The hobby's dirty little secret -- layout maintenance!

[jfugate]

One topic that I don't think is discussed enough in the hobby is layout maintenance.

I've been running an operational layout now for about 8 years, and holding monthly op sessions (with a few breaks for the holidays and summer vacation).

I have needed to take the layout down this season and do serious maintenance. I've been discussing my thoughts and experiences around layout maintenance in a topic thread over on my Siskiyou Line website:

http://siskiyou-railfan.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?1110.0


(click to enlarge)

Layout maintenance is one of those topics that people don't like to talk about about, because if you have a reality attack in this area, you may not want to build a larger layout. Hobby vendors, I believe, would prefer people forget about that part!

But if you ever dream of having a large layout someday, and it's more than just a pipe-dream -- you *need* to think about this.

[Dave-the-Train]

Maintenance?  What maintenance?

This is why I like a semi-modular design... I can unplug the bits and turn them on edge or upside down to work on wiring and/or point motors in comfort... certainly beats working upside down on a fixed layout... and thye odd bump knocks the dust and loose bits off - just need to remove all the locos before moving

[Dave Vollmer]

Even a small layout needs plenty of maintenance.  On my previous 36"x80" layout, I had on several occasions to remove sections of track (turnouts gone bad or damaged track), re-solder wires, etc.  Even the scenery needs a once-over from time to time.  I've noticed how the ground foam in my trees tends to attract dust!

My layout was (and current one is) portable, and I took it to shows.  I always brought a repair kit consisting of extra wire, soldering supplys, wire cutters, glue, needle-nosed pliers, hobby knofe, and others just in case.  I did have a section of track go dead once just before the show and I had to fiddle with the feeders, but it ended up working in time.

[Anonymous]

Stacks of Metal wheels, Graphite, Lube oil, #9 lead shot, Kaydee Couplers and some brite boy for the rails.

I cheat a little bit by using sectional rails for now. More pernament construction is in the future.

The engines ask for a little TLC several times a year regardless of how much or how little they run. Heavy repairs go back to the Factory.

Sometimes I think the rolling stock wants a great deal of work for the mileage they get, except for Atlas RTR units.

I dont use very many tools as yet, the NMRA Gauge is the most important followed by the Kaydee coupler tester.

[NS2591]

This is why my last layout failed. It was too much for me to build and maintain on my own, and the fact that it had very steep grades.

[jeffshultz]

Try 600 grit sandpaper instead of a briteboy for cleaning the rails. I was surprised at how good it was.

It's joined my armory of track cleaning products, right next to the Maas.

[Anonymous]

Maas? The Metal Polish?

[jeffshultz]

Maas? The Metal Polish?

That's the stuff! Don't use very much (a little goes a long ways) and clean it up thoroughly.

[maandg]

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, but I've had very little maintenance issues on my MA&G.  So far, my 14 x 32 layout has over 50 turnouts and none have given any trouble whatsoever in over 5 years!  I think this is more a testimony to the durability and quality of Atlas Code 83 track than anything.  I run the layout often, and include a good quality track cleaning car in most consists.  Only during rare prolonged periods of inactivity do I need to resort to a Brite Boy.  Another factor that helps with clean rails is having metal wheels on all 500+ cars that I have.  Even the wheelsets have never needed cleaning in all that time.  Locomotive wheels get cleaned periodically, but nothing major. 

The only pain in the neck I have to deal with is cleaning the 30 staging tracks.  Because they are full of stored trains, cleaning them requires moving as many as 10 full consists at a time to have room to clean.  Because the staging tracks don't receive the benefits of continuous running with the cleaning cars, they require a good dose of elbow grease about 4 times a year.  Is staging worth the trouble?  Absolutely! 

Dust has not been a major problem either.  This may be due to the environment of my building.

My main suggestion in cutting down maintenance problems (there will alwys be some), is to use quality products and sound construction practices from the beginning - whether it be lumber, adhesives, electrical connections, track, etc.  Anything less will surely contribute to headaches down the road.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know why it would be a secret.  Anything with moving parts or having moving parts run over it is going to need some TLC from time to time.

Even if this is just model railroading, it is modeling the real thing.  And from what I've seen real railroads spend lots of time and money maintaining their "layout", so we should not be surprised that we need to do the same.

