This is a take off on the idea Watash posted in "On The Rails" of "Tales from the cab." Needless to say, in model railroading there aren't the hair raising (unless your electical skills are wanting) experiences that can be found from railroaders riding the real thing. But I do know some of you have humourous stories, or interesting experiences from modeling, running trains, an operating session in your home or a buddies. Or you have heard some good stories. My life has been kind of boring when it comes to operating sessions, but I have made many mistakes in public that I have had to wear. From "why won't this blinking cab work?" "well it helps if you have it on the right throttle!" to "whose train is this?", as I have forgotten a train that went into the helix and went for a pop refill and started chatting with another operator. But I will pass on a story I once heard from a good buddy who moved around Canada a lot due to his job. Every time my buddy moved, he joined the rail road club that was most prevelant in the new city he was in. The last one he joined (not in Vancouver, BC) was starting a new portion of an already existing layout. Now some of you newbies may not know this, but the track plan can be the most controversial issue you ever get to vote on in a club. In fact, it can get down right nasty at times. The track plan controversy can break down into different camps: the operators, the scenic rail fan freaks, the lets keep it simple camp, etc. Often the plan goes to a vote as it did in this case. One member was especially vociferous in his opposition to plan A and especially protective of plan B. This man was a university professor from a well known university in Canada. Well, the plan went to a vote and as you might have guessed, the vote went against the side the professor represented. Well, this member did not take it well, and argued. When it became apparent to him that he had lost and the new track plan was to stay, he vowed he'd quite the club. As he was leaving, he grabbed a scratch built bridge he had built and ripped it out, taking the pieces with him. At the time, as you can imagine, many were horrified at the antics of the professor. But as many of you will know, it became the "favourite" story to tell the newbie, years latter, when they joined the club.
I am the treasurer of a modular railroad club in my area. One year our club was participating in the yearly GATS show. One of our club members, Sarge was having a difficult time getting his prized 25 car beer reefer train on the rails. The train is pulled by a diminutive little 2-6-6-2 articulated which normally gives Sarge no problems what so ever, but was being particularly stubborn this day. Our layout is controlled with wireless Aristocraft throttles which makes it easy to walk around the layout with your train. After Sarge spent 30 minutes getting his train on the tracks he figured it was time for a break. Since there were no beer vendors allowed in our venue, Sarge figured he'd have the next best thing, a cigarette. I passed Sarge on his way out of the buiding and asked "so how's it going, Sarge?" to which he replied "I just spent the last 30 minutes trying to get that damb beer train on the rails". I told him that it looked like he needed the beer! Just as I got back to the layout Sarges train took off full speed around the layout! As it went it was speeding up and slowing down, then it made an ubrupt stop depositing a few cars on the side of the tracks. Then it changed directions and it was at full throttle again! It changed directions again this time at full speed, which shook a few more cars off the train, (fortunatly none hit the floor!). I scanned around the layout frantically looking for the throttle but couldn't see it. I figured Sarge must have the throttle in his pocket and something in there was pushing the buttons. I finally caught up to the locomotive just as it came to another abrupt stop shaking the remaining cars off. At the same moment Sarge came flying up saying "what the Sam Hill is going on here?" I explained to Sarge that his train took on a life of its own and that I couldn't find the throttle to shut it down and that he must have had it with him. He replied, "no I left it on the table there, Jenny!, (Sarge's 5 year old Grandaughter) hand me that box!". As she did she said "Grandpa this radio is broken! I've been trying to get a station on it, but it won't make a sound!! Sarge and I looked at each other and he said "Slim, how far do you think it is to the nearest bar?". I said " I don't know, but I'm driving!!". 2slim
