MisterBeasleydoctorwayneThe floor is un-painted concrete, which I vacuum as required Unfinished concrete constantly "sheds" dust as you walk over it. Our basement now has cheap linoleum, but before that we put down self-stick tiles. This required applying a sealer over the concrete. It's was just a couple of gallons of stuff applied with a sponge mop - no big deal either time or money-wise. Or, you can just get garage floor paint and put that down.
doctorwayneThe floor is un-painted concrete, which I vacuum as required
Unfinished concrete constantly "sheds" dust as you walk over it. Our basement now has cheap linoleum, but before that we put down self-stick tiles. This required applying a sealer over the concrete. It's was just a couple of gallons of stuff applied with a sponge mop - no big deal either time or money-wise. Or, you can just get garage floor paint and put that down.
I'd certainly agree with you about the concrete "shedding" dust, but it doesn't appear to be much, if any. The dirt that I'm vacuuming is mostly from stuff that is brought into the layout room, as there are a lot of storage shelves under the layout. I also do tree making (over newspaper) on the floor, and picture framing for my artist daughter, so there is some debris created - one wide aisle in the layout room is the only floor space available for such work. I vacuum up the debris promptly, rather than sweeping, as it's less abrasive to the concrete and it also removes the dust rather than putting it into the air. I can rub my hand back and forth over the vacuumed floor without picking up any dust, so I think that the concrete finishers may have applied some sort of sealer - it's very smooth.
I should also mention that the only time that I've had to clean track is after ballasting or doing scenery close to the track. While my layout is DC-controlled, and all rail joints are soldered, I think that room preparation has been a big factor in this.
Wayne
I have used the Black & Decker dust buster. 1. it doesn't suck the mountains off the table like a shop vac. 2. easy to empty, and the small capacity allows you to find the occaisional "citizen" that may find it's way in there. 3. the narrow nozzel and attachment allows for aiming at what you want - not 1/2 of the layout!!
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Just about everything everbody else said, great tip on the nylon over the nozzle. I use a small hand held Hoover I've had for about 30 years. It has the removable cloth bag so if I happen to pick up a small piece I can still find it. I have a painted concrete floor and don't vacumm, the discharge on the shop vac just blows the dust all over the place. I use sweeping compound and sweep with a push broom. The compound keeps the dirt and dust down, it's sort of moist, works great.
ham99But be careful with a vacuum. I have lost several Preiser citizens and Athearn vehicles in its innards. Now I put a nylon stocking loosely over the end of the vacuum hose if I am going among the population. That gives me a safety net.
But be careful with a vacuum. I have lost several Preiser citizens and Athearn vehicles in its innards. Now I put a nylon stocking loosely over the end of the vacuum hose if I am going among the population. That gives me a safety net.
The nylon stocking works even better if you put it over the end of the attachment that inserts into the hose.
One of the best ways to simplify layout cleaning is to not let it get dirty in the first place. My layout is in the basement, in its own room, with a door. There are no windows and no openings for furnace or air conditioning. The floor is un-painted concrete, which I vacuum as required, and all of the walls are finished. I recently noticed a bit of debris on one of the translucent panels that are installed under the lights above the suspended ceiling. Rather than lift that panel and risk dumping the dirt on the layout, I lifted an adjacent ceiling tile and slid it to the side. Using the shop vac and standing on a ladder, it was easy to vacuum up the dirt. However, what I discovered was that that panel and all of the ones within reach were all covered with a light coating of granulated "dirt" of some sort. The house is 20 years old, and having done the construction myself, I can attest to the fact that construction dirt was cleaned up as it was made. The drywall dust was vacuumed up, along with sawdust and any other dirt that may have been present before the finished floors were put down, and so on. In the 17 or 18 years that the layout has been in place, I've vacuumed it only once, last year. Obviously, if that drop ceiling hadn't been in place, the layout would have needed much more care.
The layout is only partially "finished", so the cleaning job last year wasn't too difficult. Using a shop vac, with a crevass attachment, I cleaned up cobwebs along the wall/ceiling joint and anywhere else I noticed them. Bare plaster areas and track were cleaned with the same tool and also using the soft brush attachment. The latter was particularly useful for roads and streets, structures, and sceniced areas (except for trees). Figures, vehicles and loose details were moved beforehand. Rolling stock that was on the layout was also vacuumed using the brush attachment, although the steam locos got the coal emptied from their tenders first. For really delicate stuff, a soft 1" brush works well: just don't do the "dusting" in the layout room.
In my opinion, though, the biggest factor in keeping your layout clean is to resist the temptation to get a layout quickly built, and instead, prepare the room properly first.
Lionel Strang did a Working on the Rail Raoad article a few years ago exactly on this. If I can find it in the back issues I'll post which one - still haven't figured the new forum out to search it
ratled
Modeling the Klamath River area in HO on a proto-lanced sub of the SP “The State of Jefferson Line”
In one of the last Great Model Railroads that displayed George Sellios' Franklin and South Manchester, he demonstrated how he cleans his layout.
He uses a shop vacuum held about 4 - 8 inches from an object, then he uses a very soft and fluffy brush to 'stir up' the dust so the vacuum can pull it away. I tried it with one of my wife's soft bristle makup brush and it works prety good.
Joe
I tried to do a search to find some threads on tips for cleaning layouts, not the tracks. I didn't have much luck. Anyone have a link or a place to get some advise on how to clean the layout, don't want to suck up my civilization. I'm getting ready to start putting scenery on and thought there might be some tips on what and what not to do so cleaning is easier thank you