Wife 2, Trains 0

With nerves of steel you will need to take the locomotive and put running boards in a small vice. Position the bent line of the running boards right on the ends of the jaws of the vice. I use small cloth rags to protect the paint. slightly lift the locomotive so the running board looks straight. Work very slowly on bending it and you should be good to go.

The good news is you can order a new number board and replace... this will be cheaper than replacing the wife.

You may want to either park you trains in the rear of the layout or make a clear edge guard on the layout to protect trains from future mis-haps.

Always thought I was a bit OCD by parking stuff at the back of my layout or on an inner siding. THIS is exactly why. Hopefully you'll be able to repair.

Unfortunately this is the type of topic that will bring out those that say your best solution is to get rid of the wife before you lose anymore of your precious trains  I'm a bit like O-GAUGER in that I don't leave trains on the tracks next to the edge.  Not because my wife will knock it off, but because I will

Back to your question.  I would go with J-Daddy's suggestion.  I had similar incidents and have been lucky in that the metal bent back into place.  If you weather your engines you can make it look like a real incident.

Reminds us of the incident in the movie, "A Christmas Story".  Where RALPIEs MOM accidentally knock over the leg lamp.  Coincidence?  Maybe? 

Hope you get it fixed. 

I think you are to blame.  I have never met a model railroad who NEVER, no NEVER, has had a derailment.  If you have track near the end of a table, sooner or later you will have a derailment, and the..........[I can't say the unspeakable]  There should always be something to catch trains going over the edge (unlike the Durango & Silverton).

Put plexiglass glass up and make it so you can move it out of the way to change trains

buy her a pair of steel-toed work boots to minimize injury

Sounds like a divorce is in your future.  Alas, I have a wife like that also.  She can knock things off the platform from 5 feet away...telepathically.  I tried the lock on the door idea.  It worked until she found out about it.  She wanted to know what I had in there that she wasn't allowed to see.  That caused way more problems than was worth it.  So, now the door stays open or at least unlocked.  I still say it would be better to get rid of the wife.

Rick

sinclair posted:

My wife damaged her 2nd item from my train collection tonight.  It was my newest locomotive, the Legacy SP 2-8-0.  She knocked it off of the layout while moving boxes around.

The running board is what hit the tile floor, left paint that I had to scrape off of the tile.  Knocked the number board off and broke the pin holding the front fake coupler.  And really bent up the running board as you can see.  I don't think the thing even had an hour on it yet.  It seems to work just fine, maybe even smoke better.  Thankfully it missed her bare feet.

Any thoughts on what I can do to straighten out the running board?

what JDaddy said and all will be good.

 now bring home some flowers today for the wife trust me this will be a good thing.

to bad about damage but it could have been so much worse!

I would bend it but use heat. I use either I high temp heat gun or propane torch. 400-450F will allow it to bend without cracking and should not damage the paint. Set your vise up to clamp the running board but don't put it in the vice until its hot. Then move quickly before the vice jaws cool it. If you see the paint is starting to discolor stop as its more than hot enough. It should sizzle spit, if not its too cold.

Pete

RickC:  A good wife is worth a million dollars.  A bad wife will cost several times that to unload.

Note he also said he knocks things off.  If he can't learn to park trains away from the edge, there are many ways to guard an edge, many of which are unobtrusive and blend in, like a farm fence or a berm.

Unfortunately, I have damaged far more trains than my wife.  I should have her carry them for me.

I am not going to get rid of the wife, ever.  She lets me spend more than I perhaps should on my hobbies, so I'm keeping her, even if she continues to knock things over.  I asked her last night if she could at least keep it to the cheaper to replace freight cars for the future.  But once every 2 years is pretty good, and neither was bad enough to keep them from operating.  It's me that breaks them so they need a major repair to work again.  I'll have to try the vice thing, but I'm leaning more to leaving it alone after getting a good look at it this morning, it's cracked along the boiler where the board attaches.  The number board broke clean off, so it can be super glued back on.  I just need to make a pin, or get one from Lionel to put the front coupler back on.  Or mod it to take a dummy lobster one so I can double head.  Anyone got a Lionel dummy lobster coupler they would send me?

You at least need to let your wife know she has two strikes.  Three and she is out . . . . of the train room at least.

Dennis

sinclair posted:

My wife damaged her 2nd item from my train collection tonight.  It was my newest locomotive, the Legacy SP 2-8-0.  She knocked it off of the layout while moving boxes around.

The running board is what hit the tile floor, left paint that I had to scrape off of the tile.  Knocked the number board off and broke the pin holding the front fake coupler.  And really bent up the running board as you can see.  I don't think the thing even had an hour on it yet.  It seems to work just fine, maybe even smoke better.  Thankfully it missed her bare feet.

Any thoughts on what I can do to straighten out the running board?

As i dont like patched up stuff i wait till the lionel part sale in November and buy a new shell  ..

sinclair posted:

My wife damaged her 2nd item from my train collection tonight.  It was my newest locomotive, the Legacy SP 2-8-0.  She knocked it off of the layout while moving boxes around ...

