Okay, somewhere out there are some really honest modelers who won't be afraid to admit to at least one bonehead incident in their model building. I'll start it out and let see who will add onto this:
Actually I have two recent ones: I was working with "Instant Water" and had my lake perfectly formed right to the edge of a waterfall. During the setting process, I noticed a little bit along the shoreline that needed a tad more ground cover. Did I wait until the surface was dry? No. Always in a partial rush, I scooped up a spoonful of Woodland Scenice Blended Earth, and as the spoon made its way to the spot it had to go, it dropped a good portion of the load right into my lake. Okay, so I can call it a sandbar, it doesn't look so good to me.
Number two, and one EVERYBODY probably knows: Never try to spread ground cover on a specific area with a fan blowing at your back. "Nuff said!!
So who's next? We could have some fun with this one.
There are times I think I could be the king of "don't ask me how I know this" !
Let's see: I have built two left or right sides for structures on a couple of occassions (I refuse to say how many). I've also, when soldering stuff to circuitboards, forgot that when I flip the board over everything is on the opposite side. Related to that - ever notice that solder connections that have to be redone because the wrong thingies were soldered together are usually the nice shiny solid ones? I also once totally undid a dcc decoder install cause I was sure I messed it up cause the loco's light didn't come on. After redoing the whole thing I remembered the little button on the throttle with the "lightbulb" picture on it. Then there was the time I was showing my wife how to wire in a new outlet as I was putting in a new junction box above the layout. Things were going on fine and I felt like such the instructor until she said "shouldn't you run the wires into the hole on the side of the box before connecting everything together?"
Oh well - if we learn from our mistakes I must be a genius!!
Let's see then..
I have a right to remain silent..
I have protection under the fifth Amendment.
'nough said..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
trainnut57Number two, and one EVERYBODY probably knows: Never try to spread ground cover on a specific area with a fan blowing at your back. "Nuff said!!
Some fans are actually strong enough to knock the top containers in double-stack cars right off the car... (don't ask!) I don't want to see what would happen with ground cover!
I'm chuckling at this thread. :)
My modular club was set up for a month in an old building downtown where I live. One of our members decided that it would be a good idea to do some scenery work (ballasting, I believe) one evening after the doors were locked. It wasn't until we started to take the modules down that he realized that the glue had gotten in between the modules, and now we had four modules glued quite firmly together.
And a couple of times at my local permanent layout club, I've been puzzled as to why the locomotives won't work even after I've turned on the power to our DCC system (Digitrax), only to have someone else remind me to turn the track power on.
Robert Beaty
The Laughing Hippie
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The CF-7...a waste of a perfectly good F-unit!
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the
end of your tunnel, Was just a freight train coming
your way. -Metallica, No Leaf Clover
Arjay1969 And a couple of times at my local permanent layout club, I've been puzzled as to why the locomotives won't work even after I've turned on the power to our DCC system (Digitrax), only to have someone else remind me to turn the track power on.
Well at least you remembered to plug the thing in. It's amazing how much better electric stuff runs when the plug is in the outlet - Don't ask how I know this or how many times I've proven it.
Okay
Pretty sure we've all heard warnings about don't solder under the layout (or module in this case) while wearing shorts, did it, nuff said.
The even dumber thing happened when I was soldering on top of the layout and someone had to pass under the wire. Somehow, I managed to turn the soldering iron in just the right direction and bend/twist my head just right that I burned my own neck with the thing! Of course we had a full crew on that night and everyone had a good laugh, well, almost everyone....ouch.
Ricky
davekelly "shouldn't you run the wires into the hole on the side of the box before connecting everything together?"
Oh that's the silliest thing I've ever heard. That couldn't happen to anyone....... other than me. It was a light fixture. So how long do you think I looked at the thing trying to figure out why the fixture wouldn't attach to the box correctly. That we won't go into. Last fixture in a hurry to get done, I've told you the rest.
As for modeling, I'll need to get my book out and make a hard decision as to which is the boneheadedness. Hard decision.
Todd
Central Illinoyz
In order to keep my position as Master and Supreme Ruler of the House, I don't argue with my wife.
I'm a small town boy. A product of two people from even smaller towns. I don’t talk on topic….. I just talk.
Yeah, let's see. Early in the ballasting phase, I'd sit the bottle of Scenic Cement on the layout. Yep, knocked the bottle over and had a big pond of cement to clean up and a section of track to re-ballast.DJ.
Good timing!
I like to collect the first run Broadway Limited locos that are QSI and fully DCC equipped. Because I wanted to double head my ATSF #3751 but didn't want to spend the bucks so I thought I'd buy the Blueline #3754.
