OK Who is the Idiot?

[Midland]

I am learning!
Went to run my Princess to day on the last day of passenger hauling and the injector did not work.

To cut a long story very short, the input cone was on my workshop floor and when introduced to the bloody injector it was fine, that is ten minutes before closing.
What a Wally"!!!!

Pass the whisky, going to bed in shame!

No name!!

[digger]

You are not alone, I drove to my club track, a distance of ten miles to run my Royal Scot, only to discover I had left the ash pan and grate in the workshop, I wondered why when I put the charcoal in, it fell on the floor :-)) It can happen to anyone.

Digger

[ejparrott]

I know someone who drove to the club without the tender....

[Deleted]

A loco with blanking plugs in place of safetys and fired up. Luckily he was mindful of the gauge and was anticipating them blowing.

Regards,

James.

PS this is not one of those "my mate..." stories, I'm more into the pouring something in, nothing to stop it coming out line...

[donashton]

This could be the longest thread on the forum - and brilliantly interesting!

I won't bore you with a list of my dropped ones.

Don.

[Roger]

I was being shown how to light the fire for the first time in a Hunslet when I casually asked how they filled it with water. That was followed by frantic attempts to blow the flame out which was just starting to take hold.

Usually I just look in the mirror to find the idiot...

[Rob]

I once drove for half an hour to do some downhill mountain biking, only to discover I'd left my front axle in the garage. Unicycling down a mountain is bloody hard work!

[shooter]

Guess who turned up to a clay shoot only to find my shotgun was safely locked up at home? Luckily I was able to borrow one but you do feel a bit of a twerp!

[doubletop]

I arrived at the track with my relatively new Northumbrian. It drew a bit of a crowd while I was preparing to fire up. Filled the tender and used the hand pump to fill the boiler and nothing doing, no water going anywhere. So I packed everything up and went home. It had to be the valves in the pump, so the tender came off the frames and the top plate removed. Pump out balls removed cleaned up and reassembled and back on the loco to try again. Still no water getting to the boiler. Then I closed the bypass.....

I now try to prep my locos before I leave home and discourage too many onlookers by unloading and leaving the loco on the steaming bay and go for a cuppa and a chat. They soon get bored waiting and disperse, I then go and fire up. OK not good PR but less distraction and, more to the point, cock-ups

Pete

[Shawki Shlemon]

I , not only don't want to bore you with a long list of misshaps over the last 34 years in the hobby but my problem is that I continue to do them ( more with old age ) .

[pault]

I bet no one has ever silver soldered 2 nipples onto a pipe, the solder runs beautifully round the joints, but you have forgotten to put the nuts on

[Deleted]

Oct 21, 2014 10:38:19 GMT pault said:

I bet no one has ever silver soldered 2 nipples onto a pipe, the solder runs beautifully round the joints, but you have forgotten to put the nuts on

I bet I...I mean 'they' have....

[dfh]

Many years ago while running refrigeration pipes from a loft space to a shop cabinet in a supermarket using 100' coils of annealed copper after roughly pulling the pipe through we used an external bending spring to put the bends in around corners and where it passed through walls etc. Of course pulling the spring off at the end, after connecting up at each end, charging with gas and commissioning the system, while tidying up everything we noticed the spring still on the pipe in the warehouse where the pipe passed through a wall. The spring ended up half and half through the wall, left there as "protection against chaffing on the brickwork".
David

[digger]

Oct 21, 2014 10:38:19 GMT pault said:

I bet no one has ever silver soldered 2 nipples onto a pipe, the solder runs beautifully round the joints, but you have forgotten to put the nuts on

Possibly worse than that, you find one of the union nuts is on backwards :-))

Digger

[Daniel]

At least I'm not alone. I have driven two hours to an open day and realised 2/3rds of the way there I left my boiler paperwork in a safeplace..... on the bedside table! The air was blue in the car and I'm debating whether to turnround and drive back the 70 odd mile journey each way to get it or carry on. I decided that it would not be worth driving back as it would be mid afternoon by the time I arrived at te club it would have been mid afternoon and nearly time to leave so decided to drive on. Fortunately I was allowed to run at the club as I have a youtube channel and many of the members had seen my engine running at my home club and other clubs so they took my word for it was all in ticket.

I am also renound for forgetting things on leaving the club. Fireing irons, oil bottles and the ashpan etc. etc. Luckily for me I have been a member of clubs with honest members in who keep hold of my items until they next see me.

I've known people be to busy talking and lit a fire without water in the boiler quickly to drop the fire (oops!). And another occasion when a driver wondered why the sight glass was not clearing when he attmpeted to open the blow down and in his efforts to clear the bubble in the glass he only unscrewed the valve completely and have the entire contents of the boiler blow out.

The potentially most dangerous one I heard of (I was not there but was told about it) was someone who for some reason was removing their safety valve after a day of running and when unscrewing it, they had their head directly over the engine which shouldn't have been a problem. However, the boiler had some pressure in as it had not completely been blown down and the safety valve flew several feet in the air narrowly missing the owners head! I think he left the club with his tail between his legs that day.

All good fun with another day at the club

Regards

Daniel

[marshall5]

Oct 21, 2014 10:38:19 GMT pault said:

I bet no one has ever silver soldered 2 nipples onto a pipe, the solder runs beautifully round the joints, but you have forgotten to put the nuts on

Guilty M'lud! Ray.

[jma1009]

i havent made any errors when arriving at the track or steaming up,
but have made plenty in the workshop including 2 trips to A & E in 31 years! my Fobco Star pillar drill is alongside patio windows and i would hate to admit the number of times ive started up the pillar drill with the chuck key still in the chuck! it bashes the patio window glass but it hasnt smashed - yet!
when i was turning the smokebox door for Stepney the other week i got some gunmetal swarf in my left ear - luckily it fell out of it's own accord! otherwise another trip to A & E!
cheers,
julian

[Rob]

Speaking of A+E... I seem to do a brilliant job of getting things in my eye. It doesn't matter how many layers of eye protection I wear, the moment I take them off...

It all started with industrial strength paint stripper when I was about 16. Metal splinters, wood splinters, saw dust, rust, unexpected chicken beaks, UFOs. You name it, it's been in my eye. Luckily, most times I've managed to get whatever it is out with a little help, but twice I've had to go down to the A+E. The second time whatever it was that was stuck in there came out whilst I was sat waiting in the A+E reception, but not after leaving me waiting for an hour and a half and the several hours before that of agonising over whether to make the trip or not.

[GWR 101]

Anybody suffered hot swarf down the shirt front. Definitely results in some fancy footwork.

[ejparrott]

Every day....