Although no one wants their trains damaged, there seemed to be at least one serious derailment and occasionally one spectacular derailment a month.
We have an unprotected 60* crossing that enables the “low line” to cross itself, thus making a large figure eight on a scematic of the layout. Thanks to murphy’s law, usually someone’s really expensive locomotive would ram, t-bone and derail somebody’s very expensive, highly detailed freight car. Eventually we realized the value of operating railroad cars and locomotives that had some durability to them, but still have them well-detailed. Accurail cars were my favorite mix of extremely nice detail and durability. We usually stationed an operator at this crossing during some of the busy days to prevent this from happening in front of a large crowd.
The other more common type of derailment, and one I was very often a victim of, is being rear-ended. The most extreme example is below. EIGHT GP’s ramming the rear of my stalled train.
Half of my 21 car jack-knifed fortunately, I was thoughtful enough to put athearn cars on the rear and my nicer cars in the middle of the train. Despite the wreckage shown above, there wasn’t any major damage to either train.
This is what I get for operating at prototypically slow speeds, with ONE SD-7 on the point for local power.
Ugh! Twice in one day, and wrecked by father of the operator of the WP consist shown above!!
Please note the beautifully scratchbuilt wooden truss bridge above. It’s dual gauged for HO and HOn3. More on the HOn3 layout in our next installment.
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