Even when you think you have everthing under control.The next thing you know bam!I had set some box cars in a siding.Turns out I had to much train for the siding.Yep a nice side swipe.It was a mess to clean up.I sure some of you have had the same wrecks on your layouts.
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We have a four loop layout with the straight tracks as close together as possible. One track has a piggyback train with some scale size trailers on Weaver flat cars, not piggyback flat cars. Before I added side rails the trailer was only held in place by the hitch stand. No chocks, no 'chains', just gravity and the hitch stand. Coming out of the curve furthest from the viewing area, the rear of the trailer slipped off the flat car and met an oncoming train. It was not a pretty sight. John in Lansing, ILL
rattler21 posted:We have a four loop layout with the straight tracks as close together as possible. One track has a piggyback train with some scale size trailers on Weaver flat cars, not piggyback flat cars. Before I added side rails the trailer was only held in place by the hitch stand. No chocks, no 'chains', just gravity and the hitch stand. Coming out of the curve furthest from the viewing area, the rear of the trailer slipped off the flat car and met an oncoming train. It was not a pretty sight. John in Lansing, ILL
Some times things like this happens.I recall running a long fast freight.It was not I noticed only half of the train going by.I happen to look and say the other half of the train.I shut the power off.To little to late the locomotive had to much momentum.It smashed into the other half of the train.Knocked off the caboose a long with 5 boxcars.Another fine mess on my hands.
I had a pretty memorable crash on my previous layout. The track plan folded over upon itself requiring a train to go around the room three times before it reached its original starting point. This required the track to pass over itself in two places, with significant grades involved. I found that I could run two trains at the same time by carefully adjusting the number of cars on each train until both trains were running at the same speed.
On this particular day I was running the first train with a MPC New Haven dual motor F3 followed by a postwar 623 switcher. I had the trains balanced and had been running them without incident or adjustment for about 1/2 hour. I decided that it would be fun to video the trains as they were running. As I positioned the old VHS camera to shoot down the tracks, through a bridge, I saw the 623 flying up behind the first train. It hit the caboose and kept right on going. There were freight cars flying all over the place. It turned out that the coupler on the first car behind the 623 failed causing the locomotive to take off like a rocket. By the time I got the power cut off there were only a couple of cars left on the first train and a bunch of cars strewn about the lower level of the layout. Thankfully, there was no real damage. I never pulled that stunt again.
Tom
Pictures or it didn't happen. 
I have a 5 stall roundhouse that I keep my favorite locomotives in. I was working somewhere else on the lay out and I heard a strange sound, all 5 of my loco came out of the roundhouse at the same time and fell into the turn table pit. The locomotives survived but, the end of the turntable rail deck got crushed. Since then I installed a toggle switch to shut the power off of the roundhouse tracks.
Never forget it.....late summer 2015....
Peter
My 7-year-old self thought it would be a good idea to pump the throttle all the way up to see how fast my little steamer could go...until it flew off the side of the table. (no damage, by the way. it was from an old starter set from 2003 or so.)
HO layout in the garage, 1st layout too.
Can't recall if it was 2 4x8 sheets of plywood or just 1. Had a basic loop with some sidings and a few buildings but it needed something else. I figured, why not add a mountain! I built the mountain on one of the corners using those plaster gauze rolls, came out nice. Ran my Bachmann 4-8-4 around the track a couple of times, until it derailed inside the tunnel. Had to use one of my dads cane fishing poles to get it out. Then it occurred to me I needed a hole underneath so I could get to any future derailments.
Ran the 4-8-4 around a few more times...until I heard a sickening crash. I looked underneath the layout and there was my 4-8-4, scattered all over the concrete floor.
The cause was one of the siderod screws had fallen out, the siderod caused the engine to jackknife, thru the hole I had just cut!
Good thing was back then, Bachmann had a lifetime warranty. I wrote/called them and told them what and how it had happened and they said to send the engine to them. A few weeks later I got a new engine in the mail with my original, undamaged boiler shell I had painted in ACL colors.
I still have that engine, hasn't been run since probably 1992.