I will agree that it is easy to forgot that the bigger the layout the more maintence will be need.  We forget that the track it just one part of it.  Wires, trees, buildings, etc., will all need some maintenance.

[Master of Big Sky Blue]

Right now I just wish I had a layout to maintain.

 

James

[jfugate]

One of the things I'm facing (and I discuss it in detail if you click here ) is the maintenance that has come up after 8 years of regular monthly operating sessions.

The dirty little secret part is as you run trains on your layout, stuff breaks, stuff gets out of alignment, and stuff gets dirty. The prototype faces the same thing, of course, but we just never think about it on our models.

For example, I now have some 60 railroad cars that are in my RIP track needing some sort of repairs: missing coupler springs, missing detail parts (brake wheels, stirrup steps), lose weights, derails a lot ... did you hear that, 60 cars? I've got about 300 cars on the layout, so that's 20% of the cars that have gotten damaged just in routine operation of the layout.

Similar story with locos. I clean and clean and clean loco wheels and now as I pull serious maintenance on the locos after 8 years of operation (and carefully disassembling each loco) I'm finding lint buildup around loco axles that's just awful, black gunk buildup all over the insides of the loco sideframes (from years of wheel cleaning by running one end of the loco at full speed over an alcohol soaked paper towel) ... and even wheelsets that have a tightened guage on them. That's 40+ locos that I have to take apart and do serious cleaning and adjusting on after 8 years of operation.

Then there's turnouts that need work because the points don't throw like they used to, or the points don't carry the current like they used to ... 120 turnouts on the layout.

The layout's got 1200 feet of track, and it gets pretty dirty after operating the layout for years and only doing periodic spot track cleaning by hand with a bright boy. How would you like to run a track cleaning car around the layout to every inch of track every few months? Not my idea of a good time.

It finally got so bad after years of deferred maintenance (I kept adding new cars and locos to the layout or working on new scenery, or my latest thing -- doing how-to videos ) that I decided the only thing to do was to just stop operating the layout for a while and just work on overhauling the whole layout to get things back up to snuff.

And it's making a big difference, but it's also taking a lot of time. I'd like to avoid having to "take the layout down for 6 months" like I did this time to prevent this sort of issue in the future. How often do you hear in the hobby press about what it takes, in detail, to long-term maintain a large operational layout? If the truth were known, it would scare many people out of ever wanting a large layout. You can read more about the steps I taking to fix all this stuff here on my Siskiyou Line web site.

[james saunders]

Ahhh...layout maitenence, my favourite aspect of the hobby..... NOT, lucky that I only have 16 feet of mainline track to clean and maybe 10 feet of spurs etc

[cmrproducts]

Speaking about maintaining layouts, I must be lucky as I really do not spend any time at all having to do maintenance. When I get cars giving trouble I have a bad-order card made out right away and the car is fixed before the next session. I have over 850 cars on the layout at all time so doing the cars as they need work keeps me from having to do a bunch all at one time.

As for track maintenance and turnout repair maybe a cleaning of the points but so far I really do not do any. The track never has to be cleaned (as in running cleaning cars or bright boys) as I used the metal polish trick back in July of 2003 (that is 3 years now with no weekly, monthly or yearly cleaning. Now I know there are some on the forums that will argue about this but my crew knows when it is time to clean as there is not layout running that night and THEY are the ones helping to clean it! They did it a lot before I used the metal polish!

Oh by the way I have over 2800 feet of track and 305 turnouts to clean so it is a major undertaking that the crew does not want to get into.

Also I seem to be going against the norms here as I have not yet changed out all of my rolling stock wheels to metal ones. As the cars need work I usually just clean off the wheels and repair what is needed and then return them to service.

Some could argue that I have a climate controlled room! Well I don’t just a dehumidifier running and trying to keep a 2200 sq ft room under control.

Now I have to admit that when I had the new house built I knew what I had to do to keep the basement dry. And with a plastic covered ceiling above my drop ceiling ( yes I have a double wide covering my basement!) it keeps ALL of the dust from coming down on my layout. Now this layout is only going on it’s 6th year, so I may still run into the problems that Joe talks about. But so far I DON”T have or do ANY maintenance.

