That’s Murphy’s law in action. If anything bad can happen, it’ll involve the most expensive items you have.
i was just after adding a lake with that resin stuff that dries to look like water and was running my only loco and all my boxcars when it derailed(on a moth it had chased out of a tunnel), rolled down an embankment and into the lake… which wasnt yet dry.l had to repaint everything and replace all the trucks on the boxcars, the loco still doesnt run as good…
murpheys law, i guess. it would have to derail at the worst possible time.
This is one of those times finding the prior thread of the same topic and adding on to it would be advantageous:
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/854207/ShowPost.aspx
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/477237/ShowPost.aspx
Wow This is Weird,
I had two happen today at the MR club meet. I was running the club’s Mike, and doing some switching at one of the stations on the branch. Well, the yard limit ends at the trestle, and one of the cars de-railed through the unset switch, which sent 3 cars over the side, however, the mike that was pushing stopped before the trestle.
The next was when I was running an old Mallet which is hardly ever used. After oiling it, it ran fine, with a lengthy train on the main. Well, my brakeman (operating partner) set the wrong switch, and I rear-ended a passenger train stopped at the depot. I meant to pass it, but, my switchman was not to familiar with the switch boards. LOL.
The passenger cars were scattered everywhere, and the Mallet came to rest on some people on the platform, with a pile of heavy (they had weights and metal wheels) cars behind the engine. luckily, there was only 2 or 3 broken couplers, which were soon re-placed with some spare parts from the club’s junk bin.
Cheese
Ouch![B)] YUCK!!
My Fast Mail hit an N Scale skunk on my layout one day and my layout room wreaked for weeks - actually it reeked but that is being PICKY! PICKY! PICKY!
One afternoon on my club’s NTrak layout one of my passenger cars picked a switch at a crossover and sideswiped the freight on the center track which spilled cars over onto the inside track where another freight running in the same direction as my passenger train proceded to pile into the wreckage. Only two cars from my passenger train which caused the whole thing derailed but there was a major pileup involving the two freights.
EDIT: corksean12’s response reminded me of an incident which occured on the club layout in Taxachusetts over forty years ago which involved a lake only this lake wasn’t there. The lake/pond at that location had been done with waterglass(?) - that glass they use on bathroom windows - and no one had been happy with it’s appearance and they had pulled it to see if something could not be done to give it a more realistic surface - there now existed at this location a very large hole. This was on a curve and admittedly the operator was probably operating his train at too fast a speed because it rolled at that point and plunged into this hole. I think this train - a passenger one - had Mantua couplers which were notorious for maintaining integrity in derailments and his whole train - pre-WWII Varney locomotive and seven or eight kit built wood passenger cars - went KLUNK-KLUNK-KLUNK-KLUNK-KLUNK to the floor. I had never seen a wreak at that location before and I don’t recall ever seeing another one there but that one was a real doozy!
Now there’s a reason I love and hate the metal frame on Atlas GP7s. My brand new one decided to take the plunge 42 inches to the hardwood. I managed to, through my ever-so-cat-like-reflexes (yea, right) grab hold of the shell hoping to catch the engine. Well, the shell stayed in my hand just fine, but the rest of it kept going, and made a nice little chip in my floors. However, because it was a metal frame, there was no damage, save for needing a new set of handrails since they got mangled when the shell came off.
Cheers!
~METRO
A long time ago in a place far away (30 years and 5 layouts), I built my first layout with an under the table reversing loop. I was running my brand new unpainted Key streamlined N&W 4-8-2 with a 5 car passenger consist just to check it out. The Obs came uncoupled and rolled to a stop fouling the switch. The engine went thru the loop and then hit the car, all out of sight. The sound it made hitting the bare concrete was unforgettable. A lot of thngs were changed thanks to that.