I haven't had any bad wrecks in O scale, but I have done damage by picking them up. With my new layout I try not to pick up the steam engines if I can help it, diesels aren't so bad.
Lesson learned....the forum warned me, but I let it slip by. I finished adjusting track for a more level run. I turned power on and had the RK scale Mohawk continue to pull the passenger train over the recent track work as I watched it do a smoother run over the rail. Then I heard the engine sound differently, I looked to see it going head on into a 3 1/2 ft. fall because I forgot to lower the lift bridge. I managed to grab the pulled cars. Surprisingly the locomotive survived the impact, just some slight adjustment. But the tender suffered the most. It needed a new set of trucks. Now it's running fine again. A cut off switch is soon to be installed. Mostly I was amazed how intact the locomotive was.
Sometime back in the late 80's or early 90's, I was running (6) Lionel MPC trains for a father and son who had stopped to see the trains.. Four were running on the board and two were running up on trestles. All six were running on their own track. I was running a double headed Great Northern EP-5 up in the air over trestles and bridges. All of sudden, one of the pantographs pop up and caught the top of one of my bridges sending these locomotives and some of the freight cars to the tracks below. Four of the other trains running below plowed into these engines and cars derailing all four trains and took down several telephones and wire. Some of poles and wire landed on my sixth track causing that train to derail also. When the gentleman and son left the store, the gentleman said to me, That was great but Jimmy, you don't have to do that every time we come.
This one's right up my alley....I had a 24 car Coke train High Ball into my blast furnace ...hit four hot metal cars that were just loaded with Iron. Two people were killed and the CEO of our railroad locked himself in his office and blew his brains out. Gotta double check those switch tracks.... Nick
There was the time at a train show.A vender had set up some tracks.Had trains going back and fourth.Well he had a passenger train and back up to far.I was about maybe 3 feet away.I turn around and saw 5 cars and the locomotive hit the concrete floor.The wheels came off to say their was damage would be putting in mildly.The came around he tried but it to little to late.He looked like some body punched him in the stomach full force.I thought to my self"Why didn,t you put a bumper there at the end."
jim sutter posted:Sometime back in the late 80's or early 90's, I was running (6) Lionel MPC trains for a father and son who had stopped to see the trains.. Four were running on the board and two were running up on trestles. All six were running on their own track. I was running a double headed Great Northern EP-5 up in the air over trestles and bridges. All of sudden, one of the pantographs pop up and caught the top of one of my bridges sending these locomotives and some of the freight cars to the tracks below. Four of the other trains running below plowed into these engines and cars derailing all four trains and took down several telephones and wire. Some of poles and wire landed on my sixth track causing that train to derail also. When the gentleman and son left the store, the gentleman said to me, That was great but Jimmy, you don't have to do that every time we come.
WOW!What you had was I call a chain reaction derailment.I bet that took some time to clean up.I hope they where not damaged.I was running my trains one night.The train would come at a certain spot and derail.It was always the middle of the train.I was about to give up.Until I noticed one switch was half way open.Turns out there was a tiny peace of lumber from one of my flatcars.Came off the car and fell on to the switch just right.
We all share the same emotions, our stomachs turns sick when we see a train wreck. It does suck but, this is what Trains do when the person in charge does not pay attention. I know, I have been the person who didn’t pay attention .
Well, I build this 2 rail O scale Long switching layout about 36 feet long. There was a center portion of the layout that jutted out at a thirty six degree angle in the center at approximately at the 18 foot measurement, with a 6 foot long table for a rail float. One would control the entire layout with a tethered hand held at center panel and walk to either end with the train and manually throw turnouts. Worked well, a lot of walking back and forthlike the real thing. At low speeds most of the time. One day I was doing some maintenance on the inside portion of the rail float. I was wedged inside that against the center of the layout. There was a brand new hard to find O scale Atlas NYC RS 1 on the tracks facing the opposite direction. Aparrently I had left the power on and had it up fairly high for some odd reason, note:the loco was just sitting there. Then I threw a switch which powered up and engaged to loco at a high rate of speed. I jumped up ran around to the outer 20 foot measurement and watched the engine now with the power off crash through the plastic bumper and watched in horror as it tipped down and stop for a moment, me as frozen in horror as the engine balanced momentarily on the precipice.....
then the sound of five foot gravity dependent impact with the cement floor occurred. What I learned, Always have a kill switch on your person if possible or multi locations on a long layout, end of track bumpers need additional screws behind them into bench work enough to stop an engine, work on ones layout with power Off, wireless hand holds do work, padd up your floors with rubber matts at ends if possible. Don't work when exhausted or distracted.
