What’s the stupidest thing you’ve done as a model railroader.
Begin.
Next most stupid: Stop.
worldon, I can’t top that. I have tried both a couple of times, to confirm how true you are. I did sell all my stuff when I quite once. That was dumb. This week I put the trucks on backwards on my brass engine tender and wondered why the decoder wouldn’t work, but that is just run of the mill. I resisted DCC too long, but who hasn’t
hmmm let me think it cant be that hard, dumbest thing had to do was start my layout without a plan of some kind but thankfully its all coming together
On the club layout, I took the turntable out for repairs and didn’t block the approach tracks. One of the guys ran his deisel into the open hole.
conrail92, one of the things railfanning and deer hunting have in common is you still can’t eat the tracks.
ya and that not a real dissapointment
I think I put this in another post somewhere else, but I left my coupler height gauge on the track and it took me some ridiculous amount of time to figure out why all of the sudden none of my trains would run. [banghead]
I think we’ve all been to the point of fogetting to throw a turn out or leaving it in the wrong position causing a wreck (glad I don’t own brass…YET!!!)
Those are all good ones guys. Top this one. My layout has 10 AC plug sockets on it for connection of various items (throttle controls, turnout and sound power source, tools. that sort of thing). These plug sockets are spread out over 3 wall socket units. One day, not too long ago I had to do some work under the layout. The cord for my Dremel tool wasn’t quite long enough to reach so I unplugged on of the layout cables from the wall so I could plug in the dremel. I got the work done and unplugged the tool and came out from under the layout. A little while later, I noticed my structure lights weren’t working. I checked the main fuse for the power supply, then the downline fuses. I even turned of the power supply to let it reset. No joy there. I was just on the verge of pulling my hair out, when I chanced to look under the layout and saw one of the cables lying on the floor. I had left it unplugged when I unplugged my Dremel tool 1 1/2 hours earlier. Boy, did I feel STUPID!
All I’ve got to say about this is,…
Soldering irons and foam DON’T MIX!!!
No they don’t. I’ve had to go to fires caused by that combination.
I have wired up a lot of my locos for DCC, so I volunteered to do a sound unit for a friend in the club. I got two wires wrong and fried his decoder. Now I test with an old MRC decoder before putting in an expensive one.
Drop a box of bolts, nuts and washers next to a model railroader concentrating on making that coupling in the yard.
KA-PLUNK! Model railroader jumps 4 feet with a GASP of the kind suffered by Heart Attack patients.
The rest was not worth putting on the net. =) Let’s say he wasnt happy.
“…when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childi***hings.”
I did that 40 years ago. At least I had the presence of mind to “put away” rather than “throw away” or “give away” my trains.
Now, the stupidest thing I can think of in my Second Era of Model Railroading is that I didn’t come back soon enough.
A wise chioce. We learn by our mistakes.
Been there, done that.
didn’t come back soon enough? I never left. I got my first train set when I was 5. 41 years later, I’m still playing with trains.
Ahh, a take off from Dave Letterman’s stupid pet tricks…
How about using 6 E7’s and E8’s to haul 6 empty coal hoppers to the mine? An SW1 should be able to handle that assignment.
Brad
Good one, Brad.
didn’t come back soon enough? I never left. I got my first train set when I was 5. 41 years later, I’m still playing with trains.
My fiend who is helping me build my first layout always corrects me, “We do not play with trains, we operate trains.” Who am I to argue?
You got me there.