Large Scale Central

I fumbled my NW2 today.

General Discussion
#21

Back in '94 or '95, I bought an LGB Uintah Mallet w/ sound, mail order from some store. (Prolly Trainworld.)

On the way home from work, I stopped at a friends layout to show him and test it out. Put her on the tracks, started up and the sound was awesome. After it ran a little around his RR, on the backside we heard a crash and the sound stopped. He’d forgotten to put his lift out bridge back in place. She went down about 3 feet. Nothing broke, but it was scary. We joke about it til this day, about our RR attorneys suing the heck out of each others. It’s still in the courts. :slight_smile:

#22

A few summers ago, I was tip toeing through the layout and I had an Aristo Covered Bridge laying loosely with track through it. I stumbled, stuck my foot into the end of the bridge, and my arm scratched against concrete blocks. I have a good 4" scar on my right arm. Getting my foot unstuck, I have a nice peanut size scar on my ankle. FYI, a covered bridge is the perfect size to insert a grown man’s foot. It is just a bit too small to extract it comfortably!

#23

I had a similar experience to Dave Maynard’s. I was the second train of the day out on a big layout built on the side of a hill with a sluggish creek at its base. The first train went around a big curve just fine, but unknown to me, its operator kicked a golf ball-size dirt clod onto the track above the steepest part of the rocky embankment. I wasn’t paying the attention I should have, justifiably because that first train went around fine. My battery-powered train with a fully loaded USAT SD-45 (Phoenix Sound System, Airwire Decoder) at the point came around the curve and hit the dirt clod. The loco decoupled and tumbled down a 20’ embankment into the creek. Crash, bang, splash! You could hear it all over the layout. It was an awful, sickening sound. A guy fished it soaking wet out of the drink after it had been in there less than a couple minutes and said the drivers were still turning and the lights were still on. Still and all, it was a friend’s loco, I felt bad, so I bought him a new one. He pulled the sound system and decoder out of the drowned loco, put them into the new loco, and now everything works just fine.

#24

I knew I wasn’t the only one with tales of trashed trains.
That is some story Art. you might have the saddest story, what would have made it worse is if you could have seen the accident unfold but too far away to do anything about it.

In the theme of lift out bridges not in place and trains tumbling I had an episode that was almost bad.
My new bachmann 2-6-6-2 was chugging around with a string of hopper cars and I was filming the last scene as it came through my WYE. Back then the wye ended in a stub end since I hadn’t built the bench top yard yet. The train is going by my camera and suddenly stops, CUT ! thats director talk for stop filming. LOL It was then I realised that the engine was heading toward its doom over a 3’ drop and the only thing that saved it was dirty track that stopped it cold.

The other night I was having train races. That is where I put 4-5 little engines on the track in the dark and watch the lights chase each other around. Some engines are slower than others so I need to stand by one of 3 passing sidings and hold one to avoid crashes. I lost track of the Stainz until I heard a crash. I went to investigate and it seems it had derailed and when the railbus came by the cow catcher did what it was designed to do and pushed the stainz off the track to fall near 2 feet onto the dirt. Luckily it had missed landing on a brick so there was no damage. The stainz is a tough little unit.

#25

Train races, huh?

#26

It’s all that Salt Air on the Cape!

#27

The closest call I had so far, mind you without a train, was almost taking a dive in the Seedorf pond. The opposite shore got a bit dinged, but falling right in would have been more embarrassing.

#28

Yes Joe and Sean TRAIN RACES !!! Sean you have seen my RR so you can picture 4-5 small locos tearing up the track in the dark with nothing but their headlights shining on the rails and surroundings. It is neat to see the lights flicker past trees, buildings then disappear into tunnels. It is even funner when one engien is gaining on another and a decision needs to be made on which one to put into a the siding to either pass or hold. Sometimes the switching is really fast to avoid crashes. The races were even better when the mountain route was open and I could send one up it while the other loco takes the faster bypass route.

Of course the more track you have the better racing is because you can put more locos on. Why not try it tonight.

#29

I might enjoy watching others do it with their engines , but I still love mine too much to hurt them .

