I have another thred to give you good laughs. What was your most expansive acident?
Did you drop an expensive locomotive (like I have done 4 times so far)?
Did you drop your friend’s locomotive?
Or, did you fry the wiring to the basement, after a DCC malfunction?
It will all work, just don’t say that your most expensive mistake was the hospital bill from when you crossed the red wire and black wire and it shot you through the wall.
I reached up to a display shelf hooked onto the side of my layout to add a bit of support as I went to stand on a stool. Down came the shelf and the three steam locomotives on it: PCM Y6b, BLI Paragon PRR J1, and a Trix Mikado of the NYC.
I won’t tell you how much the repairs were in all, but the most costly part was $40 for the repair and return shipping as charged by BLI for the Y6b. I fixed the J1 myself and my fix-it buddy repaired the Trix Mikado with parts I paid to have shipped to him.
I got off exceptionally luckily.
-Crandell
In the days before DCC; I was part of an Onboard modular group, featuring modules much like current Free-Mo modules. As we were setting up, a member insisted on placing his new brass steamer on the track, even though he was warned numerous times to quit because we had not placed the end caps on the layout. He continued to run the locomotive back and forth, until a gremlin struck, and the locomotive would not stop, and it took a 4 foot fall onto the concrete floor of the exhibit hall.
He was shedding real tears as he examined the bent and twisted wreckage of his new $500.00 locomotive. The rest of us were shedding tears because we were laughing so hard at his misfortune.
I also recall someone putting a Kato C44-9W on top of its box near the edge of a table while putting the detail parts on it, and accidentally knocking it to the concrete floor. As I recall, it sounded like a cross between legos and glass shattering. [:)]
Are you going to tell them about the time I ran one of my zebra striped GP7’s on to a concrete floor in Abilene, as well?
At least I was able to get the parts to fix the Kato; although it took me 10 years to make the repairs. It looks/runs great. I even put in a decoder (the world will end).
And do you remember what the number of that locomotive was?
Santa Fe 666, affectionately know as “The Beast.”
Used a temporary bus wire to my new section, never replaced the temporary bus wire till Simon 1966 came over and spotted the 18 gauge wire. BBQ $200.00 in decoders in the mean time.
I destroyed a newly aquired Key Bull moose ( UP 2-8-8-0) following a derailment six feet off the floor, post accident investigation discovered a broken solder joint on the turnout throw bar. To add insult to injury, most of the trailing consits followed the same course of action, those #5 couplers sure do work!
Dave
Take your pick![(-D]
Brent
LMAO, an Ex wife pic would be another good choice.
I’ve got two of those [:O]
–Randy
Under the age of 8, for some reason I used a switch for a piece of curved track on my layout. (Had plenty of track, didn’t need to.) Pre-war Lionel 0-6-0 took a dive. After dad went to work in an aircraft factory, he was able to fabricate a new drawbar.
At age (?) and accidental fire went through the closet where most of the Lionel was stored. Fire hard on plastic models. By the way, the 0-6-0 was in the next room and survived. Whew! That loss pretty much kept me on the track to HO, which I had started with my sons.
Lets not do those again.
I think the most expensive was a derailment that took place on my layout a few months ago—a friend of mine had a brass challenger take a nose dive off of the Exceda Wye spur—after I took the plexiglass shield off the end of that Wye.
My comment about that was that I was stupid stupid stupid for having taken the shield off knowing that someone was still on the layout------[banghead]
Actually my greatest loss was bound volumes of Model Railroader from the 1960s and 1970s, along with some books. To reduce the cost of the move, I agreed to narrow down my collection to the “precious few” - six book boxes of model railroading books and magazines. We discovered media mail at the USPS would be the cheapest means of getting the boxes to the new house. Didn’t count on the Post Office losing 2 of the 6 boxes.
Other moving losses (on the same move) included broken pieces on my Rivarossi Heisler, and a Silver Streak caboose being splintered into 2 attached assemblies. Both were in a well padded box. And my drill press and vertical milling machines didn’t arrive on the truck. Instead, I received somebody else’s futon. I had never owned a futon before, so I know it wasn’t mine despite what the moving company claimed.
Fred W
I had just invited my non-model railroading neighbor over to show off my 48 car train of all Kadee boxcars. When he came down into the basement, I was in the process of drilling a hole into something for my wife (not railroad related) and dropped it. I bent down to pick it up, and hit my head on the benchwork as I stood up, just as the end of the train was passing over. Only 3 cars fell, but the benchwork is 50 inches above the concrete floor. Kadee boxcars EXPLODE when they hit concrete from that height!