Terrible Wreck

I hate when that happens.

DONOT touch anything!

The model railroad FRA is on its way to investigate.

if it is determined that you are at fault, your license to operate will be suspended for a year, and you will be forced to play Lionel Battle Train!

First thing the model railroad FRA will check is operator's / reporter's blood alcohol level.  Friday was 11/1/2013.  (Chuckle with me, please!)

Much prefer to learn from others' experiences; that's why I spend more time reading than posting.

Chuck

And of all things in the eyes of the Fed, it was a train from that bad coal industry. I like coal and coal trains, so I will substitute derailed train of windmill generator parts before the Fed arrives.

I will the Fed it was too much smoke in the train room that clouded my judgement!

Ouch! Accidents happen.  I won't relate my last here, which involved something similar as to what I was doing and why it happened, and my Legacy Northern 3759 - and the floor.  Too terrible to mention, but then as you say, they are all learning experiences. 

It's good to have company when you are running multiple trains on a single mainline. In any event, it sounds like this is all easily fixed.

Bobby, Hope nothing broke to badly. I'm just glad we don't have to post all our crashes. I would look pretty dumb because of that lift gate I USE to have.

The joys of a carpet layout, the trains don't have that far to fall!

Like others say, accidents do happen!

My bad accident over a year ago involved a command control PS-2 engine and two powered Williams SD-45's pulling a long freight train on the main line. I was playing with an MTH PS-2 engine on a siding and didn't realize that the engine could cross the electrical gap and supply power to the mainline thereby powering up my SD-45's. The accident that happened was I rear ended another group of freight cars, knocked several cars to the floor and derailed both SD-45's and even sent a caboose to the floor. My floor has carpet so it didn't hurt much of anything.

My lesson learned is to shut down power when working on sidings, also that a command control engine even when not turned on will conduct electrical power through it. Also keep the DCS handheld with you at all times when the power is on, it has an emergency stop on it.

Another thing I did was to install kill switches around the layout. The way I wired these is to short out(causes an instant short that makes the transformer throw the breaker) the center rail and outside rail power when the switch is pushed. Using doorbell button type switches, which are momentary contact.

Lee Fritz

I can rarely resist running two trains on my main line when I have visitors over.  And almost invariably, when paying more attention to chatting than to the trains, I let one run into the other.  Most embarrassing to me.  Most laughs and enjoyment to the visitors

Somewhere, I have a VHS video of one of my wrecks.  My original layout only had one main line that folded over on itself.  To complete one circuit, the train had to go around the layout three times.  I had the track divided into four electrical blocks.  by keeping a vacent block between trains, it was no problem running two trains at once.  I would add and subtract cars so that both trains would be running at approximately the same speed. 

This time I had a passenger train being pulled by a twin motor MPC F3 and a freight being pulled by a 623 switcher.  I balanced the cars between the two trains and had them running for about five minutes with no speed adjustments,  I decided to get the video camera and get some action shots.  I was shooting the freight train, looking at it head on, as it passed through a Lionel truss bridge.  Much to my surprise, as the caboose came around the corner, so did the F3 going H**l bent for election.  It plowed through almost the entire freight train before I could kill the power.  It was throwing cars so far off of the track they could not even cause a short.

The culprit: A broken coupler on the lead car of the passenger train.

Lesson learned: Even after testing, never assume that everything will work correctly.  

Bobby O: if you like to run multiple trains on your mainline, you should consider using a block control system with DCS. You need one more block than the number of trains run, i.e.,  if you run three trains you need four blocks. You will also need relays and resistors for each block. You can also incorporate an operating signal for each block. 

