I have never had a layout above the floor.  I like the floor.  Nothing ever falls off of the floor.

I had just given my son the first train engine that I had. (1948 Lionel Turbine).  I told him I would carry it in from the car to the house very carefully for him. It just slipped out of my arms and dropped to the concrete driveway. I bent the cab and smashed the boiler front.  I couldn't have felt much lower.  It wasn't our best engine but had real meaning for me to pass it on. It is still alive with new boiler and straightened cab.  My son is now expecting his first son. I hope he can give it to his son without dropping it like I did.

I've dropped several in my many years of model railroading, probably more than I remember.   I dropped one of the Lionel Hall-class steamers several years ago.  I'm not quite sure how, actually, but it was near the edge of my workshop bench and I think it caught on my clothing, much like your case.  It had a bent cab roof which I straightened using recommended methods (slowly, with pressure, over days) and filled and sanded and painted.  The Hall class is a hardy little thing and it seemed none the worse for wear after that, but it was a lot of work.

I had a Legacy ATSF Northern, 3751, drop off the layout while running - I had left a small razor saw near the tracks while working on scenery and did not see it it time.  If caught the front truck and the loco jumped off the rails and the layout, 40 inches to the floor.  This loco too is fairly hardly, but it hit wrong and had a good deal of damage.  It went in the spare parts bin where ultimately, it proved very useful to me, but that's another story, and at the time I was very down about that accident. 

I put an ERR system in a GP30 (Dale JR.) just to see if I could and the "new" TMCC controls I bought where in fact defective and the signal was lost. As soon as I put power to the track the engine raced off at high speed and "flew" off the layout, hit the leg on the other side of the isle way and crashed to the floor. I though I was going to throw up. One truck destroyed and the other messed up pretty bad but the cab and frame still looked good. Bought 2 new trucks with motors installed and tried again with a new command set. YA, everything still worked. All new items are now tested on the floor level tracks.

Dan

I dropped a Lionel dockside switcher onto my desk from about a 1 1/2 feet above and the only damage, believe it or not, was the smoke unit, go figure.  I ended up taking it apart and found the smoke unit piston rod was broken.  I replaced the piston and rod assembly and it still works like a champ.  I got lucky!!

Paul

We drove a 682 off the tracks and onto a concrete floor, about a five foot drop. By some luck, the only damage was to the boiler front, which shattered. Turbine boiler fronts are quite common, so it was easy to get an original replacement.

Boy!! did I.

https://ogrforum.com/t...-mth-inperial-bigboy

Believe it or not, I never have (knocks on wood). However, my Dad has run a couple trains off the edge of the layout. The worst was the 675, which got a couple scratches and a broken marker light from the experience. The interesting part about this is that while Grandpa babied his trains, his Dad used to run them until they derailed too! I guess that skips a generation in my family, so if I ever have children, I better be very careful letting them run trains lol.

I dropped my Marx powered bud car (2124 Boston and Main) showing someone at a train show in the late 80's. The car hit the floor and cracked/broke the shell. Made ne sick as this is one that I bought for myself with my Christmas money when I was a kid, memories. Still have the car and always looking for a new shell but they are hard to come by.

I do recall my k-line mikado getting some damage.  It was quite a while back.  I think i ran it off the layout, but it only had a slightly bent marker light and some small paint loss on the front step, so I may have just dropped it when taking it out of the box or something.  I did run one or 2 k-line mp-15s off the layout smashing the couplers and front steps/couplet guides.  I always sort of hid those hoping my dad never discovered them.  A couple years back I looked up a parts dealer, spent about $10-$15 and had them both looking like new.  At that time I mentioned it to my father and he told me he had paid very short money for them at the time anyway.

One of the advantages of running a "carpet central" is that there's no place to go if the train leaves the layout - it's already there  However, I still have to GET the trains down there, which is just as dicey if not more so.  I've adopted a "Hand Under The Engine" approach for all of my transfers, but even this isn't fool proof.  I suspect at some point I will drop one while stooping to put it on the layout... and I will be gutted.  The bigger danger for me is kicking one...

