Model train wreck ?

[tomikawaTT]

A half-century or so ago, Model Railroader ran a two-page photo feature on a gentleman who built wreck dioramas - overturned loco, wood-sheathed boxcar splintered around the tender's water end, torn up rail, splintered ties, gouges in the right-of-way...

In my prototype experience, I rode the 'Super Skunk' east from Fort Bragg in the late '80s.  Just to the west of the tunnel we got a good look at the undersides of a bunch of freight cars laying on their sides.  I don't know whether they were the remains of a derailment/turnover or simply a case of using unconventional materials for a retaining wall...

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[twhite]

New Haven--

Generally, railroads clean up their wrecks as soon as they happen, UNLESS the wreck occurs in a spot where it's impossible to get to the wreck, say a deep canyon or a swamp.  Passing by Cascade Summit on the old ex-SP Cascade line into Oregon, I have seen the rusting wreck of several freight cars WAY down on the mountainside where no crane could ever pull them up.  I also know of a string of derailed boxcars still rusting in the desert air on the old San Diego and Arizona Eastern, WAY down a mountain where rescuing them was impossible. 

I would think that if you were going to model a wreck, you should make sure that it's in a spot that is inaccessable, or dangerous to retrieve the wreckage.  Myself, I'm considering a bashed-up boxcar at the bottom of Turner Canyon on my own Yuba River Sub, just to show that no matter how careful and safe the railroad thinks it is, these things happen.  Of course, the whole thing hinges on just WHICH of my 'valuable' boxcars I want to melt into a twisted hunk of steel, LOL. 

Tom

[New Haven I-5]

This will raise a controversey I bet: My warped mind got me to thinking if anyone has ever incorporated a train wreck as a permanent part of their layout????  Maybe an old steamer down a bank with a few cars on their side, or a beat up old diesel at the bottom of a trestle.  I can hear some people now saying this would put a negative spin on the hobby(remember the word "prototype" )----and if you have photos let's see them.

Not on my layout, but the G scale train at the Zoo in Palm Springs does.

[tatans]

This will raise a controversey I bet: My warped mind got me to thinking if anyone has ever incorporated a train wreck as a permanent part of their layout????  Maybe an old steamer down a bank with a few cars on their side, or a beat up old diesel at the bottom of a trestle.  I can hear some people now saying this would put a negative spin on the hobby(remember the word "prototype" )----and if you have photos let's see them.