APRIL
2002 INDEX
Layout Disasters
compiled by Bob LeBras from the archives
of the TTML
Disasters Down Under
by Colin Duthie
Here are a couple I have experienced:
- My layout has a lifting section, the
inevitable happened, I sent a train around
with no bridge in place. Under the tracks
is a shelf, the loco oddly ended up on
the shelf below, although there is no
shelf under the open section. The 10 cars
made 10 successive crashing sounds, and
all being tinplate some sustained minor
dents.
- I had a layout at a height of six feet
above a bare concrete floor. A Hornby
Dublo diecast loco made the grand dive,
due to an error of mine. It suffered no
damage!!
- I won't mention at this stage the time
I started a fire (with real flames) on
our layout at a public train exhibition.
Boiler Shear & More Than Box Rub
by Paul Olekson
Back about 1970 an 022 switch on the edge
of my layout malfunctioned and sent my 773
Hudson 40 inches to the floor. No bends or
scratches but every screw holding the boiler
to the chasis was severed.
Recently, I spilled 90% alcohol on a 2445
Elizabeth car. Took some of the silver paint
off! DANG!
Peril On The Gallitzin Western
by Bob LeBras
When I first started laying the trackplan
and installing accessories, being very much
the novice, I must have wired my modern issue
Bascule Bridge incorrectly. I fired it up
(literally) and smoke started pouring out
of the mechanical shed. Discovering that I
had wired it backwards (not thinking backwards
because I was lying down under the layout),
I switched it around and seem to have suffered
no damage.
As with any zealous layout builder, once
you get the track down, you want to see
some trains run. I have a grade built on
a trestle set that ends in my own version
of Horseshoe Curve. Putting my K4s on the
mainline, I cranked up the ZW to watch it
zip around the rails. Again, being new to
operating on this scale, the loco climbed
the hill quickly and picked up considerable
speed on the downgrade. Instead of rounding
the bend, the K4s sailed off the edge onto
the (thankfully) carpeted floor like a diecast
ground dart. The steamer was fine but the
tender suffered a not-so-nice gouge along
with a bent rear step. Today, the pair work
perfectly and lead my Pennsy passenger train.
Throttle That Throttle
by Mike Duncan
My cousin wanted to run my L646 Hudson. We
decided to uncouple the loco on the trestle
(5% grade). I told her to reduce throttle
when I pressed the uncouple button, but she
increased the throttle. The hudson flew off
the O-31 curve and fell 3 1/2 ft. to the hardwood
floor. It knocked a .25 inch deep chip out
of the floor and bent the cab roof. Dad straighten
the roof and it runs and looks fine to this
day.
A Bridge Too Far
by Barb Jones
A friend was in the center of my layout with
me. When the outer train was stopped, but
the middle train still running, I lifted the
bridge and got out while the train was at
the other end of the layout. I soon heard
a ferocious crash. The friend had decided
to follow me, not realizing the train was
bearing down on the bridge. He caught the
entire train just after the #8 went head first
onto the hardwood floor. The body did not
suffer much damage, but the armature bearings
were crushed and the motor had to be rebuilt.
Fortunately, the #8 and its cars are about
the scroungiest of all my standard gauge trains,
and are now running happily again on the middle
track. My husband has offered to make me an
interlock for the bridge, but so far I am
not sure I want one. In four years that is
the only incident that has occurred.
American Flyer Learns To Fly
by David "Two Rails" Dewey
Time for an AF version!
Back in the early 70s my layout was put
up each winter in one of my family's resort's
summer cabins (closed all winter while it
snowed, etc. ).
My layout filled a bedroom (8' x 12' foot
table--the tables unbolted into 2' x 8'
sections for storage the rest of the year);
the tables were 40" high. This one winter
my layout featured a big mountain scene
with trains on 4 levels, the upper two were
only loops that disappeared in and out of
tunnels for "effect", but the main layout
was two levels. My cousins (hmm, relatives
again!) were visiting and wanted to run
the trains. Well, my beloved 336 was on
the outside loop, which climbed a trestle
along the back edge of the table. I had
to go adjust something, leaving my cousins
"in charge" of the throttle. Uh oh! FULL
THROTTLE! the 336 hit the high, rear curve
and sailed off to the floor, some 4 feet
below! Thank God for 1920s construction
with some dry rot! It made a nice dent in
the floor (which fortunately would be hidden
by the bed when I put the cabin back together!)
and only bent a number board. WHEW!! My
336 still runs fine. And my cousins don't
get to run the trains unmoderated!!
E-Unit Woes
by John Marganski
Running my Flyer 5-digit Hudson, with an increasing
load of freight, I was showing off all my
hard to find Flyer rollingstock (or trying
to) by adding another car after each lap.
