Your worst train accident

Watching THE ADDAMS FAMILY!  (Boom, Boom!)

Watched a Custom GS-4 run into its own consist on a double crossover and destroyed some custom made passenger cars, looked like GGD or Phoenix.

Add a K-Line Berkshire Lima demo to the list.

Being my clumsy self, I had managed to knock a Lionel 3 Truck Shay, off a table onto a hardwood floor, the only apparent damage at the time was the drawbar pin on the tender broke.  All the steps were still intact cab roof wasn't bent/broken, no other visible damage. After the tender pin was replaced, I tried running it, and no go, hopefully a board got jarred loose during the sudden deceleration when the hardwood floor stopped it's fall. I haven't had time yet to trouble shoot any further,

Doug

I switched from a Type Q transformer to a ZW, forgot the difference in power. Launched a mint 2055 off the board to a cement floor.

every once in a while i come across a Marx CV i ran over with my car pulling out of the garage.  i should snap a photo next time i see it.  it's painful to recall, but i just cannot bring myself around to toss it out.

a close second was letting a CI Flyer locomotive drop only about 10" onto a tile floor and discovering for the first (and hopefully last) time just how fragile cast iron wheels are.

I derailed the real #765 . . . . . does that count?

That's how Rich Melvin gave me my name . . . . Scrapiron

My worst derailment was in HO, many years ago. A Model Railroader magazine article said it was a good idea to "tune up" your rolling stock for "3-point suspension". So I inspected all my freight cars and made adjustments. Immediately after, I had a string of freight cars crash to the floor from the inside of an 18" radius helix with 4% grade. I changed all the cars back to the way they had been, free to rock slightly on both trucks, and never had that problem again. Lesson learned: don't believe everything in print.

My worst was I was running a full TTOS McCoy freight set, but it was the clubs with all special brass plates. Engine, tender & caboose are orange and black so I was running it on Halloween. Doing a lot of chatting with visitors when my younger granddaughter slammed the throttle wide open as it turned down a long straight section. It never even started to turn when it got to the curve at the end. Airborne right out of the garage and onto the driveway, loco and all the cars. Amazingly the only real damage was the brass plates came unglued and scuffed the pilot a but............... but Oh, the sound of all that tin crashing one piece at a time as it hit the concrete.

Steve

This was by far my worst accident. Decided to use old track on the elevated loop to save a few bucks (worst idea EVER). Being the first time I was running the trains after building the layout I decided to have the camera rolling. I learned my lesson and bought brand new track the next day.

My only disaster was in HO on my first layout.

I built the layout with the usual tunnel.  First trip around the engine (Bachmann 4-8-4) derailed and I had to fish it out with an old cane fishing pole.

So I get the bright idea of cutting an access hole inside the mountain, easy stuff.

I run my train the next couple of days...the the engine takes a nose dive right thru the hole I made onto the concrete floor in the garage!!!

Found a crank pin had fallen out and when the side rod fell down it jack-knifed the engine over thru the hole.

This was probably back in 1978-9.  I wrote Bachmann a letter and they asked me to send the engine in for repair.  What I got back was a new engine, no charge!!!

My oldest grandson came over the other day and bumped into a silo I had made, crashing it to the floor.  It happened in that slow motion feeling you get when things like this occur, we all saw it falling but nobody could get to it to stop it.  Turns out it's no big deal, I've been wanting to replace it with something better anyway!

Scott, sorry for your loss

I had an MTH gg-1 sitting on a  bureau. I was wearing a sweater and walked past the bureau when my sweater caught on one of the pantographs and the gg-1 went to the floor. just damage to one coupler. I was lucky.

Bob C.

 I added graduated trestles just for the sake of seeing the train climb and descend. My Polar Express really struggled to climb the grade, and it reached the point where it was at near full throttle with the CW80. I didn't back off quickly enough, and it whipped the cars off the track and off the platform. I got there in time to catch the locomotive and block a couple of coaches, but one reached the floor. Thankfully, damage was very minor. I guess I slowed it down.

 Off track, I had a low end American Flyer set get knocked off a shelf. A friend had given me a "Train Room" sign, and it was metal and quite heavy. I had it hanging above my train shelves, and it managed to fall and take a few of the Flyer cars with it. Not a valuable set, but my father in law had given it to me. I guess it had once been their Christmas tree train, so I felt pretty bad that it got damaged on my watch. Last year at Allentown I was able to find replacements for the damaged cars, so that cheered me up.

Scrapiron Scher posted:

I derailed the real #765 . . . . . does that count?

Should have had PTC, eh? 

I have had two trains derail onto the concrete basement floor which is a 40" drop from the roadbed. One of these wrecks to the floor included a CNJ Berkshire which suffered a broken front pilot and damage to its electronics. However, there is a bright side to the broken Berk because I was able to buy a new shell from a Nickle Plate 765 and have the electronics fixed at reasonable costs. Today I have a like new 765 Berk!