The engine newly under warrantee was sent to Atlas, repaired, without charge, and ran flawlessly sound was perfect. Wow, Atlas New Jersey guys got lots of glowing feedback on the atlas forum from me.
Powering off for maintenance procedures from now on.
SEABOARDM2 ,
Yes, it did take sometime to clean everything up. What took the most time was re-anchoring the Plasticville telephone poles to the board and restringing them. The gentleman, who brought his son was kind enough to climb up on the layout and helped me to reinstall all the cars and engines. A good memory from a long time ago.
Wrecks are common on Allegheny Federation and i've had several
winter 2011
westbound chessie number 8008 stalls on far straight away and my toy state cat construction train was just behind but before no 8008 could clear away the con freight slams into the tail end of that sucker and eats its way through 5 cars and half the engine before i was able hit the kill switch.
spring 2011
my mom's evil taco bell dog decides to not obey tresspass laws and sit her tail on my rails well her hind legs end under the front of my engine and flips it and then she derails the rest of my consist by falling on it
up until recently there was several staged wrecks all in the name of science which resulted in many action figure deaths and the destruction of lincoln log houses and erector machinery.
i have so many lionel FRA and OSHA violations it ain't funny. thank the lord its just toy trains and not REAL
A few years ago for TTOS’s 50th anniversary they wanted me to clean and service a one of a kind TTOS McCoy STD Gauge train set. I had finally got it done and was test running it. My youngest granddaughter walked up and pushed the throttle all the way forward as it headed down the longest straight section. It flew off the track at the curve, out the garage door and onto the driveway in a loud crashing pile. Amazingly very little damage, but the sound of all that tin hitting the concrete was terrifying.
Steve
seaboardm2 posted:Even when you think you have everthing under control.The next thing you know bam!I had set some box cars in a siding.Turns out I had to much train for the siding.Yep a nice side swipe.It was a mess to clean up.I sure some of you have had the same wrecks on your layouts.
Had a Lionel MPC Atlantic (Pennsylvania) that derail and roll 4 inches to the edge of the layout, then drop four feet to a concrete floor.
It still worked, but had to bend the cab and paint portions of the engine.
Yipes! I think the worst, in terms of damage I have had on the layout was probably the litany of accidents at slow\suddenly very high speed that have done in my cheap plastic Lionel bumpers. There was also the time I came back from the repair shop having had a front new coupler installed on my docksider, as the old one had zinc rot and was broken. I cleared one of my sidings to do a nice, safe test run. Cue everything going haywire, and the *rear* coupler being broken in the crash. And the custom wooden bumper I have being dislocated from it's gravel foundation. To this day, I haven't had that rear coupler repaired (I epoxied it back together so that it worked provided it remained closed, and recently removed it when I replaced the traction tire on the docksider).
I just had my worst train wreck to night. Whiles backing a 7 car train through a switch at the edge of the layout the lead engine derailed (a 2035 that I had just purchased and repaired) and tilted precariously taking the tender with it and a dummy Milwaukee Road GP9 with it. Yes, substantial damage. Broken marker light, twisted tender tongue, and broken mounting lugs and truck mounting pin on the dummy unit.
I can repair everything, I think. "Man" am I disappointed.
Edge guards are going to be installed. I cannot imagined how I would feel if a really prized locomotive took the big dump on the concrete.
Over the years, I've had quite a few. On the current layout, there have been five that I can remember, worth noting.
