Tool fairies

[stevewalker]

You never see them, but they are there, spiriting tools away and hiding them!

My board is U-shaped, with track at the back of the cross-board, behind a (low) hill. I can access it by reaching over while standing on a step, but as the loco depot at the front is not yet installed, it is easier to sit on the board itself. As such, I know that having got on there, I have not moved anywhere, because that would have involved getting off and and that is a reasonable physical effort as it is around 48 inches from the floor! Yet, having knocked three pins into a length of flexi, I moved the Tracksetta along, realised that I'd not positioned the next pin and removed the Tracksetta to make it easier to find the hole that I'd already made. I reached about 14 inches to the right to pick up a pin, leant back and put it in the hole and have now spent the last 40 minutes looking for the Tracksetta.

The board is tight to the wall and fixed there, so it can't have fallen down the back and there is nothing in the area that it could be under, other than a couple of pieces of track bed and a second length of flexi-track, each of which I have lifted and looked under. The hill stops it coming any further forward, but even so, I have looked on the floor and under the board.

It has just vanished.

I have come in to get myself a drink, sit for a few minutes and then go back for another look.

[RailGooner]

I often find the quickest way to find a missing tool, is to buy another. The original normally reveals itself when it hears the postie approaching with the new one. :'(

[PennineWagons]

Maybe you absent-mindedly put it behind your ear, like woodworkers sometimes do with pencils?
PW

[Jim Easterbrook]

1/ Steal tools.
2/
3/ Profit!

[LASteve]

I often find the quickest way to find a missing tool, is to buy another. The original normally reveals itself when it hears the postie approaching with the new one. :'(

Ain't that the truth. I ordered a yardstick compass from one of the hobby suppliers here in the US, in Arizona. After two weeks, no sign of it so I called to suggest that they might like to send me a replacement as the original obviously got lost in the post. Of course, no problem, sorry for the incovenience.  Sure enough, the next evening the replacement arrived - wonderful customer service, very prompt!

A week later, the actual replacement was delivered It's sitting on my desk two inches from where I'm typing this and I feel guilty every time I look at it that I've not sent it back. 

[Jim Easterbrook]

1/ Steal tools.
2/
3/ Profit!

That obscure reference would have worked better if I could prevent automatic "smiley" substitution for 3 question marks.

[daffy]

I usually find things where I last left them, though my problem is remembering where that was.🤪

But as a suggestion I would venture you might find the Tracksetta caught in an item of clothing you are wearing: "It's behind you!" That's happened to me more than once.

But wherever it is it'll be found in the last place you look for it.

Happy hunting.

[stevewalker]

It's not caught in my clothing - I checked, plus pockets, plus on the floor around, in case clothing had snagged it and lifted it over the edge.

What is worse, is that I went back, had another look and still didn't find it. So I switched to laying the parallel track. Again I got to the third or fourth pin, used my phone to light the track better and find the hole, put the pin in and ... the  track gauge has done exactly the same thing 

How can something bright red disappear, in the space of 15 seconds, without me moving anything except my arms and even those only to pick up a pin and my phone that were right by me!

I give up.

I'll order replacements, I'll immediately have two sets right in front of me then!

[chrism]

I dropped a pen once. Spent ages looking for it, shifting the chair, the bin, everything, to no avail. Gave up and got another one out.

At the end of the day I picked up the bin to put it for the cleaner to empty and found the pen - neatly clipped to the rim !!

Couldn't have done that if I'd been trying 

[Bealman]

I frequently go hunting for me glasses when they're on me head 

[daffy]

Hmmmmnn....... curiouser and curiouser

So back to first principles I think, as I always did back in the day when I was an expert at finding things others could not. My apologies if this all seems a bit obvious.

- the Tracksettas must be somewhere.
- they are not where you have looked, a.k.a. where they could or should be.
- logically therefore they have to be where you have not looked, a.k.a. where they can't possibly or shouldn't be.

So search now only where they shouldn't or can't possibly be, and reconsider your conclusions so far. In other words, think crazy.

For example, you say you checked your clothing, and they weren't caught up there. However, that is when you checked them, but what had you done, or more importantly where had you been between losing them and checking your clothing. Is there any possibility, no matter how slim, that one or both caught in your clothing and were transferred beyond the confines of your current search area, say to a kitchen or bathroom, and then dropped there?

Again, you were working on your layout, and the Tracksettas were on your layout when last seen, but are not seen there now. Seemingly from what you are saying the only thing that has changed on the layout is that you have laid more track. Has that action or it's associated activities hidden them from view?

Apologies if this all sounds rather obvious, but in my experience when something goes missing the human brain can often ignore the obvious and the logical, especially as time passes and a degree of frustration and sometimes even panic takes over.

Alternatively, take the pragmatic approach: stop looking, take a break, forget about them. Maybe they will just come to light. Some day. And when they do the most likely thing you will say is "How on Earth did it/they end up there? That's crazy!"

Best wishes and hopes that they turn up soon.

[N_GaugeModeller]

They will be exactly where you left them, just covered up by something you moved but don't remember moving.

Unless it's the old catoon joke, and you accidently sat on them whilst shuffling about the layout and they are still their stuck to your butt

https://images.app.goo.gl/bELAgvNVcDePhQ1m8

[GoesWhenReady]

I find tool boxes and drawers to be quite good at repelling those fairies. Apparently those fairies don't have the brute strength to wrastle around with latches or keyways. 

[railsquid]

Look in the proverbial last place you would look first. This act will of course cause the item not to be in the last place you look as it will now be the first place, but if you are quick, you'll catch it in the first place you would have looked, to which it has just hastily moved.

[TrevL]

Sadly, I can relate to this.  I'd like to put it down to old age, but I've done it all my life .  My problem is I'm concentating in what I'm doing, and not paying any attention to where I put the tool down.  Must be in the genes, my son does it too