Received it, put it on the track, darn it, won't go. Made plenty of noise but had this silly buzz. Packed it up, back inside, start to go to their website and then it hit me...DUH you d.a., put a decoder in it. Got one from the stash and all is good. Good thing it didn't have teeth!
San Dimas Southern slideshow
Arjay1969 I'm chuckling at this thread. :) My modular club was set up for a month in an old building downtown where I live. One of our members decided that it would be a good idea to do some scenery work (ballasting, I believe) one evening after the doors were locked. It wasn't until we started to take the modules down that he realized that the glue had gotten in between the modules, and now we had four modules glued quite firmly together. And a couple of times at my local permanent layout club, I've been puzzled as to why the locomotives won't work even after I've turned on the power to our DCC system (Digitrax), only to have someone else remind me to turn the track power on.
I guess I can't tell the story about how you got your nickname; that would have to be told on a railfanning thread...
When we were buying the lumber for said modules; I took a couple of guys to our local lumbertorium to help in the selection of the lumber. One of the guys was, well, just different. I knew where to go to get our lumber, but different guy just has to ask the first lumbertorium employee he sees, at the top of his lungs, at mach 1.2, "Hiwe'refromthebrazosvalleymodularrailroadclub.We'regoingtobuildamodularrailroad.Doyouhaveanyplywoodand1x4's?"
I don't think I have ever been so embarrassed; don't know why, at the time, I owned a hobby shop. Second guy and I excused our selves and got what we needed... We should have left different guy there to tell our story; because he told anyone and everyone what we were doing...
I have glued my modules together with the thinned white glue from ballasting and scenery. Its incredible the amount of holding power of the stuff. I also glued my switch points closed once. Whats worse is soldering color coded feeders to the wrong buss wires. After finding the mistake I just shut the light off and sat in front of the TV for a while. I can not tell you how many times I soldered an LED in backwards. Do I have to keep going? I can probably fill this thread to its maximum allotment of space.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
try modelling in australia everything is upside down.....
the other day i was putting peco switch motors into my new stage yard to test them i used an old hammet and morgan duo train controller.... two throttle knobs left and right ... got the picture
i installed the switch motor and tested the motor... result us so i changed the motor not easy had to rip up the switch still no good so checked the wires look ok check the connections look ok even reterminated the crocodile clips still no good so swap out the switch again.... THATS WHEN i noticed the CABLE to the test lead was on the L H S throttle and my HAND was on the R H S throttle ...... glad i was alone that day
I seem to have issues when I'm bonding one thing to another.
1) Hot glue gun, cardboard strips, bare hands and arms, need I say more?
2) Gorilla glue bubbles and expands quite a bit when it sets, mmm how will I camoflauge that!
3) Super Glue= no more fingerprints
4) Is that soldering iron tip hot? missing only one fingerprint that time.
5) I wonder hot much heat it will take before this ore car body starts to flex? oops, apparently not too much. I wonder if I can hot glue / gorilla glue / super glue that hole back up?
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
My latest bonehead move was last Sunday, and I'm still suffering for it.
Temps outside were in the low 90s, so I had the AC cranked up to keep my townhouse cool. The basement, even though I have the vent closed, can still get quite cold (like standing in front of an open freezer door) at times. So, I was working away at remotoring my older Athearn diesels, ignoring the chill going through me (was in shorts and a tank top), thinking I wouldn't be too much longer and that I'd be OK so why waste time to go upstairs and get a sweatshirt or something warmer on? So, after about two or three hours of being down there, I head upstairs to dinner, noticing a raw sensation in my throat. I ignored it since I had two colds already in April and June. Surely I wasn't sick again.
Monday morning, woke up to go to work and had a sore throat and congestion. Sore throat went away, but by Tuesday, I was running a fever at work, and everybody was telling me I looked bad. It's better since with just occasional coughing and congestion now, but I've been hearing my mom's voice in my head all week telling me that I should have put something more on on Sunday.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
When I owned a hobby shop; I did custom work on the side to supplement my income. One of my customers was an elderly PhD (Dr. B) from the large state university in College Station, TX. He had a large 20 x 30 portable building in his back yard, with a 10 x 10 "annex" attached to it; this was his research facility and model railroad layout. The buildings were paneled, and on every wall were three 1 x 12 shelves supported by metal shelf brackets. The bottom shelves were a foot off the floor; the middle shelf was 3 feet off the floor; and the top shelf was five feet off the floor. He had previously contracted with a local model railroader to build a large dogbone layout on the middle shelf; one loop was by the front door; the other was in the 10 x 10; he built a nice swinging bridge to cover the door into the 10 x 10 room. But this layout was never finished to a point where Dr. B could run trains; and the first builder was "fired" because he could not meet all of Dr. B's demands.