I was running a Lionel RS3 pulling about 10 PW cars. A long straight into an O31 curve on the upper level of the layout. Turned my back and when I returned my gaze to the train the coupler on the locomotive popped open, (that one had never let go before), just before the engine went into the curve. Well it was like you kicked in the after burners. Freeing itself from that heavy load it launched itself into the air. Made a beautiful arc and landed 6 feet away and almost 4 feet down on the HARD concrete floor. It looked like Evil Knievel after the fountains attempt in Vegas. I had to epoxy and superglue the front truck/motor frame together as it's not available any longer. But it lives again.

Bobby, as your lawyer, I advise you to keep your mouth shut and hide that Jim Beam bottle next to your transformer. Thank you, that will be ten dollars. Don

The wreck damages are fixable:

o Caboose had its cupola pop off, and one of its light bulbs came out of its socket;

o One coal hopper has a bent axle;

o Four coal hoppers lost their loads, and coal is strewn across the floor and layout.

Today I started the cleanup and repairs. While the caboose was apart, I populated it with crew figures.

I'am glad I am not the only one to do things like that. Did you ever notice couplers always uncouple when running trains around your layout. But when in a crash they hold tight as possible resulting in crashes just like the real trains. 

Every one here know how I fried my MTH T&P Mohawk.  Maybe it was lack of experience or maybe it was the Wellers.  Anyway, I have decided to run not more than two trains at a time, and am seriously considering running them of separate blocks with no interconnects.  Se Le Guerre (It's the war).

Better get rid of all that hard cider from Halloween or you'll end up on the TV show Moonshiners! if you're caught with it you'll be sentenced to only running N scale for a year, good behavior might allow you to get back up to HO by 9 months, hopefully you'll make parole and join us back running O gauge again.    Seriously, I hope you can get everything fixable and back running soon, sometimes we all have to learn something the hard way, but it makes us better engineers in the long run. Good luck!

Hi Bobby, Don't let this little mishap bother you. Believe me when I tell ya it could of been alot worse.

Glad trains could be repaired! I did a ERR upgrade to a GP-38 from a RTR set with a TMCC command control unit I bought on the BAY. Turns out the control unit was bad and when I powered up the GP-38 it ran out of control to crash onto the floor. 1 broken power truck, 1 bent axle on the other and both couplers destroyed. All is fixed now and the controller replaced with a NEW unit. Some times sh*t happens.

Dan

It happens to the best of us  

Mr. Ogage,

The NTSB is requesting photographs of said train wreck, please post as soon as possible. This will help in the investigation of who was at fault, the engineer, conductor, or track gang formen.

Thank You, NTSB.

Had that happen before. Bad days; added some clear plastic edging around my layout edges to lessen spills to floor. Expecially on the ceiling loops.

This is not the first wreck on my railroad that sent cars to ground, and it may not be the last.

About a year ago, a freight train ran into the rear of the Afternoon Hiawatha and sent the Cedar Rapids to the floor. The cast aluminum dome cracked and the car has been sitting behind the repair bench ever since.

Prior to the Hiawatha incident, a N&W Y6b high-balling coal to Upstate New York rear-ended the 3rd Section of the Chicago bound 20th Century Limited on the Hudson River Line. That wreck had a few cars fall to the concrete as well.

In both of these cases, the trains were in dark territory, and the crews failed to heed the rules of the road. There may have been some open containers too.

I have it in my head to add TMCC to my DCS controlled layout, but I shudder to think of having to operate two handheld remotes in an emergency situation. Yikes!

Wouldn't the 'E-Stop' button on the DCS remote handle that situation by itself?

---PCJ

PJC:

Yes it will. Kills power to the track until both TIU and Remote are powered off and back on.  Of course, this assumes the Power is flowing to the track through the TIU.

I parked my TMCC Atlas on the duckunder on loop 2, My Vision line Hudson and Legacy L&N GP 38 were on the outer loop, I noticed that the Hudson was gaining on the GP 38 and turned the big red button the slow button the Hudson but the GP 38 was active, result a few on the cars parked on the duck under hit the floor, a couple of expensive pieces of rolling stock had to be "super glued".

Brent