I have not been in the hobby as long as some of you have, so I do not have anything to share yet. But, has anyone else made a model railroading mistake that turned out well? If so, please share!
I'm beginning to realize that Windows 10 and sound decoders have a lot in common. There are so many things you have to change in order to get them to work the way you want.
My best example was when I was making the rocks on the portable N scale layout I built for Scale Rails of Southwest Florida in 1992.
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I cast the rocks in place with rubber molds and crumpled aluminum foil. I removed the molds too quickly and the rock faces were ruined.
I went to the garage and got a very stiff and coarse wire brush and dragged it across the semi-hardened plaster. The result was a very convincing strata surface. It was not the igneous rock I was going for, but I was in a rush and sedimentary rock would just need to do.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
BNSF UP and others modelerBut, has anyone else made a mistake that turned out well?
I married an architect and built a drawing room/studio for her in the basement.
We parted ways amicably. Today that very comfortable room is my model railroad workshop. She left behind a huge drawing table which is my modeling bench and the nice set of very wide but shallow drawers I made for prints is now stuffed with HO rolling stock, which fits perfectly I might add
When life gives you lemons... (or is it lemmings?)
Cheers, Ed
My benchwork follows the David Barrow "domino" system, each segment 2'x4' - the legs come up to an initial boxlike frame, and then secondary risers (1x4 lumber) are used to support the top "box" of plywood sheet and 1x4 frame with additional supports).
Because I am 6'8" tall (or was when I started this project in 1996!) I knew I wanted a tall layout, taller than that of my friends. So the secondary risers were 13" long resulting in a quite tall top of benchwork. I made two such dominoes and started in on a third. By that time I didn't even need to consult my notes or drawing for important dimensions (or so I thought). Had a brain f*rt [not sure what words are censored here] and made those 4 risers 11" high. Finished the domino, carried it out to mate with the others and -- what the hay? But then I realized, no, this was the perfect height. So I changed the two existing ones to match, and went forward with 11"
I suspect sooner or later I would have shortened all of them but I am glad I caught myself with just two to change - all due to my mistake. One thing about the Barrow system is that it is way easier and less disruptive to change those risers than it is the length of 2x2 legs once they're installed.
Dave Nelson
I had finished the scenery on a flat section of my layout. It included a road. Then when I painted the mountains the paint was really watery and ran down the hill and covered part of the road. At first I was a little upset but then I noticed that it looked like a very believable mudslide which is common in this area so I left it.
I put a 4% grade using Woodland Scenics Styrofoam grade (looks steeper to me) climbing up to what would have been a mine. Trains behaved horribly coming down that grade. But I discovered that by removing the track, and switch going to it, it made a perfectly proportional and well positioned road for vehicles to "enter" the layout, and also up to a little farm scene.
Dan
A few years ago, we had already finished the basic benchwork for a new layout and were ready to lay the plywood and Homasote board.
Somehow, we miscalculated and came up short leaving roughly an open space about 18" x 20".
Hadn't planned on it but it became a lake that really gave the layout some character.
Thanks for asking.
I scratchbuilt most of this car from stripwood. But the tender tank was an old roundhouse METAL tank. The wood in the frame couldnt quite support the entire weight ... and it developed a "Prototypical" sag.
Exellent !!!
( I "meant" to do that.......)
Rust...... It's a good thing !
A few years ago, I had a Bachmann GP40 that I repainted and decaled into NS 4660, which I had seen near Harrisburg many times. About a month after I finished the locomotive, it developed cracked gears because I ran it with a large and heavy local. I did not feel the need to replace as the loco was just from a set, so I began the process of turning it into NS 710, which is a RP-E4C slug unit, another unit I’ve seen many times. This mistake actually turned out well in the fact that I now owned a unique locomotive in HO scale.
Sometimes, I find that mistakes are only large to you and not others. For example, I used a totally odd color of ground paint and no one bothered to mention since it was covered up. Ok, poor example.
Perhaps a better one is all the newbie errors I made on the first one that are paying dividends since not making them on the current layout. Experience is a great teacher! Speaking of, time to work on the layout...
Ignorance is bliss