Have You Ever Done This (or something like it)?

I got some Micro Trains 1015's for real cheap while floating on the Bay, so I have been doing some body mounting. I'm on my forth car and it's pretty fun to do. My last car went well, everything centered and straight.
.
.
.
I put it back on the track.



All I could do is chuckle. It will only take about 5 minutes to fix.

Have you ever done something like this?
Do you have a pic?

Dan

 

There are times when I've been putting the couplers back onto one of the locos and put it upside down in the pockets, but then when I turned the coupler pocket right-side-up to screw it back onto the shell I realized it was upside down. The trip pins are a dead giveaway, I don't know how you didn't notice it, though I imagine if I was having trouble getting the coupler pockets back into the shell (like I almost always do) and just concentrated too much on just getting them in there to notice...maybe... Now if you're one of those folks that trims off the trip pins it would be pretty easy to mix it up.

 

Hee hee.
That must be one of those reverse-reverse draft angle couplers.

Nope, nope, nope. Never happened to me.
All my models come out perfect. Every time.

Let's see:

"I'll throw all these 8', 9', 10' and 12' planks in the Big Jug o' Stain together. That'll save time!"




"If I just apply a little more pressure, I'm sure that truck pin will slide into the bolster."




It must be genetic, as my daughter found out on the revamped Christmas Train layout while using the MOMENTARY contact push buttons to turn this turnout out:




Oh, but what little knowledge we'd have without all this "experience"!

 

That's awesome MC Fujiwara.

It's all good those workers will fix that switch in no time.

 

I don't have any pictures, but my all time biggest fail would have to be a decoder swap.

I had a dead decoder in one of my Mikados, so, I found a replacement (same brand same model) and started the swap.

Well.. somehow, after taking the loco apart and putting it back together, then placing it on the test track, I discovered that all I had just done was remove a decoder and replaced it with itself, having never actually swapped it for the new working decoder.

To make things worse... once I finally made the actual swap, I tested out the old decoder with another loco... and it worked!?

Murphy's minions at work again.

 

I've been in this hobby and scale for a number of years, and have used MT couplers since 1983 (shudder - I AM getting old) and yup this has happened a few times.

I also put Unimate couplers in the old pockets backwards so they have knuckle to knuckle contact instead of interlocking. Didn't feel too stupid, but thankfully I was all alone. lol.

I just bought a few new/old locos and installed Unimates and MT's, and when I did had to use a set of MT truck mounted wheelset to make sure I didn't install them backwards. Happens to all of us, I guess.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

 

If you confuse Tenax with Micro Set, you can run into trouble. Applying Micro Set to a styrene joint doesn't hurt anything, but that wasn't what I did. (If there ever were any pictures, I've destroyed them--just like the box car and decals.)

 

Coupler conversions, always have one of them come out upside down, especially when they are unimates.

In the course of doing anything, I find one thing or two I have to re-do.

 

Hey Dan,

At least there's no chance of the trip pin snagging on any turnouts etc :tb-biggrin:

 

Why Fotheringil Calls me "Lobster Boy"

Full Thread:
Oooops - How not to open a Testors Spray Can - TrainBoard.com

How not to open a can of spray paint:
So, how hard could it be? I went to the LHS, bought a can of Testors Flat Red. The instructions on the can say to "cut along the ....". Well, I guess I did not understand where that was and punctured the can.
The pics tell the rest of the story.


Not a drop on the caboose:

 

OMG Grey One...

I was scrolling down and saw the red on your hand and a knife. I thought -- I didn't mean horrific pics of you finger cut off!!! Thank the maker it was paint. How perfect that the paint was red, green or black just wouldn't have made as cool a pic.

Dan

 

Thought you were called "The Grey One" from the blood loss

Glad yr caboose is ok!

 

Looks like a bloody mess!

Newb question since OP posted about 1015s and bodymounts. But why would you want the couplers to be body mounted vs truck mount? Follow prototype?

 

Thanks for your concern guys.

There is an follow up to that story. A member here who worked for Testors at the time offered to send me two free cans so I could try again. That was very generous of him and they arrived right on time. Years pass, Fotheringill razzes me now and then but for the most part never think of it again.

Last winter I'm at the model railroad convention in West Springfield, MA where by pre-planning I meet a member from Trainboard. Over dinner we are discussing backgrounds and he mentions how he used to work for Testors so I start to relate the story. < insert light bulb moment >. Yep, it's him. Tiny world our hobby is.

 

So ya... you got it. As far as I know (I'm no Master-modeler) the reasons are:
1. More Prototypical
2. Closer Coupling
3. The right to brag to other modelers that you have body mounted couplers.
4. For me personally, a big lot of couplers on the Bay for REAL cheap.

The negative is that they won't go around tight curves as well as truck mounts.

 

If you're backing up a string of cars through a switch, however, you're better off in general with body-mounted couplers as the mere act of pushing on the coupler doesn't tend to "steer" the wheels like with truck-mounted couplers.

Of course, if it's your railroad it is all up to you.

Back to the original topic, I pulled one recently where I mounted a bunch of cool looking brass details only to then realize that I should have decaled the area first. Ooops.

 

Being ADD I have had many such "Oooops" moments.

• Driving, (my trains), under the influence trying to impress a girlfriend resulted in a freight train broadsiding a passenger. argggg!
• Carefully planning out a 5 step process to run 3 trains at the same time with two power supplies. Step Won, Step Too, Step Tree, < I started to breath >, Step Forth, Bang! All 3 trains met within six seconds at a nexus where I had forgotten to flip a turnout. Really, just one lousy turnout! Four people helped wipe the egg from my face.
• Burning the dinner because I was toooooooooooooooooooooooo occupied working on the trains - Ok, ok, I've only done that 3 times so cut me some slack already. k?

 

The question is, how many times have I done something like that?
:tb-embarrassed: