Your Most Horrific Accedent


K

kwalker421

H-8 Lover
Well, i just got back from dinner (Monte Cristo...YUM!) but anyways, i thought of a good story telling topic. what was your most horrific crash? what were the damages? how did it happen? give us the details. i want to hear some stories :)


i'll give you one of mine.


i was using my brand new Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 with about 10 boxcars and a caboose. i decided to go upstairs for a snack and something to drink. I came back downstairs to find a scene of utter death and destruction. a train wreck of my beautiful new train! there was fire, people running and screaming. the fire crews had no control over the blaze and a house was being burnt to a crisp (not really.we all gotta add some sort of added action, right?) but anyway i frantically run trying to retrieve what was left of my beautiful loco; only to find that it was no longer a 2-8-0.....it was an 0-8-0! i practically cried! not really. but, i found the first truck and, with some gorrila glue, was able to reattach it.
 
I used my least valued engine, an IHC Mikado, to test my tracks up high on my as yet unscenicked layout. All I had was open frame with risers and spline roadbed, plus all the tracks in place. I had thought I was in good shape, but forgot to line a turnout and the engine tumbled 1.5 meters to the thinly carpeted floor below. It was repaired, but never ran properly, and I retired it about seven months ago. The Tsunami came out, I removed the early Loksound decoder from my Trix Mikado, and the Trix now has the Tusnami...I am a happier camper, but I miss the White Pass & Yukon Mike. :(
 
One of mine was when a P2K PA1 picked a turnout, so instead of going to the diverging route it stays on the main and plows into the rear of a 20 unit freight headed up by 2 newly rebuilt Athearn F7's. Anybody who has a P2K PA1 knows how heavy it is and how easily it can pull the paneling off the wall. It plowed through that standing freight like it wasn't even there and pushed those two F7's aside like a D9 bulldozer running over a VW Beetle! Problem was that at that part of the layout there's scenery on one side of the track and a 34" fall to the floor to on the other side. Guess which way the F units went? You got it! They nose dived to the floor with a double twist, with the A unit hitting nose first on the B unit. To this day the B unit screeches a bit when it backs up and the A unit has a hairline crack in the nose from the bottom of the pilot all the way up through the Mars light to the headlight. Damage to the PA1? The door got knocked out of the nose.
 
I've read about so many locomotive swan-dives on this and other forums, that I've tried to learn from their mistakes. So far I haven't had anything nasty happen - but I certainly don't want to get complacent! All the areas of my layout where the track is within 3 inches of the edge, I put up easily-removable Plexiglas shields - if I want to get a photo I just remove the shield temporarily and snap the pic, then stick it back on:

Shield ON:

edge_plexiglas_in_place.jpg


Shield OFF:

edge_plexiglas_removed.jpg


I once saw a friend of mine drop his brand-new P2K SD-7 4 feet onto his concrete floor. He was holding it upside down, trying to get a closer look at something on it, when suddenly I heard him exclaim "Oh S***!" and I watched the model plummet to the floor. He wound up taking the unit to his LHS and they somehow got the damage repaired, didn't cost him a cent! :cool:
 
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Not a bad solution at all, since it keeps little hands out at the same time. ;)

My solution was to rely on two things...not having the tracks within 12" of the layout edge and where there was sufficient slope to roll anyway, I use trees and other stuff to bring anything tumbling to a halt.
 
Years back I had an N scale layout that included a loop around a styrofoam mountain.
I decided it was time to scenic the area so I dug out the paster, colored it with pigments and slathered it onto the big blue hill.
Now being somewhat impatient, I thought I'd run a train thru the cut so I could admire the new landscape...

As the 20 car ore train rounded the curve I noticed a cat hair riding atop the caboose.
I then proceeded to moisten a finger, press gently onto the cupola to remove the offender, only to watch in horror as each and every car fell one by one to the inside of the curve and inevitably deep into the newly formed hillside.
Luckily the locos escaped this fate.
 
Common as muck type of accident, drove off an unclosed bridge 53" to the concrete, result was a DASH 9 half an inch shorter that it should have been.
 
Rico said:
I then proceeded to moisten a finger, press gently onto the cupola to remove the offender, only to watch in horror as each and every car fell one by one to the inside of the curve and inevitably deep into the newly formed hillside.
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I know how you felt. Been there and done that!
 
I fortunately have not had any operational accidents yet but then of course I don't have too much actual operating trackage either and everything is single track main line with passing sidings and single train operation so accidents are cut to a minimum with the execption of clumsyness.

The portion of my layout I have built is mostly just risers with a wide, 5" plywood subroadbed with 1/2" Celotex/Sound Board for roadbed base and then cork roadbed on that with no edging to prevent trains from rolling of the edge. Part of the track work loops under itself as it climps a 6% grade from the S&A sidings to the Horseshoe Meadow Depot [HsMD] area.

The worst thing to happen to me was when I han a Box cab track cleaner climbing the HsMD grade and tried to reach into the covered curve and accidently knocked the Old Time deisel off the track and BLAP, my heart skipped a beat, it hit some boxes below on it's side and fortunately nothing was broken so what a relief.
 
This doesn't qualify as a big deal kind of thing but it's really irritating to me. I was installing a pair of N.J. International crossing gates. I ran the gate actuating wire down a brass tube to keep it free of the glue that would hold down the signal. Worked perfect on gate #1. Gate #2 was frozen in the upright postion so I obviously had gotten a little glue in the brass tube. No problem, I thought, just get a small brush and use some acetone to dissolve the glue. No disaster yet, the acetone worked fine and I was able to move gate up and down again with the actuating wire. Trouble was, I couldn't get the gate so it was exactly upright in the up position. Just a little more tug on the wire should fix it. Well, it did, as I felt the snap of the wire coming off the gate bar. On N.J. crossing gates, once that wire snaps off, you're dead. No way to fix it even after cutting a door in the side of the mounting and trying every trick I can think of. Ruined a $20 crossing gate but I could salvage it as just a flashing crossing signal. Off to order another pair. Every place in the world is out of stock of that style in HO. I'm backordered with three shops including Walthers. :mad:

Perfectionism once again takes its evil toll. :D
 
Woke up one night after hearing a loud crash. Got up, looked around the house, didn't find anything out of place. The next morning in the light of day, I came into my train room/office only to find my Rivorossi UP 4-8-8-4 Big Boy laying on the ground in about 10,000 pieces. Needless to say, it was a total loss.

OH yeah, how did it fall. Well somebody (wasn't me, I swear!! :eek: ) decided to put the Big Boy on the top shelf in my room for safe keeping. DUH!!!!!!!!!!
 
Ouch!

Worst accident? How about a new Dash8 dropping 40 inches to the floor. Worst part was that it was on its maiden run! Christmas day no less!:eek: Fortunately It was a Spectrum, and the only real damage was a wiped out and shattered front truck! I contacted Bachmann and they sent me not only a new front truck, but a rear truck and driveshafts too! Cool, spare parts!:D

Wasn't long before the track gang got the offending rail replaced.
 
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I'm sure all of you guys know how long it takes when you get to a club to set up your particularly favorite unit train to run...Well, one morning right when I got to the railroad club I am with, I was in the process of setting up about a 20 car Chessie trailer jet, complete with some quite fragile A-line and Athearn 28', 40 and 45' trailers and 3 locos on the head end....While sitting there admiring about 200 hours of modeling work, over 300 dollars worth of fragile equipment, and at least 45 minutes of setting up alone, I noticed someone running just 1 single locomotive at a quite high rate of speed through the staging yard! Not only was this guy not even part of the club, but he somehow didn't even notice the several long trains sitting idle in the yard! :mad: So, in less than a moment for rational decision (and an uncannily heavy and fast P2K GP9) I had no choice but to desperately push the entire train on its side to reduce the damage! Furthermore, this particular guy now finding some type of humor in all this still continues to drive the loco straight down the line plowing into any car not fortunate to be cleared by myself causing a accordian effect. Luckily I lifted one of the engines carefully ouf of the way (the others had to just be pushed off onto their sides:( ) The resulting damage was several broken grabirons on several of the cars, a few broken couplers, 2 broken cab sunshades, and few random pieces of the trailers that got hit needing to be repaired. Needless to say, I was alittle upset, but somehow kept my composure. So many things could've prevented this...Like checking to make sure the staging yard tracks were closed...Oops! As far as the guy goes, I'm not even sure of who he was! :mad: I suppose I have more patience than some!

-Rich
 
My worst was about 20 years ago. I had a narrow shelf running around the basement. Picture a Hornby HST with 8 Lima coaches at full speed doing a perfect nose dive onto the concrete. The power units were unharmed but 6 of the Lima coaches were written off. For some stupid reason the roof, roof ends, and windows were one single moulding of clear brittle plastic. The roof and ends painted to match the rest of the coach. I never did find one of the wheelsets either.

The worst I ever saw was at a train show where a club had set up one of those step style display cases. It was full of brass and went forward off the table onto a cement floor when the table leg collapsed. One of the club members later commented they estimated the damage at over $3000. OUCH!
 