The following info is a little long and it may/will go against the current supposedly normal practices but the info presented is from 20 years experience in a model railroad Club at Clarion, PA, where the layouts had to run 12 hours straight as the public had paid to see trains run.

We have 3 layouts (a double deck HO, Lionel/American Flyer and a double deck N scale layout). I just applied the principals learned form the club to my own home layout. Now not all of these ideas will work for YOU but at least think about them as they are working for my Club and most of the members home layouts!

BOB H – Clarion, PA

Building & Maintaining a large Model Railroad

October 2005 – By Bob Hartle

Having a large layout presents a number of problems to the owner.

1. Can I afford to build this large of a layout?

2. Will I be able to finish this layout in my lifetime?

3. Will I have enough operators to run the layout?

4. Will I be able to maintain this large of a layout?

There are many other questions but number 4 is the one that we will talk about.

How does one make a layout low maintenance?

ROOM PREP

One of the first things is to prepare the room before the layout is built. This is not easy, as most modelers want to jump right into building the layout.

Making the room dry if it is in the basement (which most layouts are) is most important. If the room is not dry then the layout will never be stable, as the humidity will keep the wood swelling and drying out as the excessive humidity changes and this can affect the level of the layout and the subroadbed. Painting the block walls with waterproofing paint will go a long way in keeping the room dry. A dehumidifier will be needed to control the overall room climate. Insulating the walls helps with the wetness of the room.

Insulation

Insulate the basement walls by putting furring strips and Styrofoam up. Yes there will only be ¾” of insulation but it is better than nothing. The furring strips should be attached to the walls with Tap-Con cement screws. This needs to be done if you are going to have a multi-level layout and want to attach the upper levels of the layout to the walls. Using cement nails and/or construction adhesive has been known to fail after a few years. There is nothing worse than seeing your layout fall off the wall or have the wall panels come loose from the wall. It is more expensive but you will only have to do the job once! Now put up the drywall. As for the basement windows, if you have them, covering them up would keep the sunlight off the layout and it will keep the backdrop continuous. Besides the light coming in from most windows is minimal at best. But making the windows accessible is probably a good idea.


Lighting

Adding good lighting to the room will allow the operators to actually see the layout. But finding the proper placement for the lights before the layout is built will not be easy. A way around this is to have the lighting circuits end in outlet boxes. This will allow the lights to be placed anyplace on the ceiling and be plugged in. The ceiling boxes will then not have to be located exactly.

Drop Ceiling

Adding a drop ceiling will go a long way to eliminate dirt and dust from falling on the layout from the floor above the layout. Walking on the upstairs floor will cause the dust to slowly filter down on the layout as people walk on it. And besides it gives a finished look to the basement.

Outlets

Adding power circuits along the walls below the level of the layout is a must as trying to run the layout with extension cords is just asking for trouble. The wall circuits should be switched so that leaving the room the owner can turn off all of the power to the layout and not have to worry if they unplugged the soldering iron or heater.

Benchwork

Finally we are ready to begin building the layout. Use standard building principals. Build the benchwork with the joists on 16” centers max. It has been found that the use of 1x2 material will hold weight in excess of 250lbs. So using material larger than this may be wasting money but it will make the benchwork stronger. For the subroadbed the use of OSB board will work and is a lot cheaper than plywood. The use of Homasote on top of the OSB is used to help reduce the sound that would be made by the trains when the track is laid directly on the wood. It also is easy to nail the track down before it is ballasted. The OSB should be painted and then when the Homasote is put on, it should be painted also. The paint will help keep excess moisture from affecting the wood and keeps wood glue and water scenery mix from causing problems.

Benchwork legs only need to be 2x2s. Ripping a 2x4 in half will yield legs 1 ¾” square. It is not a good idea to space the legs over 4 feet apart when using 1x2 material for the benchwork.

Drop Wires

When laying the track put drop wires and solder every rail joint. Now why do we need to do this? Reliability and reducing resistance to the rails. Nickel silver rail has a lot more resistance per foot then brass. So expecting the layout to run properly with 1 or 2 wire drops is again asking for trouble down the road. And using code 100 rail will have less resistance than code 83 because it is larger overall. Now this resistance difference is small but every little bit helps. Remember NO Maintenance!


