Jump to content
 

Where do All the Little Bits Disappear to?


Recommended Posts

On 22/09/2021 at 21:09, cessna152towser said:

Yes, I have that experience too.   I lost an etched nameplate off a loco.   Months later, after I had bought a replacement pair, the original turned up on the floor, even though the floor had been checked and cleaned several times in the intervening period.   My wife still hasn't found her three metre long guitar cable which went missing a few months ago from the top of her amplifier.

Rule No.1: "The original re-appears as soon as soon as you buy a replacement".

Peterfgf

  • Like 1
  • Agree 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Hello everyone

 

Like many here, I have had 'bits go missing'. However, here's a story that some may not believe...

 

Many moons ago, I was servicing a Hornby County loco (the 4-6-0 type, ex-Dapol). If you have one, you will know that the tender to loco coupler arrangement employs a very small spring - I guess, from memory, possibly in the region of 2mm diameter by 10mm length.

 

The spring pinged of into mid-air and simply disappeared.

 

A day or so later, I was running trains and brought a freight train from the hidden sidings onto the scenic section. As the train moved slowly past, I noticed something on a Bogie Bolster...the spring had landed perfectly upright in hoop-la manner right over a stanchion!

 

Brian

  • Like 4
  • Agree 2
  • Funny 7
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
On 23/09/2021 at 06:09, cessna152towser said:

Yes, I have that experience too.   I lost an etched nameplate off a loco.   Months later, after I had bought a replacement pair, the original turned up on the floor, even though the floor had been checked and cleaned several times in the intervening period.   My wife still hasn't found her three metre long guitar cable which went missing a few months ago from the top of her amplifier.

Maybe YOU used the cable for some wiring!

  • Funny 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
42 minutes ago, BMacdermott said:

Hello everyone

 

Like many here, I have had 'bits go missing'. However, here's a story that some may not believe...

 

Many moons ago, I was servicing a Hornby County loco (the 4-6-0 type, ex-Dapol). If you have one, you will know that the tender to loco coupler arrangement employs a very small spring - I guess, from memory, possibly in the region of 2mm diameter by 10mm length.

 

The spring pinged of into mid-air and simply disappeared.

 

A day or so later, I was running trains and brought a freight train from the hidden sidings onto the scenic section. As the train moved slowly past, I noticed something on a Bogie Bolster...the spring had landed perfectly upright in hoop-la manner right over a stanchion!

 

Brian

I don't believe you. Can you lose it again and film it this time?

  • Agree 1
  • Funny 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

i mislaid a pair of brass wheels for an american  brass loco ,not exactly super small .In the end I managed to get a set by pure luck ,this was long before the internet .About 5 years later I found them down the bottom of my garden !!!. We assume our springer took them  and buried them .I can find most stuff on the floor  as I know where it is but as I tend to put tiny parts in random containers its a nightmare finding them again ....doh

  • Friendly/supportive 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Another thing that can happen, is how did a mystery object get mixed in amongst others that are supposedly the same?

 

I had some brass 8BA screws to shorten one day. I had purchased myself a pair of sharp cutters that were labelled that they were for brass only. Fair enough, because they were brass so good to go. I had proved that at an earlier date, by using a bigger pair of side cutters and then filing the screws. This time I thought I'd use the correct tool and do it right the first time.

 

So I cut the first 19 and everything is fine, thinking how well things are going and job almost done, so picked up the 20th and CRUNCH go the blades and there is a big chunk out the middle of them.

 

On investigation, the screws were all blackened, with 19 brass and the 20th steel. So where did this POS come from?

  • Friendly/supportive 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

30 plus years ago I lived in small flat in which I installed a fair bit of carpet, most of my modelling was done on a small table on top of that carpet, thus it was for around 12 years. Anyway come the time to leave, I dragged said carpet out of the flat and was going to dump it, two flats away a beautiful young lady said could she have it, so we took into her place and rolled it out.............If she's a railway modeller she'll stiill be making stuff from the bits I lost in that rug!!:senile::D.

Mike

  • Like 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

On 26/09/2021 at 17:31, Steamport Southport said:

 

Borrowers?

 

I noticed they never gave anything back. More like Thieving Little B........s

 

 

:jester:

 

Actually that's a good point. Having re-done the stories with our youngest, it did occur to me that the 'Borrowers' were mainly thieves but with a good P.R department ;)

  • Agree 1
  • Funny 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Ben B said:

 

Actually that's a good point. Having re-done the stories with our youngest, it did occur to me that the 'Borrowers' were mainly thieves but with a good P.R department ;)

 

I never really watched it, but my niece watched it when it was on BBC in the 1990s.

