AHHHHH!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

My little brother and his freind complely ruined my layout! they took all the wires and disconnected them and rolled them into a large ball....and somehow..i have no clue how..they blw up my transformer! that thing wasn't cheap either...im 15, i have no job..i don't know if they think im made from money or what!.. They comeptely destroyed my 2-8-2 mountain climber and my F-9...man the troubles never end.

[Anonymous]

Wow! time to take your brother over to mom and dad for a little parental justice. Something like that has to have consequences.

[Anonymous]

JEEZ! Yeah, that's the problem with little kids.... You have my deepest sympathies.
Being 17, and having a 11 year old brother, I have many hard to bear memories as well.
Back when I had an HO layout, ohh this hurt, he and his friend knocked down my Spectrum SD-45 and smashed it. You'd think they could NOT TOUCH! And usually they were good about that. Let's see, also had an O-27 steamer....knocked down from a 7ft high shelf, that engine was a couple pounds, smashed in the front and the floor.
Well, by far the worst incidents are with my mom's clients. She does referrals for gifted kids in elementary school...... some of those kids and/or their siblings are just pure evil.
So it was Christmas time and I had my G scale FA and B as well as an NW-2 around the tree. These kids ran into walls, knocked vases over, and yes kicked around my beautiful $300 motive power. I was ready to go for my pellet gun.....

I guess the moral is that (I believe) this is a sort of rite of passage, especially for younger modelers like us. [banghead] Hope you get 'em back though..... unless that's immoral. Ahh, the fury of the model railroader..... LOL
Hope things get better for you
Martin

[Anonymous]

man i feel for ya losin those g and 0-27 engines..thats gotta be a b****. yes...vengeance is on the horizon..lol

[Anonymous]

Take all of their favorite things and set them on a RR track right before a UP BigBoy with a 100 car train..... poetic justice. Also, as I recall, I think my own mother broke some of my trains in her carelessness..... though she had the money to buy me more. BTW, The G engines survived, just broken external stuff though...... the 027, or whats left of it makes the wierdest noise when you try to run it; its sounds like death.

[twhite]

Challenger--how old is your little brother? Instead of killing him (which would be my first choice, if I were your age), I'd have your parents make him help you re-wire the layout, perhaps then he'd see just how much work you've put into it. As to the power-pack, I think your parents should deduct an amount from his allowance (assuming he gets one) until it's replaced. And there may be a up-side to this whole thing. As he helps you re-wire your layout, he might actually get INTERESTED in the hobby. I speak from experience, as my son completely re-wired my layout once, when he was about ten. He'd never shown any interest in it, and I found out later that it was his way of getting my attention. Together, we took it back to the original wiring, and by then he was pretty hooked. We had a lot of fun with my layout until he moved away. He never got into model railroading like I did, but it taught him to respect other people's property. Now, when he comes to visit, the first thing he heads for is the garage. Sometimes these things will work themselves out.
Tom

[Anonymous]

Yeah, guess you can't kill 'em. That wouldnt be the right thing to do. Guess we have to be moral Make your parents make him build a loco of your choice from scratch, and dont release him until it is absolutely PERFECT! Though I'm sure it violates some child labor law, LOL

[Anonymous]

When i was about 11, I had invited a friend over. I wasnt there when he got there, I was just getting back from something with my dad. I walk into my room just in time to see him crash a spectrum dash 8 (my favorite engine at the time) full speed into a big string of cars. Needless to say I spen hours finding and reinstalling couplerson the cars. The snowplow from the engine was lodged in the truck of a hopper and i never found any of the handrails from the front of the engine ( cant explain that one).
Moral of the story, dont let friends into your house when you arent home.

[Anonymous]

Short of vengeance and thunder and lighting coming down and visit hell fire and dammation upon the little brother, I prefer to:

1- Deduct the amount of damages from little brothers allowance
2- If no allowance then have little brother spend a certain amount of time each day for the rewiring and repair of the layout IN addition to HOUSEWORK and possibly denial of a favorite activity for a week such as nintendo
3- Replace the locomotives after the wiring and transformer issues are solved.

The time could be used as "payment" towards a total set by the parent of the damages can be replaced.

By then there might be interest in the railroad, if so perhaps finding some room for thier trains (rather basic damage resistant stuff) with the ability to "cash" a little bit of chore time or allowance towards an upgrade to foster some kind of encouragement to balance work and play.

Maybe this will help the young ones respect property. And maybe add to the number in the family that are active in the hobby.

As a child I destroyed several peices in my family that were irreplaceable and have experienced loss from others who do not have any interest other than seeing the locomotive survive a trip from one side of a wall to the other.

