What irritates you in model railroading?
I'll start with the metal clip that Athearn uses to hold couplers on. They don't pop off very often, but when then they do, they can cause a mess
South Penn
Modelers with blinders that will not look at other than their chosen scale and make a point of telling me how much better their scale is than yours.
Their reasoning being that if it isn't their scale there are no useful ideas to be culled from the other scale (no matter what it is).
That tool that you just had in your hand 5 seconds ago, that you spend half an hour finding.
Winner - the tool that you had just 15 seconds ago. Every I put something down I can never find it when I need it again.
Many things irritate me in the hobby. Most things outside my control. But...the most irritating thing for me is on one day operating a train on my layout and having it run flawlessly, then the next day running the very same train with no changes anywhere and having it derail repeatedly and sometimes piling up in my tunnels. Gremlins...critters...who knows. I have had black widows creep onto the layout and derail trains. Anyway. I'll typically spout out a long series of very colorful metaphors, shut down the railroad, and find something else to do for the day.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
As far as modeling goes, I have to agree with dropping things as my #1 irritant. That's why I bought a white shop apron (at an Army-Navy Store, of all places). This apron is made of denim material. What I've done is clamp the bottom of it to the underside of my workbench. When I sit in my chair to work at my bench, I slip the neck strap over my head. Now when I drop anything, the apron catches it and I don't have to get on my hands and knees with a flashlight looking for that one-of-a-kind part that is crucially needed to reassemble that expensive model.
The only change I'm going to make is to replace the neck strap with a breakaway type normally found on an ID necklace. I've already tried to walkaway once while still tied to the workbench. The bench didn't move, and I stopped abruptly.
Paul A. Cutler III
I drop stuff all the time but I work over a smooth floor so I can usually find the stuff when it goes straight to the floor. What really bugs me is that piece that flies off into the ether after it pops out of your pliers, never to be seen again. It is especially frustrating when you can hear it land and you think you know which direction it went.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Molded on details. The wife calls me a car snob all the time for it, but molded on details just hit my eye so, so wrong.
BMMECNYC That tool that you just had in your hand 5 seconds ago, that you spend half an hour finding.
Totally relate to that one, BMMECNYC.
Two annoyances that come to mind:
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Well the kids are not here yet for the weekend so here goes:
10. I often can't find the list I started of things I want to be able to find because I may have put them in any of several places
9. My batting average of replacing the few Kadee coupler springs that become missing. I have lots of extras but the poor replacement average is a man vs. machine thing
8. My hands shake sometimes when I'm working on small stuff. Which makes me worry about when they will always shake.
7. The one step forward, two steps back things. Today I used a sound meter to help narrow the too wide range of my diesel sound levels across the fleet...at idle, horn, bell, etc. It helped considerably, but I discovered a number of locos that go the wrong way, I think, so adding to the To Do list.
6. Keeping notes that aren't quite good enough.
5. Skipping the Do-It -Right-The-First-Time approach (intentionally) and having to fix something to make me happy later
4. Having to choose between model railroading and things I gotta / oughta do. Correcting this misconception is my primary goal.
3. Working nicely on a project and getting stopped by lacking the right tool or materials I could have foreseen
2. Getting so engrossed in what I'm doing, with the TV on, that I can't even tell you who's winning the golf match (or where it is this weekend)
1. That nothing about MR'ing bugs me enough to make me take another path
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Measure twice, cut once, find out you had the wrong dimension in the first place.
SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide
Gary DuPrey
N scale model railroader
Getting down on all fours with flashlight in hand looking for a dropped part---only to find it defied the law of gravity and landed 6 feet away from where it drop.
Decaling and can't find the decal scissors or small tip decal brush that I just laid down.
And above all accidentally dipping my paint brush in my coffee!!!
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
One time the LION spent 15 minutes looking for that tool. It turns out that it was in his left hand all the time.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
SouthPenn What irritates you in model railroading?
Alton Junction
BroadwayLion BMMECNYC That tool that you just had in your hand 5 seconds ago, that you spend half an hour finding. One time the LION spent 15 minutes looking for that tool. It turns out that it was in his left hand all the time. ROAR
OMG, at least once a week. Makes you wonder if your losing your mind sometimes.
Rod Stewart mentioned that apron trick in one of his MR articles- proves that great minds think alike!
Cedarwoodron
BMMECNYCThat tool that you just had in your hand 5 seconds ago, that you spend half an hour finding.
A variation on this is the object that you moved out of the way 5 minutes ago that is now in the way again.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
Rivet counters and people who judge others modeling skills too critically....
Just my .02......
Bob Berger, C.O.O. N-ovation & Northwestern R.R. My patio layout....SEE IT HERE
There's no place like ~/ ;)
Hmm, I could proably write a small book on this topic. Anyway, here goes:
1. People who think their approach the hobby makes them a "real model railroader." The ultra fine scale supper accurate prototype modeler is no more or less of a model railroader than the guy who builds a table top roundy rounder for his postwar Lionel stuff.
2. A certain model manufacturer continually pushing back the release date of a certain PRR N Scale steamer.
3. People stealing my credit card and forcing me to call my dealer (I know, that makes me sound like a junkie), due to item number 2.
4. The layout running great when nobody else is watching but acting up when the guys come over.
5. Not having a mini fridge in the train room, forcing me to walk down to the garage to get a cold beer.
6. seeking permission from the ICC (my wife) before making major capital purchases.
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
Walking into the only hobby store in your area 35 miles away and remembering you left your shopping list at home on the layout, especially when you know one of the items is sheet styrene and you forgot the thickness.
Know it all's on these forums
people who respond to your threads and add nothing to the subject
people who can't enjoy what you like and must set you straight
people who criticize your choice of mfgs.
I think that is enough for now.
All the different sizes of Code 83 track. Every manufacturer has their own specs, and none of them are compatable with someone elses. That means you must keep four or five different couplings on hand to lay some track.
One manufacture makes couplers that work well on their track, but not on their switches.
Another manufacturer changed the size of their code 83 track and didn't bother to tell anyone or change their couplers.
The local hobby shop only carries one brand.
You know, a lot of things bother me a little. The only thing that bothers me alot is people that give newbies (or others) wrong info. Case in point is people who push Homasote, now don't get me wrong, it is great for hand spiking, don't think I have seen better, but it tends to swell up when wet from scenery as most use water in their scenery making at some point or another and even without water, can expand up to 1/2" over 24', just look up the data.
Pegs used by Accurail to hold the trucks on older cars. Last night, a box car I was switching lost its two trucks at the same time. I found the pegs a few inches away.
Guy
Modeling CNR in the 50's
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Things that irritates me are.
Show the family a new freight car or locomotive and say " Don't you have that already?"
Small parts flying while installing them.
Not buying the locomotives and freight cars you need until you have money for, and find out that its sold out. Then try to find one on EBay
A have a few more but can't remember.
The one that irritates me the most is not enough information on the time periods that you're working on, specifically on freight car paint schemes.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.