Perhaps the most famous wreck on my railroad involved the Twentieth Century Limited and a special coal train from Virginia running late behind a N&W Y6b. Alongside the bucolic Hudson River in the area of Sleepy Hollow, the Y6b ran into the rear of the Twentieth Century knocking the observation and several lounge cars into the river. Fortunately, no passengers died in this wreck, but many were thrown loose.

Scrapiron Scher posted:

I derailed the real #765 . . . . . does that count?

i'm guessing it wasn't as bad as this day Peter Nott had with NKP #756...

http://www.bcwrr.org/stories-berk-pit.html
...in case you want to see the rest of the story.

cheers...gary

My worst accident happened a long time ago, way back in the 80s as a matter of fact,  but I remember it as if it was yesterday.  I had just purchased a brand new MPC era Joshua Lionel Cowen brown and gold  baby Hudson which at the time was considered pretty much a premier engine.  I got her home, lubed her up and on the track she went.  Then off the track she went tumbling 40 inches down to the concrete basement floor.  She was running on the outside loop and entered a switch that failed to flip and over the edge she went.  I was sick to my stomach as I walked over to where it had struck the floor fully  expecting to see the horribly  mangled die cast shells of the loco and tender.  Unbelievably, only a slightly bent marker light on the loco and a slightly bent step on the tender.  Who says MPC only made crap.  I still have the engine and tender and they still run great. 

Oh Scott, I'm sorry to hear about your accident. Hope they are not too badly damaged. My worst is minor - just derailments at speed on 027 curves. Usually driven by a guest. Everything just falls over, and sometimes would take out something on the outside of the curve - but I've learned my lesson there and cleared plenty of space. Sometime the track comes apart (I don't permanently attach it) but that's easy to re-attach. As long as I'm committed to these curves, I expect this to happen every now and then.

Scott, I think you win in this category!  I hope you can recover from this without too much expense.

Growing up I had a 773 Hudson go over the side and slam into the concrete floor.  Bent cow catcher, bent driver, bent pilot truck.  Say the least my father was not happy.  The engine was repaired by the master repairman at the long defunct H.L. Child n Sons hobby store in Northampton, Mass.  This was back in the late 70's and to this day I don't know how that guy got the parts to fix that engine.

I was running a floor layout, sent my Marx 495 skidding 20-25 feet across a tiled floor. Repeated at a later date with my Lionel 1666 and a 8632 Atlantic

The G&O has had its share of accidents.  Actual equipment damage doesn't match Scott's.

The worst accident I had was running trains at my club's open house. It was Friday night at about 8:55 PM. We close at 9:00. I was running an MPC RS3 with a string of tank cars. The lights were dimmed and I was talking to a friend from work who came down to see the layout. I didn't notice the train picking up speed going down the big hill. It came flying down the hill and went airborne on the curve at the base of the hill. The engines and cars landed on the stone floor. We immediately shut down, turned up the lights and thanked everyone for coming. That was before cruise control.

Sorry to hear about your mishap, it sounds terrible. I sure hope you are able to recover and get things back to normal without too much expense and I hope complete repairs are possible.

All I have done so far (fingers crossed) is break an air brake cylinder on an engine truck, a snow plow on a Lionel engine and a brake wheel on an MTH flatcar. All done with my bare hands, trains were not even running. I have had some collisions and derailments, but so far no serious damage other than a one or two very small paint chips.

I had just received my first 736 and ran it on my outer loop - crank came unscrewed and cause the locomotive to jump off the track at speed. Busted the complete, very nice  boiler face. Got a replacement from Olsen's and couldn't use it because the lamp holder clip was not as offset from the boiler face as the original and haven't found an original to use (yet...)

I once saw a brass HO scale custom-painted C&O 2-6-6-6 jump off the track on a curve at a friend's layout with the track less than an inch from the edge, do a double-half-gainer and practically explode on contact with the concrete floor 5 feet below.

He was never able to repair it to be a useable locomotive, after several personal and professional attempts. He had over $1000 in the model and paint job, too.

Scott's shelf disaster reminded me of Ward Kimball's (train collector and Disney illustrator) "earth quake proof" shelves. He had a slender dowel inserted every 12 inches or so to keep items from tumbling off when the ground shook. He lived in southern California so it was a good idea. I live in the Washington DC area and we had a rare quake about 5 years ago that shook pictures off the mantle and opened cupboard doors! I did not have any train shelving at that time but it could  have been costly if I did.

As an aside, while cleaning up the broken glass I heard chimes sounding from the living room. We have a grandfather clock that I had not wound in a couple of years. The shaking got the pendulum swinging again and it was ticking and striking the hours!

scott.smith posted:

Just a few minutes ago I tipped over a shelf full of locomotives that landed on other locomotives on the layout. Damaged engines:

1) Lionel C&O F-19 Pacific #490

2)Railking Scale C628 N&W #1119

3) Railking Interstate RS-3

4)Lionel N&W Mallet 2-6-6-2

This has not been a very fun evening. What has been your worst train disaster?