You may feel your troubles never end but cheer up and be strong. Life is a bit like either good or bad, go with the flow.

[Anonymous]

he is 11..and hkis friend was 10. i think they just want to make my life al,iving hell considering that my little bro dosen't like the hobby. but the idea about puttin his things under a 4-8-8-4 bigboy with a 100 car train is a very good idea! unfortunately i live near the sante fe and all they have is diesels...but hey.its still a big train!

[vsmith]

You know hooking him up to your transformer might help to "enlighten" him.....?

[Anonymous]

Ouch!!! When i was five, i drove my father's (remote control) Ferrari F40 off the kitchen counter. Let's just say some "rc" mechanic now owns a big screen TV!!! He was soooooooooooooooooo ticked off!!! Having anything destroyed is painful, i know. Shooting your brother with a pellet gun may not be a bad idea, but it may not go over well with your parents. If you want to teach your brother a lesson, ship his stuff to me. 3 or 4 CSX trains go by a day, and they do plenty of slow-travel. Sometimes they change directions five or six times in two minutes since there is a car scale somewhere near here.

[Anonymous]

Guess I'm lucky - my brother's four years younger than and never broke anything. Have had a few close calls with 2 year old cousin but she seems to be getting the idea of not grabbing models, and isn't allowed anywhere near fragile stuff without supervision.

Ok, onto the rebuild - you sure your transformer is fried? Check the fuse, you might be lucky and find that it blew before anything else could get damaged. Guessing they probably shorted the terminals together, with any luck this would just blow the fuse before anything else fried. Worth a look before spending your hard-earned cash for a new one.

As far as locos are concerned, keep an eye on eBay (and some LHS) - sometimes you'll see "spares or repairs" lots that you could rebuild using surviving parts from your locos or that just need a bit of servicing - I've found bargains that just needed to be re-assembled and to have a wire or two resoldered. A good way to enlarge your loco fleet and improve your repair skills (which are transferable to many other areas, for example: MRR taught me how to solder, which enabled me to wire a new car stereo head unit in without needing to pay the extra for fitting). Also worth a look are the Bachmann basic line locos, at least in HO (not tried any of their N scale ones). They have a GP40, High-nose GP50, and FT, all have 8 wheel drive, can motor, diecast frame and decent bodywork, prices are very low indeed and the locos are probably the best value for money out there right now, excepting special offers on some Lifelike Proto equipment. The Bachmann locos would probably survive any future attacks better than the Proto though, due to their having less detail to get knocked off. Hope this is of help!

[Anonymous]

if you were using DC then this must be a sign.... you could switch to DCC now fairly easily now.. seeing as you are going to have to replace alot of stuff anyway why not just rewire for DCC and have your parents get you a new system like the Digitrax Zephyr or something.

[cheese3]

My cousin kicked my brand new just out of the box F7 and tried to get away! lets just say he didn't get very far [:-,] That loco hasn't been the same as it was before the kick. The sad part is it only went once around the track.


P.S. my cousin was 13. you think he would have known better.

[Anonymous]

When you said you live by the santa fe, I couldnt help but think of my favorite diesel.
BNSF GEVO..... no better, 3 of 'em! So just when you see a long freight coming over the horizon.........

[Anonymous]

I'm sure you're tempted to break your foot in their behinds but that will only make thing worse for you. Did he do that to get back at you for something you did to him?
If not and it were my boys, I would ground the little bro, untill the older boy is paid back, with no TV, games, phone friends or internet and make him pay back or work off half of the replcement value. An apology would be requied too. I would also go, with my boys, over to his bro's friends house and have a talk with his folks. I'd take along the broken stuff with the receipts and ask for the other half. In any event, the friend would be banned from the house until he pays up and apologized.
If it was for revenge on you, then you won't have much of a case to present to your parents.
Was anyone home when these monkeys attacked?

[Anonymous]

A good wegeeeee is always good

[Anonymous]

i wasn't home..my mom was sleeping casue shes lazy...and if i did somethin...lol i have no clue what..but ruining my trains...he coulda ruined my PS2 not my beautiful HO layout!

[Anonymous]

Thankfully my layout has a padlock on it. i have the only key, the spare seems to have grown legs and walked away. i'm not worried tho. All my friends(3 of them that live close)i can trust, the one i can't trust taht much is almost never over and i never leave that room if he's in there. But i think you should get alittle bit of revenge. and ave your parents find away to get him AND his friend should pay.

[Anonymous]

mwhaaaaahahahaha![:-,][}:)]