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wongsing said:
I'm sure all of you guys know how long it takes when you get to a club to set up your particularly favorite unit train to run...Well, one morning right when I got to the railroad club I am with, I was in the process of setting up about a 20 car Chessie trailer jet, complete with some quite fragile A-line and Athearn 28', 40 and 45' trailers and 3 locos on the head end....While sitting there admiring about 200 hours of modeling work, over 300 dollars worth of fragile equipment, and at least 45 minutes of setting up alone, I noticed someone running just 1 single locomotive at a quite high rate of speed through the staging yard! Not only was this guy not even part of the club, but he somehow didn't even notice the several long trains sitting idle in the yard! :mad: So, in less than a moment for rational decision (and an uncannily heavy and fast P2K GP9) I had no choice but to desperately push the entire train on its side to reduce the damage! Furthermore, this particular guy now finding some type of humor in all this still continues to drive the loco straight down the line plowing into any car not fortunate to be cleared by myself causing a accordian effect. Luckily I lifted one of the engines carefully ouf of the way (the others had to just be pushed off onto their sides:( ) The resulting damage was several broken grabirons on several of the cars, a few broken couplers, 2 broken cab sunshades, and few random pieces of the trailers that got hit needing to be repaired. Needless to say, I was alittle upset, but somehow kept my composure. So many things could've prevented this...Like checking to make sure the staging yard tracks were closed...Oops! As far as the guy goes, I'm not even sure of who he was! :mad: I suppose I have more patience than some!

-Rich
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Unfortunately there will always be jerks.
 
That particular jerk would have been wearing an indention of my knuckles in his forehead for some to come. I don't gladly suffer fools like that.
 
A Quick Solution

Say Rich,
Rather odd the club would allow someone like that to even operate on the layout?

Is there any reason you couldn't have reached over and literally picked the runaway loco off the tracks and ended the disaster?? :) :D

wongsing said:
I'm sure all of you guys know how long it takes when you get to a club to set up your particularly favorite unit train to run...Well, one morning right when I got to the railroad club I am with, I was in the process of setting up about a 20 car Chessie trailer jet, complete with some quite fragile A-line and Athearn 28', 40 and 45' trailers and 3 locos on the head end....While sitting there admiring about 200 hours of modeling work, over 300 dollars worth of fragile equipment, and at least 45 minutes of setting up alone, I noticed someone running just 1 single locomotive at a quite high rate of speed through the staging yard! Not only was this guy not even part of the club, but he somehow didn't even notice the several long trains sitting idle in the yard! :mad: So, in less than a moment for rational decision (and an uncannily heavy and fast P2K GP9) I had no choice but to desperately push the entire train on its side to reduce the damage! Furthermore, this particular guy now finding some type of humor in all this still continues to drive the loco straight down the line plowing into any car not fortunate to be cleared by myself causing a accordian effect. Luckily I lifted one of the engines carefully ouf of the way (the others had to just be pushed off onto their sides:( ) The resulting damage was several broken grabirons on several of the cars, a few broken couplers, 2 broken cab sunshades, and few random pieces of the trailers that got hit needing to be repaired. Needless to say, I was alittle upset, but somehow kept my composure. So many things could've prevented this...Like checking to make sure the staging yard tracks were closed...Oops! As far as the guy goes, I'm not even sure of who he was! :mad: I suppose I have more patience than some!

-Rich
Click to expand...
 
Rich, I would have picked up his loco firmly inserted it in a body part where the sun don't shine. :mad: As David said, I'm surprised any club would let some unknown guy run anything. The club I was in wouldn't even let you run a train of your own until every engine and car had been inspected and passed a checklist. They were kind of anal about it but it prevented a lot of problems like you described.
 
Also I would imagine the club was using hand throttles, possibly even wireless, so where was this guy following his loco around so he could apply the breaks as needed?!

Sorry Rich, not trying to give you the third degree but it is pretty irresponsible especially with all the time and effort you and others have put in on there loco's and cars!
 
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Well, I certainly would have tried to grab the runaway loco had this particular part of the layout had more room to move. You see, the layout is in an old Santa Fe depot and as far as width, the HO layout takes almost the entire thing. It has been almost a year since this happened and I can't remember alot of the details...The guy, yeah, in any circumstance, I would have laid him out, but decided to keep my patience (which I am VERY proud of!) With all the kids and older folks there, it may not have made me seem that big of a person. Especially because I am the ONLY club member that is in the service...;) As I said, I'm not too sure who this guy was...I think that perhaps someone just let him take it around one time. The GP7 was one of our leased power locos that belongs to the club. Oh, and the club does not tolerate ANY thing like this, but since they had mostly left except for me and a few of my friends to go to lunch already (then we come back and run trains) there was nobody to have NOT let him run. Really not too sure about who this guy was, but my friends must have asked him to leave.

BTW: This guy was alot older....In the 50' 60's range. I understand that things happen. The club has had accidents before...Some real bad (My friend Kyle dropped his Tower 55 BNSF ES44DC RIGHT off the layout!:eek:) but usually not neglect. None of my locomotives were SEVERELY damaged thank God. I have put alot of time into them, not to mention somewhat hard to find detail parts to make them more prototypical. I, just like most of you guys here and ALL of my friends keep their hard work and investments clean, immaculate and preferably damage free. I guess there is some kind of learning curve for using a freakin hand throttle...:rolleyes:

-Rich
 
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