I'm interested to know about the 'multi-tasking' of model railroading and storage spaces or other activities in that room. With good planning and suitable precautions, it should be possible to minimize those kinds of mishaps.

I've put storage shelves (mostly for hobby items) over various parts of my HO and O gauge layouts and I am super-careful to not drop things.

Pete's suggestion is right on, you want to have heat on the part to lower the chance of the diecast breaking.  It only wants to bend once as a rule.  I use my hot air rework station set at 200C to locally heat something like this and then slowly bend it back into place.

RICKC posted:

Sounds like a divorce is in your future.  Alas, I have a wife like that also.  She can knock things off the platform from 5 feet away...telepathically.  I tried the lock on the door idea.  It worked until she found out about it.  She wanted to know what I had in there that she wasn't allowed to see.  That caused way more problems than was worth it.  So, now the door stays open or at least unlocked.  I still say it would be better to get rid of the wife.

Rick

Have you thought of a sign in/ sign out sheet for security purposes? 

And remember, you can always take the repair cost out of her Christmas present!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Pete's suggestion is right on, you want to have heat on the part to lower the chance of the diecast breaking.  It only wants to bend once as a rule.  I use my hot air rework station set at 200C to locally heat something like this and then slowly bend it back into place.

Heat is a nice option... however I always tend to burn the paint... hate to see that silver boiler turn brown...

I would apply the heat from the back/inside to minimize the risk of burning the paint. You have to move the heat source back and forth especially if you use a propane torch. A torch can better pinpoint the heat. A heatgun spreads it more. Hold it some distance from the object so it heats more slow and evenly. It would be good if the OP has an old junk piece of diecast to practice on and gain confidence.

Pete

The beauty of using my hot air rework station is I can adjust the heat to whatever I like, and I can also apply it to a very localized area.  I've straightened a number of diecast items with it, and it yields probably a 90% success rate.  Sometimes, the item is damaged too much for easy straightening.

For larger areas like the cab roof, my usual method is to use constant pressure over days.  I make a curved piece of wood for each side and apply the pressure with a clamp or two.  Keep adjusting the clamp(s) as the item resumes the correct shape.  I've managed to repair some really deformed cab roofs with that technique.

You have to store/park your trains with consideration of the environment. That includes spouse, kids and pets. I have cats, so any layout in the house is going to sustain some injury to scenery and buildings, so trains wouldn't be parked on the deck where they could become casualties.

My guess is the OP does not have a hot air rework station. Taking bets here.

Pete

sinclair posted:

My wife damaged her 2nd item from my train collection tonight.  It was my newest locomotive, the Legacy SP 2-8-0.  She knocked it off of the layout while moving boxes around.

The running board is what hit the tile floor, left paint that I had to scrape off of the tile.  Knocked the number board off and broke the pin holding the front fake coupler.  And really bent up the running board as you can see.  I don't think the thing even had an hour on it yet.  It seems to work just fine, maybe even smoke better.  Thankfully it missed her bare feet.

Any thoughts on what I can do to straighten out the running board?

As the others have said, that is just frighteningly close to the edge without some type of catchall for wayward equipment. I have a few friends whose policy is no coats and no sweaters in their train room to avoid the accidental sweeping off the layout issue with structures and rolling stock. And heels, I think they require high heels, not sure that is for train safety though...

And it is way too expensive to replace a wife many friends and relatives have explained to me!

Curious, but what was the first incident you mentioned Sinclair?

CAPPilot posted:

Unfortunately this is the type of topic that will bring out those that say your best solution is to get rid of the wife before you lose anymore of your precious trains  I'm a bit like O-GAUGER in that I don't leave trains on the tracks next to the edge.  Not because my wife will knock it off, but because I will

A pal of mine had a frighteningly expensive # 1 scale brass loco with a custom paintjob. He had more in it than many people have into their cars. His wife leaned on the thing, thinking it was a fixed object somehow, I guess, and made it try a half-gainer to the floor while she was reaching for something in his layout room. The result was a very expensive repair job, way out of his technical expertise. Getting it back in the condition cost him thousands as the damages was that bad.

The odd thing was, she wasn't the least bit apologetic about it. More like, "Yeah, I busted up your toy, no big deal," but she knew how much it'd cost.

They had the kind of marriage where each had their own bank accounts and handled expenses like roommates do. So, when it came time for her to go on her annual 'girls trip' with her friends, he advised her she spent that money already by almost destroying his locomotive. Things got really bad for them. I lost touch with him soon afterward, and I wonder if he's still married to her today.

Jokingly you should of told her that's strike 2 

I've had similar experiences with mine who I have been with for 16 years.  She is painfully aware of what these things cost, and the ones she has broken (oddly enough, two engines, like you), she really felt bad about and was pretty upset; far more than I was.  While these two locomotives were two of my favorites and most expensive (funny how wives have that sort of luck), in the end, what's worth more?  Your treasured bras locomotive or your wife?  I got really p.o.'d once when she snapped the switch stand off a Lionel Fast Track switch and really felt terrible about the way I acted about it (she's clumsy and doesn't look where she walks often, and I had it set up on the living room floor testing some new equipment when I switched from HO to O), but really felt like a tool afterward because A) it was a toy after all, B) I can always get another switch, and C) she deserves so much better and D) she's worth more than my train collection.  

