Your greatest MRR disaster


LOL How about getting a job for a RR which turned me from a Model Railroader to a damn Rivet Counter. Its a curse, LOL. Actually it just made me more aware of details that I didnt care for.
 
I destroyed about 1000.00 worth of carpeting in my parent's home when I spilled black paint all over a newspaper in the layout room, then folded the paper up and carried it downstairs. Only after I went back upstairs did I realise the black paint dripped out of the folded newspaper onto the carpet, tracing my entire 40+ foot journey to the outside garbage can. This was about 20 years ago and I still have to top that!
 
I remember jamming an X-Acto blade deep into my thumb while trying to trim some material off the pilot of an old AHM SD-40 to mount a snowplow. It bled like H*LL, and I never told my folks (I guess I must have been 11 or 12?). It healed eventually...man I was a stupid kid.

Later in high school, I remember making a home-made pinhole lense for a camera in photo class, then trotting down to the basement to make some cool "life-size" shots on my Dad's N-scale module. I set up tons of close lighting so that the pinhole would work, but neglected to figure the heat generated into the equation...

...and managed to melt a plastic F-unit that my Dad had custom painted and lettered. :eek:

Fortunately, we had our house up for sale, and to this day my Dad still thinks the unit disappeared with one of the kids who toured the house with his family! LOL

Man, I have a thousand of these stories. I'm amazed I'm still alive.

GENE
 
Hmmm I've had so many. I shoved an X-acto knife through my index finger while cutting flash off of a building kit. I forgot to wash a city classics kit before I painted it and the paint job turned out horribly! It was my first ever attempt at painting an entire structure and now I think I'll stay away from painting for a while :D Burned the motor up in an old life-like (junk) locomotive. Turns out that a coupler cut pin was hanging too low and got caught in one of my switches while I was up stairs for a while and forgot that I left the darn thing running :eek: I came back downstairs 20 minutes later to discover the smell of melting plastic and smoke coming out of every nook and cranny of that engine. Oh boy, what am I getting myself into?
 
I was using electrical contact spray on a old athearn rubber band powered engine.sprayed it down good wiped over spray off,turned around put it on the track and started running it with out thinking let it dry.got about two feet down the track and poof up in flames it went.i just sat there and said wow ,looked at it for a second in amazement.then i said oh shoot better put it out before i flame the house.never had that happen with the other spray i used.that will fix me for changing brands.engine was a burned pretty good.
 
Worst Crash happened last nite or the nite before. Was looking for an engine on the layout, but couldn't find it. It wasn't in the shelf either. That was yesterday. Today I found it laying on the floor under my display shelving unit. A varmit must have got behind it & shoved it to the floor. It dropped 6ft right on the nose. A CSX AC4400 by Athearn. Crushed the front of the cab, crushed the front railings & broke the frame in half right behind the front trucks. Trashed the frame & the shell. The cab I can repair. didn't hurt any of the running gear. So, I'll transfer all power over to a dummy I have in NS.
 
This happened awhile back at one of our round robins---

I had a consist of three RS11's pulling about 30 cars along mainline to a meet with a train consisting of 4 GP40's and about 40 cars----a switch was not turned so's I would not run headlong into a highballing train coming other direction----

We had pieces all over the place---my RS11's were mostly piled up on top of each other while my buddy's consist went flying---we played pick up the pieces for the rest of the session:(:(
 
Mishaps?????

Mine happened today at Yuma's "Welcome Back Bash" for winter visitors. Our little club Rail RoadRunners of Yuma had a booth featuring my 4'x4' Camp Swampy layout. It was cold for Yuma so I had my coat on while leaning over the layout and my coattails caught my Spectrum SF duddlebug and it went head first onto the pavement. I learned that sound many of you already know. Now I will get to know the insides better.

Armchair
 
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CNR Glen said:
I destroyed about 1000.00 worth of carpeting in my parent's home when I spilled black paint all over a newspaper in the layout room, then folded the paper up and carried it downstairs. Only after I went back upstairs did I realise the black paint dripped out of the folded newspaper onto the carpet, tracing my entire 40+ foot journey to the outside garbage can. This was about 20 years ago and I still have to top that!
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Oh god, that is bad!

I had a good fleet of NS bowser roadrailers built up, 20 I think, and dad had finished superelevating the largest radius on the layout. Well I probably should have used another train for a test run, but my recently aquired trailers, coupled to a CP GP38-2 would be the next train thru the slow order.

Well it almost made it thru, the last trailer picked the points on the curved turnout at the end of the curve where the superelevation flattens out...the trailer goes over, pulling the entire string of 20 trailers over to the concrete floor! :eek: The end trailer was destroyed, as well as a good pile of support legs and couplers. I sold the set at the next swap meet. :(
 
