Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
Being perfect - and, of course, not knowing anyone who can contradict me - I can honestly say that I have never had an accident! [size=6]HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA![/size] I was running on our club's NTrak setup one day with a rather heavy train - sixty plus cars - on the east track - that's the one closest to the edge and is, traditionally, operated counter-clockwise.  The middle track is west operated clockwise; the inside track is called branch, and is also operated counter-clockwise.  At one point on one of the modules there was/is a labyrinth of switches designed to allow trains to move between directions.  One of my cars (the one about ten cars in front of the shack) picked the switch at this location, went down the crossover, derailed the rear truck on the car in front of it, and found itself being "towed" back-asswards down the west track where it was promptly clobbered by a passenger moving at speed;  the passenger spilled over onto branch where, as luck would have it, along came a fast moving freight, and which, before anyone could get things stopped,  had piled into the accumulated wreckage.  There was one operator in the vicinity but he was not anticipating trouble and an observer noted that he estimated that everything took place in about a two second time span.  When we sorted things out there were in excess of thirty cars on the ballast.  My train fared best because I only had about four cars involved I had experienced point-picking at this same location several times in the previous couple of hours but with different cars; I would go lap after lap without trouble and I wasn't having any trouble at any other switches.  Nevertheless, it was my train that had originally deflected through the switch and, therefore, I was held to blame and suffered considerable ridicule about not keeping my rolling stock in quality order - two weeks later they replaced that particular switch because, it was noted, several people had come to grief at that particular location.  Apparently they found that the points on the errant switch was vibrating open just enough to snag a flange.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag

Update Reply

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Model Railroader Newsletter See all

Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!

Subscriber & Member Login

Edit post

Post Body

Tags (Optional)

Subscriber & Member Login

Users Online

Search the Community