Buss Wires

The buss wires should be #12 stranded. Why? Again the resistance thing. DCC signal is a form of Alternating Current and as the length of the wiring run increases the resistance begins to increase. With the resistance increase it causes the DCC signal to decrease. It will also slow down the trains and could cause the track short detection not to function properly and melt plastic parts which are in contact with a shorted train. If the runs are long (over 25 ft) then #10 or #8 wire should be used. Use the quarter test around the layout to make sure that the command station will trip out instantly. Then you will know that the wiring is adequate.

Shielded 120v Wiring

When adding regular 120v outlets out into center peninsulas, the wiring run under the benchwork should be the BX type (metal shielded) cable. The reason is that you will not end up cutting the wrong wire thinking it is track wire and the BX metal shielded will keep any 60 cycle hum from being transmitted into the DCC track wires or the Loconet buss. Again noise is the biggest problem that can be introduced into the DCC signal. It is also the hardest thing to find, as we don’t have the proper equipment to determine if there is actually noise on the DCC signal. Now, this noise on the DCC signal, what does it cause? Loss of engine control or sluggish engine response to commands as it can cause missed DCC packets on the rails or the Loconet. But is it really noise or is it the system being overloaded with running trains. One will never know!

Rerailers

When laying track in tunnels or long areas of staging track it is a good idea to put the sectional track rerailers in at the beginning and end of the hidden areas. It just may keep the train together long enough so it will be out of the hidden trackage so it can be rerailed or it may just rerail itself and keep on running. It is not fun having to get up inside a mountain to fish out the cars or hearing them hit the floor!

Ground Throws

Most all of the turnouts have manual ground throws installed on them. Reason zero maintenance! It seems that the powered turnouts need some kind of adjustment periodically. With the manual throws there is no excessive pressure exerted on the turnout or any of the snap action with the old snap turnouts. Also there is no wiring or toggle switches that will need worked on in the future. When attaching the ground throws to the layout, use long enough nails. I have found that using 1” brads are long enough to go through the Homasote and just start into the subroadbed. Most of the ground throws are remoted to the edge of the layout. This eliminates the need to reach through the scenery, which will after a while start to break the delicate trees and shrubs from rubbing past these items. (Remember Low Maintenance)

Rolling Stock & Kadees

All of the rolling stock has three things checked before it is ever placed on the layout.


Weight: All cars are weighted to NMRA specifications, or as close as we can get. (Flat cars and Gondolas are a problem, removable loads help). Using lead shot, metal nuts and panel box knockouts are some of the many items that can be used for weight. Be sure and glue the weights in good if you are putting them inside a closed car. There is nothing worse than having the weight come loose and not being able to get back into the car

Kadee Couplers: All cars have Kadees installed and the height checked as well as freedom of movement if the coupler itself. Always set the couplers a little high as over time the wheels will wear into the side frames. The coupler will also droop over time.

Wheel Gauge: All of the wheels are checked for gauge. Most of the time the wheels are out of gauge from the factory. This includes the metal replacement wheel sets! The wheel flanges should slip freely into the NMRA gauge, to be considered in gauge!

Replacing the wheel sets with metal will cut the amount of dirt tracked around the layout and will help in easing the load on the engines.

Doing this makes the cars track properly and stay coupled.


Plaster Scenery

Using plaster over wire screening may be a bit sloppier to work with but it is a lot more permanent as it is a form of rock. It doesn’t leave much to burn and we do not know what the long term effects of foam deterioration will be. Again for my part plaster is really low maintenance.

Yes I am also doing Foam and Glue Shell scenery but am not happy with the progress so far. But it does go a little faster. If it does not work out I will replace it with Plaster.

Digital Command Control (DCC)

The DCC systems have eliminated a lot of wiring that would have been needed in a DC control system. This goes a long way to eliminate any maintenance.

If using wire ends on the buss wires, crimp and SOLDER the ends. Yes a properly crimped wire end is very reliable but can we guarantee a perfect crimp every time?

Now for the drop wires, they should be soldered to the buss wires. Using the Insulation Displacement Connectors (IDC – suitcase (3M) connectors) do work but then again in the high humidity environment of a basement they will begin to give problems in a few years.

With the DCC control system there are some set CVs (Configuration Variables) that are used to lock the command station into certain modes. Having these CV’s posted near each of the DCC modules with the proper CV values makes reprogramming the unit faster as you do not have to spend time looking for the book each time for the values. We have these sheets laminated and permanently affixed to the units. This also goes for the programmable Reversing units, Signal Controller boards and the Switch controllers if you have them.

If you are using Radio system, mount the radio receiver as high in the room as possible. Also try and get it as close to the center of the layout room. This will minimize the distance the signal needs to travel. Remember that this signal is easily lost with bodies standing between the transmitter and the receiver. If the layout room has a lot of full height backdrops you may have to add additional radio receivers in the far corners of the room to eliminate radio dead spots. Just because the manufacturers’ literature says it will cover a 300 sq. ft area doesn’t mean it will work in your situation.

Use a computer fan to blow cool air on the Command Station cooling fins. If your transformer is not sized properly (voltage & amp rating) the command station will have to dissipate the excess voltage in the form of heat and will cause it to overheat much sooner. During a big operating session with a lot of equipment running (sound equipped locomotives and lighted cars) it will be required to put out more power, which will again increase the heat produced.

Use the Loconet tester and check the Plug Panels around the layout periodically. Do this just to be sure that the wiring of these panels has not failed. Having a problem with the plug panels during an operating session sure takes the fun out of the day. Don’t forget to check the Radio and IR panels!

Ease of operation (lack of things to carry – car cards)

We use the modified pin system of car movement. This eliminates having to carry around a handful of cards a radio and your Keypad. One of these items will eventually fall to the floor as trying to juggle all of these items and uncouple the cars at the same time. Using the pin system keeps the car movement info on the car where it should be.

Yes we still have to try and hold the radio and the keypad and uncouple the cars but at least we have taken away one thing to carry.

Wax the track

Last but not least is cleaning the track. Put out of your mind all of the old ways, using an abrasive block, cleaning fluids or cleaning cars. Just use metal polish and the track cleaning thing is done, Period!

To apply the wax I use pieces of old HO cork roadbed and put the wax on the cork and then just rub it on the rails. I usually do a 6 to 8 ft long section. Then using a clean piece of cork go over the waxed section. This is to remove the wax film (similar to auto paint wax) and that is it.

When doing scenery, etc. I usually vacuum the area and just wipe the rails down with a clean rag.

[jfugate]

Wow, very interesting post, Bob!

Part of my problem is *deferred maintenance*  that has caught up with me. I mostly have been adding new cars to the layout and not fixing ones that have gotten minor operational damage (missing brake wheels, missing stirrup steps, lose weights, etc.) so the "RIP track" now has 60 some cars in it which is a little ridiculous.

The loco "tear-down" mainenance is also probably overdue, and I'm a bit shocked at the wear in the locos, plus the black gunk all over the inside of the sideframes from 8 years of wheel cleaning flinging the gunk around inside the sideframes -- and all the accumulated lint wrapped around the axles.

One area where I can say I have not had any problems is the wiring (thank goodness -- I hate layout wiring -- I understand how to do it, it's just not my favorite activity). I've used 12 guage stranded wire for my power bus, and feeder drops to each section of rail -- and suitcase connectors off the main bus to terminal strips for the feeder drops. My wiring problems are zip -- none.

Most of my turnouts are DCC friendly, but I'm finding the electrical connectivity to the points is less-than-stellar as things age. I have several turnouts I need to add some whisker jumpers from the closure rails to the points so the points aren't dead.

I could have done all this probaby more on an "as you go" basis, but the layout ran well for nearly 8 years without doing it, so I didn't bother. Things have started to go downhill with increasing speed the last 2 years or so -- enough that I decided it was time to get serious about doing a thorough housecleaning style maintenance on the whole layout.

I am looking forward to using the metal polish track cleaning idea. In 8 years of layout operation, I have never cleaned the track from one end of the layout to the other -- just spot cleaned as the need came up. But I also run a few cars with masonite sliders on them, so one could assume this means there's always some track cleaning going on all the time as those cars move around.

