It never occurred to me to ask others and I can't ever remember seeing any write-ups about dust management. Other than building your pike in a hermetically sealed room, how does one clean the stuff off of what you've put hundreds and hundreds of hours into? I suppose that some layouts are small enough that some sort of sheet or cover could be used, depending on the delicacy of the scenery below. But even than presupposes getting your cover to the back, if the benchwork's not a complete walk-around. And some have enough space that they can at least run their power and rolling stock under hills or into storage yards (which probably are not dust-free anyway), but that doesn't address the effects on trackage, buildings and everything else. I also suppose that I could treat this thing like Mother Nature treats the real landscape. But when it's mostly up and running my creation will not take kindly to an occasional shower or wind storm. Besides, the dust on my layout will be a bit larger than scale! Please opine regarding two things: 1) what it affects most, and 2) how you mitigate it any more than how you keep it down in the rest of your house. And while we're at it, do any of you run dehumidifiers in indoor or otherwise weathertight spaces?
John B.
Portland, OR
Hey John:
Here is a recent thread on the subject:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/p/260146/2923927.aspx#2923927
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Well, to start with, you want to finish off the layout room. Sheet rock the walls and ceilings. Smooth tile floor that you can mop. Shelving to get all the stuff off the floor so it can be mopped. Walls with just exposed 2 by 4 studs are dirt collectors that cannot be cleaned. A door that closes to keep dirt from the rest of the house out. If you have forced hot air heat, change the air filter at least once a season.
To get dirt off the layout, a gentle vacuum, one of the hand held battery powered jobs. My shop vac is just too harsh, it will suck up ballast, ground cover, people, vehicles, small rolling stock, anything. A nice soft brush will get the dirt off rolling stock roofs, structure roofs, and the like. I go over the rails with a rag moistened in GooGone every so often.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Miniature shop vac tools.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
My ballast is glued down tight enough that I can run a vacuum over all of the trackwork. I follow the vacuum with a Woodland Scenics "Tidy-Track" tool. So that's fine for the track, but what about grassy scenery and shrubs/trees? I haven't used the vacuum much there, when I do, I try not to get too close. I've heard of one fellow that would "spritz" down his layout with water. I'm assuming he used somthing that shot out a fine mist like an eyeglasses cleaner bottle. If you try this, make sure you are spraying just water. I have a friend that sprayed down his dark-colored brick roundhouse with a mixture of water and alcohol and it turned the building gray!
For locomotives, rollingstock and rooftops I use a very soft 1" paint brush.
"Shovel all the coal in, gotta keep 'em rolling."
I remember an article In mrr from several several years ago, that suggests using the skirting material that hangs below the facia to pull double duty and connect to the inside of the upper facia with clothes pins to prevent dirt and dust blowing all over your layout, when it's not in use. This is the method I plan on using to keep dust off of my snow scenes on my Alaska Railroad layout .
Joe
Modeling:
Providence & Worcester Railroad
"East Providence Secondary"
HO scale
John,
As originator of the thread that Dave refers to, I have found the soft brush to work well. Still haven't gotten the one I would like, but have my eyes open for one.
Since I am currently putting stuff away so that I can proceed with a new layout, I'm not quite as fussy as I will be later, when putting things back on display. (I probably should be, but ....) I have the mini vaccuum set and that brush looks like it should be really handy when getting things out, set the vac up and use it as part of the pre-place on layout inspection (Kadee's, weight, wheelsets, free roll).
I do keep a paper bag (any paper would work) handy to cover my smooth water when the layout is not in use. That does show dust easily and the paper keeps the daily dust off. A bit of a pain to remember, but it does keep most of the dust off.
Have fun,
Richard
Attuvian....1) what it affects most,....
Since it's such a frequently-seen topic here: track cleaning.
Attuvian...and 2) how you mitigate it....
It's much easier, in the long run, to prevent as much of it as possible, and the way to do that is proper layout room preparation.For me, that included drywalling the entire room and adding a suspended ceiling. With the layout room in the basement, and well insulated, there's no need for heating or cooling, so no ducts to provide airborne dust. There's also a door at the entrance to the room and a strict "no food in the layout room" rule, although beverages are okay, as there's no Rule G in force.
