N scale Question of the Week! 20 July 2011

[delamaize]

Hey everyone, it is that time again!

My travels are done for now, and we are back at home in Germany. My wife is back on the aircraft in route back to Afghanistan. R&R was fun, But the last day of travel brings me to this weeks topic:

what was your biggest N scale failure or worst idea.

2 Stories today,
First is the story is about my first layout, completely built by me.
I was about 12 years old, up to this point my dad had helped me make the only other layout I had, it was a 4' x 4' piece of 1/4 plywood, with a 2x4 frame, Lifelike grass mat, black construction paper roads, simple tri-oval of track, one turnout, and the buildings from the "Little Joe" LL starter set. I wanted to go bigger, and I wanted to do it all myself. so I found a sheet of 1/4" plywood in the barn, some 4X4s and some screws. I think you see where this is going. 4x4 on each corner, at about 48" each, 2 screws each though the plywood into the top of the 4x4s, and I thought it looked good enough, it was a little wobbly, but I didn't think it would be a issue. I used a summers worth of allowance at a yard sale to buy a whole mess of 2nd hand flex track, most was never used, and soem 2nd hand turnouts. I started building, no roadbed, track strait on the plywood, using some random tiny roofing nails that my dad had laying around to attach it all, then on to the scenery, witch was paper towel paper mache over a crumpled newspaper base, tunnel made from old paper towel rolls taped together and the bottom cut open to allow me to lay them over the tracks. Painting was some old brown housepaint we had laying around, and the "Grass" was from shaking and scraping the Lifelike grass mat over the wet paint, Roads was more black paper, and the town was a bunch of 2nd hand buildings and such from that yard sale. Everything looked good, untill I stepped back one day, and noticed that it was sagging in the little. No problem I thought, I'll just push the legs inward a little forcing it up, that didn't work. so I decided to live with it, and ignore my dads advice to add some bracing before it was too late. One day I was running a train, and it got stuck in the tunnel. I got most of it out, but their was still the caboose and a boxcar left in the tunnel (with no access panel mind you.) where the tunnel entrance was close to where they were stuck, was in the back middle of the layout, against a wall. so I took another short cut, climbed up on the table, on my knees to try to reach the stranded cars, and SNAP! the thing buckeled in the middle, and caved in on its self, all was lost. a few freight cars and the locomotive were all that was salvagable. I still have one of the cars as a stark reminder to do it right the first time.

My second story is not train related, but it inspired the question:
We were suppose to fly out of london on Ryanair on tuesday morning at like 6am back to Germany, Everything looked good, untill the day actually started. I got up at 3am, got the kiddo dressed, loaded up the rental car, said our goodbyes to my wife, and headed out. Got to the airport to find no one in the car rental section at all, after I had made special arangements to drop the car off that early. we ended up having security let us into their parking lot to drop it off, then walked to the terminal, where we discovered no one in the office either. at this point it is 4am, and I gotta start getting though security, otherwise I will never make the flight. So, I ended up wrapping the keys in a copy of the contract and a note explaining everything, and tossed the whole thing under the fence/door thing to their booth. Then spent the next few hours calling the place until they confirmed they had the keys and had it checked in.

Next was the check-in for the flight, Stood in line for about 45 miniutes waiting to check my bag, and go though passport control. Tickets in hand, I finally got to the gate, where I was promptly told their was a problem. The airline had Manifested myself and my daughter the morning before, and we were not on this flight, eventhough the tickets had the corect date. Long story short, they accused me of altering the tickets and the print outs I had to reflect the date we wanted to fly, instead of the date the manifested us, and would not change anything. To add insult to injury, they would not refund anything, and wanted to charge us $950 per person to fly. we paid less that $300 for round trip orginally.

So back to the hotel, with a Taxi, that was another $15. My wife flew out the next day (20th) she was still at the hotel. Needless to say, she was pissed. After a while we discovered that the next cheepest option was to take the Eurostar from London to Brussles Belgium, then the ICE to Koln, then a shuttle bus to Frankfurt Hahn, where my car was parked. We made the Eurostar with about 5 miniutes to spare, then made the ICE with about 10 miniutes to spare, looked like our luck was changing. Then we got to Koln, in time to watch the bus we needed to take pull away from the station, it was like 8pm. The next bus left at 2am, so what the heck do you do in Koln to kill 6 hours in the middle of the night with a 4 year old in tow? Well, you buy dinner at the 24 hour McDonalds, then sit there untill they kick you out, then walk around for a hour. Get sick of carying all 60 pounds of back packs and suitcases, and throw them in a locker for a few hours, Waste about 20 miniutes on the coin opperated HO layout in the station, find a few Geocaches, Watch trains, then finally just sit and stare at the wall. 2am finally came, and we got the bus, 2 hours later got the car, 45 miniutes later, was at home and 10 miniutes later crashed out. Almost a full day later than planned, and after being awake for over 24 hours.

Moral of the story:
Ryanair can, and will screw you.
Sixt car rental does not follow though with special arangements, and will screw you.
Eurostar is still IMHO the best way from London to mainland Europe.
ICE is still really REALLY fast
And I am glad I have black out shutters on my house!  ;D

[packers#1]

Biggest failure? oiiiii, that's like picking a favorite rugby hit; they're all bone crushing...
 
But I think my biggest fail was probably my first weathering attempt. I had some rust-ish colored paint and figured 'hey, all I need to do is put the paint on my loco and wipe it off with toilet paper!' uhmmmm, not very convincing. But I was maybe 9. And yes, no powders, no thinned paint, no black, grime, dust, anything. Lemme psot a pic, it IS worth a thousand words after all

[Bremner]

My biggest failure was trying to build the Tehatchapi Loopas my first model railroad...never really took photos of it, never got past trackwork

[SkipGear]

So far it is this failed BC&G railbus A....



