I recently had a small mishap while backing into a tight camping spot nearly 700 miles from home. We are still not completely sure what happened, but we surmise that I got the truck/trailer in such a jack knife position that the RAM logo on the tail gate came in contact with the rocker switch on the trailer tongue jack and tore it off the unit.
Younger Ron would have panicked and probably determined that a new tongue jack would need to be purchased.
Some of you already know my back story. I was not into trains. I married into a railroading family, and it was my darling Wife who got me into the hobby when we purchased trains for the kids. I still recall my father-in-law telling me that building a train layout would teach me construction, electronics, artistry, organization and management.
Well, the electronics part came in handy for this camping trip. Some years ago, I purchased some inexpensive rocker switches to power sidings. These rocker switches had grain of wheat bulbs, so I took them apart and wired in an LED with a resistor. Naturally, while the switch was apart, I got to see the components and how they worked.
When I saw this broken switch on the trailer and the inside components on the ground, I knew exactly how to put it back together. Model railroading did that. Thank you Pop Pop for the encouragement and thank you to my Wife for getting me into this wonderful hobby.
