# I'm Stupid



## Murv2 (Nov 5, 2017)

Rebuilding my unitrack layout for a planned expansion and crosswired the ovals. I sat there, thought about it, set everything up wrong and said to myself "That's the right way to do it." Burned out two remote switches. An expensive lesson...


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## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

Well you’re not alone. Just the other day, I fixed a loose connection to an LED light and proceeded to fry the LED it by giving it a quick test with AC track power.


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## prrfan (Dec 19, 2014)

No you’re not. We’ve all done dumb stuff. It’s how we learn. Sometimes it gets expensive. Experience is seldom free. 
I think anyone who pursues this hobby has an active, creative mind. Just the opposite of stupid.


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## Andreash (Dec 30, 2018)

I’m the guy who has installed a coupler upside down....🙃


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## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

Andreash said:


> I’m the guy who has installed a coupler upside down....🙃


Bwaaaa-haaaa-haaaa, burb! Haaaaa-haaaaa-haaaa.


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## gregc (Apr 25, 2015)

a vice president wastes $100M on a failed project and tenders his resignation. The president says "Are you nuts, i just spent $100M on training".


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

Andreash said:


> I’m the guy who has installed a coupler upside down....��


I received a pair of couplers from Roco last week and they _assembled_ them upside down!

I had to remove the retaining loop and reverse it.

A few months ago I fried a $50 semaphore motor and burned out the LED'S. It's now a nice looking trackside ornament that doesn't do anything.

You're not alone. My second semaphore is working great.

As was mentioned, experience is seldom cheap, but you do get a free serving of wisdom with your paid-for experience.


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## mholiver (Feb 12, 2019)

*<sigh>*

just yesterday, was part of the crew to set up the Club "mobile layout" at a nearby Train show. it's 5 benchwork pieces and old school DC Power. let's just say it's not good for a nice locomotive already placed to run to get 110v put to the track by accident.


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## mesenteria (Oct 29, 2015)

I'm not going there. Too painful.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

There are two kinds of model railroaders: those who admit to doing something stupid, and liars.

I don't know which of these was dumber: the time I was using a staple gun to fasten tie wraps to the underside of my layout and put one through the web of my hand, or the time I burned my finger on the soldering iron, dropped it on the scenery, and melted a huge hole in the foam.


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## norgale (Apr 4, 2011)

Gee how could you guys ever do all those dumb things. I have never made a mistake building the six layouts I've had so far. Ya, right!


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

*Six*



norgale said:


> Gee how could you guys ever do all those dumb things. I have never made a mistake building the six layouts I've had so far. Ya, right!


norgale;


Ya, that's why you and I have each built multiple layouts; because the first one was so perfect! :smilie_auslachen: 

Traction Fan:smilie_daumenpos:


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## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

Quite a few years ago when my HO layout was still analog DC I had my brass Akane Ma&Pa Connie that my dad bought me in 1956ish, up on a curved grade on my open grid bench work. I had a dress shirt on.I reached across to something near the Connie and my cuff caught its stack and flipped it right to the floor..
Oh was I mad at myself ! I'm a lousy solderer but was able to CA glue the split-open boiler back together and straighten the bent 
stack (some brass boilers are made in sections and the boiler jacket straps hide the solder connecting them)...All else was OK..
After this accident I came up with an idea for all open grid/L girder builders: While there is no scenery yet, staple some kind
of webbing to close up the dangerous openings in the bench work until you are ready to do the scenery in each area..
I never wound up doing it. So thank goodness no other trains fell to the floor since. I guess a shrink would call it fear of success ! 
This 35' long, Apt. layout has been gone for some 4 yrs now due to having to relocate 2 times since. No layout now..M


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## Overkast (Jan 16, 2015)

I believe the theme of this thread is scale-agnostic... it is not exclusive to HO only 

That being said, after 4+ years of building my train set (note: having it all wired that long too), I was testing a loco on the layout and it kept dying when it would go into a certain siding on the layout. I kept messing with the loco as if it was having power pickup issues. Took it apart, cleaned it, even the wheels and wipers... Nothing.

Then I realize, this siding is an isolated block w/ insulated joiners. So I look under the layout table and low and behold... I never connected feeders to this section of track 4 years ago!!!

Apparently I forgot 4 years ago, I had planned on making this section of track my programming track for locos. I even bought the programming board 4 years ago and never set it up!!!

Sure, I didn't fry anything... but it was a huge boneheaded moment.


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

Overkast, LOL , I think I can hear the cusses and see the hair pulling from here 🙂 but at least the engine is now perfectly clean. 😂

Been there quite few times more then I'd like to admit 🙄


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## jlc41 (Feb 16, 2016)

What can I say I am guilty to just about everything said and then some, I think it's part of the learning curve as was said. Keeps yu on your toes.