But when I was a bit younger (by 70 years) my brothers and I laid parallel Decauville tracks in the disused quarry which was just across the road from our house in Birmingham and raced the side tipping wagons minus tippers down some pretty steep stuff and got up some interesting speeds ; it was a bit uncomfortable hanging on to the tipper supports as it hit the slight bends in the track , they were more like angular kinks .

Looking back , I am amazed at the effort we put into such things but hated chopping the wood up for home heating , or raking the leaves up and mowing the lawn .

Never fell off , never got seriously hurt , but it was great fun jumping off into piles of sand .

It’s all buried under a park now . I wish I could have shown my kids what a mad dad they had . Poetry.

Mike

#30

…grinning…

#31

My Bachmann Annie has twice plummeted. Her pilot truck is now mostly made of brass. Don’t even THINK of track power.

One day, Annie was pulling my Sierra Coaches around the elevated track at the Botanic, and it was time for put away. I stepped up to the track, ready to fetch coaches and set them on the cart, when somebody said, “Just hand them down, we’ll pass them to the cart.”

This didn’t sound like a good idea to me. I always handle them myself. “Be careful, the roof comes off this one and there are delicate details on the bottom.” This one had one of my big “IED” batteries in it. Just as I was fetching the last one down, I heard the thud.

Sure enough, the coach with the big battery in it was dropped onto the asphalt. What a sickening sound.

#32

I am reminded by my smart-ass Son Martyn that I did in fact drop an LGB Carriage from some height when trying to put it on a high shelf . To make matters worse , it was a special “Arosa” model . The body cracked quite badly , minor parts of the roof pinged off attacking a passing bird , and I was quite alarmed to see bits of Arosa Blue plastic scattered liberally across the concrete .

I picked the bits up and studied them for some time through a veil of tears (not really , my glasses had steamed up) then carefully put all that I could find in a box .

I bought a replacement because it is a very attractive train , and then PING!!! came a thought . One thing missing from the train was the parlour car (for want of a better description) .

So , armed with a large saw , copious amounts of glue and a large glass of something I cut the body apart making the long windows that the prototype has . This worked very well , parts of the offcuts were used to fill the gaps where it cracked . Same colour you see , and when smoothed with wet or dry , you literally could not see the join . It wouldn’t have mattered if you could because the Arosa coaches have flowers painted on the side so I painted them on as required . The result (shown on here many years back) was very pleasing . I suppose I should take some more pics to show you .

I fitted out the inside with seats recovered from the original , made a bar , shoved some bottles in and hey presto , a new carriage . I think I may have the only one in that scale in existence .

Waste not , want not

Mike

#33

Todd, try a LGB flyer for your race, they are the fastest running engines I own.

#34

Mike Morgan said:

I picked the bits up and studied them for some time through a veil of tears (not really , my glasses had steamed up) then carefully put all that I could find in a box .

Reminds me of that scene in “Christmas Story” when the father tries to glue his “trophy” (leg lamp) back together. In our cases, our trains are our “trophies”.

#35

Mike Morgan said: I picked the bits up and studied them for some time through a veil of tears (not really , my glasses had steamed up) then carefully put all that I could find in a box .

This is how Vic gets his parts and Idea’s! :wink:

#36

Todd said: “Of course the more track you have the better racing is because you can put more locos on. Why not try it tonight?”

Just about once a month, eight or nine of the wives of the local Gold Coast Garden RR Society get a great kick out of racing their eggliners on whatever layout we happen to meet at. I’ll try to post a picture from the next happening.

#37

Todd’s Terrible Tortoise Toten’ Tube Train is ready to take on all comers!

This one use a 30 volt, 4.46 amp hand tool motor to spin a cut-down airplane prop. Trucks are from an AristoCraft Heavyweight. Nose is from a bottle of gear oil and body is a plastic mailing tube. Motor is held to trucks using a piece of brass.

I was going to put a couple passengers in the front (as pictures similar to the Mars Flier) and paint it up, but it loves to fly off the track and gets scratched up so I never bothered. (Full throttle then slam it into reverse for the curves.)

Due to the current draw, it pits the wheels very quickly. But for drag racing…

#38

Hey , Todd , that looks like fun .

I bet it gets the kids more interested in trains , too .

Mike

#39

That ought to cut some grass!

#40

Steve , I imagined it more of a cat cutter than a herb hoover . But then , you are an old softie .

Mike