Securing Buildings

[ERIC WARHOL]

Hello-

After years of waiting/planning/dreaming I'm finally starting my garden railway. I watched the Discovery Series on YouTube by Mark Found on Garden Railroads. That has answered alot of my beginner questions. I do have one on securing buildings down on the layout, any tips? How do I secure for windy days, storms, etc. I live in Minnesota, so there are weather extremes from -40 below zero in winter to 100+ above zero in summer.

Eric

[ttrigg]

Eric

 I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that you also experience some frost/thaw heave. Given that, I’m going to say that simply gluing the structures to a concrete ‘paving stone’ would require yearly ‘re-sets’, unless you were to drive a post (wood, steel, or concrete) below the frost line. I believe the same would most likely go for your track as well. I know that some have driven metal (wood) fence post deep into the ground with a ‘sub-road-bed’ spanning member (PVC pipe, wood, cement etc). I’ll let others with climates like yours to suggest their favorite methods.

 Living almost at the top of the hill, I have experienced some high winds, some which knocked cars from the tracks, but not engines. From the beginning I have always ‘spiked’ my people, dogs, pigs, cows, horses, etc to the ground. Went to my local welding supply shop and bought a package of small diameter brass welding rods, drill a smaller hole into the foot and leg of people and animals (I gave up on the pigs and drilled into their bellies), insert a spike that reaches 2 ½ ~ 3 inches in the ground. I’ve drilled larger holes in the timbers of my timber bridge thus allowing the work crew to stay on the bridge without falling off. For the few structures that do move by the wind, I have added 2 such spikes glued into opposing corners of the building. The ‘spikes’ have an added advantage in that there is a ‘handle’ when the people and animals need a paint touch-up, shove the spike into a block of packing Styrofoam for drying and storage.

 I know there are at least 3 major thoughts of building preservation, leave in place and what ever happens just happens, storage in an outdoor storage shed (or garage), and building small ‘garages’ for each building (large wood boxes). Storage allows for repairs, painting, and enhancement during the off-season.

 If you spend some time and dig through the older posts here you can find several times where each topic has been discussed in depth. 

[two tone]

Hi A good response from Trigg my only concern is when you want to do maintenance on buildings, it seems a bit fiddly to remove them and reinstall

[piercedan]

I used the malibu low voltage system with  light posts only (no top hats) and just place buildings on them.

Been outside for years with no problem and I can just pick up the building to change/clean it.

[ttrigg]

Building maintenance: 

My first town sat on a pair of 36 inch square concrete pavers and the buildings were glued in place. This played havoc when trying to perform maintenance and the buildings 'died' after about 4 years. It was just too hard to pick it up, move to work bench, and then re-install. The buildings with spikes just require a gentle shove to drive the spikes into the ground. Shortly after my late wife got her first digital camera, I came home from work to find her on her tummy taking photos. She had moved about 3/4 of the structures into a scene of the "circus comes to town". She loved hitting the stores at Christmas time for items from the Christmas Villages. Most of which were NOT outdoor approved, They came out only for special occasions and photo shoot days. Lesson here is: just because an item is not outdoor approved does not mean it cannot be used to create special scenes on major running days.