A mistake

[MidlandPacific]

I had negotiated a 5.5' x 9' space in the basement with my wife, and went straight out to Home Depot to get the lumber to build a Linn Westcott-style L-girder table for it. It turned out that the members (a 1x2 and a 1x1) for the L-girder were sold in ten-foot lengths, so rather than trying to get the lengths right in the store, I took them home and did all of my cutting there. Unfortunately, I had to space my work out, so I built the end panels first, and the L-girders a few days later. By the time I got around to building the L-girders, I had completely forgotten to lop a foot off of each. I assembled the table by measuring three feet in from each end, and I was so pleased with the symmetrical look the table had that I never even thought to measure it - although I DO remember tinking it seemed just a bit bigger than the area next to our basement bar that I had so carefully taped off when I was making the case to my wife.

A week or so later, I plopped the first 4x8 sheets of plywood and Homasote onto the table, and then went to make a quick "double check" measurement of the protruding L-girders. I was considerably surprised to discover how much area remained uncovered!

regards,

Rob
http://midlandpacific.typepad.com/

[BNSFNUT]

Don't feel bad about the mistakes you make it happens to everone. I have made many mistakes in the 30+ years I've been the hobby and just when I think I have done them all I find another way to screw somthing up. If there is a way to screw up somthing I will find it.[sigh] We all learn from our mistakes.
My last mistake was an wiring error that took me an hour to find.

[rockythegoat]

dkelly:

I must say, it was an interesting day to say the least. I never did get the second layer of foam on.[8)][8)][8)] But, the roadbed and track eventually got done, and just a smidge of scenery, before Uncle Sam's Air Force moved us again and the layout came down.

The second layout had no repeat incidents during its short life span. [:D]

I want it officially noted for the record, that unlike Tim "Tool Man" Taylor" I have never glued my head to a table!

Willy6: I gotta say, "Stuff Happens!" Have a beverage of choice and keep on plugging!

[Anonymous]

Rocky,

Are you the guy from Home Improvement?

[rockythegoat]

So, a few years ago, we have a man getting back into the hobby, experimenting with new techniques. Let's set the scene...

It is a lovely, warm day. Our intrepid Model Rail is living in a smaller house, and the train room was a 6 x 6 closet with a window. The ceiling was sloped, with the lowest height, about 48 inches, over the layout. Layout was L-shaped, two sides of the room. Open grid benchwork. Base was to be bead-type styrofoam (couldn't find extruded foam at the time). The foam being used was 12" squares to be used for wall/ceiling cover, and was about 1/2" thick.

The initial layer of foam was white glued down, however, our fellow hobbyist didn't like that, it took too long to dry. So, out comes the almost new, very efficient, hot glue gun. Our friend takes the next layer of foam, approaches the layout with joy in his heart, "The Empire Is Progressing!"

Forgetting all about the thermal properties of hot glue and foam, our hero proceeded to put a huge glob of glue on the aforementioned, already stuck down foam. He quickly develops a perplexed look on his face as the hot glue immediately sinks into the foam.

Remember the layout was open grid? The hot, gooey, glue/foam mixture fell to the floor. Remember it was a warm day? Why have shoes on in the summer, it's a nice time to be barefoot. At which point the still very hot glue/foam mix landed on top of the previously mentioned, bare foot.

As screams of agony echo throughout the house, our builder instantly reacts, and immediately jerks up to his full height of 6"2". Remember the ceiling height was about 48"? As his head bounced off the ceiling, he became dizzy and had the opportunity to enjoy every constellation of stars, North and South hemishpere. He needs support, and leans forward onto the layout.

Remember he was using a hot glue gun? It was still in his hand. The hand that was now laying under his left forearm for support.

After bouncing his head a second time off of the ceiling, our Model Rail was able to egress the room without further incident, and assess his condition. This whole time, his 18 month old son is sitting at the work bench, enjoying watching Daddy "play with trains" and laughing. This prevented the use of the requisite colorful terms, however, between the initial scream, the thumping of the head (twice), and the terms that were used, the lady of the house responded, reviewed the scene, and calmly asked, "What in God's name is going on? Is the baby okay?"