Mine was early in the hobby. I had gotten a K Line piggyback car at a train show. It consisted of a giant heavy trailer on a flat car that was almost the same size if not smaller. I had always wanted a piggyback car and was super excited to run it. So I got it on the layout put the the train in notch fast, and when I came to the down hill section of my graduated trestle which also coincidentally included an O27 curve, off the table it went! It ended up not being damaged. I was much more cautious around that curve after that!
On two occasions since the layout began (1998), I have derailed engines and had them hit the concrete floor. The first was an MPC #3100 that landed wheels down, and nothing was damaged on it, including the smoke lifters. The second was a clockwork Hornby tank engine (circa 1928). It landed cab down and the tin was quite bent. I unbent it and it was fine. Both events were caused by me leaving a tool on the tracks, and failing to note it before operating. Both events also involved me drinking wine while operating, but I assured my wife that it had nothing to do with it.
Having locomotives hit the floor is probably the worst, but I also have had rollingstock hit the floor over the years. The photos show some Hornby freight wagons that fell into "the concrete canyon". They survived admirably.
My 671 Turbine fell off the layout. Why that happened I have no clue. There was nothing on the track that would have caused it nor did it pull any cars off with it. This happened on a straight section of track not even a curve. Being post-war it survived the 5ft fall without a scratch.
I've had a few good ones. The two that most vividly come to memory are:
1) I had a long tanker train running on my outer loop and my Nickel Plate 765 hauling butt on the inner loop. At the diamond where the trains can switch what track they are on the 765 jumped the switch and smacked into the tanker train, pushing several cars off the table. The damage was minimal thankfully due to the carpeting on the floor of my train room
2) My other bad one involved an Amtrak AEM-7 and a string of Amfleets. After finishing my catenary system, I wanted to test out the maximum speed of the AEM-7 under the wires, which is 120 SMPH. It took only one lap for the engine to tip over on a section of curved track, with 3 Amfleets derailing behind it.
Fun topic. I like the other responses.
Nothing spectacular but I am sure others can relate. First, a Lionel San Frisco Trolley hit the bumper, blew it off the end of the rail and continued on to the inevitable encounter with the floor. Another when my PW Fire Car decided to launch itself out of a curve onto the same floor. Never could figure out why that happened since it wasn't speed related. Third, my MTH Rail King Camelback picked a GG switch, again for no apparent reason, and slowly tumbled to the floor, minimal damage. That switch was replaced with a Ross ASAP. The last was my newly purchased Atlas GP-9 making its first circuit of the layout picked another GG switch and began it's journey to the floor. I credit my years of living and playing with cats affording me the reflexes to save that loco before it hit the floor. It never picked that switch again but there now is a plexi guard rail on the edge. There is something about those GG 042 switches that seem to make some locos bounce.
My most memorable wreck was with my biggest steam engine. My layout is in a lower level bedroom which is aprox 10'x12'. We live in a Bi-level house, so next to that lower bedroom is a craw space for storage that runs under our front door entrance. So in the search for more train room my layout has an upper and lower loop which are suspended into the craw space from the layout. The trains leave the train room through tunnel portals. While under construction, somehow the switch before the lower loop portal leaving the train room was in the wrong position, so I basically ran my MTH C&O Allegheny into a tunnel portal that still had the drywall blocking the entrance. No damage was done, but my wife sure wondered what caused the loud thud! 8-)
Jeff
My father's prewar 1684 has the reputation of traveling at Warp 9. It seems to have two speeds..... stop/go, No in-betweens. One day it went too fast around the corner falling off and breaking the cow catcher. I haven't run this engine in years.
Ken
necrails posted:...It never picked that switch again but there now is a plexi guard rail on the edge....
Big_Boy_4005 posted:....That lead to the installation of a Masonite fence being installed to prevent that from happening in the future.
Oscar posted:...Edge guards are going to be installed.
It always surprises me that so many of the layouts seen on the forum and in the magazines do not have some type of catch fence.