I dropped the tender of my Legacy Crescent Limited; now the remote uncoupling mechanism does not function properly

At my previous layout, I had a friend over (who was a train guy) and introduced him to TMCC one evening. He was running trains at the other end of the layout while I was installing a bridge over the stairwell. He had a mind lapse and before I knew it, my Challenger was racing towards the stairwell and over it went in free fall, some 6 ft. down to a landing. The engine landed on it's wheels and the only damage was the coal load came off the tender. This was one of the original MTH Challengers and it still runs today as good as it did then. 

No but I did run one off the end of the counter at P & D. I was showing an MPC Geep to a customer and it would not move. But of course as soon as I touched it off it went like a bullet. Some bent railing was the worst damage. It could have easily become a parts loco.

As a kid I ran the o-27 curves too fast plenty of times and ended up with a train on its side - it was always a contest in my head to see how fast is just fast enough not to fail - but that was on a carpeted floor.

As an adult I launch Thomas of the end of the layout onto a concrete floor and fortunately only broke the coupler.  I also have a Lionel Atlantic, 6-28071, I can't remember exactly what happened but the tender went to the floor.  The one corner marker light popped off and that corner of the tender is dented.  The LED still works.  This was many years ago.  I still run it on occasion but never did get around to trying to fix the damage.

eh  *#&%  happens... 

I had gotten a RailKing Cab Forward.  After getting it running again, I put it up on my kitchen table so I could lube it up for service.  It was laying belly up on an old laptop sleeve I use.  At the time I had my RailKing PRR Turbine running on the carpet loop in the living room.  I heard it stop, so I got up to see why.  While I was bending down to see what was going on I heard a thump and a bang behind me.  I worried around to see the Cab Forward sitting on the tile floor under the table, on it's wheels.  After a close visual inspection, the only thing I found was some flat wheels.

The only thing I can figure is that since it rolled off of the table onto my cushioned chair, bounced off of the seat and rolled the other way to the floor.  It must of had enough momentum that when it hit the ground on the wheel edges it finished it's roll to sit on it's wheels.  After regaining my breath and the heart slowed back down I put it on the tracks and ran it.  It still runs just fine, and everything works as it should.

Have a Williams ABA F3 Texas Chief Yellow War Bonnet set. Dumped the

lead loco on the floor. My heart sank!!!!!!!!!!

I did not want to look. Picked her up off the floor and all it did was bend one of the

side ladders..............Whew!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hate to think what it would be like to drop a Visionline Big Boy.

Bob C.

One thing i would recommend is NEVER lay anything on the track.  I set a car on the track once, and the transformer wasn't all the way off.  My ZW got things a little warm before I realized that there was a problem.  

Q: Did You Ever Drop A Locomotive?

A:  I've given it some consideration but decided against it.

Nope!!!!

Have a friend and his policy is absolutely no coats or sweaters when viewing the layout. Seemed draconian until I'd seen the disasters these garments have caused. Same policy for purses, cameras, and glasses on a rope. Either catching structures, passing rolling stock or engines.

Luckily no drops but have seen the results of some 4' table run offs. Not pretty.

One thing that has amazed me, coming from the HO and N scale world, is how O scalers (both 2 & 3 rail) seem to run trackage very close to the edge of benchwork.

And I think it is getting worse, as more modelers run scale length equipment, and desperately try to stuff mega-radius curves into limited layout space.

Jeff C

dropped a 8700 Rock Island 0-4-0

from my sons Rail Blazer Set.

Parts went every where!

Derailed an ABBA SP&S Alco, which headed off the layout and toward the floor.  For some reason the tethers held and it ended up dangling, still coupled to the long freight, with the leading A unit stopped 2" short of the floor.  Talk about luck!  I have snagged engines, cars, and scenery with clothing to the point I now wear a t-shirt, or short-sleeved shirt, in the trainroom ... with pants of course.