Scott Smith

Oh!  I am sorry to hear that. 

George

Scrapiron Scher posted:

I derailed the real #765 . . . . . does that count?

That's how Rich Melvin gave me my name . . . . Scrapiron

But in the second picture, you in the fireman's position!  How could the accident be your fault?

Sam posted:

Scott's shelf disaster reminded me of Ward Kimball's (train collector and Disney illustrator) "earth quake proof" shelves. He had a slender dowel inserted every 12 inches or so to keep items from tumbling off when the ground shook. He lived in southern California so it was a good idea. I live in the Washington DC area and we had a rare quake about 5 years ago that shook pictures off the mantle and opened cupboard doors! I did not have any train shelving at that time but it could  have been costly if I did.

As an aside, while cleaning up the broken glass I heard chimes sounding from the living room. We have a grandfather clock that I had not wound in a couple of years. The shaking got the pendulum swinging again and it was ticking and striking the hours!

You can make things earthquake proof--however making them Scott Proof is another matter entirely. About 14 years ago I had another incident where I, lacking judgement stepped-up on my son's Thomas chair to pick up a locomotive on a high shelf. The chair broke causing me to fall and scrape the wheels of my Pennsy T-1 across the top of my NYC Vanderbilt shell. Both engines were damaged.

The only reason Eliot is the only one that has derailed a Berkshire is because I have never had the opportunity to do so.

I spoke with Midge and she has a new shell for my C628. However, the only Interstate RS-3 shells left are from dummy offering a few years ago. That's all well and good but I already own the dummy engine. I guess I'll be searching for a new Interstate RS-3 at York next week.

I can touch up the paint on my Lionel 2-6-6-2 N&W. The Lionel C&O F-19 #490 will need a new cab, the ladder will need to be straightened out and I will have to touch up the paint. I lost some of the white stripe on my Lima Berkshire Demonstrator. That will be a touch up as well.

All the electronics and mechanics appear to be working on all the engines-so this could have been much worse.

Scott Smith

Well I have a bunch, some intentional 

Those clips are from my old layout, when I just liked to goof off with my trains. The worst crash I have had on my new layout was late last year. I was running my 765 and an oil train with my cousin, when my mom came into the train room. She screamed at the both of us, scarring the sock of my cousin and I, and without thinking, I pressed the "Turn Switch" button on my Legacy remote. The 765 came barreling around the corner and hit the switch, going to the other track (which had the freight train on it) and smashed into one of the tank cars. It fell off the layout, and the 765 kept on push through more cars and knocking over more tankers. Thankfully, before there was a head on collision, the track shorted, and everything stopped. Luckily, nothing was badly damaged, except for a plow-shaped scratch on a tank car!

Atlas switches can throw themselves under certain conditions. Before I had installed their nonderail circut boards with a certain diode Atlas recomended, I was running my new Burlington Zephyr.

Long story short, it went into a unfinished siding and crashed 40" to the concrete floor.

surprisingly, I was able to get it running again, with a few small dings and scratches.

I must say it runs but has had issues ever since.

It should have been destroyed,   But it still runs most of the time today. Lionel builds a robust product.

Fred

I used to have a photo, but I must have lost it .

I was running 4 trains (all engine-only) on the layout using TMCC and I let one catch up.  We had a rear-end collision.  No damage.

That's been the worst.

George

Dropped a NYC command controlled fire car on the tile floor crushing the roof and bell. The other was crushing a new northeastern caboose between two fast moving diesel GPsruingvthe shell and shattering the end supports

Invested all my money in QSI stock and then it crashed. 

My Dad had the worst two with my trains.

The worst was when he was running the inside loop on a Christmas layout. He put Thomas back in a siding, and went to get the Amtrak set out, but Thomas wasn't back far enough in the siding to have power shut off, and they collided, sending train cars into the back of the chair Grandpa (who bought all the trains) was sitting in! Neither Grandpa nor I were too happy about that, but there was no damage.

My Dad also turned over a 675 on a curve, causing it to fall two feet to one of those fake brick floors for around a fireplace. Broke off a marker light, and made a few chips in the paint.

Dad isn't allowed to run trains now; not even his own trains on my layout.

When I was shooting a video presenting brass locomotives on a turntable that was made for 2 AA batteries and I connected it to a 15 volt transformer something went wrong:

Regards

Fred

dumped a Williams Texas Chief F3 AA set on the floor. My heart went in my throat.

Did NOT want to look. picked it up off the floor, all I had done was bent a ladder on back

corner of the powered unit./..WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH! and the board is 3 feet off the ground

Zach K posted:

This was by far my worst accident. Decided to use old track on the elevated loop to save a few bucks (worst idea EVER). Being the first time I was running the trains after building the layout I decided to have the camera rolling. I learned my lesson and bought brand new track the next day.

I would replace that O27 track with heavier O gauge track