What's the dumbest thing you've ever done in model railroading ?...

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

A couple of years ago I’d just finished decaling a loco, and was really proud of my job. Tired and not paying attention, I picked up a can of bright green spray paint that I thought was dull coat and sprayed one side of the shell before I realized it… After repairing all of the holes in the sheetrock walls that I punched out, I repainted and redecaled it, but never forgot the lesson I learned…

Am I the only idiot on the block ?.

Tracklayer

2

i bought a TYCO train engine on EBAY before i knew they were junk- i could’ve gotten a used Athearn for the price i paid for that TYCO

3

dumbest thing i ever did ?

not starting 20 years ago

4

Getting addicted to it [:D] Probably selling all the stuff I had when I got into this as a kid years ago.

5

I shook up a small jar of model paint without the lid on it, but none got on the model.

6

I sold all my Lionels for a hundred dollars to finance my HO layout. I was like 12 at the time, and I’m still kicking myself now almost a half-century later. Do you know what I could get now just for that big O-gauge GG1?

7

Spent too much money chasing latest and greatest… Knocked one of those latest and greatest locos off the layout onto the concrete floor while cleaning an adjacent track.

Jeff

8

Neglected to read more and to plan a better track plan. Do you think I regret it now? [:slight_smile:]

9
  1. Once I was just finishing up a decal project and instead of the “solve-o-set” I grabed the styrene cement that was in an exactly similar bottle. Talk about a warpped and distorted decal.
  2. Not choosing a specific RR, time, place, and date to model up front, and sticking to it.
  3. Spending too much time on this form, instead of working on my models and writing.
10

I decided to put hook-horns on all of my stuff…lets just say that I’m reversing that call.

11

Jury’s still out on that one. Let me sleep on it…

Fergie

12

I owned a couple of HOn3 WP&Y DL535 diesels, I showed off a dumb guy who said Narrow Gauge never had diesels… held on to them for a while, but eventually sold them, that paid for a new computer system. I want them back noooooww…

actually their out of my modeling prototype date, (1950’s, mostly steam)

but really, the dumber thing I did, I handlaid most or all my track years ago… I dropped a boatload of spikes onto the floor…

I picked every single spike up…that I could find…

best buy however, someone on EBAY dropped their LL spectrum 0-8-0 onto the floor…SMATTERED, sold a good one and the smattered one and I bought it…

DUMB for him, SMART for me, its fixable runnable, and the good 0-8-0 runs great.

13

I sold most of my stuff and took a 25 year break. I missed a lot of good years.

14

Me Too. I wish I started 20 years ago…but atleast I started! [:)]

15

I bought things I wouldn’t use, and lost quite a lot of $ at it.

16

I built a 2 level layout with great operating potential, complete with a 24"r. helix. in too small a space! The helix overlapped the doorway, and you had to be a contortionist to get into the room. Besides, while my 4 unit FT’s and long freight handled it fine, my 12 car streamliner looked like toys. Needless to say I ripped it out before much scenery was applied. Now I love big curves and turnouts, so I build Free-mo modules so I can participate in set-ups.

17

Well, I’m not sure which one of these it was…

When I was still in high school I scratchbuilt a wooden trestle out of balsa wood. One day I decided it shoukld look like it went through a forest fire. Uh-huh. I put a little charcoal lighter fluid on it and held a match to it. Nothin’. So I really soaked it. Ten seconds later I was stomping trestle to toothpicks on the floor to put out the flames that were shooting up to the basement ceiling.

Years later, when working for a living meant I could spend a little more on the hobby, I bought a few brass engines. One was a GN P-2 Mountain. Current layout had no scenery yet. The loco stalled on a dirty section of track, and since that track was a bit of a reach,m I picked up a nearby piece of flextrack with which to prod the engine. It worked, and since the power was turned up full the loco took off like a shot! Unfortunately the flex track caught in the bell rigging and pulled the loco off the track and sent it to the cement floor four feet below. OW.

18

Shook the bottle of silver with the loose lid.(what a mess)
Sold my Lionels for HO money. (should have hung on to them)
Tried to paint a loco after too many brewski’s[D)]

19

Maybe once I’m 21 I’ll use that method to make realistic grafiti[;)]

20

Waaaaaaaaaay to many to list - but the one that comes to mind is - not spending more time MRRing with my dad during my high school years. Would give anything for a do-over.