Gotta see how much that big motor can do,
right?
When cars 16 and 17 had been added (State
of Maine, LTI and Gilbert), the e-unit popped
into reverse just as the loco hit max voltage--BAM!!!!
Entire train derails, smashing the center
of town like a tornado through a trailer
park-and the loco rolled over and off the
table-fortunately, onto a deep pile carpet.
However, it and the consist took a healthy
devaluation as a result of that experiment.
Your Brother's Keeper
by Frank Duszczak
One of my disasters happened to me when I
was a teenager back in mid 50's.
I had an older and younger brother, but
was the only one interested in toytrains
so my father gave me the Christmas train
sets (a prewar L 1666 with freight cars
and a Marx CP with freight cars).
By the mid 50's I had purchased a bunch
of postwar L and had a nice layout in the
basement about 6' x 10'. (Note: concrete
floor) A few weeks before, I had taken my
prewar L 1666 to Spoonley The Train Man
for service and replacing one of the green
jewel running lights. He did a good service
job and it ran great. I bought a new tender
for it with the knuckle coupler on it so
it could pull my postwar cars. The Marx
CP got the 1666 prewar tender to pull those
tinplate cars.
So my wiseguy older brother (4 1/2 yrs
older) (hummm relatives) comes by one day
and decides he wants to run my trains. So
he cranks up the ZW and gets the 1666 going
on the outside loop (027 track) and ran
it right off the layout at the curve onto
the concrete floor. All messed up. Took
it back to Spoonley and my father made my
brother pay me for the costs to get it fixed.
Never let him near them again.
Granny Can't Drive
by Les Mathis
In 1946, when I was 8 years old, I informed
my mother I wanted the 671 Turbine work train
set. It was was listed at $60. My mother,
a single parent, told me that was almost twice
her weekly salary and she just couldn't afford
it. She said that I should save my nickels
and dimes from running errands and from my
25 cent-a-week allowance and maybe she could
add to it.
By late 1948, I had managed to save $80
and she agreed to add $5 so I could get
a $25 ZW with it. We went to the Train Center
of America in Orange, NJ to purchase the
train and transformer. Would you believe
they didn't have the set. They were sold
out. I was really down. My mother's boss
said he knew the people further up Main
St. at Orange Electric. Maybe they had the
set. Not only did they have the set but
they threw in a ZW as a favor to him. For
the extra $25 I was able to get a pair of
022 switches, track and some lumber to build
a layout. The layout was built on two 4
x 8 sheets of plywood and scrap 2 x 4s.
I was so proud of that setup. It was my
heaven come true.
One day in 1949, the boy next door wanted
to see the trains run. Not being home, my
grandmother thought she could run them for
him. Well, she learned she couldn't. When
I came home from scouts that afternoon,
she took me downstairs and sadly showed
me the error of her ways. The train had
left the track needless to say and descended
3 feet to the concrete floor. The 671 suffered
lost rear steps and a bent flange on one
wheel. The tender suffered a broken plastic
side truck frame and the 2420 wrecker caboose
roof was broken off at the ladder. Everything
else seemed to have survived. Well I'm sure
they heard me wail 20 miles away. My grandmother
accompanied me to the Train Center of America
and the wrecker caboose got a new housing.
The rear steps of the Loco were glued in
place. The bent flange and missing side
frame can still be seen today on the set
which occupies a place of great honor amongst
my purchases of the last 53 years. I survived
the trauma and my grandmother went near
the trains again.
Naked Train 2-1/2
by Stirling Woodin
A friend of mine's father was very much into
HO trains in the late 1960's, and had an extensive
collection of brass equipment.
One day, several of us ankle biters from
the neighborhood were visiting Jon's dad,
and he was running a CB&Q passenger train;
I seem to remember it as an ABA set with
maybe 6-7 cars, all custom painted and detailed.
Jon's dad was backing it into a dead end
siding, and handed the tethered throttle
over to one of the kids with the instructions
to bring it to a slow stop before hitting
the track bumper.
Well........kid got confused about which
way was off and which way was full on. He
pegs the throttle at full power, and the
train promptly smashes through the end stop,
and proceeds to march off the end of the
layout at ~90SMPH.
I will never forget Jon's dad leaping
across the room in a vain attempt to save
the train cars as they cascaded off of the
table. If you ever saw the Naked Gun movie
where Leslie Nielson is in Ricardo Montalban's
office and is trying to catch the priceless
vases as they fell to the floor, that's
EXACTLY what the scene looked like.
Mr. Sodaro could use four letter words
just as an artist uses fine oils on a painting.
He had a knack of combining phrases and
words in a manner that I had never heard
before, and have never heard since.
We lit out of there like the house was
afire, and never looked back.