But the bottom line in all this is a larger layout, after a while, will probably need the layout equivalent of an overhaul done to it as the years of operation roll on. One might also assume that if I did more of this maintenance in an ongoing basis, I wouldn't have to take down the layout like this -- and hence the motivation behind this thread. If you don't do maintenance -- it will catch up with you !

[Nieuweboer]

One topic that I don't think is discussed enough in the hobby is layout maintenance.

I've been running an operational layout now for about 8 years, and holding monthly op sessions (with a few breaks for the holidays and summer vacation).

I have needed to take the layout down this season and do serious maintenance. I've been discussing my thoughts and experiences around layout maintenance in a topic thread over on my Siskiyou Line website:

http://siskiyou-railfan.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?1110.0


(click to enlarge)

Layout maintenance is one of those topics that people don't like to talk about about, because if you have a reality attack in this area, you may not want to build a larger layout. Hobby vendors, I believe, would prefer people forget about that part!

But if you ever dream of having a large layout someday, and it's more than just a pipe-dream -- you *need* to think about this.

I have my share of maintenance but that doesn't bother me, it's all in an evening's operation (to paraphrase "it's all in a day's work). Whar really bugs me is that in the course of time all colors are fading, everything, trees, ground cover, balast gets an uniform greyish hue. It's not only dust that settles and sticks but colors (pigments) are just not permanent under constant natural light. In real nature colors that fade under influence of the sun tend to become brownish. I haven't found a solution to this problem apart from refrershing the ground cover, carefully waterspraying the trees and brushing/vacuuming the balast to at least restoring part of the original colors.  

 

 

[Sturgeon-Phish]

I think planning for maintenance in the front end makes the job easier later.  My layout is small 9.5 x 6.5 and as such easy to work on.  I'm experimenting with metal polish on the rails to see results.  After about a month, the waxed rails are staying cleaner on both the often used and less frequently used sections.

Jim

[emdgp92]

I hate cleaning track with a passion. It sucks! But, since I don't operate my layout very much, I don't have a choice. I do know that swapping out my plastic wheelsets for metal ones has helped a bit--the plastic ones seem to attract lots of dirt. I start off by using some Goo Gone on a paper towel to scrub the track down. I go over the entire layout--all the spurs, passing tracks, etc. Then I'll clean the wheels on my locomotives--there's no point of having clean track and dirty locomotive wheels. When that's all done, I'll take my worst-running engine (my Baldwin S12) and run it over the entire layout. Wherever that thing stalls, I use a Brite Boy to scrub the track.

One think I should mention, is that the frogs on Atlas turnouts seem to attract dirt--it usually gets caught where the rails cross.

I don't have many cars on the RIP track. Whenever I have a problem, I stop what I'm doing and fix it. However, if it's a track problem, I sometimes leave a note on the layout--I don't have any scenery, so it's pretty simple to scribble on the tabletop.

[Anonymous]

This is a very interesting topic.

Model railroads are odd in that they contain a lot of little details, fragile things, etc.  They're unlike most things in our houses / garages.  Most other things can be vacuumed, washed, etc., and don't have tons of moving parts.

I almost think that model railroads are on a continuous decline from day one.  You build it, then things start to deteriorate.

One of the worst offenders seems to be scenery.  It gets dusty/dirty, and how could you really control that?  You could try to slow the process, but you're only slowing it down.

I grew up as a kid seeing a huge 2-rail O-gauge layout at the LA county fair.  It was huge.  The equipment running on it was beautiful.  But there was no denying it was on a constant decline over the years.  The scenery, etc. was aging, and that's just a fact.  They layout was there for like 50 years or something before being removed (still makes me sad).

I've been getting back into the hobby by learning to handlay track and turnouts.  I have a couple scratchbuilt turnouts in the garage, and I kid you not, when they are a couple days old, they're dusty already.

Here is an interesting concept: Garden Railroading.  With garden railroading, the scenery is alive.  You have to continually work on it, but it doesn't get "old".

My plan is to have a couple modules for an HO layout, with a return loop or something.  The idea would be the modules would be covered in sort of a shadow-box to keep the dust minimized, could be taken outside for photography, etc.

I personally have abandoned the concept of a layout being a way to model a "railroad".  For me, model railroading is all about the "stage" concept - mentioned in MR years ago, where the layout is merely a "snapshot" of a railroad line.  Basically, a small scene where the trains come in on one side, and exit the other side.  I may do two modules with two scenes, each being 8ft long or so.

There are just so many facets of this hobby, I will have to keep my layout small if I want to experience all of the aspects of it that interest me (handlaying track, airbrushing, building buildings.... the list goes on and on).  I've been back into the hobby for a couple years now, and only have a couple scratchbuilt turnouts to show for it.  Right now, two 2ft x 8ft modules seems like a huge undertaking!

People are mentioning their turnouts are aging.  I'm pretty confident handlaid turnouts will be way more durable over time, as there's no thin strips of metal, etc.  It's all real, beefy rail.

I also am determined to use natural scenery materials as much as possible.  Seeing the O-gauge layout as a kid made it clear to me that scenery may need "sprucing up" occasionally, and the idea of buying scenery stuff to constantly redo it just irks me.

You know, I wonder if these types of issues are partially why David Barrow went from making scenicked model railroads to a non-scenicked / operations only style layout.  The guy is obviously all about operation.  Maybe operation plus scenery and all the other aspects of MRR'ing was just getting to be too much work.

I might add, I have only seen one truely nice looking huge layout in person (obviously, I haven't seen Joe Fugate's layout in person, which certainly looks awesome in MR magazine, and online).  The beautiful huge layout I've seen in person is the one at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum.  If I remember correctly, they raised $250k or so to build it, or to add on, or something.  That's serious cash.  My point is it appears to take some serious infrastructure for MRR'ing on such a large scale.

Alright, enough model railroad philosophising from me...  : )

[BRAKIE]

Joe,The club I was a  active member of for 16 years  operates  twice a week-average 5 hours per  meeting..As far as maintenace..How about as needed and no routine work nights? We simply call a "work Saturday" and fix the problem.This has been going on since we rebuilt the layout back in 93.Of course we kept to the KISS method in wiring-you'll not find a spaghetti bowl of wires under the layout thanks to our members that are electricians by trade..We use Atlas switches and switch machines and code 100 track-our track is bullet proof..Power is by several MRC CM20s with walk around throttles.

Maintenace? Only has needed and then that's far and few between.

[tomikawaTT]

Layout maintenance, and its correlary, rolling stock maintenance, are as inevitable as sunset.  Even our old friend Murphy has a couple of special cases to his general rule that apply specifically to model railroads:

1. If something has moving parts, they will eventually stop moving, or move in ways not intended by the designer.
2. All colors fade with time.  Some just fade faster.
3. (For our readers who use the Queen's English)  Permanent way - isnt.
4. Anything that can warp, bend or stretch out of alignment - will.
5. The Biggest problems always occur at the hardest-to-reach places.

As a long time aircraft type, I am a firm believer in setting and maintaining a maintenance schedule for any rolling stock which is powered, has lights or is otherwise any more complex than a tin box on wheels.  When the time comes, the unit is routed to the shop (removed from staging) and replaced with a like serviceable item (or close approximation) from the reserve line.  Even the little tin boxes on wheels are routed to the rip track for a quick look-see at wheels and couplers every year or so.

Fixed plant (Impermanent way?) is handled by restating the old military axiom: "Once is an incident (Derailment, break-in-two, locomotive stall or stutter.)  Twice is coincidence...."  Three times is NOT enemy action (Al Qaida has not attacked my layout,) but proof positive that SOMETHING is in need of investigation and repair.  If this develops during an operating session, procedure is to run slow order work-arounds until Timetable 7:00AM.  At that point the world pauses in its orbit and stops turning until repairs are completed and the MOW chief signs off on the job.  (The same guy is the Road Foreman of Engines, the Master Mechanic and the RIP Track Super, so sometimes the world gets stopped for several real days.)

Since I have yet to reach the point where any scenery was other than temporary mockups, I don't know how I will deal with maintaining model foliage.  That bridge will be crossed in the future, since the new layout just getting started is intended to be my last.

Love may make the world go round, but constant maintenance keeps the machinery running.

Chuck (Who really does operate by a timetable that covers all 720 hours of September, 1964)

 

[jfugate]

Chuck ... great post!

Reminds of Mr. Fixit's universal rule:

- If it moves and it shouldn't -- Duct tape.
- If it doesn't move and it should -- WD-40.

[Anonymous]

Trucker's rule:

If it moves and should not, Chain it down.

If it does not move and should, apply power.

If insufficient force, call in bigger resources.

[cpeterson]

So, maybe this is the sort of thing that would make a nice article or maybe even a series of articles.  I know many of you are very experienced model railroaders as well as good story tellers so, this kind of article is one of the few that could be used by everyone of every stage of MRRing.

[BRAKIE]

So, maybe this is the sort of thing that would make a nice article or maybe even a series of articles.  I know many of you are very experienced model railroaders as well as good story tellers so, this kind of article is one of the few that could be used by everyone of every stage of MRRing.

 

That would make a excellent article as long as its not blown out of portion and into the "fantasy" side of layout maintenance or in other words doing maintenance work when nothing is broke-if its not broke let it be instead of worrying about fixing things that ain't broken.

Again the club I am a member of operates 4-6 hours 2 times a week 52 weeks a year and maintenance is as needed..

[tgindy]

To Chuck (tomikawaTT):

Since you model traction, and I am starting N Scale interurban construction in addition to some Pennsy, is there anything to plan ahead for with traction maintenance other than standard layout maintenance issues?  The layout should be managable with around the walls in a 9' x 9' room.

To Joe (jfugate):

This is one more good bookmark for the "Forum Clinic Threads" folder.

[PA Belt]

i do 3 things to mantian my 4x8.

1. bright boy befor and after ever sesion

2. take all engines off and clean wheels

3.RUN MY TRAINS!!

 now, if some thing stalls, i try my $200 bachman, if that fails, i replace that peice of track and totaly overhaul that peice of eazy track.  if something breaks, it goes to Butler Railcar Works or Union Railroad Shops. AKA my work benchso far, my lifelike are the only engines that stall.

[tomikawaTT]

To Chuck (tomikawaTT):

Since you model traction, and I am starting N Scale interurban construction in addition to some Pennsy, is there anything to plan ahead for with traction maintenance other than standard layout maintenance issues?  The layout should be managable with around the walls in a 9' x 9' room.

My traction is more heavy mainline (big motors for freight and through passenger, long EMU cars run in 2-car sets that assemble into longer trains...) and has to share trackage with steam and diesel-hydraulic locos, DMU sets and 1/700th of the prototype JNR's 1964 freight car roster.  Thus, everything is built to steam road standards and the juice motors take power from the rails.

In fact, I've taken a page out of the book used by experienced Japanese modelers.  The catenary towers, power lines, substations and catenary tensioners are present.  Only the overhead wire is missing - and will remain so.  All pantographs are fixed at an appropriate level that will clear the 'wire that isn't there.'

There are two good reasons for this:

1. A LOT of my electrified main lines and all the staging for that end of the schematic are (or will be) hidden track, some of it very difficult to access.  I know I can build derailment-proof track, but am not as certain about my ability to fabricate maintenance- and trouble-free overhead.
2. The more complex end of my engine change (etc...) point, a puzzle palace of specialwork including multiple slip switches, is the end used by all my electrified rolling stock.  Hanging the necessarily complex catenary over that specialwork comes under the DSM heading if it's only going to be there for cosmetic reasons.  (Sanitized DSM - dopey stool maneuver)

A third reason is that I have a lot of railroad and a finite life span.  (The layout is a double garage filling rolled-in-C shape, with a long-careted T-shaped aisle system.)

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[Mailman56701]

Chuck ... great post!

Reminds of Mr. Fixit's universal rule:

- If it moves and it shouldn't -- Duct tape.
- If it doesn't move and it should -- WD-40.

 Don't forget the "military" universal rules:

"Pick it up !"

"If you can't pick it up, paint it !"

 

[selector]

Chuck ... great post!

Reminds of Mr. Fixit's universal rule:

- If it moves and it shouldn't -- Duct tape.
- If it doesn't move and it should -- WD-40.

 Don't forget the "military" universal rules:

"Pick it up !"

"If you can't pick it up, paint it !"

 

Or, as the motto of the Royal Canadian Regiment goes, "Never pass a fault."