I just finished building a train room for me and my kids. In all the excitement I forgot to cover our layout with plastic and didn’t put the trains or cars in their boxes. After I finished sanding the drywall I noticed that I had screwed up and now everything is covered in drywall dust. Does anyone have any sugestions on how to safely clean the trains and cars off? This is the first time I have used the “Forum” please forgive me if I’m doing this wrong. Thanks!
Hi Devildog, and [#welcome] to the Forum.
If your trains don’t have too many fragile details, the soft brush attachment that comes with most vacuum cleaners should do a pretty good job of removing that plaster dust. (Use it in conjunction with the vacuum cleaner, by the way.)[swg] You can also use this to clean the track, structures, and any sturdy scenery. Don’t forget to pick up any small, loose details that might otherwise be sucked up by the vacuum. If you have locos or cars that do have fragile details, a soft 1" paint brush makes a good “duster”, and if you do all such cleaning in the same spot, you can vacuum up the residue easily. Of course, clean the rest of the room while you’ve got the vacuum out, too, as any dirt or dust in the room will eventually end up on your layout.
Wayne
Ditto on the vacuum-cleaner brush for the large areas. Also, a women’s ‘make-up’ brush works wonders for cleaning locomotives and rolling stock. It’s thick, and it’s very soft, and it will cover a lot of ground while you clean, without knocking off small details.
Though I will admit I got some strange looks from the salesladies at the Macy’s cosmetic counter when I went into replace the one I’d been using for years, LOL![:I]
Tom
Air compressor works too. As long as the pressure not set to high. I’ve washed some in the kitchen sink with dish soap. Just have to make sure you get them dry.(NOT the engines!)
Hi,
I’ve used a can of compressed air for similar problems and it has worked well. It is called ‘air duster’ that was purchased at Comp USA to clean out debris in my pc keyboard. Little on the expensive side but it might help. The vacuum clearner recommended in earlier posts also sounds like an excellent idea.
Good Luck,
Wayne
If using a vacuum I’d suggest having a new bag (or empty the dirt canister in the bagless models) installed IN CASE something small and valuable gets sucked up. If that happens you can more easily sort thru the “remains” without the kids dropped snacks, the dogs spilled food, massive dust bunnys, etc…getting in the way, becasue it is all clean dirt.
I hate to tell you this, but if you researched how to destroy a model railway setup, drywall sanding would be No.1, you must have a ton of it on the layout and it is also into every car, locomotive, switch, etc, AND it is highly abrasive, the only advice is to proceed slowly and get every bit of the dust, walls, ceiling, lamps, floor, underneath the layout and on the table legs, good luck.
Small make-up brushes and small paint brushes are what I use to dust my equipment. The vacuum works well. I use a piece of my wife’s old pantyhose and tape it over the end of the hose to keep any small parts that might get vacuumed loose from going in the vacuum. Our vacuum is a Rainbow and the dirt goes in a pan of water.
I also use a Dustbuster to vacuum the layout for regular dusting. Washing in the sink with liquid soap and warm water and a soft brush will work. Be sure to remove the body fron the chassis if washing locomotives.
I use a small modelers paint brush and an airbrush (with no paint, obviously) to remove dust from my models, which reminds me. I need to give a scenery a thourough blowing and dusting.
tatans makes a good point, this type of dust is hiddious!!!
I use a static cling fine duster (like the type used for cleaning dust off the TV screen) and I use the spary “Static guard” to get the powder to stick to it.
These fluffy plastic fine hair brushes they sell on TV for cleaning book shelves and nic nacks are very flexable and do get into some small areas, when I’m done with that I finish up with the tiny vacs I bought to clean off my computer key board, the have a small brush on the end of a tiny vaccume body.
Good luck and I guess you will not be doing that again!!!
I found that putting the hose in the outlet side of my shop vac and putting the crevice attachment on it as an effective way to blow the dust off. Hold the stock in your hand so that it doesn’t get blown over and break off small details.
A feather duster works quite well
Keep in mind that if you don’t actual remove the dust from the room, you’ll be repeating this task regularly. Several replies here have helped to explain to me why some folks have so many problems with dirty track. [swg]
Wayne
I wouldn’t recommend blowing it off, because all of that powder is going to go airborne and resettle onto the layout. I think careful vacuuming and dusting with something that has some cling to it are the best methods.
Or take the items outdoors to perform the cleaning. [:-^]
That’s good for the equipment, but not the layout itself.