That was a funny one, to us, probably not to Sarge! That sort of thing happens too often at clubs I have been involved in. Back when it was OK to spank your kids, a (self proclaimed) Big Shot brought his nummb nuts son with him to the club run night. We had a rule, "NO KIDS UNDER EIGHTEEN!" which this guy had instigated himself! He had a couple of custom built engines, (before such a thing as BRASS) that he ran, and everyone envyed. His 13 year old son got bored and got a coke a cola to drink, and promptly spilled it on the layout. The Big Shot "ordered": "Some one wipe that up quick!". Now that just doesn't set well with middle class and lower income people, especially out in West Texas. I had opened the case to take my engine out and put it on the layout, but when I saw what happened, I just closed my case back up. We wiped up the brat's spill, and various words were exchanged. At that time, another member had just put his newly finished hand made 4-8-2 at the end of a dead block of track on the other side of the layout, to make a power test run. In the mean time the Brat puts a plastic ready to run diesel switcher on this end of the same track! but on a live block. While John is checking all the wheels of his engine, the Brat turns his throttle wide open to see how fast his new engine would run. Well, it ran at about 250 miles an hour head on into John's engine just as John had straightened up. It knocked John's engine to the floor, and John knocked the Brat to the floor! The Big Shot sued, we all testified that the stupid kid tripped over his own feet and knocked John's $1000.00 engine off the layout making it a total loss. John won the case, and the Big Shot swore vengence, and we let him know in the old Texas way, that he was no longer welcome, and that something dredful might accidently befall his off-spring if anything should happen to John. The Big Shot eventually was killed in a car wreck (along with a lady who was not his wife), and the Brat grew up to get shot during a dope deal, so all turned out OK. John went on to be promoted by the Company he worked for and was later transferred to California. The absolute worst wreck I have personally been involved in was when I was the engineer running a couple of E-8's down grade at 75smph crossing a high tressle on my layout, when a big black stink bug crawled out on that tressle and derailed my whole train into the canyon! He got ground up in the open gears of the day, and it was a mess to clean him out, and took several weeks to clean dirt out of the bearings and wheels of all the cars. That happened on the layout I had under the house where the scenery was real dirt.
Man leave it to a master like Watash to take everything to the limit.... I mean I have heard of layouts with a few bugs that needed to be worked out but.... Again that one should be filed with the other one...under "not funny when it happened"... Thanx for the smiles. Later Gents
Watash, Sounds like the brat got what he deserved on both counts! That was one doozy of a train wreck man! You must get fan mail from Gomez Adams! Makes me wonder who was more surprised, the crew or the bug!!! I've heard of guys digging out their basement to build a layout, did the itch to build it take over before you could finish digging? 2slim
Back in the early 1980s, I was a resident of Topeka, KS, and a member of the local modular model RR club. I built my simple little 4-foot HO module with gently rising grass-covered hills (kinda like a lot of Kansas), and it went over well. I was accepted as a member of the fraternity, & made a lot of friends. I also met a few characters. One was a fellow who lived alone, and made it a habit to buy every new locomotive or freight car he could. He was an odd bird- he had diesels painted the wrong color for the decals they sported (lime-green Western Pacific ), and liked to run a gondola with "chuff-chuff" steam sounds behind diesels. He had two 6-foot modules (the runse stated 4 feet, for mobility) that were overladen with plaster, and painted a faded red. A switchback spur ran up the face of the "Strawberry Hills", as we called them. Well, he decided to run his prize Rivarossi Big Boy up this switchback just to see if he could do it. The fellow whose module was next to his warned him that if the engine fell onto his module, he lost it. Well, the guy with the strawberry modules ran his steamer up the switchbacks, didn't pay attemtion to where the end-of-track was, and sent the Big Boy flying off the end of the module onto- yep, you guessed it- the next guy's module, damaging some really nice scratchbuilt buildings in the process! Many bad words were exchanged that day, and several lessons were learned: 1. Always pay attention to where your train goes. 2. Big Boys have lousy aerodynamic qualities 3. Murphy's Law as applide to model railroading: If you have an extensively scratchbuilt structure, the amount of fragility is directly proportional to the likelihood that some klutz will damage it. It takes all kinds to make this hobby.
