Ever lose yer cool on your RR?

[Anonymous]

i never had patience as a kid. it still suprises me that i can actually build all the locomotives that i do, and add all the tiny parts.

but every once in a while, i just want to throw one, but then i realize how expensive the thing is.

but the cheaper items arent so lucky. i had 2 boxcars that just would not owrk. they would not glue together very well, they wouldnt track very well, and overall, they looked like crap. so, one got 3 M80's twisted together and shoved in the door. not much left of that car. the other one got set up on a fencepost i the back of my 10 acres, and used as a.30-06 target. i hit the *** on the second shot from 100yds.

kids, DO NOT try this at home [:D][:D]

[Anonymous]

let me just say i don't have a layout any more (luckly it was 1*4)

-no name[angel][oops][soapbox][tdn]

[Anonymous]

I've been known to lose my temper on occaision, but I've never taken it out on my layout or trains, only my vocal cords. But, I have very interesting story that a friend of mine told me about an experience that he had with his anger that ought to give you a laugh.

He had this camera that he had just used to take a whole bunch of railfanning pictures with. He couldn't get it to open to take the film out. Finally he got so mad and went to his wife and said, "if I stomped on this camera, how many pieces do you think it would break into?" He then did just that. He made no mention to me of just how many pieces it actually did break into, though. He later on took the lens from the destroyed camera and used it as a window in a station that he scratchbuilt for his layout.

[philnrunt]

sparkingbolt- Does it ever happen? Does it ever NOT happen?!?! In my job, I am bombarded by stupidity, and I attempt to maintain a Mr. Spock-like demeanor the entire 8 hours ( my co-workers might claim it's more of a Klingon attitude), bemused by the twists and turnsof life.
Then I come home and try to work with 1) My trains 2) my trucks or 3) any of the huge number of things that need repaired, and it seems that within 10 minutes things are flying thru the air with my special[censored]bon voyage.
I think I've said before, it's like philzilla in downtown Tokyo.
My Bronco II has a dent from a (way too) handy ball peen hammer, so now when I work on anything, I first try to clear the area of any weapons of mass destruction.
Oddly enough, much like you, I feel no guilt, but relief, for much the same reasons.
Oh no brother, you are definitely not alone.

[Anonymous]

Everyone does it. The trick is to spot that you're about to do it and walk away before you do some serious damage! However, when the switch machine still refuses to work in one direction despite your checking and rechecking the power feeds and motor (the one on my layout works if I put a "jump lead" (piece of wire with two small crocodile clips) between it and the power pack, but not via the installed wiring...) It's easy to become frustrated. I'm planning some rewiring that should make my electrics more robust and solve the problem - I plan to have switch controls mounted on the module that they operate rather than all grouped on one board. Another advantage is that I'll only need 4 wires between boards, 2 for track power and 2 for switch machine power.

[Anonymous]

Fear not.[:D]

We all do it from time to time.[banghead] If we didn't, then it could be because we are either A) perfect or B) don't care.

I'm not perfect, so dont ask me to "fix" your switch machines![;)][:-,]

[newhavenguy]

Nope we've all done something like that. I call it stress relief! [banghead]

[BRAKIE]

Suffice it to say I *may* miss my welcome at the pearly gates for saying some very dirty words more then once over the years.[:O] [banghead]

[sparkingbolt]

[banghead] Today I lost it. I figured out how to make my manually thrown turnouts work much smoother and proceeded to work my way from left to right across the layout replacing and reworking turnout controls. It was difficult work but I was progressing along and the improvements were really working great too, 'cept....

Well this one didn't seem to work well enough, the points wouldn't close. So I found out why and fixed it. The push-pull rod was binding.That wasn't it so I found another thing, fixed it, a lever issue. Nope. Oh, the hole thru the sub road bed not big enough. Made it bigger. No diff. OK! Now I can see that the hole in the tie rod between the points isn't big enough and the throw pin is binding. Fixed it. To no avail. I have systematically replaced every component in this whole switch mechanism, this switch is no different than the 19 others and it WON'T WORK!!!!

Yeah, that's when I gently took hold of this #4 code 70 hand laid left, and ripped it out of the layout. That wasn't enough, I also reached under the layout and took hold of the push-pull rod that goes from the panel to the switch and yanked it out. Of course, the DPDT frog and power routing switch on this unit, while identical to the rest, was the strongest one on the whole layout cuz it stayed in tact and pulled the guts out of all the surrounding ones by the wires. (This is where you laugh) I'm sure it looked as comical as it sounds. (I 'sposeIf my mother was here though, she'da beat my 46 yr old butt.)

I have a lot of repairing to do, along with building a new lefty, (good opportunity to put a 6 in at least) plus buy the DPDTs, I even have to figure out how to rewire cuz I don't know what all has been ripped from where.

Not that you would, but don't bother trying to suggest what may be the problem on the turnout or control NONE of it is there. The problem is me when I lose it like this.

I'm embarrassed and ashamed, yet at the same time I feel a twisted sort of liberation, relieved even, like this particular component isn't going to bother me again. And now I'm unloading on you guys. Part of my self imposed punishment is to 'fess up.

I have often been one who could not walk away from a technical problem and come back later, I have to conquer it or obsess. ( Watch, I'll have it all back together by the end of the weekend) This doesn't happen real often or I wouldnt have a layout at all. But this is far from the first time.The other day I did scrap a rather expirimental loco project. I didn't "lose it", I just decided to give up and move on.[xx(]

So with some trepidation i must ask: Am I in any company in the way I sometimes "finish" a project, or do I stand alone with my nose in the corner as the sole idiot? - sparkingDOLT