Even bigger than the RK Big Boy was last Summer when I was running my PW Celebration Series Texas Special at the Temple train show on the outer loop of our layout. Someone apparently moved a flier display and a car caught it and most of the train crashed to the concrete in the hall. I think 30 people asked me if that was my train that hit the floor.
I wanted to leave.
I still haven’t fixed everything, a coil coupler broke and some other items were scratched.
Crashes happen alot, this one was a little different…
While working on the benchwork for my new layout in my poorly lit basement, I have been using a Montana Rail-link GP38 to test track. Being a poorly lit basement (which will be fixed at a later phase of the project) I am using a halogen work light to light up the area.
One night, I parked the GP-38 close to the light… It wasn’t until I shut down the light at the end of my work session that I realized that I had melted the cab.
Had an American Flyer set as a kid with a curved tunnel in one corner. fortunately the tunnel wasn´t fastened down as my cat was asleep inside.As the train entered the tunnel, the cat shot out like a Metroliner, and the train went in all directions. Fortunately there was no damage done.
I feel sorry for you Will_K.
The poor cat! ! ! !
A friend of mine who’s only been into trains about a year was trying out his new Kato TGV. He has a bad habit of leaving the room to watch TV in his living room if something catches his eye, and just lets his trains run-which I’ve warned him about a number of times in the past. Suddenly, he hears a loud crash come from his train room, and upon investigating, found that his brand new and very expensive TGV had flown off the track and hit the floor full force doing a great deal of damage to it. Being the saddistic b-----d I am, I couldn’t help but say “see, I told you so”, afterwhich he asked me to leave, but not in a very nice way… Before it was over, he apologized to me for blowing his stack and offered to pay me to repair his train, which I did-for as much as he was willing to pay. (Stupid idiot…)
New mishap.
Got on ebay. Saw two trolleys for dirt cheap. Looked good, one looked like a SF trolley. Won the bid at $5 plus 4.95 shipping. I was excited, to get two trolleys for so cheap.
Turns out they were trolleys from Avon, and had no motor, just a decoration. At least it was a cheap lesson to read the WHOLE ad, it never mentioned a motor, now I am smarter.
Tim
My worst? I was running my California Zephyr with a K-line F3 ABA lashup pulling 14 K-line 15 inch cars. I was at the whell of my Z-4000, with my dog copiloting, watching the train rush from one end of the trainroom, flying past us, and dispperaring again, all with the lights out. Then I heard a crash, and saw the power units leaving the table and falling to the floor, along with 4 or 5 cars. The track had seperated. Several model people were casualties, and my dog and I were charged with scale model negligence. Scale model crimminal and civil charges are pending, and one of the A units no longer functions
I never figured this one out, but one night when I was a teenager, my dad had put a new smoke unit in a PW 736 Berkshire so we could use liquid smoke. I loaded it up, turned out all the lights and was highballin’ downgrade on the main with smoke pouring out of the stack when the whole cloud turned yellow and then a momentary fireball came out of the stack. Cool effect, but that new smoke unit was, of course, history, and the old man was none too pleased…
Hello Railmail! Any time a new smoke Generator or Heater element is installed the smoke wick needs to be saturated with smoke fluid so that it does not dry out right away when track power is applied to the engine. I suspect this is what happened with the 736 Berkshire…Keith.
I use to run real coal in my coal drag of about 15 cars. My cars were running a little too fast and well when one flips over they all flipped and needless to say rice coal all over the layout. I now use simulated loads much cleaner and easier to clean up a good wreck. Sometimes we do learn by our mistakes.
laz57