Enter me. I finished the loop; got trains running; fixed several problem areas that were major derailment problems; and acquired a model of a TGV off of ebay for Dr. B. He ran the TGV, at near prototypical speeds, to his hearts content. It was a good thing.
Then Dr. B wanted to expand the layout to the top shelf; a 24" rise. One of the peculiarities about the shelves that is on each shelf were framed pictures of Dr. B. Actually, if you started at the bottom on one end, and followed the pictures around the walls, you had a pictoral history of his life. The pictures were not attached to the wall; they leaned against the wall; taking up about four inches of space on the shelf. The outer seven inches of the shelf were devoted to the railroad; which was basically two tracks (code 100 flex on cork roadbed). That is what Dr. B wanted. The pictures could not be touched; the track could not be sceniced (painted/ballasted).
I figured and figured; and finally determined that I would have to build a helix. Dr. B would not have that at all. He showed me a stretch of wall in the 10 x 10 room; basically, I had to gain 24" of rise in 120"; do the math, that is a 20% grade. Won't work. Dr. B asked me, "how do you know it won't work?" No answer I could give him would make him happy. He insisted that I conduct experiments. I was to purchase a "20 foot piece of plywood" on which to build an incline..."
Long story short; I didn't do it; and he "fired" me. That was ok with me, because it was the Christmas season and I needed to be at my shop. Another local modeler was hired; he humored Dr. B; built the 20% grade, and proved that it wouldn't work. The layout was never taken to the top shelf; although the layout was converted to DCC. Soon after that, Dr. B. moved to Florida; and he gave all his equipment to the third modeler.
I did enjoy my time with Dr. B.; he really did enjoy the hobby as he intended; and that was good enough for me...
peterjenkinson1956 try modelling in australia everything is upside down.....
Yeah. but aren't you upside down, too?
I was building a model on my girlfriends Ethan Allen dining room table and I knocked over a bottle of liquid plastic weld. Boy, did that one cost me.
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
While doing some work on the layout I went to move a 40 car cut by hand a couple of feet, to get it out of the way of what I was doing. I forgot that there was another end some twenty something feet away and I should look to see where it was. I pushed it through a closed turnout and T-boned an Atlas 33000 gal tanker onto the floor. It was my first (accident) on the layout. The car that went to the floor just happened to be the first piece of equipment I had ever bought some three years earlier. A broken coupler was the only damage. Thank goodness for a carpeted floor. Lesson learned. I could just hear my dear old long departed dad saying "it's got two ends remember".
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I have published this on another Forum:
Swedish Custom painter and model maker. My Website:
My Railroad
My Youtube:
Graff´s channel
davekelly Arjay1969 And a couple of times at my local permanent layout club, I've been puzzled as to why the locomotives won't work even after I've turned on the power to our DCC system (Digitrax), only to have someone else remind me to turn the track power on. Well at least you remembered to plug the thing in. It's amazing how much better electric stuff runs when the plug is in the outlet - Don't ask how I know this or how many times I've proven it.
Then there is the problem of pulling said plug out and leaving a wire still connected to the socket---and trying to pull it out with pliers ---with the thumb on the shaft of said pliers
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
let's see:
once, I was soldering rail joiners and melted a caboose industries ground throw. Fortunately had a couple of replacments.
And then one time I had Testors rattle can paint (bonmeheaded move in and of itself), and held what I was spraying with my hand. had a white hand until I cleaned it off.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
Come on! There aren't enough terabytes of storage on this server to store all MY boneheaded moves.
Surprisingly enough, I think the only thing I've never done is to glue my fingers together with CA. Great, now I've cursed myself and will probably do it this weekend!
I think my WORST one (stop reading now if you're squeamish) was about 8 years ago. I had just finished wiring my track and turnouts and was under the layout with a heavy duty staple gun tacking the wires to the benchwork.... See it coming yet? My wife yelled something down the stairs to me, and I couldn't hear her, so I stuck my head out and yelled "What?" THUNK went the staple gun.... "Dinner," she called, then closed the basement door. Ten nunutes later she sent one of the kids to get me. You see, a heavy wire staple holds the web of your hand to a 2x2 VERY effectively.
