richhotrainBasement is centrally heated and cooled, seasonally, no dehumidifier.
The Central Heating System will lower the humidity when it is on in the winter. If you live in a cold climate where the CHS is on a lot, you should have a HUMIDIFIER installed on the system to replace the moisture that is being dried out. An automatic Humidistat should be set at 35% to 40% to add moisture when needed to protect fine wood furniture from drying out and to stop you from getting ZAPPED with static electricity by the kids when they shuffle their feet on the carpet and touch their finger to your nose or ear.
If you have Central Air Conditioning, it automatically de-humidifies the air when it comes on. The humidity is the water that is running away from the cooling coil in the Plenum on top of the furnace to a drain. It is the same stuff as that which forms on a cold can of "WOBBLEY POP" on a hot summers day.
Blue Flamer.
The Pacific Southern has been in operation for over 50 years. It operates very reliably with 80 car coal trains and many long passenger trains every week. It has standards for trackwork, locomotives and rolling stock. It is in a clean basement (see photos) that is heated and has several dehumidifiers. But inevitably there are problems. Occasionally, there are shorts between blocks due to expansion closing gaps.
It seems that this type of problem is unavoidable.
It appears that expansion does not necessarily close the gaps at both ends. I think leaving gaps in some unsoldered track joiners (or no track joiners) is essential and that filling the gaps preventing expansion would be a mistake.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
Mel,
Thanks for sharing your story. Derailments are one of, if not most, annoying parts of MR. They can happen for multiple reasons.
I appreciate that you note that despite your technical background, nothing is full-proof. Yesterday, I saw that one side of track got mis-aligned from the joiner and I was unable to sucessfully reattach it. It was annoying to recut a section of track and remove the old one.
I solder track joiners for curves. Having the layout in a finished basement is much easier to manage than an unfinished area or garage. Both climates are prone to greater temperature fluctations and other issues that wreck havoc on a layout.
My layout is our basement which doesnt have much of a temp swing. I soldered my joints on small layout but still have dead spots. I thought soldering solved this problem. Any suggestions?
JOSEPH RENNER My layout is our basement which doesnt have much of a temp swing. I soldered my joints on small layout but still have dead spots. I thought soldering solved this problem. Any suggestions?
One thing you can check is if you have any cold solder joints. Also if you are relying on switch points to carry voltage to spurs you may not be getting adequate connection.
Joe
Joe R; If soldering never solved the problem, it may well be a cold solder joint or point routing power.
Some here say you can' trust a soldered rail joiner. I'm not sure why that would break down over time, but the practice of dropping feeders from every rail and wiring the turnouts up the wazoo makes a lot of sense to me for long term failure free electron flow.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley