We all have been behind the power curve at one time. I was just before our first cookie's and trains event. Well that's what a casual invite turned into. So my propasition is we air our dirty luandry and post one or two picture's of things we did to MAKE IT WORK for the day. WHO KNOWS WE MITE GET A SMILE ON OUR FACE....
Yes that is foam and chunk of 2 x 6 and a box under a 2ft x 7ft chunk of plywood.
The head is gray, hands don't work , back is weak, legs give out, eyes are gone, money go's and my wife still love's Me.
I'm not above jamming a piece of copper wire between the track and ties on either side of a bad track joint. I've even done it on the fly in front of club members. I've also had bad sections of track that have gotten the wooden wedge treatment to re-level them and then burying the wedge under the ballast so that it's not noticable.
Mark
OK let's try this one more time. My question is what ugly fix did you use at the last Minute to get your trains up and running for that family/club outing. I know some must still be in place. Don't be shy. I don't plan on pointing any finger's.
Dave
For my daughter's wedding reception I did a couple of "quick fix's".
1. Total power failure (wiring) to the loop out through the rose bed, power loss to about 40 foot of track: Grabbed an old HO power supply/controller added it in for the day, trains slowed down but so long as they all ran in the same direction it worked (for 6 hours until I fried the transformer.)
2. Total loss of control to a three track "cross over". Again it was a break in the wires, and the points kept moving to the wrong track. Snatched everything out of the ground and stuck in a few sections of straight track. This caused the street car run to the top of the mountain to not tie into the rest of the system. (this wireing "fubar" was caused by my incorrectly witing up the switching in the "new control panel")
Both were done after dark the night before. Proper repaids have since been accomplished.
Note: "fubar" is old army speak for "Fouled Up Beyond All Repair"
Tom Trigg
In-laws were supposed to be coming the next weekend so I was making sure everything was running smoothly. The train suddenly stopped working. The entire track lost power!. I went into the house to get some tools. On the way outside I noticed the NASCAR race was still on the TV. I get to work checking for loose wires, rail joints, and anything else that could cause the problem. I have just about rewired everything back to the power supply and I go into the house to get some more wire. On the way back out I noticed the TV was off. Guess what - the power had been out the whole time! My TV was running on a small battery powered computer UPS and power conditioner which eventtually ran out of juice. After that I bought a volt meter and from now on I will check to see if power is coming out of the house before tearing everything or anything apart. Lastly, as it turned out it rained the weekend the in-laws were over so no one saw any train action.
markperr wrote:In the Navy we used a different "F" word than Fouled. Of course, one must maintain the old adage "curses like a sailor".
When I was in the USAF and latter on as a AF contractor the term SNAFU was used freely.
Situation Normal All Fouled Up
I had a professional journalist from the Chrysler museum of art to a shoot on the RR with the family. Of course the rock solid T/E wouldn't communicate. So I am forever in photos troubleshooting the railroad. I eventualy went to a cheezy el cheapo toy transformer just so I could have something running, and of course IT worked flawlessly.
In the Artillery we used SNAFU regularly, but most commonly the acronym FUBAR- F'ed Up Beyond All Recognition. We also called things "goat roped" but I have yet to figure out the relationships of that one.
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
My neighbor, an N scaler, spent the entire weekend attempting to determine why his trains would not run, none of them, not a single one, he even borrowed a couple of mine from storage. All his lighting worked, the animated scenery worked, his movie theater played the movie with sound, all like it should, except the trains would not move. Seems as though his wife's cat had decided to make a bed out of his underbench wiring system. Cat had chewed through the main leads from transformer to switch panel..
In the Army Corps of Engineers FUBAR was a "first hand observation": SNAFU was a "second person confirmation of FUBAR", Then the final epitaf was Dancing Dozers, but thats an entirely different world. If you want a full explinatin of "dozers" drop me a note.
I was in the Infantry. When the Air Force said "oops" it usually meant the ordance was off-target and they used big stuff. When the Artillery said "oops" you hoped it was long rather than short. The Navy guys missed by grid squares when they missed. When us Infantry guys hit a doorway to find a guy sitting there with an AK-47 it was a major "oops". Surprise is one of the key principles of war and it sure brings your pucker factor up. I took a K-Bar into a reported VC graduation party only to find an NVA regiment had moved in the night before. We called that operation many names like FUBAR.
It the more sane world of GR its hard to get the same meaning out of FUBAR.
Rex
EMPIRE II LINE wrote:DAH-H-H-H-H, what was the question......???
we seem to have gotten off track, the question is last minute fix ( with some pictures )?
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