I live in South Louisiana and was wondering how well a Kato Unitrack layout would function in my garage. What kind of upkeep should I expect with this location?
South Louisiana... probly no basement. Garage? yeah that could work, are you also going to park a car in it, that can be a problem. Dirt and dust may be an issue.
I am not familiar with the Kato Unitrack, if it is Nickle Silver, then it should be ok, if it is steel track it will not work for you. It will rust and corrode like you would not believe in Loosieanna.
If you seal up the garage door, and air condition the place with positive pressure to keep the dust out, yes that would work, but still, do not use steel tracks, leave those outside where the big trains run.
And welcome to our forums. *I* am a LION, I live in North Dakota and I have built a model of the New York City Subway in a classroom above the library.
I don't suppose you have a spare classroom above your library. Pitty.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Kato Unitrack (aka 'The High-Price Spread') is a top quality (Japanese QC people) product, but limiting to a freehand/freelance railroad builder. Nickel-silver rail, effective locking system and good plastic should survive almost anything except direct sunshine.
If you can dust-seal your space, working in a garage shouldn't pose any greater challenge than working in a non-air-conditioned house. You might want to consider using steel studs rather than forest products for benchwork - steel doesn't react to changing humidity.
My own steel stud benchwork supports a layout in a non-climate-controlled garage in the Mojave Desert. You will have high humidity, while I have to contend with a 100 degree temperature swing between winter mornings and summer afternoons. Since I don't use DCC, I can't say how electronic thingies would react (or fail to.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I was looking at some prefab track with a base to do some testing of trains while I was in a small one bedroom apt and didn't have space for a layout. I did some checking as Bachmann EZ track and Kato Unitrack were the main contendors. At least the prices from MB Kleins for the Kato track wasn't that much more expensive than Bachmann for the basic curves and straight track and I received overwhelming advice to avoid the Bachmann track, mainly because folks weren't happy with the Bachmann turnouts (which is maybe where the bigger price difference is).
That said, Kato Unitrack is good quality and should work as good or better than anything else on the market. It's may simply come down to maintenence - keeping the rail surface clean and allowing the track to "breath".
With large temperature swings, the track may exhibit significant expansion and contraction and there for if fixed down tightly to benchwork, track may kink or pull part due to those big temp swings. I know this from personal experience and found out the hard way when I build a 16x19 foot layout in my garage in Indiana, where it could get quite hot in the summer, near 100 degree's, and very humid, yet in the winter it could get very dry and down to 0 degree's F. My track would pull apart in the extreme cold and in the heat, kink and distort. The garage was a pretty unforgiving environment if it was not temp and humidity controlled, which it wasn't.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
My experience is that it's the subroadbed - cork, epsom board etc. - that tends to expand or contract, rather than the rails. I've been using Kato Unitrack since 2008 and except for cleaning the rails a few times a year, it really has no maintenance issues. It's thin-profile code 83 nickel silver. Due to it's near-scale profile, I've been converting cars to 'semi-scale' wheelsets for a more realistic appearnance, again with no issues.
I also use Woodland Scenic risers. With unitrack, you can set up the track on flat benchwork and test out how it works for a while, then once things are the way you want them, use risers to change the track height to allow for underpasses, bridges, etc.
Hi Gerri, I'm in south Louisiana too! Kenner to be exact. It seems our humidity and the dust of a garage will be your most difficult problems to deal with. If it can be sealed and climate controlled that would help, but you will still have some expansion and contraction no matter what. My layout is in a spare carpeted bedroom in my house and I still get some of that depending on our weather.
Good luck and I hope that you can make it work.
Ken
My DCC layout fills a two car garage. The benchwork is constructed of forrest products, the track is mostly Atlas flex. The garage is insulated but not sealed, heated, or airconditioned. We are located in southern North Carolina. I have no environmental issues.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow