Did You Ever Drop A Locomotive?

I have never had a layout above the floor.  I like the floor.  Nothing ever falls off of the floor.

I had just given my son the first train engine that I had. (1948 Lionel Turbine).  I told him I would carry it in from the car to the house very carefully for him. It just slipped out of my arms and dropped to the concrete driveway. I bent the cab and smashed the boiler front.  I couldn't have felt much lower.  It wasn't our best engine but had real meaning for me to pass it on. It is still alive with new boiler and straightened cab.  My son is now expecting his first son. I hope he can give it to his son without dropping it like I did.

I've dropped several in my many years of model railroading, probably more than I remember.   I dropped one of the Lionel Hall-class steamers several years ago.  I'm not quite sure how, actually, but it was near the edge of my workshop bench and I think it caught on my clothing, much like your case.  It had a bent cab roof which I straightened using recommended methods (slowly, with pressure, over days) and filled and sanded and painted.  The Hall class is a hardy little thing and it seemed none the worse for wear after that, but it was a lot of work.

I had a Legacy ATSF Northern, 3751, drop off the layout while running - I had left a small razor saw near the tracks while working on scenery and did not see it it time.  If caught the front truck and the loco jumped off the rails and the layout, 40 inches to the floor.  This loco too is fairly hardly, but it hit wrong and had a good deal of damage.  It went in the spare parts bin where ultimately, it proved very useful to me, but that's another story, and at the time I was very down about that accident. 

I put an ERR system in a GP30 (Dale JR.) just to see if I could and the "new" TMCC controls I bought where in fact defective and the signal was lost. As soon as I put power to the track the engine raced off at high speed and "flew" off the layout, hit the leg on the other side of the isle way and crashed to the floor. I though I was going to throw up. One truck destroyed and the other messed up pretty bad but the cab and frame still looked good. Bought 2 new trucks with motors installed and tried again with a new command set. YA, everything still worked. All new items are now tested on the floor level tracks.

Dan

I dropped a Lionel dockside switcher onto my desk from about a 1 1/2 feet above and the only damage, believe it or not, was the smoke unit, go figure.  I ended up taking it apart and found the smoke unit piston rod was broken.  I replaced the piston and rod assembly and it still works like a champ.  I got lucky!!

Paul

We drove a 682 off the tracks and onto a concrete floor, about a five foot drop. By some luck, the only damage was to the boiler front, which shattered. Turbine boiler fronts are quite common, so it was easy to get an original replacement.

Boy!! did I.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...-mth-inperial-bigboy

Believe it or not, I never have (knocks on wood). However, my Dad has run a couple trains off the edge of the layout. The worst was the 675, which got a couple scratches and a broken marker light from the experience. The interesting part about this is that while Grandpa babied his trains, his Dad used to run them until they derailed too! I guess that skips a generation in my family, so if I ever have children, I better be very careful letting them run trains lol.

I dropped my Marx powered bud car (2124 Boston and Main) showing someone at a train show in the late 80's. The car hit the floor and cracked/broke the shell. Made ne sick as this is one that I bought for myself with my Christmas money when I was a kid, memories. Still have the car and always looking for a new shell but they are hard to come by.

I do recall my k-line mikado getting some damage.  It was quite a while back.  I think i ran it off the layout, but it only had a slightly bent marker light and some small paint loss on the front step, so I may have just dropped it when taking it out of the box or something.  I did run one or 2 k-line mp-15s off the layout smashing the couplers and front steps/couplet guides.  I always sort of hid those hoping my dad never discovered them.  A couple years back I looked up a parts dealer, spent about $10-$15 and had them both looking like new.  At that time I mentioned it to my father and he told me he had paid very short money for them at the time anyway.

One of the advantages of running a "carpet central" is that there's no place to go if the train leaves the layout - it's already there  However, I still have to GET the trains down there, which is just as dicey if not more so.  I've adopted a "Hand Under The Engine" approach for all of my transfers, but even this isn't fool proof.  I suspect at some point I will drop one while stooping to put it on the layout... and I will be gutted.  The bigger danger for me is kicking one...

I dropped the tender of my Legacy Crescent Limited; now the remote uncoupling mechanism does not function properly

At my previous layout, I had a friend over (who was a train guy) and introduced him to TMCC one evening. He was running trains at the other end of the layout while I was installing a bridge over the stairwell. He had a mind lapse and before I knew it, my Challenger was racing towards the stairwell and over it went in free fall, some 6 ft. down to a landing. The engine landed on it's wheels and the only damage was the coal load came off the tender. This was one of the original MTH Challengers and it still runs today as good as it did then. 

No but I did run one off the end of the counter at P & D. I was showing an MPC Geep to a customer and it would not move. But of course as soon as I touched it off it went like a bullet. Some bent railing was the worst damage. It could have easily become a parts loco.

As a kid I ran the o-27 curves too fast plenty of times and ended up with a train on its side - it was always a contest in my head to see how fast is just fast enough not to fail - but that was on a carpeted floor.

As an adult I launch Thomas of the end of the layout onto a concrete floor and fortunately only broke the coupler.  I also have a Lionel Atlantic, 6-28071, I can't remember exactly what happened but the tender went to the floor.  The one corner marker light popped off and that corner of the tender is dented.  The LED still works.  This was many years ago.  I still run it on occasion but never did get around to trying to fix the damage.

eh  *#&%  happens... 

I had gotten a RailKing Cab Forward.  After getting it running again, I put it up on my kitchen table so I could lube it up for service.  It was laying belly up on an old laptop sleeve I use.  At the time I had my RailKing PRR Turbine running on the carpet loop in the living room.  I heard it stop, so I got up to see why.  While I was bending down to see what was going on I heard a thump and a bang behind me.  I worried around to see the Cab Forward sitting on the tile floor under the table, on it's wheels.  After a close visual inspection, the only thing I found was some flat wheels.

The only thing I can figure is that since it rolled off of the table onto my cushioned chair, bounced off of the seat and rolled the other way to the floor.  It must of had enough momentum that when it hit the ground on the wheel edges it finished it's roll to sit on it's wheels.  After regaining my breath and the heart slowed back down I put it on the tracks and ran it.  It still runs just fine, and everything works as it should.