What's the worst accident you have had with a locomotive?

I seem to remember a 6464 B&O ripping through a plastic bag at a train show,

c-9 to c-7 in an instant. Ripped the box too.

Now I carry my own canvas bags.

sorry not locomotive

Early nineties, new TMCC.  I had a Powermaster quit and a new Lionel Pennsy 2028 went flying and hit the garage floor.  The Powermaster was out of warranty, but the 2028 was fairly new.  Sent both to Lionel and Lionel replaced both.  No charge.

 

I had just repaired/serviced a Prewar 238 and passenger cars.   On the test run a passenger car sliding shoe caught a switch point.  Latch/box couplers are good.  The passenger cars tumbled off the layout and pulled the 238 with them.  I had some diecast repairs to do to the front of the 238.

Does this count? Drawbridge was up....the engineer did not notice.

Perfect jackknife dive to the concrete floor, resulting in the newly modified coupler!

Happened last Christmas layout. Ouch, I felt it also. Still ran great though.

I was so proud of it, I took these pictures!

Greg

 

 

Does an intentional "accident" of a Santa Fe diesel for a certain TV series count?

I was test running an Acela on a higher section of track 6 feet above a concrete floor when it hit another locomotive that I had forgotten was on the track - the front locomotive and two of the passenger cars took the tumble. The loco was in reasonable shape considering, but the diaphragms of the passenger cars were toast. Have managed to get them repaired since...

Good and informative stories.

 

Bob C.

For those of you familiar with the Milwaukee Special and it's non-operational couplers. You know about using staples to prevent it from uncoupling, which is a chronic problem with this particular set of passenger cars. The staples work pretty good to keep things together even when the Locomotive leads them off the top tier of your Christmas display. Darn the camera is never running when you want it to be.

But hey, the Milwaukee Special is still running proudly on our Christmas display this year and will be a contestant in the Great Train Race to take place on New Years Day.

 

You have to go to the end of the video. The sound you hear is about 8 feet of standard gauge flying out and landing on the driveway. You can almost count the cars hitting the pavers.

 

Steve

 

Then there's always Gomez.

 

He is the inspiration for Scrappy.

OK so it was last Christmas and my friend Dave "Johnny Cash" Garman had gotten me a Pennsy S-1 with all the bells and whistles, Well about 5 days before we went to see Mike R. to have a little work done on it. Dave had built the entire S-1 from ordered parts and we really wanted Mike to look it over before applying power to it.. Well everything was Ok and Mike made the test run for us.. While packing up to head back to Florida with my new Prize the S-1 I had placed train in the car, then my wife asked me to add something to the back I open the back tailgate and out rolled the box with the S-1 in it.. Damaged the ladder section and bent the coupler for the tender.. Alas my friend Dave "Johnny Cash " Garman tracked down another new Shell to replace it. And I used a Dremel to smooth out the broken ladder section and use that as my running shell and then have a display shell when on the shelf..

 

Ooops correction... but Cash - Paycheck its all the same

Close Matt,

 

According to Mike Reagan its Johnny "one piece at a time" Cash

not Johnny Paycheck  

 

Not to worry, I still love ya like a son!!!

Back in the early 70s I acquired our family's first Lionel Post War trains from a neighbor's collection.  Included was an 2332 GGI.  My six year old son ran it at high speed into a curve and immediately became a member of the Flying GG1 Corps. The sound of the engine hitting the concrete floor 36 inches below was devastating. However it landed squarely on the floor and did not slide and believe it or not there was not a mark on it. It still runs and looks good today.  They don't make'em like that anymore! My sons, now both in their 40s, still talk about it. We can laugh about it now, but it didn't seem funny to dad at the time, as they can attest.  

 

Conductor Earl

      

I joined the Flying Hudson Corps earlier this past year when I was running a grey Lionel 785 Hudson I had bought earlier in the summer that year (2013). I had owned it for two weeks when I had it around a curve too fast with a light train and it flew off the curve and off the bench. It hit the linoleum floor on its side. The only damage was that the eccentric crank and screw were knocked out and the screw hole in the middle driver was stripped. A quick trip to the local hobby shop where I had bought it and leaving it a week for service so the driver hole could be retapped and a new screw put in solved the problem. I've had no further accidents with that Hudson since. Thank heavens. That same Hudson is currently pulling a freight on the middle loop of my layout, and runs as if nothing had ever happened to it.

Back in the eighties a gentleman stop in the store with his son to watch the trains run. At the time we were running all Lionel MPC locomotives and cars. Two of the trains were running up in the air on trestles. The other four were running on the flat board below. One of the trains that was running up on the trestles was a set of double headed Great Northern EP-5 locomotives. Well, one pantographs on the front locomotive pop up and it ran into a trestle bridge, sending it and most of its freight cars down onto the lower tracks. All four trains running below plowed into this locomotive and it cars. Cars from one of my lower trains were actually pushed up onto the other trestle were the other train was running and derailed it also. That day, all six trains were derailed at the same time. When that gentleman left that day, he told me, Jimmy my son just love watching your trains today. However, the next time we come, you don't have to put on a show like that again.