My 2 cents worth in this discussion...... I modeled the B&O Sand Patch grade. Well you see in this area of the USA their are 2 railroads, the B&O and the Western Maryland. So to make my layout as close to proto-type I modeled the B&O's own "Sand Patch" tunnel, and the Western Maryland's own "Big Mt. Savage" tunnel. Well I got all the scenery done for this section of my layout and had started the basics on the other portions of the layout scenery, so it was close to being run, as I got closer to finishing this part of my layout the itch to run a few through trains grew! So I did. And what I seen and had to contend with I set and laugh about today....... I put on the track my first articulated steam loco, a Rivarossi 2-8-8-0 EL-5 B&O (a new one model expo style). Anyway I got him on track and got about 35 to 40 cars to form a frieght train to couple to the big guy. I got it all on track and ready to run in about 10 minutes or so.... Anyway I ran the whole train for about 5 minutes in and out up and down the tracks to the B&O's "Sand Patch" tunnel. It went up grade to the tunnel and back down the grade and all around on the tracks with all the switches set to run it as a continuious through frieght. Then I got the itch to see what it would look like with a Western Maryland freight rolling on its own track to the Western Maryland's "Big Mt. Savage" tunnel, so I did. I had a 35-40 car B&O freight rolling and now ready to put on a decent sized mixed freight train for the Western Maryland coupled to 2 RS-3 Diesels. I had a total of 25-30 cars coupled to the Western Maryland RS-3's and I got them rolling along at a decent speed not real fast and not real slow, just right. So I let them both run for awhile and the next thing I hear is a bunch of noise in the B&O "Sand Patch" tunnel and then it stopped and about 2 minutes latter I hear the same noise in the WM's "Big Mt. Savage" tunnel and I left it go to see if I would hear it again as the train were in the tunnels (one at a time though). So I speeded up the B&O freight and slowed the WM freight down alittle to get the one in a tunnel and the other almost in the other tunnel. Both trains are in fact on 2 different routes on my layout, but made to run continiuosly. So I got half the B&O train in its own tunnel and yes I did hear this noise in the opposite tunnel and then it stopped once again and I got the caboose clear on the B&O main line of the tunnel and started the WM freight though its own tunnel. And I heard that noise again. It made me mad so I just ran both of them for the simple fact is it wasn't derailing the 2 trains so I left it go and watched both run along just fine. THEN it happens the B&O goes to enter the its "sand Patch" tunnel, and it got louder, and then as the WM freight approached its tunnel, the noise was in it then. Here to find that this noise was a DAMN mouse that was living in my lower B&O "Sand Patch" tunnel and I didn't know it!!! And when the B&O freight would enter the tunnel it would run up to the other tunnel which was my Western Maryland "Big Mt. Savage" tunnel and thought it was safe and then that train went through the tunnel it would run back down to the other tunnel till it got close to the B&O's "Sand Patch" tunnel portal and had nowhere to go but OUT! The train as it came out the mouse running for its life ahead of the the EL-5 2-8-8-0 and into the cut in the mountain the mouse stopped for a breather and the loco didn't know what a breath was hit the mouse cutting its tail off and pushing it to the side and their was my noise maker I couldn't figure out what was causing it!!!! And till this day that mouse is tame and in a hampster cage and a pet of my younger brother. Its name is "Sand Patch" HE!!! The funniest part is seeing a mouse run for its life, and really the thing its running from is smaller then it is!!!! I laughted till I about cried it was so funny. Because of a little HO scale loco scaring the daylights out of a full grown mouse. Although the down fall of this is that the only car that derailed was in fact the red caboose on the end of the train!!!! The sudden stop and restart didn't affect the rest of the train not even the locomotive!!!! It just kept going! But it made that poor little mouse tired though he needed a break from running from that thing it didn't know what it was, and still it got it by stopping it cut its tail off!!!! It looked like the fireman in my steamer got thrown out of the cab and got hurt seriously bad all the blood on my track............. [ 17 May 2001: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
2slim, that was my largest layout. We had a house built new out in west Texas that was a pier and beam foundation type. During the construction, I noticed the grade of my lot made the north west corner 28" from ground up to the floor joists, and at the south east corner it was nearly 4-1/2 feet. Long story short: I had them put a trap door in the master bedroom closet, with a built in ladder going down to a pit 6 feet square deep enough to sit in a chair comfortably. By dipping stakes in PEK and driving them in the ground, I could lay Tru-Scale roadbed from stake to stake and have real grades, large radius curves, and a really long main line. By 13 years later, I had a mainline that was double track going all around next to the foundation. Two yards with 8 tracks wide with one at 16 feet, and the other 22 feet at 6 tracks wide. I ran straight tract through a section of gutter down