I was speed testing my Athearn Genesis BNSF SD60M with DCC and Sound with my Athearn Genesis BNSF SD70MAC with DCC only and well, I did not stop soon enough where the double track converges to single on my layout and the SD70MAC pushed my SD60M right off the layout to 58" free fall to the floor. The locomotive is destroyed! I will be able to salvage for parts but OUCH!!
SOn of a motherless goat (or words to that effect).............that's gottta hurt. No way you can bring that one back to running condition?
Major bummer, man! Been there, done that. You could model a wrecked locomotive, sitting at a terminal awaiting scrapping/repair.... Not sure how possible this might be...
No, chance of repair on this one metal frame itself is bent up pretty bad with major front truck damage. The shell itself is usable with some damage. In order to repair this loco, I could need an genesis SD60M frame from first run (factory installed dcc and sound, specal frame for speaker), truck, some other details parts. I think I will be better off money wise replacing the loco outright or simply deploy other locos for the taconite train these locos were destined for. Yep, I was thinking about a deadline scene for this loco now as well. It just had to be one of the pricey locos. All in all this has been a really bad week for my Model Railroad Empire. Last Saturday my youngest daughter (15 years old) wanted to run a train that I had setup on the layout while I held my grandson (almost 9 months) so he could see....he already loves trains. Well, my daughter must have hit reverse on the DT400 in speed step 35 with a 50 car consist of covered hoppers (not normal size train for my current layout)....well when railcars started lauching off the layout we traded the throttle for my grandson and I stopped the train. Total carnage of that wreck was 1 genesis CP Trinity car destroyed, 3 more that could be repaired with minor damage and another Trinity car with roofwalk damage. I think my railroad needs to shutdown for some emergency employee training due to the recent accidents
You need some plexi glass near the areas that they can fall off. I feel your pain. I have wrecked many car that way. Thankfully no expensive powered locomotives yet. YET......
When I saw the title of the thread I thought "is there any other way in model railroading?" So far, I have not had to suffer any major drops like that but I know my day is coming!
I happy to report that I actually managed to restore this locomotive to good operating condition, I am stunned and happily amazed. The front truck assembly I was able to put back together, very minor damaged but was blasted apart by the force of the impact. The locomotive frame itself was bent upwards pretty severly starting in front of the fuel tank area (Athearn Genesis SD60M). The shell had to be reassembled and glued in a couple of spots. I carefully bent the frame back into the shape it was supposed to be, reinstalled the front trucks and put the shell back on, put on the tracks for a test and WOW, it worked great. There is slight fore and aft (verry minor) of the front truck but operates fine. Of course some of the details parts are toast (plow was disengrated) and of the front ditchlights is gone but considering that I was expecting this to be a scrap salvage project, I am not complaining. I tested the loco on my layout (with fresh Kadee couplers as the Athearn plasstic ones were also toast) and it ran great. This loco will not lead a consist until more comestic work is done at some point in the future (Ditchlight, hand rails, etc) but I am tickled that an expensive DCC sound ecquipped loco is not scrap.
I know and had thought about it....just not thrilled with the idea. And then I started thinking heck the layout has been operational for over seven months and not one accident.....and this last week happened Truth be told, it has all been user error up to this point so, I am not sure I am going to or not. The intentions of this layout was to be a mainly switching layout with some railfanning options to tide me over until I build the dreamed empire some day..well I have been running all of rolling stock on here in part for testing out ideas. So the traffic on this layout is much heavier than I had planned (longer trains at higher rates of spped but normally not over speed step 30). So I guess the odds are against me
Are the floors concrete or carpet? That has saved alot of freight cars that got bumped off the layout be accident.
58" height? And the grandkids can actually see the trains? I run high too. Good for the viewing angle, but a terrible risk. Speaking of running high, did you subject the granddaughter to a UA screen?
If you don't like the plexi look maybe a net just below the layout edge would be worth considering. I've never seen it done for a model RR but look at an aircraft carrier (ship) for inspiration.