I was running my 2046 with a long string of freight cars. I had my back to the trins tinkering on the workbench, when I heard the unmistakable sound of a steam engine at high speed without the freight cars,I almost got to the transformer when the 2046 left the track. It hit the floor (concrete naturally) and the only damage was a slightly bent cab corner which I was able to replace.

 I had purchased a 736 thru the mail, and had been watching for the carrier to come. We live in the country, and if a package is too large to fit th mailbox, the carrier will but the package in a plastic bag and hang it on the mailbox. I checked to see if the mail had gone, and sure enough there was a bag hanging on the front of the mailbox. I went out to the mailbox, and I was about three steps away when the bag broke and fell to the ground. When I got the box opened, the 736 had hit pilot first, breaking the cow catcher off. I filed a claim with the post office and the insurance paid for a new steamchest. I got a larger mailbox that day.

alot of great stories.

 

Bob C.

Judging by the plethora of stories, it seems that every layout has at least one turnout that leads directly to the edge of the layout!  BETTER DESIGN, PEOPLE!  

 

it's amazing how many of these engines landed on their wheels and how many sustained minor damage after long falls.

 

I am greatly enjoying these disaster stories and find them informative.

 

Bob C.

JLC Challenger catches a signal pole wire and lays over

Brass Willams Hudson fell to the floor. Dug a hole in the concrete.

I have had two steam locomotives hit the concrete floor. One was a Lionel GN 3100 that landed on its wheelset and sustained no damage. The other was a Hornby late-1920's clockwork that landed on its roof, and got bent. I unbent it. Both were due to operator negligence enhanced by certain libations, causing the operator to fail to notice track obstructions. "Designated driver" rules now apply.

Yowsa!!This is the reason I have my trains on the floor.I know I couldn,t deal seeing a favorite locomotive fall 3 or 4 ft to the floor.Well on the other hand good thing most locomotive are made of metalnot plastic.I witnessed a new mth k4 penn and passenger cars hit the floor.At a train show in the charottle area a vender had set up three tracks about 6ft track.Had some trains going back and forth.I think he forgot to set up a bumper at the end.I watch as 5 passenger cars hit the floor along with the k4.Parts going every where and the vender rush over.But it was to late he looked likehe had a heart attack.He said he could repair the locomotive.But the cars where a write off.I wished I was closser so I could try to keep them from hiting the floor.Floor layout the way to go for myself that is.

Our modular club layout has a yard area. This allows members to setup their engines/consists before running on one of the two mainlines. We have one member that insists on NOT using the yard; preferring instead to set his engine on the track from the outside of the layout.

 

I was running my new 3rd Rail N&W K2a for the first time and this fellow decided to set his PS-2 Southern Crescent on the outside mainline. Unfortuately my K2a was already on that line running w/ TMCC. As soon as he set his engine down, it took off at full speed in conventional. Before I could catch his engine, it whacked my new K2a head-on and cracked the front pilot.

 

Gilly

OUr Scale Hudson from WBB ERIE line, was pulling all six of the Blue Comet passenger cars. YES I was impatient and ran it on the layout with the Fastrac o-36. Well the table was dislodged a bit(I had the layout on top of those cheap plastic horses from Menards), well when it went around the outer bend where the layout was sagging it fell off the tracks and hit the concrete floor 36 inches below.

 

I mailed it to Backmann with a check and they made the repairs-beautifully) I fixed the layout problem and installed the appropriate curves and learned a big lesson!!!!!!!!

Sure that's a Challenger? Looks like an Allegheny to me

 

That time with the runaway Williams EP5* would've been quite a mess had it ran into an occupied yard track on it's way under the city.

 

---PCJ

(*it split a switch on a conventional loop and went into command territory)

Many years ago I was visiting a friend and running my Hornby #3E 4-4-2 with a couple of coaches on his layout. It was pitch black when I returned to my car.  I put the box

with the trains on the roof and unlocked the car.  Yes, you guessed it.  I forgot about the box and in the process of backing out of a tight spot managed to run over the box (which had fallen off the roof). What a calamity.  the locomotive ended up with a bent cab roof, but the electric mechanism and chassis were undamaged.  The tender was OK but the lithographed 8 wheel coaches were literally squashed.  I managed to unsquash them, but the creases on their ends remain to this day.

 

Lew Schneider

So what could possibly ruin my day?  My Vision Line Challenger got damaged. Narrowly diverted disaster....the first time I've ever taken it out of the box, it slipped, I almost caught it, and the rest is history as they say.  It didn't hit the floor, but I did manage to break off a number board!  UGH!

 

As a teenager I smoked a nice 665 steamer when I surprised the family cat-who was sleeping in a tunnel.  I was as surprised as him when he came out of the tunnel, using his 4-wheel drive to get out of the way.  Said steamer fell on floor.   Any idea how many papers I delivered to buy that?  I mean d@MN!

 

Both of the events above resulted in cursing that exceeded the use of the "F" word....

 

I swear expensive engines sound louder when they hit the floor!