Probably a toss up as to which was the worst. I had bought a second hand GP50 back when i lived at home. It was customized a little with a snow plow, MU hoses, brass horn, and wire grabs.I was going to run it under the christmas tree, but wanted to kinda display it. I had pulled up the carpet in my bedroom and had just linoleum tile over the concrete floor. Laid a piece of track on top of the old 6 1/2' high entertainment center i had in there, with the Geep and my favorite cars. Took the engine down to clean it up, but it slipped as i touched it and plowed head first to the floor. Broke the motor mounts, pilot steps on the engineer's side broke off, plow, fuel tank detail, and horn all went flying. Never even got the chance to run it, and it never ran right again. Eventually i fixed the cosmetic defects but it still doesn't move.
The other was when i wanted to shoot some outdoor pictures of my brand new athearn super detailed NS boxcar. put together a quick oval on the concrete patio, hooked up an engine and some cars on either side, and ran it around a couple laps. turned away for a second, and the brand new car with it's narrow wheels hopped the track, and the engine dragged it on it's side for several feet... needless to say nothing runs outside or sits on any high shelves any more
 
About 1986 I purchased an N-scale Atlas E7. This was the new and improved mechanism that had 12 wheel drive (as opposed to the E8s that were 4 wheel drive). I got it at a swap-meet. Took it home and spent the rest of the day cleaning, lubricating, putting Kadee couplers on (yes Kadee and Micro-trains were still one in the same then). I put it on the layout and turned it on to break it in. About every five minutes I would come and switch the direction. Round and round it went. I was just getting done so I cranked it up for a few minutes of a final full speed run. A short time later, I don't remember what I was doing on the other side of the basement but suddenly it sounded different. I looked up and somehow it had switched off the main line and was headed up the branch. The branch goes to the highest point on the layout and dead ends after a mine. Before I could get to it, the loco when up - through the mine and went shooting out into open space. Just like a car jumping off a cliff in a movie. It smashed to the floor. I picked up the pieces and put them in one of those parts organizer trays..... It is still there today.
 
I guess a common lesson to take from many of these posts is that Shag Carpeting may still have a future!
 
My worst disaster came at a train show I was in charge of(arraigned for the dealers to come contacted the facility with the layout for setup) One of the dealers had contacted me about coming to the show but declined when he found out it was just a one day show. The Thurs. before the show he recontacted me and asked if there was still room for him. I got him in the show and just before closing I stopped buy to see how his business had been. He was very pleased with the response of our show visitors. I was looking at a Key Brass SD40-2 and went to pick it up and it caught on something and did a 1 1/2 gainer to the concrete floor. The price tag on the engine was $199. I told him I did not have that much money on me but would be back shortly with the funds to pay for it. He told to just pay for the repairs but I told him was bought up that if you broke something you owned it. I went to a couple of friends and borrowed what money I did not have to pay for the loco. When I got back he told me he only had $80 invested in the engine and I could have it for that. He told me that he was grateful I was able to get him in the show at the last minute and he had done real well in sales that day. I used to see him at shows in Ohio when I would go over there to them and he always asked me if I still had the SD40 and I still do. It is nice running loco and a good friend took it home after the show and fixed it for me at no charge. So a bad event turned out very good for me.
 
My greatest MRR disaster occured last summer. I had a few new accurrail hopper kits, and had just finished assembling them. I stepped away from the desk for a moment to grab a drink from the kitchen, and then it happened. I heard a crash followed by the unmistakable metal sound that you hear when hit the desk. A ran down stairs, looked at my desk in horror and saw that Dusty, a 2 yr old cat, and as my dad appropriately calls, hell with legs, standing on the top portion of my workdesk, and had managed to push a 1:18 scale 72' cevelle and a 1:18 scale charger off,glass cases and everything, and onto where the just finished kits were. Needless to say we had a few accurrail pancake covered hoppers, and peices of the bumpers and mirrors of the cars. Now it wasnt exactly a major loss money-wise, but i learned an important lesson that day, shut the door to the layout room, even if it is only some benchwork.
 
Disaster!

I just got back a custom painted Proto 2000 E6 painted in Atlantic Coast Line Champion colors, fully detailed from a friend. I had it sitting on the bench admiring the beautiful work and I decided to finish a building that I started and I knocked over a can of paint thinner. Before I started unpacking the E6 I just got, I put the cap on top of the paint thinner. BUT I didnt tighten it down. I just put it on top of the can. SO it ended up splashing onto my Brand new ACL E6 and the building I was working on and another building that I finished. I stood in shock and didn't do nothing. I knew what happened, I knew what the result was going to be, so I just walked away.

John
 
These are all wincing stories.

I just had my worst MRR day happen to me this morning. I reached for a display shelf and it fell off the edge of the layout. Out tumbled a PCM Y6b (badly damaged), a BLI Paragon J1 2-10-4 (only bent the towbar), and a Trix Mikado (broke the front bell harp, knocked off a marker light, and stretched out the wires to the tender.

:(

-Crandell
 
Selector said:
These are all wincing stories.

I just had my worst MRR day happen to me this morning. I reached for a display shelf and it fell off the edge of the layout. Out tumbled a PCM Y6b (badly damaged), a BLI Paragon J1 2-10-4 (only bent the towbar), and a Trix Mikado (broke the front bell harp, knocked off a marker light, and stretched out the wires to the tender.

:(

-Crandell
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OUCHHH! this one made me cringe and i don't even like steam.
 
My worst MR incident was when the DOD-Contract movers tossed around a box with P2K SD60's in it. This incident ripped the handrails from the end and damaged the shells. For me it was $350 down the drain. The lesson, do not let movers pack model projects you were working on prior to PCSing.
 
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