After assessing the situation and determining hospitalization was likely not needed, the boy was lead away, his mother telling him, "Let's go watch Thomas The Tank Engine on TV. Daddy needs to be alone for awhile."

MODEL RAILROADING IS FUN!

It should be noted that any resemblence to an actual, living, breathing and maimed model railroader is strictly coincidental.

[jwar]

willy6

Does not sound like a mistake to me. You built your layout so that you could make unforseen adjustments. building it so stat the screws were between the wall and layout would have been a big AAAAhHHHH

Well I purchased a new Proto GP40 set it on track and ran it back and forth a bit. Then what the heck a slight burst of speed to see what it had under the hood ,sort to speak.

I had no clue that it would coast at least three feet after turning it off. My mastake was not applying a micro swich on the track leading to a lift up, needless to say it was a mad hasty da***o catch it before she went over the cliff. Moral to my story,...Was a great carpet test.[#oops]

[Anonymous]

Everyone's had some of these - here's some of mine:

Placing an above the table switch machine right where another piece of track was going to go (luckily I didn't get to wiring it before I noticed!)

Putting a switch with an under-slung machine right against the edge of the board (leaving very little space to wire the machine up!)

and, on previous layouts:

Not checking that the lightbulb added to illuminate the new plastic signalbox kit wasn't touching the plastic - interesting distortion of the back wall on that 'box after a while!

Attempting to use chipboard honeycomb-structure ceiling tiles as modular benchwork (never again, those things managed to be both heavy and flimsy!)

On the same layout, trying to place a switch machine directly over a piece of the "honeycomb" - had to cut it out without damaging the track that had already been laid!

[eastcoast]

GUILTY HERE !!!
I built a shelf layout and am now trying to do the
scenery so it doesn't get to look the same everywhere.
Most of my error was when I built a third line (elevated)
too close to the other mainlines I already have. This has
caused a problem because I have to have a retaining wall
that is 5 scale miles long. And also have some "UGLY TUNNELS"
leading into my city scene.
We all make mistakes. Ken

[Anonymous]

As the owner of a modular home company told me shortly after I went to work in his engineering department, everyone there gets to write off one "Oh, s*** " mistake for free. It's the second one that we have to answer for.

My first was when windows in the front elevation of a house didn't align and required some moving in the field. The one I had to answer for was when I had all the plumbing dropping through a wall that rested directly over a wide-flange steel beam. Drilling wasn't an option.

This is how we learn to be careful and plan ahead. In theory, at least.

Wayne

[Anonymous]

I made a very simple but big mistake on my benchwork: I forgot that the 2x4s had width when I was measuring, because I took my measurements straight off of paper and didn't account for the extra 1 1/2" width. The only thing that shows this now is a 1 1/2" overhang of the plywood in two places. It was one of those mistakes you feel like slapping yourself for.
Reed

[camarokid]

I built my benchwork out of 2x4's so I could walk on it to get back to the corners in two areas. How wonderful the feeling to discover my feeder drops were directly over three 2x4 braces. After much hemming and hawing I drilled a half-inch hole straight down through everything the length of the drill bit. Then drilled a one inch hole through the brace intersecting the previous drilled hole and ran my wires through that. I really couldn't move the braces because two sheets of plywood butted there. Laugh if you want. That's probably why I hate to wire. Ain't it great!! Enjoy your layout. Archie

[Jacktal]

No shame to this.The construction of even a moderate layout means you will eventually have to correct multitudes of errors or miscalculations along the process.Happens to me all the time......

[Anonymous]

Been there and done that. As you I used drywall screws and just moved it. Mistakes happen and can be fixed. Any one who says they haven't made simple mistakes when constructing framing is a story teller.

[willy6]

I would like to share with everyone a mistake I made so that it may help others in the future. I THOUGHT i planned my benchwork and track layout flawlessly. But when i went to install one of my under table switch machines on my freight yard, i realized a piece of benchwork frame was in the way. Luckily i built my benchwork with lag bolts and wood screws. so i was able to unscrew the frame and re-position it. Whew. I just hope I helped someone out there in MR land.