I am with Jeff.  I ran HO and N for years, and they were so light, they could derail easily.  I am amazed how some folks run O trains right to the table edge.  I dropped an N steamer once.  Smashed the front of the boiler.  It was a good thing it was the most cheaply built engine I had.  Having many problems with my hands and my eyes, I have embraced O gauge.  However, I am extremely careful moving the engines.  I will have both hands operated on this winter, so I hope I will 'get a grip' as a friend at my church keeps telling me.  

While reaching for an engine on the top shelf I dropped a brass remake of the Lionel #5 7' onto the wooden floor. Ouch! Bent roof and broken headlight and I haven't opened it up to see if anything else went awry.

I bought my 736 thru the mail from a friend. We live in a rural area, and if your mailbox isn't large enough for a package, the carrier will leave the package in one of those plastic shopping bags, hooked on the mailbox. I looked out to see if the mail had gone, and sure enough there was a package hanging from the mailbox.I went out for it, and I was just a few steps away when the bag broke and the box hit the ground. Naturally it was my 736, and it had hit the ground pilot first. The cowcatcher broke off, as did one of the markers on the boiler front. The post office replaced the broken parts, and I bought a bigger mailbox that day.

Fortunately, I never have.  I make it a habit to always lift a loco with both hands.  So far, that has served me well.

Had a PW Fire Car take a turn too fast and dive to the floor.  

Had a bump and go trolley take out a bumper and dive for the floor.  Both sustained some shell damage.

Forgot I had taken the screws out of another loco and picked it up by the shell.  The bottom dropped out "literally" when I turned away from the layout.  Haven't even tried to see if it survived yet.  

I had a somewhat similar experience to yours, with an even happier -- but just as hair-raising -- ending.  I had my Lionel 783 Hudson on its back, on a foam pad on my workbench.  I turned away to look for some part or other that I was ready to install, when just at the edge of hearing, there came the faintest sound of a heavy weight turning over on a soft surface.

While my attention was elsewhere, the 783 had rolled on its side and kept on rolling, right off the pad, off the workbench and was diving toward the concrete floor.

Apparently my Mutant Spider Danger Senses had detected it just in time, for I reflexively stuck out one knee and intercepted it in mid-air.  It balanced there for a split-second, just long enough for me to grab it and put it back on the foam pad.  Crisis averted.

But like a lot of you guys, I'm paranoid about dropping locomotives, even though I never have.  I'm always a fanatic about carefully transferring them from shelf to track or back again, but there's always that first time...

Apart from an old Bachmann HO Santa Fe caboose and a Bachmann Plus (?) HO Great Northern 2-8-0 locomotive that I dropped by accident when I was nine, I take extreme care when carrying my locomotives and rolling stock around so that will never happen. It would be terrible to see one of my locomotives or freight/passenger cars suffer a fall and sustain damage due to a blunder on my part. 

Droped one off the layout once and does chucking one against a wall count?

We O-types run them "close to the edge" because we're much more manly - even the women - than the effete types in the wee junior scales. They invented the phrase "living on the edge" just for us.

OR:

It could be that we only have so much room and the stuff we run is just so big that every

32nd of an inch counts.

This (poor) photo shows the plexiglas that I installed years ago on my layout on all "open edges" of my layout. This applies to straights and curves. The locos never fly.

(Note the exquisite masking tape switch machine reinforcement in the foreground; it was wobbling, so "temporarily..." And the steamer on the ground behind the Centipede!

Always a layout in progress, though "progress" never seems appropriate, somehow.)

Yep, bought a "new"1986 Berkshire from my LHS (in 2014), (he said it was new), I bought it because it was a Louisville & Nashville engine. Getting it home, I took it out of the box, the Styrofoam inside the box was upside down and before I knew it the engine was hitting my toe and then the floor. Yes a little damage to the top of the engine, no doubt, the toe cushioned the fall, thus the small amount of damage.

Brent