What's the dumbest thing you've ever done in model railroading ?...

[Tracklayer]

A couple of years ago I'd just finished decaling a loco, and was really proud of my job. Tired and not paying attention, I picked up a can of bright green spray paint that I thought was dull coat and sprayed one side of the shell before I realized it... After repairing all of the holes in the sheetrock walls that I punched out, I repainted and redecaled it, but never forgot the lesson I learned...

Am I the only idiot on the block ?.

Tracklayer

[Anonymous]

i bought a TYCO train engine on EBAY before i knew they were junk- i could've gotten a used Athearn for the price i paid for that TYCO

[ereimer]

dumbest thing i ever did ?

not starting 20 years ago

[Eddystone]

I shook up a small jar of model paint without the lid on it, but none got on the model.

[MisterBeasley]

I sold all my Lionels for a hundred dollars to finance my HO layout. I was like 12 at the time, and I'm still kicking myself now almost a half-century later. Do you know what I could get now just for that big O-gauge GG1?

[rolleiman]

Spent too much money chasing latest and greatest... Knocked one of those latest and greatest locos off the layout onto the concrete floor while cleaning an adjacent track.

Jeff

[selector]

Neglected to read more and to plan a better track plan. Do you think I regret it now? [*^_^*]

[Texas Zepher]

3. Once I was just finishing up a decal project and instead of the "solve-o-set" I grabed the styrene cement that was in an exactly similar bottle. Talk about a warpped and distorted decal.
2. Not choosing a specific RR, time, place, and date to model up front, and sticking to it.
1. Spending too much time on this form, instead of working on my models and writing.

[DrummingTrainfan]

I decided to put hook-horns on all of my stuff...lets just say that I'm reversing that call.

[Fergmiester]

Jury's still out on that one. Let me sleep on it...

Fergie

[dinwitty]

I owned a couple of HOn3 WP&Y DL535 diesels, I showed off a dumb guy who said Narrow Gauge never had diesels... held on to them for a while, but eventually sold them, that paid for a new computer system. I want them back noooooww.....

actually their out of my modeling prototype date, (1950's, mostly steam)


but really, the dumber thing I did, I handlaid most or all my track years ago... I dropped a boatload of spikes onto the floor....

I picked every single spike up...that I could find...


best buy however, someone on EBAY dropped their LL spectrum 0-8-0 onto the floor...SMATTERED, sold a good one and the smattered one and I bought it...

DUMB for him, SMART for me, its fixable runnable, and the good 0-8-0 runs great.

[ARTHILL]

I sold most of my stuff and took a 25 year break. I missed a lot of good years.

[Darick]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ereimer

dumbest thing i ever did ?

not starting 20 years ago

Me Too. I wish I started 20 years ago...but atleast I started! [:)]

[railroadyoshi]

I bought things I wouldn't use, and lost quite a lot of $ at it.

[johncolley]

I built a 2 level layout with great operating potential, complete with a 24"r. helix. in too small a space! The helix overlapped the doorway, and you had to be a contortionist to get into the room. Besides, while my 4 unit FT's and long freight handled it fine, my 12 car streamliner looked like toys. Needless to say I ripped it out before much scenery was applied. Now I love big curves and turnouts, so I build Free-mo modules so I can participate in set-ups.

[Pruitt]

Well, I'm not sure which one of these it was.....

When I was still in high school I scratchbuilt a wooden trestle out of balsa wood. One day I decided it shoukld look like it went through a forest fire. Uh-huh. I put a little charcoal lighter fluid on it and held a match to it. Nothin'. So I really soaked it. Ten seconds later I was stomping trestle to toothpicks on the floor to put out the flames that were shooting up to the basement ceiling.

Years later, when working for a living meant I could spend a little more on the hobby, I bought a few brass engines. One was a GN P-2 Mountain. Current layout had no scenery yet. The loco stalled on a dirty section of track, and since that track was a bit of a reach,m I picked up a nearby piece of flextrack with which to prod the engine. It worked, and since the power was turned up full the loco took off like a shot! Unfortunately the flex track caught in the bell rigging and pulled the loco off the track and sent it to the cement floor four feet below. OW.

[loathar]

Shook the bottle of silver with the loose lid.(what a mess)
Sold my Lionels for HO money. (should have hung on to them)
Tried to paint a loco after too many brewski's[D)]

[DrummingTrainfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by loathar
Tried to paint a loco after too many brewski's[D)]

Maybe once I'm 21 I'll use that method to make realistic grafiti[;)]

[davekelly]

Waaaaaaaaaay to many to list - but the one that comes to mind is - not spending more time MRRing with my dad during my high school years. Would give anything for a do-over.