Had a chunk of scrap iron left under the gondola that the breakman did not see when he pulled the car out of the scrap yard.
lol mine was when my Santa Fe F7 was on an incline plane about 3* i didnt realise that there was a gap in te track and it fell about 7 inches The coupler broke (front) and a window fell out
[#oops]
In 1946, I’m almost sure it was 1946, just after the war, my dad bought me a Lionel set.
Had a 2-6-2 steamer, tender 4 freight cars and a caboose. I build a layout in my dad’s basement…2 4x8’s, automated milk car and what not.
Ran the engine off the back end of the table. Cracked the tile floor. Tender was o.k also.
Engine never ran better. That stuff was kill proof.
lol
thats terrible. so howd the divorce go??
My worst… I was about 4 or 5. My dad and I had just finished installing a loop of track around my bedroom, about 7.5 feet off the ground. My one and only locomotive at the time, a PC (IHC) train set Mikado fell off on the inaugural run. We forgot to nail one end of a piece of flextrack to the shelf and the track slipped out. It was the first go at a layout for me, and since my dad (unfortunately) isn’t a model railroader, same with him. He was running the train way too fast. Even I at that age wouldn’t have run the train at full speed when the track was only three inches from the edge of a seven foot shelf (I am happy to have been gifted with a strong appreciation for all things over 100 dollars[:P]). My Mikado plummeted to the hardwood floor and snapped. The cab was destroyed, the boiler knocked off, and I had to chase my pilot truck down the stairs. We brought the train to the LHS and they told me it was not repairable.[V]
Ghonz
Man you guys have seen some bad ones! Good news though i got my SD70MAC back up and running the only problem is i have to put some new headlights in on the front but the ditchlights still work THANK GOD! Anyway keep it coming!
Is that SD70MAC in N scale? If so, how do you like it? Any you like better? (it’s one of the locos on my wish list)
[C):-)] Rob
Taking the reciprocating saw to the layout in the “house we were never going to move from” when we moved…
A different type of wreck, but a wreck all the same. [:(]
Now I build modular!
You mean your not supposed to wreck trains on a daily basis? I’ve been nick named Gomez Adams by some of the guys in our club I have so many wrecks. One of my most recent disasters was with an Athern CNJ SD40. I had been waiting for it to come in at my local hobby shop for about a month. I get it home and I’m like a kid with a new toy. Well that never changes no matter ho old you get. So I put the SD40 on the mainline hooked up to a 38 car train and head off in to the HO sunset. She climbs the steep grade to the summit and just as she’s about to cross the steel girder bridge she decides to male a hard left turn and take just about every car with her over the edge. It was nothing short of havoc. Cars and parts all over the floor four and half feet below. Amazingly the only damage to the SD40 was that the front truck came completely off. I carefully placed it back in the box and the next day I brought it back to the shop with my head hung in shame. After giving me a good ribbing which lasted for about an hour the guys laughed and said oops it was like this when we opened the box. I guess you get a little preferential treatment when you pay the guys rent every month. But wait it gets better!!! He tell me hey we have some good news for you, your two CNJ RS1’s came in today. He said lets check them out and make sure there’s nothing wrong with them before you go home and try and commit suicide by jumping out the basement window. So he opens the first box places the engine on the test track it makes a loop and a half and stops dead and starts SMOKING!!! We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. We take #2 out of it’s box and the body shell come clear off the frame! I was like thats it I’m going to take up something safe like stamp collecting. Luckily we fixed #2 with a couple of screws that were laying in the bottom of the box.
Needless to say the guys in the club don’t like me even getting close to their more expensive stuff…lo
I have a bad habit of leaving trains on the main line benibd a row of biuldings so the other day i walk in the train room and start mt csx freight that i like to run and came around the curve and slamed into the csx coal train i had left. no damage , just have to pay attn more!!!
[#ditto] Man you guys have has some bad ones. The worst one happened when one of my GP9Ms fell off the layout because of a faulty switch. It fell about 3 feet off the table. The body was kinda smashed up, but I got it back together. I really hope none of these wrecks happen to my new P2K SD45.