what was the worst thing u did on your layout

[coalminer3]

Too many to mention, but here's on one the operations side. I model in N scale.

Yrs ago I put an old Atlas E-8 and two passenger cars through the side of a just -completed scratchbuilt passenger station. It looked prototypical as the E buried itself in the building and the cars were atop each other.

work safe

[Budliner]

moved the 75 gal fi***ank
lost a few pals


B

[Anonymous]

When I first got my DCC setup, I didnt have all my engines with decoders yet. I rigged up my DCC system and a MRC Tech2 to the same port. [8]The theory being that I could run both(but not at the same time) . As luck would have it,[D)] I forgot to switch off the DCC one night before turning on the DC. Fried the DCC System.[oops][:0] Thankfully, Jim and the fellas at NCE were VERY understanding and fixed it for free.[tup][tup][tup]

[Anonymous]

Causing a short circuit on my first DCC system![:(]

[Anonymous]

Trying to pour epoxy for a creeks that comes out the front of my layout, and it got smeared all over the fascia.
Andrew

[RedLeader]

Try to build the whole darn thing myself!!!! Ja ja ja

[ndbprr]

Took it down.

[FJ and G]

Ballasting; glued all switches shut

dav

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by coldcrow

the worst thing i did on my layout, was started to put the gravel around the tracks before i painted everything and grassed it up. i had to remove all track gravel and rip out the track and the bed,[:(]. what a waste of time and money[V]

I made that mistake too - ended up using large quantities of weeds/foliage to cover the unpainted bits (doesn't look too bad). Apart from that, my two greatest mistakes were:

Fitting Peco switch machines under the board - all the hassle of cutting the hole, then ballasting round it (still have a hole under the switch!). Will only surface-mount them from now on. Disguising them is easier than cutting holes in the board!

Buying McHenry under-track uncoupling magnets - those things were a pain to fit, and then uncoupled anything crossing them, even if you didn't want to! I'll be using Kadee between the rail delayed uncouplers from now on as they're superb.

[Eriediamond]

I think the worst mistake I've made was to build my my first layout too big. After a year or so, I got fed up and started all over again with a 5X9 and really learned a lot from it which made my next and larger layout a lot easier and faster. I've made a lot of mistakes in the past but I'm in my 60's now and no longer make mistakes, but I now have alot of learning experiences. [(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]

[Anonymous]

Salvaged the buildings and took the rest outback to the burn pit and lit it on fire.
(I was fed up with #4 turnouts and heavily ballasted track work laid directly on plywood).

[AggroJones]

I didn't use clamps to help keep things aligned when constructing the benchwork of the current layout, so it lumber pieces are not perfectly perpindicular or parallel.

Plus I didn't check if some of the flex track was in gauge before it was laid! That crap was slightly narrow. So, I have to rip up ballast and re-lay it with new code 100.

[Anonymous]

this is my first layout ever, and before i started i asked alot of questions on here, and the Atlas forums..the only thing i did wrong was not sand a little where i added 2 4x8 s...but all i had to do is remove the 1 piece of lex track and sand it down...i really havent made any major mistakes.

[Jetrock]

Wiring the layout by wrapping the track leads directly to the wires from the power supply, and using ALL BLACK WIRES--then, upon dropping the power pack and yanking out said power pack wires, I have to figure out which wire is which, when I install the terminal strips I should have installed in the first place!

[CP5415]

Not making a large enough radius for the mainline.
Fortunatley I haven't made it past the layign track process so correcting the mistake was easy.

Gordon

[Anonymous]

My layout is a combination of self-canceling errors. No one thing stands out as the absolutely worst, and yet the thing actually works.

Steam is the answer.

Tom

[tomwatkins]

My biggest, which is to say, longest lasting, was ignoring John Armstrong's recommendations about minimum radius and frog numbers for steam locomotives in "Track Planning For Realistic Operation. I've spent a lot of time going back and rebuiding sections of the railroad to correct that. Second biggest was saving a little money by using twin pole switch machines instead of stall motors. They are now all gone, replaced by tortoises in hard to reach places and by manual operation in places which are readily accessible. That improved reliability tremendously, but it also took a good bit of time.
Have Fun,
Tom Watkins

[Anonymous]

I didn't allow for access to my switch machines for maintenance (i've cut access now), and I used too much diluted glue to secure ballast around a turnout. The glue syphoned down the hole for the actuator rod, and into the contacts that route the power for the switch. Fortunately, it's in a siding, and not on the mainline somewhere. Now I have to get up in there (it's hard to access), remove the ruined set of contacts, and install a new set.

I have a plan of attack, I just need to find time to take care of it. In the meantime, I operate as if the switch was damaged, and can't handle the weight of a locomotive until it's repaired ;). So, I use four or five cars as "idlers" between the locomotive and the car I'm spotting on the other side of the "dead switch".

I've been told that the mark of a good modeler is not being able to avoid mistakes, but being able to fix your mistakes. So hopefully this will be a step towards becoming a better modeler.

---jps

[Anonymous]

to save $$, made model railroad on mahogony scraps.

it warped, cracked, and now the entire layout needs to be removed

[brothaslide]

I took short cuts on the bench work and it played havoc in laying track and keeping track aligned.

Sean

[dano99a]

Laid wet glue down then realizing that I wasn't done scuplting the hillside.
duhh... step 1, step 2... er step 5????

Getting glue on a switch machine armature (had to rip that one out) [:(]

[MAbruce]

Not checking for spiders before sending the train out..

They can be rough on N-scale engines.

Had to take the front truck completely apart to clean spider remains out of the gears. And NO, spider guts do not make a good lubricant!

[johncolley]

I did 3 worst things...I put a great HO layout crammed into too small a room, I used too small a minimum mainline radius of 24", and I built the da...d helix overlapping a doorway so you have to be a contortionist to get into it! The line is good for freight ops as I am in 1947 and use only 36-40 footers, but my 85' passenger trains look like lousy toys. Know of any empty K-marts?

[Fergmiester]

Sanded a drywall seem right beside it! What a MESS. Took me a week to get the track clean and the engines running right! Then there were times because of the size of the layout I had to crawl over it. Not good! now I have an access hole in the middle much better and I don't have to worry about crashibng through the top.

[simon1966]

Not installing the backdrop early enough in the process! I am working to rectify the problem now without doing too much damage to other work I have completed.

[FThunder11]

Basically messed up the entire thing and now i just started over

[joseph2]

Only way into the room is thru a duckunder.It seemed a good way to maximize track 15 years ago,but it's a pain now. Joe G.

[Anonymous]

This was when I was quite young, and did not know the ways of the railroad.

But the worst thing I have ever done was climb up onto the railraod and walk on it. Fortunatly there was only track laid at the time.

James

[Anonymous]

the worst thing i did on my layout, was started to put the gravel around the tracks before i painted everything and grassed it up. i had to remove all track gravel and rip out the track and the bed,[:(]. what a waste of time and money[V]