[trainboyH16-44]

Back in my younger days, it wasn't how good a train was, it was how fast it could go. Ran a brand new CN mike off of a trestle at 200MPH and it demolished itself on the floor..
Or it might have been all those model power grain cars I bough
Or it might have been all those crappy locos I bought
Or it might have been those times I got mad and destroyed things
Or it might have been getting hoocked on this forum
Or it might have been any number of things I did when I was younger..

[twhite]

Oboy, where do I begin?
Get an Akane 2-8-8-4 in 1964 because I really LOVED the looks of it. Try and wrangle it around 22" radius track. Kept derailing, couldn't figure out why. Rubber tubing between engines. Burned out the motor. Couldn't find a replacement for 2 years. Found a motor. Couldn't mount it. Loco sat on the shelf until my cousin (who was a genius) said, "You're stupid, 22 is just going to burn it out again. Sighed. Kept running big steam around 22 inch radius. Locos kept derailing. Couldn't understand why. Had no idea about 'radius' vs. wheelbase. cousin came back over with a radius tool. "do this."
Tore out entire railroad out of the garage.
"I'm hopeless," I mutter.
"No, you're a musician, you're just weird," cousin grins.
Get radius on new layout relaid. 34"/36".
"Wow," I say. Big radii, 2-2.4% grades instead of the sudden rise from 1% to 5% by my calculations.
Cousin grins. "Now maybe I can bring over some of MY locomotives."
He does. Big brass AC's, 4-8-2's. They run flawlessly.
My big steam works, too. Even the 2-8-8-4 with a new motor and new drive train. I get so honked up I buy it a sister. And get more and more big steam. BIG steam!
My cousin died of cancer a year ago.
Now I REALLY have to do it on my own.
I miss him.
But I think he'd like what I've done so far.
Tom [:)]

[Billba]

Happy New Year sir Tracklayer,
My biggest "dumb move" has been to be more of a collector, and less of a modeller!! [:(!][:(!][:(!]

I hope to fix this oversight in 2006. And, I have momma's permission, and assistance!! [8D][8D][:D][:D][:P][(-D][(-D]

[SpaceMouse]

Buying 17 EZ track turnouts--committed me to an EZ track turnout.

I've spent more time fixing that error than anything else.

[Anonymous]

My biggest goof was to not start playing with trains till I was 54. Sure missed alot of fun.

[fievel]

I built a long tunnel without access to clean the track or derailments
on my first layout, even though I had been given sound advice not to.
[D)][D)][D)]
I also learned that unless I want several annoyed cats and one very
annoyed wife glaring at me, to do my spray painting outdoors.
[D)][D)][D)][8][xx(][xx(]

The dumbest thing I ever did was thinking I was finished with modeling,
and getting rid of all my stuff.
[banghead][censored][banghead][censored][banghead][censored][banghead][censored]

[skerber]

I had a squeak in my HO Atlas Dash8-40b locomotive. It was in the motor area. I applied regular hobby oil to the area. Now my loco smokes from underneath and basically doesn't work! That was my favorite model. Now it sits on a book shelf, looking pretty and collecting dust.

Steve

[Anonymous]

I had misplaced the hole in under a #4 Atlas switch, for the tortoise arm to go through...so instead of removing the switch and drilling a new hole, I thought it would be a simple matter to drill up through the plywood with a correctly locate hole. Unfortunately, the drill bit was really sharp and ripped through the 3/8" plywood like butter and decided to eat the points of the switch for dessert! Doh! An emergency trip to the LHS insued...I now remove track before working around it with power tools.

Trevor

[Anonymous]

Playing with trains without a bumper at the end of the track. I bumped my throttle up to high... I never thought an engine could fly. Broke a brake wheel and many other things I haven't discovered. And I bumped an N-Scale engine of the table and my horn broke off..[oops][#oops][soapbox][banghead]

[Anonymous]

Buying cheap DCC decoders that don't have silent drive or BEMF, yep, I'm talking about the Bachmann ones! I think they'll end up running directional lighting on cab cars as the lack of a motor should stop them from making the usual racket.

[cwclark]

The dumbest thing i ever did was lay across the rails reaching for a part across the layout.... hot ,sweaty, and without a shirt on and the throttle was wide open (MRC packs have quite the kick)... it lit me up like a Christmas tree!.... good thing ithe current didn't travel thru my heart....chuck