now.
Two suggestions:
Do an experiment first, if you don’t KNOW that it’ll work. For example, I’ve tried doing the static grass thing on a piece of scrap wood, just to see how it goes. Also, I heard of a glue for styrofoam–I tried it first on scrap.
The other thing is to take lots of breaks–don’t rush. As this thing has moved along, I’m surprised how much I see/learn by just walkin’ out and staring at the project for awhile.
I don’t recall what mistakes I made on my 4x6 Ho layout in Jr High, but the primary mistake on my 5x10 1980s layout (Atlas custom turnouts and flex track, on cork) was not learning how to effectivly lay somewhat bulletproof (re; derailments) trackwork. Poor running reliability was a definite factor in not progressing past track stage.
On my current 2-1/2 year journey, again around 5x10. Firstly, I may regret someday (if we move) that I did not make the layout with connected sections that could be moved and reassembled with minimal effort. Secondly, when negotiating for space, I learned that what I built was viewed as “big”, so I could have built bigger (in the same room) with the same reaction, possibly even a different (non-rectangular, not “too wide” style).
I don’t have enough time to list my smaller mistakes. Some are inevitable; e.g., taking locos apart, even partially, opens up lots of negative opportunities. Recently I succeeded in changing my Genesis “tires” but not without bending, then breaking an eccentric rod. Thanks to Athearn I was able to repair that (with phone consultation) successfully as they had the right parts.
“Failure is not an Option” is the most stupid statement that has ever been made! Failure is reality! We learn by failure and failure is how we succeed! Anyone who does not understand this is an idiot! Fail fast, succeed fast!
Me, I found out the hard way that if it requires stupidly elaborate benchwork, it’s time to reassess the situation and do it with much simpler benchwork. Benchwork should never look like it was built by Dr. Seuss.
Did the sign stop everyone from making mistakes? Mistakes, like failures, are inevitable. I think it is possible to cut down on mistakes; but, am doubtful of being able to eliminate all of them. Many of the mistakes and failures made by manufacturing companies are made by management. My guess is this isn’t limited to manufacturing.
If you say this, you don’t understand the quote or the concept involved. It should be a guiding principle for everyone.
“Failure is not an option” means failure as an end state is not acceptable, the mindset that you will succeed in what you set out to do. It does not mean that you will not experience failures, mistakes and setbacks along the way. Remember the apocryphal quote attributed to Thomas Edison, “I haven’t failed. I’ve just discovered 1000 ways NOT to make a lightbulb.”
