I have an ever expanding HO scale railroad in my semi-finished basement and I spend a great deal of time cleaning and working to not create dust. But, no matter what I do the dust particles fall like snow blanketing every single thing. My question is how does everybody else combat against this seemingly endless war??? Especially the folks who have massive, super detailed set-ups.
Your help would be greatly appreciated!! -Ian
I reccommend getting a good quality low cut carpet for the room, this cuts down dust, and if you drop a train or have a serious derailment it will prevent seriuos damage from occuring. Stay away from shag carpeting, it is no picnic trying to find an N scale coupler spring or brake wheel in that type of carpeting.
James
I believe the operative word is “semi-finished”. A bare concrete floor creates dust every time you walk across it. It will take years for the construction dust to settle out of the joists and flooring above your head as well. The smart thing to do is seal the floor and fini***he walls cand ceiling before your start constructing the railroad. At least that is the way thingsd were 42 years ago, the last time I lived in a house with a basement!
You think you got dust? When I was in my teens I built a layout under the floor of our house. I drove stakes into the ground and mounted wood roadbed to the top of each stake. At least my mountains were real! I eventually gave it up. The next and some previous layouts were in an ordinary basement like yours. Dad went to a store that sold cloth by the bolt, and bought bed sheet material. He mounted little pulleys to the floor joists overhead at the four corners of our layout that was 6’ x 11’. He made a light metal frame out of 1/8 x 1.0" aluminum angle stock, screwing the corners together with 1/4-20 round head cap screws and hex nuts. This frame was hung from the pulleys at all four corners with venetian blind cord. The sheet material was draped over the layout so it would hang down equally all around, and the frame was positioned to match the layout. Dad and mom and I all sewed the material to the frame all around. One cord was tied to the frame at each corner. Dad gathered the other ends of all four cords and tied them all into one knot. One cord was left longer and he tied a loop in that. He mounted a hook on the wall, so that by walking this loop from the layout to the wall, the cords pulled the frame with material up to the “ceiling” out of the way when we wanted to run trains. He put the hook down low enough so I could reach it too. We never had problems with dust again. Just remember to lower the frame down to hang just above the layout every time you stop running trains. I still have one like this today on a layout out in my garage. Light wood could work for the frame if you make it like 3/4 x 1-1/2 and stand it on edge when you screw the corners together. Get your parents to help, its easy, just takes a little time.
Hi Ian,
I also sealed my basement concrete floor and walls before I finished my basement. I also vacumed the ceiling joists after I drywalled to remove construction dust. I have recently added HEPA filters to the train room to reduce dust levels in the air. See a similar thread titled “Dust Control” in the Collectable Toy Trains Forum for additional information.
Regards,
Tim P.
Basements aren’t the only dust “canyons” model railroaders deal with.
My spare bedroom is carpeted and my house as central air. Yet, my little 8 foot long shelf layout builds up a layer of dust after just 2 weeks. I blow the dust off with my airbrush and when my locomotives become too dusty, I remove the shells and gently rinse them in the kitchen sink.
For those of us with central air, remember to change or clean that air handler filter! I forget sometimes, and when I do remember and open the vent hatch…good goobly! That black filter is covered in a layer of gray “dust bunnies”.
I agree, James. Good quality (pay now!), commercial grade low-cut pile, the kind that you would find in a clothing store. Vacuum it every week.
Vacuum it with slow, deliberate strokes using a proper power nozzle. If you vacuum with quick runs of the wand back and forth, stop and play with your trains; you’ll be doing much more good in keeping your track clean that way. Quick vacuuming is not vacuuming. The air trying to get up the nozzle must accelerate toward the nozzle. It is in developing speed that it picks up the very things you want gone. Running the nozzle back and forth quickly means that the air doesn’t have a chance to do the moving because the nozzle is moving to meet it. (Sorry if this seems like a description on how to suck eggs, but…)
A suspended ceiling tile system will probably do a reasonably good job of keeping dust from falling from the floor above. Wooden floors in an upper room are surely going to let skin particles fall through the boards onto the next surface. Lino is much better, or Pergo type layers, but the action of the timbers below them will still generate wood dust.
