What do folks use as dust covers. My layout is in a old 100 year old stone foundation home.
For a layout long ago in a dusty environment I used fairly heavy piano wire (as I recall about the size of coat hanger wire) to form hoops over the layout. For lengths longer than a piece of piano wire I spliced two or more pieces by soldering brass tubing to the ends. Some of the hoops ran lengthwise and some crosswise. Where they intersected I soldered short pieces of brass tubing together at the appropriate crossing angle. I could then insert the ends of the hoops into these--sort of a framework puzzle. I drilled holes in the layout edges just big enough to be able to insert the wire ends. Once the framework was up I spread a very thin painter's drop cloth over all of it. A 9' x 12' drop cloth weighs only ounces.
As you can imagine it took a while to set up and take down so I only put it up when I thought it would be at least several days before I would want to play again.
I used a combination of 1" pink foam board for the top (cover) and hardboard pieces that attached to the facia for the supports. The harboard pieces were removeable pieces about 3 feet long, taller that the tallest structure attached using 2 part picture hanger brackets. The pink foam board simply rested atop the vertical edge of the hardboard.
I had a 22 foot shelf layout in the garage, and it took me about 2 minutes to take off, and 5 minutes to put back up. It did a good job of keeping dust off the layout in my opinion, and living in a cold winter/hot summer climate, there were sometimes months that I was not able to operate the railroad. And I did not need to clean it after that long period.
Mike
If the layout is a shelf type or not too deep, you can use sheets of foam board (20" x 30" at Dollar Tree) and make a lightweight cover in sections that can be installed or removed in minutes. I use it for dust covers in my tunnel (18' tunnel!). For large layouts you are looking at a time consuming process.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Gday modelers this might help .
size is 6ft x 3ft
https://youtu.be/MTZRKU3yl9w
Cheap, cheap plastic dropcloths. These things are about as thick as Saran Wrap but not sticky; forgot the brand name. Just have to be a little careful not to snag them on anything because they tear rather easily. But since they're cheap, it's no big deal if you do tear one.
Add a drop ceiling to the area.
Not hard to install.
only take a few inches of head room.
work space will be brighter.
This will catch all the dust coming from above.
Steve
jack308gtsi. My layout is in a old 100 year old stone foundation home
Mine also, built 1894, A drop ceiling is out of the question,to clear most pipes and joists I would end up with 5ft6in head room.
I stapled a heavy clear plastic sheet to the ceiling, just wrapping around any pipes ect. Made a day and night difference