As for the broken locomotives, one, was cosmetically repairable but would have needed a new frame to operate again (epoxied the frame back together) so, it was a static display after that (SP Olympic SD40-2), so since it was going to be a shelf queen, she asked me if she could take it to her office and have it for her desk, which I was happy to do, and the other, I was able to repair, but even with bent step wells, and mismatched paint, It reminded me that nothing is perfect in life, but though it didn't look 100% anymore, the engine still ran like a Swiss watch and rarely ever let me down, just like our relationship so it was kinda symbolic and oddly, made that engine that much more special to me.  I eventually gave into my friends consistent begging, and sold it to a friend of mine who is into the same shortline and used the money to buy my wife the ridiculously expensive bowling ball, shoes, bag, etc. she wanted that year for Christmas, so it all comes full circle.  

By the way, by not going bananas on her when those two (really three including the switch) incidents happened, now that I'm in O 3rail and On30, she has gotten involved almost as heavily as I have and has her OWN trains of both scales and is even more anxious to build a new layout as I am.  She's also heavily involved in the WP RR Museum as a volunteer where I am a Director, and our CZ "Silver Plate" Dining car is her baby.  She even did the footwork for Atlas when they were engineering their O Scale CZ Diners, and they sent her their pre-production sample as a gift.  In the end, trains are just trains, they come, they go, but a great wife like mine is nearly impossible to find.  I wouldn't trade mine for all the trains in John's store. 

have you ever broke anything of hers? maybe she's getting even......

don't let her out of the round house

AGHRMatt posted:

You have to store/park your trains with consideration of the environment. That includes spouse, kids and pets. I have cats, so any layout in the house is going to sustain some injury to scenery and buildings, so trains wouldn't be parked on the deck where they could become casualties.

AGHRMatt

Try having a cat and 2 dogs.  All three like to chew on trees. Both dogs will not go on the layout but will grab a tree if its in reach. The cat on the other hand acts if the layout is for her enjoyment.

sinclair

On the wife subject. #### happens, you know her best. Smile, suck it up and take your time and repair the engine. But your title did suggest there was a motive wither you intended it or not..     

Ha! Its interesting to read the wife in the layout room accidents... We had a gardener snake in our basement and I think a mouse at one time... the wife NEVER came down in the basement after that... do yourselves a favor and buy a rubber snake! It will save you thousands... 

J Daddy posted:

Ha! Its interesting to read the wife in the layout room accidents... We had a gardener snake in our basement and I think a mouse at one time... the wife NEVER came down in the basement after that... do yourselves a favor and buy a rubber snake! It will save you thousands... 

My wife hates spiders.

"My wife hates spiders."

There you go... plant one of those fake hairy tarantulas or a wolf spider on the floor and your good to go!

Come to think of it, once I had a bat in the basement... hurt itself coming down the furnace pipe... she came down... let out a scream and I don't think she even cracked the basement door to say a peep to me for 3 months!

What's even even more brilliant is she will not come down after the York meet and notice and new purchases... 

645 posted:

To prevent possible future incidents like this do following:

1 - Move wife's stuff out of train room

2 - Install lock on train room door that only YOU have key for

LMAO

What's a wife ??

Norton posted:

I would bend it but use heat. I use either I high temp heat gun or propane torch. 400-450F will allow it to bend without cracking and should not damage the paint. Set your vise up to clamp the running board but don't put it in the vice until its hot. Then move quickly before the vice jaws cool it. If you see the paint is starting to discolor stop as its more than hot enough. It should sizzle spit, if not its too cold.

Pete

I agree heat is best for a possible good out come.  But a torch or even heat gun can do damage to paint.  I have used a LARGE high wattage soldering iron with a 1/2-inch tip.  Can apply heat right where I want it.  

As for a wife, companion.... I must say when it comes to trains, I have the best.  We met on Amtrak... TWICE....     Once on the way down to Houston (me on in Chicago, her St. Louis), and then.... on SAME train going back North a week later.  Thing is, we both had plans to stay longer with relatives, but, due to changes, had to leave earlier than planned.  We talked all night heading North and kept in touch.  Short story, we wed on Dec. 27th, 2006.  Have never been happier in my life !!    Then, when she added on the three car garage in 2008 (I was working in Terre Haute), she had a train room built on top of the garage for me.  So, I have a 28ft X 38ft upstairs for our 24ft X 28ft layout.  Also, she found out about G gauge trains at the OKC Train show in 2006 and has her own she has picked out that we run around Christmas, along with the O Gauge on the living room floor.       She is a keeper, no doubt !!

Jesse   TCA  12-68275

I have thick pile carpeting in my train room.  Deadens some of the noise, easy to work under the layout, parts never roll away, great to lay down and listen to the trains with lights off, and can help mitigate damage to falling objects.

Wife helped me load, setup, sell and pack for 18 years of train shows.  Haven't had an accident yet.  She's always supported my habit and I support her interests, unless it involves crying at the movies.