A friend of mine built his layout in his parents disused garage. As is had an open ceiling with exposed beams, the dust problems were horrendous. He solved the problem by stapling bedsheets to the beams, so that they covered the the ceiling, and the major part of the dust problem was eliminated.
Ian,
I too have a major dust problem. My layout is in the garage in in Arizona, we can have dust like no one else in the country. I have been kicking around the idea of a room air cleaner. Something to leave on and help circulate the room as well. I havent looked into to much as to be able to give offer brand advice or anything, byt maybe something for you to look into.
Also, for your basement, a couple of quick and easy idea to help seal it up would be to use plastic over the layout, you could just staple it the wood, and maybe just paint the concret to seal it up. Both could be quick and cheap fixes.
I can relate to canazar’s problem. I used to work in Saudi Arabia which has a similar climate to AZ, the dust is like talcum powder, and comes from crushed, weathered sand and rock so is very abrasive. You just can’t shut it out. Now I have traded desert dust for pollen from Maine spruce trees, so the vacuuming goes on.
I too have a serious dust problem in my basement. I have a finished ceiling with painted concrete walls and floor.I’m building an 8’ x 23’ 2 level HO scale layout and hope to put catenary wire on it. I’m thinking of enclosing my layout as well but using shades or pull down screens around the perimeter. Your idea is as closed to mine to date. Could you post or email me a picture to get an idea how to make mine work? Thanks
I did not state it my previous post that I was responding to Hostler’s idea about the cover his Dad made. Something like that might help me. Thanks, John.
Yep. I can dust in the house and it’s back in two days.[banghead] Living in the country doesn’t mean clean air. It’s just a different type of air pollutuon. (Harvest chaff. Plowing dust. Dirt rodes in drought)
My layout’s in an out building. Sealing the floor stopped about 70% of the dust. Here’s a fairly low cost air filter that might help.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91393
I have a garage layout in California’s “Pollen Belt” (the Sacramento Valley) and during the spring and summer, I spend as much dime dusting as I do running. For dusting, I use those thick makeup brushes that you can get at any cosmetics counter (and be prepared for weird looks from the girl behind the counter when you start getting particular, LOL!). They work like a charm on fine details. I have a hand vac that I use lightly over scenery (lots of trees), and for cleaning the trackage, I have one of those nifty new Atlas HO track cleaners with a built in vacuum.
I’m so used to it, that it’s just second nature to me. One of those “Okay, here we go again” type things that I put up with down here, just like SUV fumes from all of the soccer moms driving their kids to the school behind my house, hanging around in the still, dry air.
Tom
Dust is everywhere. Unless you get yourself an entire “industrial clean room” set up you’re going to see Dust.[:-^]—if you live anywhere were roads and the usual construction site exists —ye are doomed thereby—[xx(]
There are companies that specialize in cleaning computer systems now for offices that use vacuum cleaners that are specifically built for electronics cleaning----check out some electronic parts suppliers for information on them—even using the little cans of propellent sometimes does the trick–just keep the loose stuff off the layout while using them-----
Dust!??? When the layout is outside, dust is the least of the problems. Try bird poop! Thank goodnes Phoenix does not have Canadan geese.
In my 50 years of trying to keep electronic equipment clean I learned one thing. A soft brush does wonders moving the dust off of something…only to land somewhere else you don’t want it to be.
I have used a soft make-up brush to launch the dust into the air in one hand while holding a vacuum hose to catch most of the stubborn dust. This scheme has worked for everything from vacuum tubes bigger than a man to the tiny components of a computer board.
If you work carefully you can even dust small, loose objects on the layout without having to retrieve them from the vacuum bag.
… dust is in the air, everywhere I go…
Dust is something you just have to accept. Whatever you do, it´ll be still there, waiting for you to remove it. And that you have to do.
My layouts used to have a “top” which contained the lighting - something like a valance. When the layouts were not in use, a plastic curtain protected the front. But even so, the dust was just there…
[8D]
Hear! Hear!
There is no magic formula or gizmo that will stop dust other then a air tight room like some laboratories uses…
It a fact of life we could live without but,not in our current homes and living conditions since dusts attacks everything from every source.
I Hates Dusts!
Unfortunately, we as a species shed our skin {tiny flakes} continuously adding to the dust problem.
Keeping your layout covered when not in use is the best thing I think.