The Power of Mistakes

Hey, you been watching me build my layout?

Don

Get out that soldering iron..jump those ancient feeds in an Atlas 7.75 turnout.

Ok works better..sort of

Utter profanity

Cause i have a new one sitting in a box..

Just take a picture of your work and post it to some forum. You will quickly see for yourself where you made a mistake!

It is also possible to spend so much time thinking about a project that you get totally stuck.

I'm working on just such a project, taking a K-line 21" combine and converting it into a specific GN prototype. I am limited by my tools, and am trying to figure out where to start. I think I'm going to take my jigsaw with a metal cutting blade, and remove the skirts first. Then I can clean up the rough cut with my belt sander. After that I need to plug windows and cut new ones, and finally paint, decal and reassemble. I'm on a deadline of December 13th.

Time to go butcher this pig!

NO MISTAKES.

Scrapiron Scher posted:

Model railroaders have a wide range of experience and there is no more valuable lesson than having a plan and not rushing your work. Inexperienced modelers often rush or take short cuts and want to "get it done now and run trains." Experienced modelers know short cuts and rushing the work usually leads to problems and, sometimes, disaster. That is especially true when the work is relatively complex and a considerable amount of time is expended completing a project.

1) Spend lots of time rewiring a complicated structure, rework the street lights, install gooseneck lamps, totally rework the interior lighting. MISTAKE: Fail to measure carefully when drilling holes in the table top for wires and then sinking your poles and wires. RESULT: Your building is now 1/32" too close to the track and the switcher clips the corner of the roof.

2) Since you cannot move the building any longer, pull out all the wires you carefully routed and redrill the holes and run the wires again.

3) Once the wires are rerouted test the power and lights. Discover one tall street light no longer lights.

4) Utter a profanity

5) Check your wiring. Wires to the plug in. Good. Wires to the pole base. Good. Wires to the lamp. Not good. Wire has come loose. Of course, the wire is the thIckness of a human hair and the stub end is too short to solder.

6) Utter another profanity.

7) Take out the pole that was superglued in. Ummmm. Nope. Snaps off. Another profanity.

8) Since I used up my last pole, order another and wait four days.

9)  New pole arrives and try to drill out the snapped off pole first. Cannot get the drill in. Use an Exacto blade. Cannot fit the blade past obstructions. Another profanity. Drill another hole, run the wires again. Test the two poles. Success. Place the base and poles in the final position.

10) Now install your building with reworked lighting and gooseneck exterior lamps. Drill a hole for the wires. Connect your wires. Turn on the power. One gooseneck is out. Check connections to power. Good. Check wire integrity. Good. Check soldered connections. Good. Lamp is bad. Pull the gooseneck out.

11) Utter a profanity. Place the building down and reach for the hammer. Take a deep breath. Put the hammer down.

12) Have a piece of apple cake and then go to the gym and work it off.

 

Welcome to the world of Model Railroading, were every endeavor is an adventure.

Eliot,   thanks for that post,  I needed some comic relief this afternoon.   The more I read, the harder I laughed.....  Laughing with you, not at you.   

Don't feel like your alone.  I just finished ripping out a Ross #6 switch after laying and screwing down all the track about 8 to 12 feet beyond it.   Of course it was the first switch in the yard ladder! 

I either broke the throwbar on the only side I could mount my ground throw, or it was previously broken and I missed it.... Either way, took quite a while to get it out, and 2 attempts to successfully repair and extend the throwbar on the side I needed it....  There was no shortage of utterances !!!  

The old military adage of the 7 P's can be very helpful in model railroading.

The skirts are off the car, and the whole procedure went quite well. As I was working, I sat back and thought about the next step, filling in the windows and doors. I came up with a new idea, which was a better version of my old idea.

Scrapiron Scher posted:

MISTAKE: Fail to measure carefully when drilling holes in the table top for wires and then sinking your poles and wires. RESULT: Your building is now 1/32" too close to the track and the switcher clips the corner of the roof.

Don't feel bad Eliot, the Milwaukee Road had the same problem. They put the track too close to the depot at Hastings, MN, and had to trim off the roof for clearance. There's a prototype for EVERYTHING!

Scrapiron Scher posted:

Model railroaders have a wide range of experience and there is no more valuable lesson than having a plan and not rushing your work. Inexperienced modelers often rush or take short cuts and want to "get it done now and run trains." Experienced modelers know short cuts and rushing the work usually leads to problems and, sometimes, disaster. That is especially true when the work is relatively complex and a considerable amount of time is expended completing a project.

1) Spend lots of time rewiring a complicated structure, rework the street lights, install gooseneck lamps, totally rework the interior lighting. MISTAKE: Fail to measure carefully when drilling holes in the table top for wires and then sinking your poles and wires. RESULT: Your building is now 1/32" too close to the track and the switcher clips the corner of the roof.

2) Since you cannot move the building any longer, pull out all the wires you carefully routed and redrill the holes and run the wires again.

3) Once the wires are rerouted test the power and lights. Discover one tall street light no longer lights.

4) Utter a profanity

5) Check your wiring. Wires to the plug in. Good. Wires to the pole base. Good. Wires to the lamp. Not good. Wire has come loose. Of course, the wire is the thIckness of a human hair and the stub end is too short to solder.

6) Utter another profanity.

7) Take out the pole that was superglued in. Ummmm. Nope. Snaps off. Another profanity.

8) Since I used up my last pole, order another and wait four days.

9)  New pole arrives and try to drill out the snapped off pole first. Cannot get the drill in. Use an Exacto blade. Cannot fit the blade past obstructions. Another profanity. Drill another hole, run the wires again. Test the two poles. Success. Place the base and poles in the final position.

10) Now install your building with reworked lighting and gooseneck exterior lamps. Drill a hole for the wires. Connect your wires. Turn on the power. One gooseneck is out. Check connections to power. Good. Check wire integrity. Good. Check soldered connections. Good. Lamp is bad. Pull the gooseneck out.

11) Utter a profanity. Place the building down and reach for the hammer. Take a deep breath. Put the hammer down.

12) Have a piece of apple cake and then go to the gym and work it off.

 

The importance of steps 4, 6 and 11 in any complex hobby project cannot be overstated.

I employed them frequently and fluently when overhauling my NIB Lionel 783.

It must have worked, since the 783 is one of my nicest runners -- now.

If you're not making any mistakes then you are not doing anything.

Go to my thread "Action at the Steel Mill" and read the last message! Roo.

Why is there always time to do it over, but never enough time to do it right the first time ?

Balshis posted:

The importance of steps 4, 6 and 11 in any complex hobby project cannot be overstated.

I employed them frequently and fluently when overhauling my NIB Lionel 783.

And I recall using them while replacing electrical components in elderly Mercedes-Benzes back in the day...  

Mitch 

 Years ago my wife brought home a MTH Triplex from York. Had to trim back a couple things on the layout but nothing bad. This was on the Mainline. Had to move out some Caboose Industry ground throws in the passenger yard as the rear steps hit those. Thought of trimming the steps themselves.

 I decided to redo my staging yard and add a turntable. The area now would be fully sceniced. I purchased a Millhouse table and decided on a custom built roundhouse. It was designed with one extended stall for the Triplex. I basically model just two roads in a specific time era. It would look out of place sitting on the layout out in the open. If you've ever picked one of these up. It's no picnic putting it on and taking it off a shelf. It would reside in it's own stall out of sight when not being run.

 After a year the whole area was pretty much complete. Roundhouse was picked up and finally in place. The stall tracks were laid. It WOULDN'T fit through the door. Luckily it hasn't been run in years. It's residing on my off the layout programming track. 

Good morning, working on my scenery between a new area between the one set of tracks and some new MTH houses.

I have add sucess with using  painted pillow stuffing for low laying bushes and under brush.

Everything is done, houses garages and landscaping in place.

Some folks dropped by to see the trains.

First pass past the newly landscaped area the front pilot on my Pennsy steam engine catches a small unfasten strand of the pillow stuffing.

 Next thing I know I have a engine dragging my bushes down the track along with a few trees and shurbs.

The steam engine ground to a halt with the pillow stuffing caught in the drivers,driver rods and front pilot. 

What a mess and embarrassment.

Learned from this to put the pillow stuffing back from the tracks and fill the area in with other types of landscaping products to prevent this type of mishap.

I'm not feeling so badly this morning, fellas. All of your posts have lifted my spirits.

UPDATE: 

1) First thing this morning I was determined to go downstairs, rip out that light and make it right. Sooooo . . . . 

2) Have that strong cup of coffee.

3) Check to see if the gremlins decided to light the lamp of love. Nothing. Big surprise.

4) Pull out the gooseneck. Snip the area where the gooseneck wires are SOLDERED to the main plus/minus coming out of the building. Grrrrr

5) This time I will do it the "newbie" way. Instead of super gluing the gooseneck in, I will merely place it in and see of it is reasonably tight. Fits PERFECTLY without any glue. Snug and in the right position.

6) Run the wires and INSTEAD of soldering the gooseneck wires to the main plus/minus I merely wrap them around and electrical tape them.

7) Check with power. PERFECT. I never needed the superglue. As a matter of fact, perhaps the glue reacted chemically with the wires. Two times I have used Gorilla Superglue and TWO times I got dead bulbs. GRRRRRRR

8) Put the building in place and go to power. PERFECT.

9) Stand back to admire . . . . what? what? WHAT THE ****? The sidewalk I glued in place yesterday came up.

10) UTTER a profanity.

The importance of steps 4, 6 and 11 in any complex hobby project cannot be overstated.

Nor can the importance of having an adult beverage nearby

This from the guy with the lopsided tunnel portal....

And remember.....when demonstrated for the repairman, the faulty appliance will work perfectly....

Scrapiron Scher posted:

 

10) UTTER a profanity.

 

You forgot the "before" picture. 

Mitch 

I'm truly in my own little world when doing train projects, which includes talking to myself a lot.

Mr. Eliot,

 I hope your not talking about a certain sub station building. If you are, I may be felling more psychotic than you.