TrainsRMe1My wife found two little varmits today in the garage that shook me some considering I'm have a fobia about mice,
Yesterday at my dog's vets office there was a lady there that had her pet rat with her. It's name was Marshmellow. It was about the size of a squirrel with a foot long hairless tail and black and white fur. Marshmellow sat in her lap just as calm as could be while she brushed her with her hand and would then climb up her arm and sit on the ladies shoulder. The woman said rats make very good pets and great conversation pieces.
Jarrell
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
The only critter problem at my house is birds cmeing throuth the stovepipe in my unused woodstove, and out the draft regulators. we know there there if in the early morning-mid afternoon we hear THUNK!, THUNK!, Knock,Knock,Knock, Thunk, and the sounds of wings comeing from the basement.
Hi again,
One more point I would like to add.......
There are some benefits to completely closing off the layout area in the garage. By that I mean to build a wall a foot or two from the garage door, and having a lower ceiling to clear the door rails (so the door will still operate). As a result, you will get a completely sealed train room, which will greatly help control critters, dust, and allow you to put up around the room backdrops.
Oh, one more thing that may or may not apply........ By having a sealed, dedicated train room in the garage, the temptation by "others" so put stuff on or under the layout will be much less. Trust me, seeing your layout with non RR related stuff laying on it - that you didn't put there - can really be a downer.
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Sounds like you need to remove the cowcatchers from your steamers and replace them with mousecatchers! Seriously, I dealt with that problem while living in Joliet (Illinois) and good ol mousetraps w/pn butter were the best solution for my situation.
Welcome to the wonderful world of the "West Coast Basement". Is it a double-car garage and do you get the whole thing? Hope so--think of the neat wide radii and room enough for nice, gentle grades.
I don't know about Oregon, but down here in the Central Valley of California, the only 'critters' I have to worry about are a family of raccoons who like to use my garage as a thoroughfare between the street and the back yard. But that's okay--if you don't bother them, they'll just wander through like you weren't even there, LOL!
Have fun. Keep us posted on the progress.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
You are on the right track - just keep on chugging.
I have finished my upgrade and it is gorgeous. Because my house in Sunny Scottsdale Arizona faces Northeast, I get a lot of hot summer sun in the afternoons on the outside cement block wall. The first order of the day was to cut three windows near the celing for 8,000 btu window air conditioners with dedicated 20 amp circuits brought from the breaker box.
The walls were then furred with 2 x 3 studs placed flat and the spaces filled with 2 inch foam panels liquid nailed to the block wall. That was drywalled, textured and painted as was the ceiling and all walls and the garage door.
There was already a celing so we just had to cut a 20 foot slot between the joists to install 5 48 inch recessed fluorescent fixtures. These are small total wattage so are just connected to the existing center light fixture but I did have another 20 amp circuit installed to run the trains.
The metal double garage door was easy to insulate with batts from HD made for that purpose.
The floor was finished with two coats of garage floor epoxy coating followed by 2 coats of clear epoxy. It not only looks gorgeous but it is extemely durable and won't peel up as paint will eventually. I finished the end wall with a work bench with kitchen cabinets mounted to the celing with a two lamp fluorescent shop light under it. Plenty of light there now.
I have obtained a bunch of kitchen under counter cabinets from ny rehabber neighbor which I will use to support the layout and provide oodles of storage space.
The final touch was to install garage cabinets along the insulated wall with upper kitchen cabinets between the air conditioners. Now I have all of the storage space I will ever need.
I have purchased a 42 inch flat screen HDTV which will be mounted on a swivel bracket near the ceiling in the corner over the water heater. Hopefully, I will now be able to wean myself from being a couch potato in front of the tube every night and not getting any modeling done. I don't have to watch every pitch in the Diamondbacks games anyway.
Since I am a professional tax practitioner I haven't had a chance to begin the layout, but April 15th will be soon upon me and my tax freedom day will allow me to begin that chore.
One final word. Forget about the paint on the floor.
I too have had mouse problems. I once found one in the middle of the track having a "bath" [preening]. It didn't take any notice of me as I rushed to get a jar and a piece of cardboard - I contemplated whapping it with a hammer but decided this would be too messy and more importantly damage my setup - it just sat there while I put the jar over him and slid the cardboard underneath. I just let him go outside the house [softy]. I now use mouse traps and the kind you get with the flat yellow plastic "bait area" work quite well and you don't have to clean up messy cheese or peanut butter bait. If I see evidence of mice, I put out 4 or 5 traps - usually get a few catches in a day or two, then they're gone. Don't use rodent killer as this can leave the mouse to die inside your wall cavity [they can get into very small spaces] and then you have a bigger problem. You could also gwt a cat - they work!!
Alan
Thanks mobileman,
I never thought of sealing the floor with concrete paint, I will do that, and a seprated circuit would be a good idea too, I already have an AC I just have to have a window installed and we are in business!! thanks to all of your suggestions, keep em comin'
Trainsrme1
Well you are ahead of me I am still trying to get the basement ready.
When I lived in California I had a garage layout. Many of the points Mobilman made are right on. You might want to consider going out and buying some carpet remnants as a cheap way of making the floor more comfortable where the operators stand.
As for the critters - well, about a year ago my better half visited me for 2 weeks while I was working in Asia, so the house was empty. When she got home she found some mouse droppings and freaked - that discovery cost me about 35 grand in kitchen remodeling, but that's another story. In your case, you may want to check that your doors (and particularly the main garage door) have a good tight seal with their frames - that'll help to keep the critters out. Cheers, and good luck.
Hi!
You have probably thought of the following but I'll give some suggestions anyway.....
- Seal the concrete floor with concrete paint to curtail dust and cosmetics.
- Sheetrock the walls/ceiling and insulate them.
- If you can, get a separate electrical circuit just for the train room, and install plenty of lighting and outlets.
- Not sure of your weather, but installing a wall/window A/C unit might be a major plus.
Oh, most important - ENJOY!!!!!
From Choo Choo de Ville,
Good luck building trains in the garage. I'm in the same caboose you are! Last week her in KY I began setting posts in concete getting ready to build a shed for my trains. Weather was in the 60s nice and sunny. Today we are to expect rain and tomorrow snow and rain mix. Suppose to be cold until Wednesday. Been waiting 15 years to get my engines running, but no room for them. Decided to build a shed and I have all the lumber ready and waiting. Thought I might be delayed by a dove on the nest nearby where I plan to build, but contacted an expert and she said "ok to build as long as I don't bother the nest." There's always something keeping me from getting those tracks put down. Good luck with the mice problem. We've got a chipmunk problem here. Just set a live trap and capture the little critters and send them off to work with my husband. He sets them free for me. Hope the weather changes soon for you!
Hey all,
I thought I would give you the latest report on my project, we made some progress today, getting some of the junk out of the garage, we still have a ways to go,but we are makin' good progress. We are making a dump run tomorrow and that will help alot, hopefully by the end of next month the weather will be nicer more that nasty and we will be able to make better progress, I'm hoping to install the drywall and lights by June that's when the fun work comes in, I will post pic's sometime soon, My wife found two little varmits today in the garage that shook me some considering I'm have a fobia about mice, But that is NOT going to stop me from building our trainroom, I want some kind of good flooring so when I do have op sessions my crew will feel comfortble, any seggestions is welcomed Thanks and once again I will post pic's,it's too much of a mess now to post any pic's but when the actual trainroom takes shape look for them then.
Take care and have a great spring