Fortunately, my son brought me the pliers and I was able to extricate myself from the benchwork. Had to prime that leg of the benchwork twice to cover up the stains. The floor hasn't recovered yet.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
Mistakes??? I have never made a mistake. I thought I made a mistake once but I was wrong.......
Whenever I teach Railroading Merit Badge for the Scouts, I make sure that they have all heard the safety lecture including those parts that I have learned from experience.
1. If you knock the hot soldering iron off the table, do not try and grab it as it falls! The part you will have in your hand will not be the cold end!
2. The same holds true if you accidentally knock a #11 exacto knife off the work bench. Just let it fall. There is a 25% chance that it will be dull end that will hit your leg. If it is the sharp end, grabing at it will just mean that it will stuck in your leg much deeper and will probably require stiches.
3. You have a 20% chance of wiring any equipment that only uses two wires correctly the first time......
4. Pliers that you are using to trim wires normally pinch fingers when they snap after the wire is cut.
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
I have too many to list. Since I live in a small town, there isn't a LHS unless I have to drive. That being said, when I was thirteen, I built a Life-Like building kit. I ran out of plastic cement. I couldn't just run to Hobby Lobby and get more so I used white glue. I rebuilt it a week later after the walls come tumbling down.
A more recent mistake was when I was showing someone the many uses of DCC. This guy was a die hard DC. I took a loco and hardwired everything. I got everything soldered and showed him the motor control. I even ordered special LEDs to fit in the light lenses. I was in a rush to get the thing done. I took the loco and was trying show him the lighting effects. He was impressed by the motor control, but there was no lights. I played with every CV to get it right. I got home after an embarrassing evening and realized that I had wired the LEDs backwards. I fixed it and now they run fine.
Will
Oh my goodness, I can't tell you how many times I've done that one.....
Ship it on the Frisco!
Not train related, but it may put a smile on some of you Klutzes faces. Picture a 14 year old boy at the dinner table. The kettle on the stove comes to a boil and mother says go and make the tea. So being the good lad that I was, I went into the kitchen and turned the burner off under the kettle. I picked up our OLD beat up ALUMINUM teapot, (which was very thin aluminum) and calmly placed the pot on the palm of my left hand. I imediately picked up the boiling kettle and commenced to pour the boiling water into the teapot just as I heard my mothers voice yelling NOOOOOO!!!
Do you realize that Warp Factor 9 comes in a very distant second to the speed at which the heat from boiling water travelled through the base of that teapot onto my bare palm. My younger brother and sister still give me a little ribbing now and then over that little fiasco. And it happened about 56 years ago.
But on a more positive note, I never, EVER did that a second time. Yet.
Blue Flamer.
"That paint's gotta be dry by now."
"Why, no, I don't need a bottle of Un-Cure CA debonder."
"Eh! How much of a mess could this little tiny piece of pink foam make as I rasp & sand it?"
"That CA's gotta be cured by now."
"Time to foliate the scour-pad trees with ground foam! Aw, it's not that windy outside."
"Hey, this bathroom fan works just fine as a fume hood... [THUNK!]"
"Gee, I could just flick that little wisp of solder off the iron tip with my fingernail."
& the #1 bonehead move:
"But, Honey, by building this benchwork, I'm learning how to use new tools & how to woodwork! I can build anything now! Um, why, yes, I COULD build you a new dresser... & shelves for the closet? um, yeah, I COULD do that... oh, dear."
M.C. Fujiwara
My YouTube Channel (How-to's, Layout progress videos)
Silicon Valley Free-moN
My latest was carefully cutting out window and door openings on a wood structure kit, then I realised that I had the clap board siding upside down - no fixing it, had to get new siding and start over.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
Once I held two parts together in my teeth while the CA cured (my hands were holding the ends of the same assembly). Did you know that CA bonds to teeth?
Hi from belgium,
On my Nscale Maclau river there is an hidden exchanging track to allow train coming from port to go directly to my yard without running trought town but under it. By this track port train are directly managed by the yard next to it. Another hidden track coming from town reache port and is just used by dooglebug and passenger trains to go to the little port depot. These track are in fact an hidden loop under my steam terminal which allow the trains to be 7 centimeters higher than port level and make the run between town and port longer
When I lay the track for this exchange I make a mistake . I join the track in an other way than I want, the train coming from port going now back to port and the train coming from town going to my yard.
I didnt'notice it directly, I wired all the track, putting the switchmaster motor on the turnouts,and finish all the hidden work.
I put a temporary foam landscape over it and run a first train from port waiting at my yard to see the coming port train out of the tunnel under town......Today I still wait for it ......
I correctly relay the track and now all is ok and run fine.
Marc