Scratch built gearbox, had the body mostly done and did some test runs of the chassis. It worked but would need a little weight over the drive wheels. Then.......

RMC came out with an article about a scratch built HO version, with drawings. Found out my railbus was about 20% too big. Sort of a crushing blow and it stopped right there. I picked up a Jordan HO static kit after this to build and use as a reference model to copy the next time around.

[Bremner]

Tony, have you seen the Casey Jones?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/waggin/3884705163/

It was built by the Silverton Northern out of a 1915 Model T, it still runs every now and then onthe Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Failure #1
I tried building up a JNJ GP15 about 8 years ago. I got the shell just right, replacing the radiators with parts from an Atlas SD50, pilots were heavily modified and the cab was replaced with an Atlas part. Then I did the handrails. Uhhhh. I just couldn't get the GMM stanchions on right. The glue got all over the walkways and pilots and the bronze wire refused to take proper shape, or solder onto the stations. Then I overheated the shell while soldering. Bye bye GP15 until Atlas came out with theirs.

Failure #2
I used to have a job that was slow enough overnights that I could work on trains. The Grant Eastman/Kaslo F45 kit had just come out and I had almost completed one for Susie-Q as these were often seen in Selkirk Yard for servicing and it wouldn't be a stretch to say they were used as run through power on the Boston Line.

The paint had dried and I was waiting a day to decal them when I opened up the case the shell was completely warped. It was as if I put it in the microwave for 20 minutes. The best explanation I can come up with is the Floquil paint interacted poorly with a soft resin casting to cause the urethane to break down. Either way I was out one very expensive kit.

Failure #3
I tried to make a CN wide cab GP40-2 using an etched metal cab kit. I just didn't have the patience or skills to pull it off and i ended up taking a rubber mallet to the project... litterally.

[Brakie]

Mu biggest fail was when I built my 36" x80" HCD layout back in the early 80s.I ensured the double track main line was straight with smooth joints..While sitting back admiring my handiwork I soon realized I made 2 errors.I forgot the needed crossover and I had place the insulated rail joiner on the bottom rail instead the top rail.

[Philip H]

Danile,
I feel you pain on #3 - I tried to get an Athabasca wide cab onto a LL GP38-2 shell (to do a GP40-2W for KCS) and the etched cab still sits about 7 scale inches too tall for the shell.  Still have the shell, the cab, and the parts - but haven't ever figured out a solution.

[GaryHinshaw]

My story is very similar to delamaize's: a failed first layout attempt.  Shortly after receiving my first Postage Stamp set in 1968, I decided I needed a layout with scenery.  Inspired by John Allen, I had the bright idea that I'd build the scenery first, then worry about roadbed, track, etc.  The scene I remember most vividly was a ~10" tunnel that exited to a ~4" radius curve leading to a ~10% grade up to the next level.  Even if I could have snaked the track through the tunnel, and even if the tunnel had sufficient clearance for the smallest equipment, the curve and grade would have doomed the project.  This one died peacefully in its sleep.

-gfh

P.S. Love that F unit packers#1! 

[DKS]

I've had more failures than I can count over the years. Among them I'd include what I dubbed the Frankenshay, a never-finished Minitrix-Rapido bash. Aside from the fact that it looks totally absurd, I consider it a failure since I was never able to complete the drivetrain.



But the one that comes to mind most vividly is the most recent: I named my Z Scale adaptation of John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid by its actual name. Turns out the NMRA trademarked the name, and when I marketed a few cast resin details from the layout, I got smacked with a cease and desist. Who knew?

It's now safely renamed the Geordie and Daphne. I've received numerous suggestions for alternate names, the frontrunner being the Gory and Defeated. I chose something kind of stupid to reflect my view of the circumstances.

[MichaelWinicki]

This is just my latest screw-up...



Doesn't look like there's much "water" in the creek, huh?

And given how high the water-marks are, one would figure that there should be more water present than what is actually there.

Well, given that the $%&*! creekbed had a hole in it, and the Magic Water leaked out all over the staging yard underneath, one can easily understand why so little water is in the creekbed.  >

[Bremner]

This is just my latest screw-up...


Doesn't look like there's much "water" in the creek, huh?

And given how high the water-marks are, one would figure that there should be more water present than what is actually there.

Well, given that the $%&*! creekbed had a hole in it, and the Magic Water leaked out all over the staging yard underneath, one can easily understand why so little water is in the creekbed.  >

that looks right for out here if thre was a flash flood...

[packers#1]

P.S. Love that F unit packers#1!

hey, we all gotta start somewhere  ;D I now use Bragdon Powders, with the occasional light bit of drybrushing
My other fail wasn't really known to me until later; for my second alyout I tried building a nice big yard for switching etc. only problem? no yard lead...and there would have been run through trains etc. However, i was 10 and hadn't even seen the cover of a model railroader, so I had no idea of these problems (the curves on that layout were impossible as well). Dang, it's fun remembering the past eh?

[wm3798]

Packers, in a way, it's appropriate that you wiped that locomotive with toilet paper... ;D


For me the Grand Golden Bozo goes to my foray into garden railroading.  After spending untold hours and well over $1,000 on track and rolling stock, the damn thing probably ran a total of 10 hours.


It was fun while it lasted, but there was no way in hell I could justify spending an entire weekend weeding so I could run trains for an hour on Sunday night.  I finally cut my losses and sold it all off, except for a representative piece that now hangs on a pike in the garage as a somber reminder of what happens when I lose focus on my N scale projects.

Lee

[Mark5]

Packers#1, I didn't even think about weathering when I was nine! ;D

Probably the closest thing for me around that age was when I would crash my lionel train into a wall of clay ...