I hate flipping the master switch to power up the layout only to find that a throttle is not in the off position, and then a locomotive takes off and runs into something.
.
Ugh.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I bought my first hot glue gun when I started my layout. It took me an embarrassingly long time to learn not to wipe up drips with my finger. For a while I just started keeping a bucket of cold water close by, since there's no other way to get the stuff off without further burns.
Been there, done that: Upside down couplers; cutting the wrong piece of material; gluing the wrong side; scribing the wrong side; leaving a coupler gauge or other tool on the track; etc.
Outdoor layouts only: Finding out the hard way that large scale brass track gets HOT in the sun. Finding out that 18 volts of track power and sweaty skin aren't a good mix.
OK I've got one, let me set the scene.
It was yesterday at the MSMRC op session, the railroad is in full swing, the dispatcher is doing his best to keep things moving. I get the instruction to take my road train #200 the siding at Alexandria and await for the branch line local #906 to proceed onto the siding and main ahead of me. When the branch local clears out and heads northbound, I get track and time on the siding and main at Alexandria to do my setouts and pickups, I also receive control over the switches from CTC.
Now here's the Op error, I throw the switch at the north end of the siding and proceed to run my train up the siding and out to the main so I can set out and pickup from the yard tracks. Well the fella (one of the new junior members) decided he needn't not set the switch leading from the branch and yard ladder back to the siding, so as I'm going north through a turnout that faces southbound the two SD40s on my train get derailed. So easy fix right I rerail the motive power and continue my work.
Well this story gets better.
I'm done with my work and am now waiting in the siding for clearance to proceed.
So I take a stroll to find train #906 and it's operator, well I find him and tell him of his mistake and remind him to not make it again. He gets defensive and says that dispatch told him to leave a hand throw turnout fouling the siding while a train was in said siding.
So I head to dispatch and ask him about it, dispatch tells me to tell train #906 to get his head out of his backside and to stop being a horses patoot in so many words. So I go and in less vivid language to not make the same mistake again.
Well he gets defensive and says that I make the same mistake all the time and it's not his fault, so I drop it head back to Alex and get my train moving.
Now to clarify I have been on the back end of that situation before, but it's a rare occurrence and I definitely know better than to not pay attention to such things during an op session. And when it does happen it only snafus my train.
So I luckily have waited at Alex long enough that I'm not right behind #906.
#906 is going to have to loose his attitude if he plans to operate on the railroad in the future.
He even once got snippy with the dispatcher (who was the clubs El Presidente)
My point is always no matter how dumb the mistake admit your wrong and move on.
I know I kinda went on a rant. I'll step off the soapbox now.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
BNSF UP and others modeler 8. Buying something after meticulous bargian hunting, and then find it cheaper. 9. Purchasing something that you think is a splendid deal, but then find out you bought junk.
8. Buying something after meticulous bargian hunting, and then find it cheaper.
9. Purchasing something that you think is a splendid deal, but then find out you bought junk.
I will go along with 8 and 9.
They do fit into the fun of train shows and eBay.... That fun comes with risks.
I must admit I am beginning to become a little wiser and getting a little better at avoiding 8&9 though.
I have another one: When assembling my first P2K kit, I cut the thick parts of the sprue so I could access a row of grab irons better. Neglected to cut the little sprues attatching them to the row below... Result: an entire row of broken grabs. Good job, ya idiot. Lucky thing the kit comes with multiple spares!
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.
BNSF UP and others modeler I was curious, do people make and hate the same model railroading mistakes that I do? Here are ten among my many: 1. Installing a coupler upside down.
I was curious, do people make and hate the same model railroading mistakes that I do? Here are ten among my many:
1. Installing a coupler upside down.
Really? #1 is a problem? I'd think if you did that, you'd turn it around right away and it would never really be an issue that would make the top 10, or even worth a mention.
Believe me, I make a lot of mistakes, but a piece of rolling stock has never made it to the layout with an up-side-down coupler before. I'm not that for gone yet but as spacey as I am, it could happen some day.
2. Being oblivious and leaving a metal tool on the rails while track power is on.
For sure, and almost always that "tool" is a Kadee height gauge.
3. Buying the wrong size/scale of things like ballast, figures from China, etc.
I think I have some wrong scale signs I somehow got at a hobby shop closing sale - didn't pay much for them. Fingers crossed, never mail ordered anything wrong scale.
4. Dropping that mint brass 4-8-8-4 (haven't done that yet, but I dread it).
Bite your tongue.
5. Loosing that pin sized detail to the abyss below the work area.
Countless times.
Sure, happed a few times. Didn't loose sleep over it.
This is where it helps to know your product. So far knowledge has been power, but AFAIK, I haven't gotten any junk so far.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
That reminds me...
I also really hate general mistakes caused by ignorance and low budget . It makes model railroading more difficult
Byvf the biggest mistake is running over incorrectly set turnouts.
Joe Staten Island West
angelob6660 I dropped ATSF F7s into the ground (2 out of 4). They still work, with scratching paint. I dropped numberboards into the carpet. Also lost details, couplers, springs. Etc. Yes carpet gets parts lost. Can't see black parts within brown.
I dropped ATSF F7s into the ground (2 out of 4). They still work, with scratching paint.
I dropped numberboards into the carpet. Also lost details, couplers, springs. Etc. Yes carpet gets parts lost. Can't see black parts within brown.
One of the many reasons the new SIW train room has laminate floors.
A few year's ago.....
I got a set of Microscale decal's for T & N O boxcar's. I also got a few Accu-rail 40 foot boxcar's , pre-painted Tuscan red.... but no logo's ,reporting mark's or data. The roof's were wrong so I cut them off ,and replaced them with "Correct " one's.
I had been "wanting" ..... "Yearning" .... "Begging" .... for a set of T & N O car's for a while, so I was Excited to get started !
I completed the first side of three car's and set them aside to dry overnight. In order to NOT smudge up the decal's already on the car, I Glosscoated them , so I could start on the other side ......
After letting the Glosscoat dry ( about 2 day's later ) I "discover " .... TO MY HORROR..... I had decaled all three car's ..... UPSIDE DOWN !! How doe's this happen, you may ask ? ... Because I Installed the roof's where the floor was suppose to be !
Had to get more decal's ..........
Rust...... It's a good thing !
Eric White Cutting a bunch of parts for a project. Benchwork, a model, it doesn't matter. I need to cut one more part, pick up what I think is a random scrap of material, cut it to size, then realize during assembly that last piece was cut from another, already cut piece. I hate when that happens. Eric
Cutting a bunch of parts for a project. Benchwork, a model, it doesn't matter.
I need to cut one more part, pick up what I think is a random scrap of material, cut it to size, then realize during assembly that last piece was cut from another, already cut piece.
I hate when that happens.
Eric
Was this during the construction of the Canadian Canyons bridges? In those videos that workbench was totally messy. I'm surprised you didn't lose your mind.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
All the above.
Lots of good examples that I am sure we can all relate to. Just proves we are human.
Paul D
N scale Washita and Santa Fe RailroadSouthern Oklahoma circa late 70's
I have only dropped a Superliner onto the floor from about 3 feet up, barely any damage, just a bent ladder. I consider myself lucky!
~Eastrail
#5 should definitely be #1 on the list. It's almost in a special category of its own.
I've had a P2K Alco PA take a dive about 4 feet off a recently-completed helix to a concrete floor below. Damage was amazingly minimal, but barriers started going up the next day anyway. Now, years later, nothing's ever hit the barrier - of course.
As for leaving turnouts misaligned and such, if my railroad were the real thing I'd have been fired so many times and killed so many people it would make your head spin.
Waking up in the middle of the night to a strange roaring noise and then remembering you forgot to turn the air regulator and compressor off upstairs in the train room for the umpteenth time.
Mixing up the wrong weathering bottles and putting solvent based paint over acrylic with melting results.
Forgetting to differentiate the miniatronics bulb wires you meticulously threaded through the cab and interior of a Genesis GP locos headlights.
Forgetting to glue those same bulbs and having to take the cab off a third time.
Forgetting to drill holes in the speaker housing for wires after you have already applied glue to it.
Absent mindedness must be age related.
SB
Carefully applying glue to a surface, only to discover it is the wrong side---
Working on (pick a name) need (name the implement) to finish the job. You know for fact that you own two of said item (s). They no longer exist at the location you are at--OK, drive 40 miles for said item, upon returning, as the pile is moved to make room for said project, lo-and behold--as if by magic-------!!
Probably the biggest one for me recently is running through a misaligned turnout. Either a train will go onto a wrong route, sometimes colliding with a train on a parallel track, or I'll pull or back a train through a trailing point turnout that's lined for the other route.
Years ago when tuning up one of my Athearn blue box locomotives, I put it back together and found that it was running backwards. When I looked at the other Athearn models, I saw that I'd reversed the trucks. Oops.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
It's got to be running through a turnout set the wrong way for me. Despite having almost all turnouts clearly visible from where I run the trains, and having signals to show how the turnouts are aligned for many of them, I still do this occasionally.
I don't consider losing a Kadee coupler spring in the carpet to be a major problem. I have plenty of them, and my time is more valuable. If a quick search won't find it, there are plenty more in the small parts box.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Leaving something on the tracks and either shorting out everything, or, if it's not metal, hitting it and the resulting issues from it.
Running through a closed turnout, the wrong way.
Sending small parts off into "never-never land", where they are never-never to be seen again. (Managed to do this with a old BB motor brush spring recently.....)
Forgetting to hook up the feeders on your freshly laid track.
Dumping a coal drag that contained live loads onto the ground. (I no longer use live coal loads....)
Doing a nice paint job on a model, and then forgetting that the paint is still wet and leaving a big old gigantic sized fingerprint in its nice new paint.
Related - Forgetting to clean the fingerprints off a model before painting it.
Misplacing parts and pieces ecause you set them aside when you got interrupted and forgetting where that somewhere was.
Forgetting to glue something down and then trying to clean it with a vacuum.....
Gluing something into place, and then realizing that it was upside-down/backwards, or both....
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
I dunno, some time ago on a previous layout I assembled 3 Digitrax UP5 throttle jacks backwards. They worked fine on my 4x8 layout, but while reusing them on my current layout, they were giving out all kinds of wierd and disturbing readings.
After a week of testing, two forums, and throwing good money after bad, Randy figured out what was going on. I reversed them to the way they should be (took about a minute each) and everything worked as they should have.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Applying a drop of 30-second CA to a small part. Picking it up with the micro-tweezers just ever so and carefully, slowly reaching into the model . . . only to realize you have to install that other part first.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
rrinkermark the scrap side of a cut so you cut to the right side of the line. Nothing like carefully lining up the saw blade, making the cut and then - oops, even though the big X was right there and visible, you cut to the wrong side.
No, that's not dumb. Cutting it wrong the second time is dumb.
Dropping a tiny part onto the carpet under my desk….never to be seen again.
One of my pet peeves is making a nice, neat solder connection and then realizing that I forgot to put the heat shrink on the wire first.
Dropping things and/or having them shoot out of the tweezers is the other big one. It got to the point where I now have a white canvas apron clamped to the underside of my workbench. When I'm working with little parts, I put the apron strap around my neck. If I drop anything off the bench, the apron will catch it (usually).
Of course, this can lead to another pet peeve. Namely, trying to stand up and walk away with the apron strap still around my neck. I don't get too far...
My most common operator error is running over a misaligned turnout causing a derailment.
Also, now that I have DCC, I sometimes enter the wrong locomotive number in the controller which can cause an accident.
I try to avoid running trains off of the layout by installing protective barriers at the edge of the layout. However, I once had a new layout section without the barrier installed yet. I laid some papers across the tracks (dumb), and ran a train into the papers. The train derailed, and an SD9 became a "floor model".
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Number 5, definitely
Bear "It's all about having fun."