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## MatroxD (Jan 19, 2018)

Like the others, I agree that's its just part of the learning process of any hobby or diy task. As a person that just "goes ahead and completes a task before me", that mindset is not always the most conducive for prevention of mistakes. Mine has been in setting up the track, which is critical. I have made mistakes and needed to rip out sections of track previously. Not to mention, I have set up, in my current layout, the track, and it was running great, only to wish to add or change something as time goes by(mostly switches). I think it's just part of this particular hobby, moreso than most. Your never satisfied, and from what I've observed, you, I and everyone else, our imaginations are constantly going, as we both gain experience, and skill. So your far from alone.

And imho, the only dumb mistake, is one that is never attempted. As long as your trying to learn and progress in anything, there are going to be mistakes. Just part of the game.. If you are gonna play... 

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk


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## Bucket list (Jun 21, 2014)

I have stopped trying to solder upside down under the layout. Too painful. Especially when you drop the iron.......


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

*LOL!*



Bucket list said:


> I have stopped trying to solder upside down under the layout. Too painful. Especially when you drop the iron.......


 Yes, been there, done that, "with ruffles and flourishes" yet!
Back when I was young and ignorant (as opposed to old and senile) I was doing some under-the-layout wiring. I reached up for my trusty soldering iron, which was on top of the table. Grasping it firmly by the wrong end (the scorching hot barrel) I managed to drip hot solder from the iron down the inside of my arm, which in turn caused me to straighten up (screaming) and bash my head into the points of many track nails driven through the plywood. This is how I learned how to cuss at a young and tender age! Hardly my finest hour! :smilie_auslachen:

As the skydiver said when his chute wouldn't open,  "Gravity's a female dog." or something along those lines! 

Traction Fan:smilie_daumenpos:


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## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

OverKast, this thread is in no way 'scale agnostic'. Telling the forum what scale your layout is, is just that..No one has said to only talk HO, or N, or O, or S.. It's merely a matter of how densely populated each scale is..A thread may be top heavy HO due to being the most modeled scale, with N next. O is probably 3rd and S 4th most popular..and with no value judgement of either, in this way..


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

telltale said:


> OverKast, this thread is in no way 'scale agnostic'. Telling the forum what scale your layout is, is just that..No one has said to only talk HO, or N, or O, or S.. It's merely a matter of how densely populated each scale is..A thread may be top heavy HO due to being the most modeled scale, with N next. O is probably 3rd and S 4th most popular..and with no value judgement of either, in this way..


I don't think you understood what he meant by "scale agnostic". It means "scale doesn't matter". In other words, hobbyists all make dumb mistakes, no matter what scale they model in. Or what hobby they're in, for that matter.

Or were you thinking he said "scale _antagonistic_"?


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

*Say what?*



telltale said:


> OverKast, this thread is in no way 'scale agnostic'. Telling the forum what scale your layout is, is just that..No one has said to only talk HO, or N, or O, or S.. It's merely a matter of how densely populated each scale is..A thread may be top heavy HO due to being the most modeled scale, with N next. O is probably 3rd and S 4th most popular..and with no value judgement of either, in this way..


telltale;

All I got from reading Overkast's post about this thread being "scale agnostic" was that the subject of the thread, stupid mistakes we have made, was not limited to any one scale. He said nothing about one scale being better than another. On the contrary he's simply pointing out something that modeling scale has nothing to do with, human error. My own post regarding my misadventure with a hot soldering iron, happened to occur when I was modeling in a different scale than I am now. I didn't mention either scale, because they had nothing at all to do with what happened.

Traction Fan


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## Overkast (Jan 16, 2015)

telltale said:


> OverKast, this thread is in no way 'scale agnostic'. Telling the forum what scale your layout is, is just that..No one has said to only talk HO, or N, or O, or S.. It's merely a matter of how densely populated each scale is..A thread may be top heavy HO due to being the most modeled scale, with N next. O is probably 3rd and S 4th most popular..and with no value judgement of either, in this way..


telltale, I said that becuse this thread is posted in the HO scale forum, and I was simply making an observation that modeling faux pas aren't exclusive to HO. It was a playful way for me to tell a related story even though I'm not modeling in HO scale... I wasn't implying any scale is better than the other.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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## Stumpy (Mar 19, 2013)

So far the worst I've done is to completely ballast over a turnout, gluing it open... or closed.


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## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

I stand collected ..M


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## tr1 (Mar 9, 2013)

*I"m having dual XFMR's connection difficulties once again*

Both out puts work I just do not know how to connect both up withAtlas electrical control slide switches.
I'm almost ready to give up
Regard's,
tr1


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

tr1 said:


> Both out puts work I just do not know how to connect both up withAtlas electrical control slide switches.
> I'm almost ready to give up
> Regard's,
> tr1


Um, is that supposed to be in this thread? Looks like it's going off in a totally new direction.


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