Model Railroading > Disaster strikes our work in progress layout

As many of you know I have been building a layout with my son. Last night we went to Home Depot to buy some expanding foam only to hear probably the scariest announcements over the PA: "Todd Clark you have a call at special services desk." In my entire life I have never been paged. I thought someone died. I picked up the phone and on the other end was my wife. She told me water was streaming into our loft from the ceiling on top of the layout.

I rushed home to find the condensation outlet for the A/C had gotten clogged and water was streaming out of the unit above in the attic. I poke a hole in the drywall and water came streaming out. It was a lake up there.

After removing a few square feet of drywall it became apparent that I would have to move the layout. With my 5 year old son screaming "no dad, please don\'t do it!" I I nipped the rails with track clippers and with a knife cut the layout in pieces (it\'s on foam). In less than five minutes I created enough damage to occupy a weekend.

A lousy weekend, when left for Home Depot an hour earlier the air conditioning on my car blew up. I started the car and there was a loud explosion , followed by a large cloud of white gas. I am not going out for the rest of the weekend as I know I will be struck by lightening.

Todd Clark

And I thought I had it rough. Hey Todd, what you need is a long cool one.
Model Railroading is serious business.

If that is the way it is going stay away from your hedge trimmer. Mine jumped up and bit me 4 weeks ago. The 3 stitches didn\'t hurt as much as the bills.

mBob

Wow, bad luck. It seems to follow me as well. 2 weeks ago, 449 came thru with 5 and 49(I have a shot of 5 already, but not 49), then the car\'s air conditioning went, my bike needs a new gear system, and now, my window in the train room is leaking again. I am used to bad luck though, because it seems to follow me.

Wow. I need to chop down a couple of trees that have died. I think I\'ll wait a bit. I hope Monday isn\'t a disaster for you, Todd.

Todd,
Look at this way. Now you can start over and rebuild using what you learned to do and not do. You have "one under the belt" so to speak.

Todd
Murphy\'s Law: Anything that can go wrong, will!
Sod\'s Law : It will always happen at the most inconvenient time, and the most inconvenient place!
I guess you\'ve just proven both of them!!!
Seriously though - I\'m sorry to hear of your troubles, and hope the "sorting" of them isn\'t too expensive
Shortliner (Jack) in the Highlands of Scotland (where air conditioning means you are stood with your back to a log fire with your Kilt up!)(and a very large malt in your hand - Slainte!)<vbg>

Todd,
Sorry to hear about the mishaps. Could have been worse I suppose. I\'ve often wondered how I could build in survivability into my future layout. Problem is, theres so much that could happen, I don\'t know if theres a cure-all for it!

Let this be a lesson to all you modelers in the basement, keep the drainage ditches free and clear!

Always disappointing to hear about negative happenings to our hard work...

\'Spatcher out.

I agree with all the above posts and my condolences... but make sure your son is involved with the reconstruciton. An event like that to us, can seem like the END OF THE WORLD to a young 5 year old. One of the most indellable memories an adult has, is his "fathers" first train set. Good luck in the reconstruction and if you get a chance post some pictures.

-Charles

My three year old son was helping me pick lichen for the layout yesterday when he slipped down an enbamkment into some barbed wire. Three stitches. Ooof.

Tim G

sounds like me, I have to work on my layout AND my car at the same time (got a water pump failure on the car) but I love working on my layout and hating working on my car. With the money I place in my car, I can invest into my layout (with 89,700 miles on the car, some things love to fail)

Jason Trew/Chessie2018

tried to send one but but computer lacked capacity