spout tube, and piled dirt over it to make a real tunnel. At a speed of 30 smph it would take nearly 45 minutes to go around once. The largest curve was 60" radius, and the smallest was 30". After the wreck in my canyon, I would run a steamer around before running the diesel. The cow catcher would bump the bugs off or scare them, then I got a snow plow, and it was goodbye bugs after that! I don't reccomend that layout, it is still there. When we sold that house and moved to Dallas, I kept a lot of the track, all brass, and have used some, but with nickle silver, the brass track is still in boxes in my model shop. John, there was one afternoon when my wife was doing dishes, and I was running trains, when I noticed something coming out of my tunnel toward me a fair rate of speed. As my train was coming out, I could see the train was catching up to a snake! As I passed my wife I let her know to stay away from the trap door! Later, I discovered it was a little garter snake, but when you are in rattle snake country, you move first and ask questions later from a long ways away! The train was still running as if nothing had happened. Now I got a railway cannon! [ 17 May 2001: Message edited by: watash ]
Watash, I'd say you got a REAL railway canyon! Snakes and canyons go together hand in hand and here you had a scale model train and a REAL snake........Ouch Rattle snake country sounds bad enough to let the train run and flee.... I would have concidering you didn't have much room to manuver around to kill it. But then again a snake don't actually die till sun down so you would have had to remove it to the out side and separate its head from its body or it would come back alive by day break the next day if the head was anywhere near the body! But still thats taking a chance concidering it could have been a Rattle snake and this happen in Texas???? You could have had an up close and personal view of a western Diamond Back Rattle Snake but you got off lucky with it only being a Garter. Thinking of a Western Diamond back I have a pair of cowboy boots made from those exact skins!!!!! Nice, but expensive. HE! [ 17 May 2001: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
Here at the local GATS train show it always seems to bring out the several of the "smell me" club members. We had one guy that was loaded with money, and his stuff was always better than yours. Ask him he'll tell you so. Didn't know beans about working on cars or engines. He didn't have to. If it didn't run good he get rid of it. I still have several KATO engines that he got rid of that just needed to be cleaned and lubricated. Offered him $10.00 each and he said he'd take $25.00 for all four Kato engines. Several other club members have gotten the same type of deals, and we all still chuckle over it. Well Mr. Big Money had a brand new set of Kato SD-9's, four of them, they were all custom painted, weathered, the whole 9 yards. Good looking Burlington units. Mr Big Money kept running off at the mouth about how good these engines ran, how many cars they could pull, etc. Since he had been telling all of us at the club about how good these engines were, for so long. Another club member and myself decided a little lesson in humility might be order. I took 2 of Micro-Trains 50ft boxcars and made a mold so that I could fill up the inside of the car with LEAD. I pored the lead into the mold, and with a lttle bit of file work, the solid lead weight fit into the car. Each car weighed a little over 1 pound. Remember this is N-Scale. I got 2 other Micro-Trains 50ft boxcars with the same road numbers as the 1 pounders. At the next club show I ran the two normal weighted cars in a 20 train with my Kato 2-8-2 Mikado pulling the train. The guy I was in cahoots with asked Mr. Big Money if those SD-9's could out pull my Mikado. Mr. Big Money said something to the effect that my little Mikado couldn't come close to what his SD-9's could pull and he would be glad to prove it. I said go ahead and hook your engines to my train and give it a pull. We stopped the train with the tail end in a tunnel on the layout. While Mr Big Money put 2 of his SD-9's on the front end, my partner in crime pulled off the normal weighted boxcars on the tail end of the train and put the 1 pounders on the tail end in the tunnel. Mr Big Money was running off at mouth on how good his engines were. He had his back to the layout, telling people outside the layout about his hard pulling engines, while he advanced the trottle. The train never moved. A kid about 8-9 years old said "Mister, are your engines broken? They are sure not moving!" By now the whole club is watching. Mr. Big Money said something about needing more power maybe, put his other 2 SD-9's on the front end. The train barely moved. It like to never made it all the around the layout. My buddy and myself stood there the whole time keeping straight faces. By chance Mr. Big Money stopped the train at the exact same place as before with the tail end in the same tunnel. I said that Mr. Big Money had better have his engines checked out. I replaced my Kato Mikado on the front end of the train, while my buddy replaced the 2 1lb boxcars with the normal ones, in the tunnel. Mr. Big Money was upset and even more so when my single KATO 2-8-2 Mikado walked away with the same train. He never learned what happened, but it did calm him down a whole bunch. My partner and myself still chuckle over that train, and I still have the 1 lb boxcars.
John, you got no idea how fast you can crawl on hands and knees under a house! I made a hat band out of one I found in my back yard, and a belt out of another one about medium length. There is a Rattle snake drive every year at Sweetwater, Texas, where a lot of people go out and round up all the rattlers they can find, and bring them in. There is also prizes for the most brought in, the heaviest, the longest, and the prettiest, and for the most double headed ones found. Most all Texans have a pair or so of snake skin boots, because they are so plentiful. That is an old wives's tale about a snake not dying til sundown. Rigor mortis makes the snake keep biting and the body keep writhing for several hours after it dies, even if you sever the head. The really bad one is the little hog nose pit viper. He is not at all afraid of you, and once bothered, will persue you for over half a mile, so leave him strickly alone! He isn't big enough to make anything out of, but he is more deadly than the big diamond backs. They are cowards unless you really got him cornered. Its the little sand rattlers that are most common where I used to live. I was going to ride a rancher's horse over to a mesa to look for arrow heads one afternoon, and the rancher cautioned me about them. He said, " They wont penetrate your boots, but they can get their fangs stuck in your pant legs and you'll run yourself to death!" That's right too, they are only around four and a half feet long, but as big around as your arm and heavy, so they can't strike a long ways. But if he gets you solid straight on, its like someone kicked you in the shin, and you have no doubt about being bitten then. You have about 25 minutes before you start having respiratory arrest. That is why so many of us still pack the old shootin iron, we shoot every one we see, because they also kill the cattle, and you do not, I repeat NOT mess with a man's cattle in Texas! That is fatal!
Watash, My friend I believe I could set for days listening to your stories such as the ones you spoke of. Not that i'm belittling you or anything or even not believing them its the simple fact of history you carry with yourself! I don't know what it is with older guys that have very interesting stories but I will say this. You take the cake with these! Its like me (a little kid) and you (a story teller) I guess it just plain interests me. To bad I don't live across the street from you in Ft. Worth I'd be setting on your front pourch and listening to this in person and by God I would too if I did live that close. And being that a very few people in the world today is truthfull and a beliving people just by the knowledge I can sence that you have tells me these are far from being fairy tales!!!!! I've learnt and listened to you on things and I learned from it and never till now realized that I have! I do strongly believe that if I did live that close we would get into alot more then story telling.... CAN"T FORGET THE RAILROADING HISTORY BEHIND US BOTH! EVEN "MODEL RAILROADING" [ 19 May 2001: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ] [ 19 May 2001: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
Lead-filled boxcars... Hey!! I know someone I can pull that one on.. it would be in HO, but trying to pull, say, 3 extra pounds of weight would be hilarious.
I could sure have used you and your box cars at every club I have been to! That is great to see the Big Shots eat dirt! John, it just wouldn't do for us to get within hollering distance, because we wouldn't get any work done! With both of us trying to talk, we would probably start a tornado!
Watash, agreed, enough said! We would be to caught up in shootin' the bull and not thinking of our hobbies separtely.... Oh well, it sure would beat the hell out of having neighborly arguements and fighting though!
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by watash: I could sure have used you and your box cars at every club I have been to! That is great to see the Big Shots eat dirt! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> And I can think of some friends to play this little prank on here as well- nothing malicious, just some good clean fun If it ain't fun, it ain't worth it
John, try this: set a soda can down on the floor next to a set of bathroom scales. Rest the palm of your hand on top the can. Then using ONLY your fore finger alone, press down on the scales all you can. That will be about 6 pounds. Don't try this in the middle of some cars. It isn't as heavy as it sounds, but the engine sure stays on the track. Just don't let it roll over any tender parts as you lean over the layout! [ 22 May 2001: Message edited by: watash ]