 

I'm pretty certain there was a train set involved somewhere and I have a vague memory it was old Hornby LNER coaches. Can't find any mention of trains apart from this.

 

https://theborrowers.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Pott

 

 

 

Jason

Link to post
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Another thing that can happen, is how did a mystery object get mixed in amongst others that are supposedly the same?

 

I had some brass 8BA screws to shorten one day. I had purchased myself a pair of sharp cutters that were labelled that they were for brass only. Fair enough, because they were brass so good to go. I had proved that at an earlier date, by using a bigger pair of side cutters and then filing the screws. This time I thought I'd use the correct tool and do it right the first time.

 

So I cut the first 19 and everything is fine, thinking how well things are going and job almost done, so picked up the 20th and CRUNCH go the blades and there is a big chunk out the middle of them.

 

On investigation, the screws were all blackened, with 19 brass and the 20th steel. So where did this POS come from?

 

Job almost done? Was the 20th screw the last one? Sounds like a classic case of LOS (Last One Syndrome) to me! But how a steel screw got into a pile of brass ones is a good question.......

  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, ianmacc said:

I have them all. They’re all mine! Mwah hah hahhhhh…

 

I trade them with my network of borrowers in return for wool and buttons! 

12CE4D3C-E11A-451D-B6BA-84215D387B5C.jpeg

 

There's that springy device that holds Tri-ang motor bogies in place! 

These are definitely first class, "Where the he** has it got to?" bits and command a premium price on eBay as a result!

  • Funny 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Il Grifone said:

 

There's that springy device that holds Tri-ang motor bogies in place! 

These are definitely first class, "Where the he** has it got to?" bits and command a premium price on eBay as a result!

Yes I have a special band of elite borrowers that specialise in those! 
 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I heard noises in my railway room just now. I ran in and put the light on and I found this item of rolling stock that I don’t even own being pulled by one of my locomotives and I’m not sure whether this proves the existence of borrowers or not but it’s pretty compelling!! 
 

I have clearly interrupted something nefarious 

 

46AB1869-0648-46E2-ABDE-2321A7C96141.jpeg

Edited by ianmacc
Pic
  • Funny 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

I suspect mini-black holes. With all the electro-magnetic plasma in and around a model railway there is probably a zone where timeshifts develop. This would answer the mystery of why things re-appear months or even years later. I suspect, too, that there could a thriving model railway parts business in an alternative universe, or in a galaxy far, far, away, which keeps finding screws, nameplates, couplings etc and who is selling them as curiosities as they have no idea of what they are.

  • Like 2
  • Funny 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, geoffers said:

I suspect mini-black holes. With all the electro-magnetic plasma in and around a model railway there is probably a zone where timeshifts develop. This would answer the mystery of why things re-appear months or even years later. I suspect, too, that there could a thriving model railway parts business in an alternative universe, or in a galaxy far, far, away, which keeps finding screws, nameplates, couplings etc and who is selling them as curiosities as they have no idea of what they are.

 

That sounds like a totally plausible explanation to me. Mystery solved! :good:

  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, adb968008 said:

Its not just the little things that go missing, every now and again I find locos, coaches and wagons I completely forgot I had.

 

In laying out a new floor (thread elsewhere), I had to move a box last week and found a crateful of assorted Airfix and Trix wagons that I too had forgotten. Dunno how they got there as I thought I had catalogued everything I had in the Spring - French equivalent of the Borrowers had probably stashed them away.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

Link to post
Share on other sites

Investigating the mysterious wagon and its load of pilfered little bits and pieces I put a torch into one of my tunnels. Inside was a hidden turnout going into  hole in the wall. I could see the whites of eyes peering back guiltily. After threatening to run a train in flat out to flush them out these three little critters came out hands in the air and admitted everything. 
 

I took pity on them when they said they were selling them on eBay to feed their families… 

2A2BF01A-1459-4681-9AB8-0D2F7D9B635E.jpeg

  • Like 1
  • Funny 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
15 hours ago, geoffers said:

I suspect mini-black holes. With all the electro-magnetic plasma in and around a model railway there is probably a zone where timeshifts develop. This would answer the mystery of why things re-appear months or even years later. I suspect, too, that there could a thriving model railway parts business in an alternative universe, or in a galaxy far, far, away, which keeps finding screws, nameplates, couplings etc and who is selling them as curiosities as they have no idea of what they are.

Put simply, it's 5G!

  • Funny 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...