I don't know whether this comes under the heading of being a jackazz or a jerk, or clumsy fool, but a wreck resulted. Having finished some building emplacements, I had stepped out of the valley area, stepping over this line of bridges
and tripped, catching the toe of a shoe on the tallest span. I went straight down onto my knees, where you see part of a village, nowadays. The buildings were not in place yet (fortunately!) but I came down so hard onto a red boxcar there that it burst totally into smithereens. In fact, the boxcar disintegrated and exploded outward from the crash site, so thoroughly,
that, for a minute or two, I wasn't sure there had been a boxcar there at all. 
However, in the subsequent days, finding tiny red pieces and some wheels and axles here-n-there throughout this area of the layout assured me
I did have a red boxcar there at onetime.!!!! Sshhhheeeeesh!
FrankM, trainwrecker
This is a staged wreck, my grandson wanted to have a train wreck so he could coordinate the clean up using the Bucyrus crane and have the fire company on seen.
The worst wreck I’ve ever had was one I wish I never have again. I was running my BLI Paragon 2 PRR J with my NS 8102. I was just starting work on installing my yard and I had the yard loop in, but the switch to the loop was open. Long story short the train of a PRR J, NS ES44AC, and a string of Amfleets hit the floor where the track stopped. Nothing suffered major damage other than the J1 loosing some of its real coal load and a broken hand rail. The ES44AC landed upside down and managed to break a coupler, and the Amfleets were unscathed. If you want a less dramatic wreck, I was running an NS power move from the engine house to the main line for yard maintenance, and the lead loco (SD70ACe 1061) jumped a frog and caused the system to go out. After the incident happened, I somehow fried the decoder in my Athearn NS Dash 9, which was the second unit in the consist.
Mine, I was about 12, We had a temp. layout next to some windows, We were in the mist of building a spare to the outside, we had switch in place but that was it. I was young so to me it was full speed or stop. Well I did not know I had hit the control to the switch and our 671 hit the switch at full speed and thru the window as my father was walking up the walk. Guess who couldn't sit down for about a week.
Some of these weren't really good.........As you can see, this isn't O Gauge!!!
I know this is way after this thread died but what the heck, here it goes: I've got three to report. I was sitting at a shelf working on something, when I heard a crash, I turned around, and a AF gp9 (it had been converted to a dummy at some point) had rolled off the old metal counter I had some engines needing major repairs on, and had landed shell down, smashing the shell to pieces. I found most of the pieces, and glued it back together, but I still need to do more work on it at some point, including new paint and some putty work.
A few years ago I bought a box of NIB MPC era cars, and had a 0-8-0 pulling some tender first on the single track test track, when I heard a crack, and I turned just in time to see my 0-8-0 tipping off the track, interestingly the tender stayed on the rails upright, but the engine and five cars fell, luckily landing in a box of track that just so happened to be there. It turned out a tropicana high cube right in front of the engine broke a truck, causing the accident. Only other damage was a little bend to the headlight on the engine.
Last one: I had two 2-4-2's pulling a freight one on each end of the train(I know one was my 240, but I'm not sure of the other's number,) and my dad (who is also the reason my 2032's or oos but thats another story) decided he wanted to run it while I was in the restroom. I stepped out, an had enough time to look at the shelfs where the track was, only to see the lead engine sail off the counter and land, on its wheels, 20 ft away. Luckily, nothing was damaged as the second engine stopped in time and the tender and first 4 or 5 cars landed safely in boxes. I've got some more stories, but those are the best (worst?).
The worst wreck would be my Fathers Lionel prewar 2-4-2, #1684. My father bought it from a friend in the late 1940's. He found a unique(Scottish) way to install a postwar coupler on its tender. This engine achieves Warp 9 with lower power levels from a transformer. One day my sister was running it for a friend of hers in the early 1980s and it flew off the track and broke the cow catcher and the pin off the chassis for connecting the tender. I have the pieces still. I purchased a generic shell to repaint several years ago. I just never got around to fixing this engine...maybe this next year.
Ken
One of the worst. I had the bright idea of filling an empty gondola with pea stones, looked great and tracked well with all the weight. No problems that is until the train went behind a knee wall and was surprised when it contacted another stopped train, you guessed it pea stone everywhere behind the wall!
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