I clean track, structures, and scenery (except trees) every two or three years, using my shop vac. Between those times, the concrete floor is vacuumed regularly, especially if I'm working in that room.
As an added bonus, a finished room is a much nicer environment in which to enjoy your layout.
Wayne
Hey, if it wasn't for dust some guys wouldn't have any weathering at all
I have a linoleum floor and suspended ceiling but even so there is still some dust in the train room. What I do NOT have is a way of closing off the train room from my workbench and my wife's lathe, drill press and grinder/buffer (that's right, she's the one with the woodworking tools). I suspect our respective shop work creates a fair share of what dust there is in the train room. It also seems like the cat litter box creates its own form of dust.
Perhaps it was mentioned earlier but a piece of netting over the vacuum nozzle can catch the stuff that you do not want sucked up and lost when you go over stuff with the soft brush.
I would not advise the water spraying method mentioned above.
Dave Nelson
Dust has not been that much of a problem for me even though layout is in garage. I do vacuum on occasion with a regular vac with micro attachments and use dollar store makeup brushes for rooftops etc.
I can think of a couple of ways to overcome accumulated dust (the prevention or reduction of dust has already been discussed): First, I would run my fingers gently over the terrain and hold a shop-vac nozzle an inch or so above my hand as I do this. With the vaccuum on, and my hand disturbing the 'growth', I would be able to lift a good bit of the accumulated dust. In some places, a soft brush would probably do a better job, one attached to the nozzle. Secondly, and being smart about how and where you actually do this, you can spray down your foliage and ground foam with some slightly soapy water (a weak isopropyl alcohol solution might be better...not so much foaming). Not hosing....spraying, just enough that some drops run down and into your goop or whatever surface. When it all dries, your ground foam will be clean(er), and your terrain shouldn't look a whole lot different to the eye (except maybe some larger body/pet hairs, lint, insects, etc). You could also vaccuum or spray trees as needs be.
I have reported this a number of times, but I had my second layout in our newly finished basement. I purchased, installed, and ran a Walthers 90' built-up and indexed turntable according to the supplied instructions, including vaccuuming the pit regularly before I dared to turn the bridge. Even so, approximately two years in, I found its performance starting to suffer, so I swallowed hard and disassembled the drive on the bridge. You wouldn't believe the crud packed into that assembly...I almost concluded that some kind of bug was making a nest in there. And after all that careful vaccuuming! In a finished basement!
I just ordered the Tamiya Model Craft Tools Cleaning Brush (Anti-Static) . Not cheap but if it really picks up staticy items like in the YouTube video it will be great. Years ago there was a room air filter using paper towels for Model Railroaders from "Enviro". They are defunct
Try to keep the layout room as clean as possible, with regular cleaning. My next layout will be in a room with finished walls, and laminate flooring that is easy to keep cleen.
Dust on models, buildings, etc... I use cheap make-up brushes and a small vacuum. (Brush loosens, vac captures.)
A regular household vac will work for cleaning the layout as well, use the make-up brush where possible, and a small vac if available, if not, the full size vac and use a rubber band to cap the vac hose with a cheap/old pair of ladies nylons if you have loose scenery, otherwise, just use one with the plastic container cup, and if something "vanishes" in the shark/dyson/hoover tornado besides the dust, look for it inside the dirt container.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
I would look first at some of the primary sources of indoor dust. Pets? Smoking? Smoke modules in locomotives? Those are under your control. Keep the door closed.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I intend to have plastic sheet dust cover held in place with magnets.
This was one of the ideas I planned to try out on the Layout Segment experiment, but I never got around to it.
Darn... missed opportunity.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Actually the layout is covered up because of a complete reno down to the studs of the train room bathroom. Normally dust is not an issue at all as we had a high end filter put on with our new furnace years ago and it works great. Living with Doctor Doolittle that has allergies made it a must.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."