The Model Train Wreck Thread

[Philphil]

Hello guys, I didn't see any other threads specifically about this topic, so I thought I'd make a new one: MODEL TRAIN WRECKS!

This is the perfect thread to tell us about the latest accident, derailment, or other model train mishap that happen on your layout! Please don't forget to post lots of pictures! 

[chadbag]

And since you started us off, where is your wreck?   :p

[Philphil]

This week I managed to crash a Tobu 30000-series set into a stalled 30000-series set, and the impact was so hard that I bashed one of the couplers into the underbody (as seen in the picture.) 

 

[JR 500系]

Ouch... the train operator of the moving Tobu 30000 series needs to be placed into 'reformation training'... haha ~  :) 

[railsquid]

Any good?

 

scenery-removed by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Actually it's posed as I was demonstrating on another forum how I would handle derailments in the tunnel (simple: take it off).

 

The cars are very old Kato 103s which are so brittle they more-or-less fall apart by themselves.

[Philphil]

On 5/11/2018 at 11:17 PM, railsquid said:

Any good?

 

scenery-removed by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Actually it's posed as I was demonstrating on another forum how I would handle derailments in the tunnel (simple: take it off).

 

The cars are very old Kato 103s which are so brittle they more-or-less fall apart by themselves.

Oh no! The poor things! Wow, I'm surprised that those cars are brittle enough to just fall apart like that, especially since they're Kato!

[Philphil]

On 5/11/2018 at 10:01 PM, JR 500系 said:

Ouch... the train operator of the moving Tobu 30000 series needs to be placed into 'reformation training'... haha ~  :) 

Haha, yeah, ultimately it's all my fault, as one of the two motors on the 6-car set was having issues seizing up, so I had to take it out, but that left the set too underpowered to make it up any small grade (which I didn't realize until it was too late!)

[Socimi]

58 minutes ago, Philphil said:

Haha, yeah, ultimately it's all my fault, as one of the two motors on the 6-car set was having issues seizing up, so I had to take it out, but that left the set too underpowered to make it up any small grade (which I didn't realize until it was too late!)

 

Seems similar to what happened in1972 at Nippori Station, when an Omiya-bound Keihin-Tohoku Line 103 series was rear-ended by an inner-loop Yamanote Line set of the same type*. The collision occourred at about 20Km/h (the Yamanote Line train had applied emergency brakes) and thanks to the low speed and excepitonal body strenght of the 103 series, nobody on the two trains was hurt.

*Between Tamachi and Tabata, due to maintainance, Yamanote Line trains are occasionally rerouted onto Keihin-Tohoku Line tracks and vice-versa. It's still used as of today and that was the case in the 1972 Nippori Incident.

[Gryphr]

3 hours ago, Philphil said:

Oh no! The poor things! Wow, I'm surprised that those cars are brittle enough to just fall apart like that, especially since they're Kato!

 

My Kato BR 425, while not brittle, seems to have pretty weak snap on noses (or how you would call that) and tends to disassemble itself if you even so much as look at it the in the wrong way. I wouldn't be too surprised if a derailment would result in Body shells, Window Panes and various other parts strewn all over the accident site.

 

On the upside, opening it for maintenance work takes about 1 second 😄

[railsquid]

6 hours ago, Philphil said:

Oh no! The poor things! Wow, I'm surprised that those cars are brittle enough to just fall apart like that, especially since they're Kato!

 

Apparently this is an issue with some of the very old (early 1970s) stuff. These were part of a job lot, I was going to use them for weathering experiments etc. but bits fall off them very easily, and my attempt to fix the motorized car lead to it collapsing into a heap of shards...

[kvp]

7 hours ago, railsquid said:

 

Apparently this is an issue with some of the very old (early 1970s) stuff. These were part of a job lot, I was going to use them for weathering experiments etc. but bits fall off them very easily, and my attempt to fix the motorized car lead to it collapsing into a heap of shards...

I had the same problem. Part of the problem are the very worn out molds, part of it is that they are meant to be easily kitbashable. A bit of white synthetic wood glue to hold the parts together until full assembly helps. Old (1970ies) Maerklin Z passenger cars are similar. Both in construction and ease of accidental disassembly.

[Welshbloke]

The unpowered cars on my Kokuden sets are pretty robust. Suspect the KuMoHa bodies would be better if I glued the glazing, roof and bodyshell together as that would probably stop it flexing and unclipping from the chassis. Want to do some more detail painting before I'm happy doing this though.

[railsquid]

On 5/16/2018 at 2:34 PM, kvp said:

I had the same problem. Part of the problem are the very worn out molds

 

The ones in my picture are not recent Kokuden units; the moulds will have been very fresh when they were made, I suspect early 1970s. Either the plastic has become brittle over time, or was not very good to start off with. Somewhere I have seen a comment mentioning this is a general issue with Kato 103s from that era.

Edited May 24, 2018 by railsquid

[Philphil]

Not sure if this really counts as a train wreck or not, but my layout has been out of commission for the last few months as we had to add a new ceiling light in the unfinished area of my basement.

 While that was going on, I had to store my rolling stock on the other piece of foam bridging the walkway. 

Well, I'm that time frame, the foam happened to get bumped, and all of the Tobu trains bumped into each other in a sort of domino effect and toppled over...

Only one set went crashing to the floor, so it could have gone worse, haha.

 

[Pauljag900]

10 hours ago, Philphil said:

Not sure if this really counts as a train wreck or not, but my layout has been out of commission for the last few months as we had to add a new ceiling light in the unfinished area of my basement.

 While that was going on, I had to store my rolling stock on the other piece of foam bridging the walkway. 

Well, I'm that time frame, the foam happened to get bumped, and all of the Tobu trains bumped into each other in a sort of domino effect and toppled over...

Only one set went crashing to the floor, so it could have gone worse, haha.

 

Mine looked like that yesterday when the troublesome Asuza derailed and brought the others to a derailed standstill!! I could nt reach the switch from where I was!! 😂

 

[Drunkenclam]

Kill switches in each corner. Get yourself some BIG RED buttons 😅

[cteno4]

X10s work well for this to kill the ac to your power pack and they have wireless red panic buttons like this. 

 

Jeff

[Welshbloke]

Toggles with big red covers are quite effective for DC. The sort where you flip the cover up to switch on.

[Fanofthomas31]

Here's a crash I staged for a video I made last year.