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Today I learned about track expansion..or did I?
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<p>I too am concerned about high humidity on the "wet coast".</p><p>I asked about expansion/contraction a few weeks back in some posts. I have not had the new layout up and running through several seasons, but this is what I have done to ward off bad effects:</p><p>I had put my track on MDF so contacted Sierrapine in Oregon about their product. They said, "Standard MDF has a LE (linear expansion, I imagine) of about 0.25%. So an 8 foot panel will grow about 0.240" if the humidity went from 50 to 80%." That's enough movement of a small enough change in humidity to cause a lot of shifting.</p><p>I did not solder the rail joiners, so there is lots of movement possible. Just used lot and lots of drop feeders. Spiked the flex track sparingly. Weather stipped all train room doors very well. No humidity enters from the rainy weather.</p><p>Read in a signmakers forum that a trick with MDF is to seal it with glue, so I "painted" the edges and surfaces of the MDF with a 50-50 carpenter's glue/alcohol & water solution. Also, I had all the 1" MDF panels sitting in the construction room for some weeks before putting track on them.</p><p>Got a thermometer and two hygrometers right away and established a base level of temp and humidity at the time of layout construction in the train room. Right now these conditions are pretty moderate. If need be I can turn on a dehumidifier in the train room. </p><p>Turned on the heat to reduce relative interior humidity and let it rise up the stairs and away from the room.</p><p>As the layout is in the basement, If I keep it warm and dry in the winter I will be ok because the summer temps do not get high in the basement. And here on the "wet coast" winter drying is not a problem like the interior climate zones.</p><p> Cross my fingers and keep my eye on the dials.</p>
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