Derailments and the modelers who deal with them.

LIRR

Member
I have a strange affixation with derailment threads...



Derailment. The D word. The sound of 300 dollars worth of fine detailed rolling stock barreling down a 2% grade to the tune of a broken #5. That echoing rattling noise deep in a tunnel. The mistaken throttle push that sent your empire builder down a short siding. Instead of listing nightmares I’ll share a few of my own, horrible, fatal derailments



Derailments we’re not commonplace on my layouts but they did happen. When they did it was like disaster mode in SIM city. On an older layout one of the lines was elevated. It was perched on Atlas track risers, despite the fact that it looked really, really bad. It did travel through the more scenic areas of the layout. Went through a mountain and traveled between rock outcroppings. In the layouts later days it became the scenic line. My 9 year old mine imagined it as an abandoned mining line that some guy bought out to run scenic trips on. This was probably the most unsafe scenic line ever, the motive power was a Bachman 0-6-0 and it pulled 2 old time Union Pacific coaches along shaking like hell, That engine was the worst running steam engine ever. It ran fine the first dozen or so laps then it would start to shake. SHAKE! It would shake back and forth bobbing along, most of the time all this did was send the drivers off the rails. But sometimes, disaster struck.



I remember one time it sent its consist of two coaches and tender onto a train passing below on the lower track, It crashed between 2 ballast filled hoppers sending little pellets in all directions and bending a drive rod. The steamer was sent to the shops, the hoppers were re-railed and the ballast was cleaned up. The steamer continued on, shaking and bringing passengers along for a freak out hell ride along the upper line.



Sometimes later the engine was given a front coupler (Its front had a dummy knuckle that my dad x-acto’d out and glued a horn hook in place). This meant ol’ shakes could push and pull now. One day for some reason or another I decided that there was a place on the upper line in need of some ballast. So I coupled 2 lifelike hoppers to the front of shakes and began pushing them up to the area that “needed” the ballast. Uncoupled them and sent shakes to the bottom of the hill. And I coupled its coaches to the front and let them stay there. The loaded hoppers came down the hill and steamrolled through the coaches sending them tumbling about and smacking into shakes. Once again ballast rained down on the heads of the figures near the site of the crash. Ballast hates this engine. God has something against the people who take trips on this scenic railroad.



Sometime afterwards shakes motor seized up and would not run anymore, so it got sent to the dead track in the yard with all the other rolling stock that doesn’t stick to the rails. The scenic railroad bought a GP7 and continued pulling much safer passenger trains until the line closed down.

I have more derailment stories if anyone wants to hear them
 

RailRon

Active Member
A sad, sad story obout Ol' Shakes... :(

Is this sad contents the reason you chose BLACK lettering for your post? :D :D :D

Ron
 

ausien

Active Member
You tell a good story line my friend, lets here some more of them, and maybe others have a story or two to tell, about their empire... have a good one..steve
 
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