Flooded train room

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

We recently had about 3 foot of storm water in our basement, most of my HO railroad equipment, cars and locomotives were under water. I removed all of them from their cardboard boxes, threw the boxes away, and set everything out to dry. We had professional cleaners clean, dry and treat the basement. My questions are: 1) what is the best way to clean the locomotives and cars? 2) Do you think that my transformers are runined? 3) What other items should I considered before trying to run trains? Thank you in advance for any suggestions and comments.

Rudy

2

Biggest issue is going to be: How much dirt, mud, and crud was in that water? Clean, fresh water does a lot less damage than water loaded with silt and dissolved salts. In Alaska, the purity of some of the ponds and bogs of fresh water has actually preserved stuff for hundreds of years. Assuming some level of silt and crud:

Locomotives need to have the entire drive train dried, cleaned, and re-lubricated.

Transformers (and/or power packs and any other electrical appliances) need to be cleaned and dried and sprayed with a water displacement (WD-40 or the correct CRC formula) chemical. The excess WD-40 is then removed with rags or swabs or similar. Then, and only then can it be plugged in to see if it works - it still might not work anyway. If the electrical/electronic item doesn’t work right off the bat after treatment, I would not chance using it any further. And you may have delayed failures of capacitors.

The above assumes the innards are accessible. If the innards are not accessible, but the case is not hermetically sealed, throw it out from the beginning. Electrical fires are not fun to deal with.

just my thoughts

Fred W

3

duiker,

Very sorry to hear of your misfortune.

I was thinking on your problem, and I am wondering if a “ultrasonic cleaner” like those sold by Micromark tools might help.

What I am thinking is the water which got into your locomotives and transformers surely had small particles of dirt and other substances in it.

So if you were to let them dry out, purchase an ultrasonic cleaner, and immerse them for c leaning, it may work.

Removing the locomotive shells before cleaning, etc.

Does anyone else have an opinion on this or had experience with just such a problem as this?

I would imagine the freight cars could be taken apart , remove the trucks, etc, clean them, relubricate them if needed, etc.

I would also recommend getting some good chamois cloths or some good soft shop rags, and just slowly clean your freight cars, track, etc.

The use of WD40 decribed above by another post sounds like a good idea also.

And cleaning in the sink also sounds like it would work. It’s going to be a slow meticulous process, but will eventually get the job done.

Does anyone elase have an opinion on this idea?

One last thought, if you have homeowners insurance, you should be able to get an appraisal of the value of your trains, and possibly talk with your insurance company on what they might cover as far as replacement, so you won’t face a total loss.

Good luck, and I hope you can salvage much if not all of your damaged trains.

Ed aka TheK4Kid

4

Just disassemble everything and wash it in the sink. An air compressor would help dry things off. Re-lube it all and re-assemble. (no easy way to do it.) At least all your maintanance will be done all at once![:P]

If it was salt water, throw all the electrical stuff out.

5

Ditto on the drying cleaning and lube and wipe down again. One item I would recommend and your insurance should cover is, that you need to have a dehumidifier operating for a couple of days. It is not enough to heat the the area. The moisture must be pulled out the building and drained out of the house. There are companies that have a meter ,it almost looks like ghost buster equipment but it will detect moisture that cannot be seen.I would strongly recommend that this be done ,you will be surprised at the amount of water still in the existing building materials. This is particulary dangerous because of mold growth. We in the construction industry spend a LOT OF MONEY and time ensuring there is no mold in a house because of liability and health concerns for home owners. I would strongly recommend any drywall material at least six inches above the water line be removed and replaced. ie Drywall , insulation. Then spray the area with a mixture of clorax and water. This solution will kill any mold spores left behind. Mold can make people VERY SICK and I cannot urge you strongly enough to take these precautions. If you have any questions feel free to post,I will respond.

6

Sorry to hear about the flood duiker!

Hope everything comes out OK.

I know it’s obvious but go VERY careful with waterlogged electrics and mains power. (Transformers etc) Not only assure that everything is perfectly dry but I would get fit a circuit breaker before you plug in anything and test it thru the mains. In the UK we can buy a plug in circuit breaker that merely pugs into a mains socket. If any equipment is damp or damaged, the circuit breaker will kick in and shut off the local power and not run all the way back to your fuse box. It’s safer and cheaper than burning the house down. (Slight exageration!)

As to locos etc, these are not as dangerous because the voltage is much lower than mains, but still go very careful. It may be a good idea to get down to the chassis, dry all contact points with a hair dryer and clean thoroughly before running power through.

I think you will have to take it all very carefully and a bit at a time. Check out mains power stuff first. Then each loco. Then track and wiring etc. I wish you good luck after such bad fortune.

Cheers

Barry

7

If I were insured, and if the insurer agreed to replace most items with limits, I’d do some judicious culling and get new stuff. Transformer’s a no brainer to me…don’t mean to be sarcastic, but some of them are finnicky enough in this hobby, so get some reliability from Hour One.

Further into culling, get hard on yourself, for the sake of future enjoyment of the hobby, and de-select anything that has lesser value or utility, no matter what it is. A prized loco might be worth a couple of hours of disassembly, cleaning, lubing, and reassembly…for sure. Same for one-of-a-kind rolling stock, especially ones you weathered that still look good. Getting rid of everything else might offer an opportunity to jump into the world of DCC, with the bonus that you should not have to move a wire on your layout.

One thing to keep in mind, and that is that your adjuster may be more kindly disposed to replacing some things if he understands that you are not willing to spend the unpaid hours it will take to clean everything and restore the hobby to its previous state…which, after all, is really the intent of insurance…mostly. So, he can face a bill under obligation, or you and he can negotiate something more comfortable for both of you. By offering to shoulder some of the burden, you should expect an acknowledgement of that. It should make their settlement of the hobby stuff that needs replacement easier to swallow.

I am sorry to hear that this has happened to you. I have had at least two basement floods, one major, one minor, and both related to excessive rainfall over a short period.

If you think of it, please come back and let us know how it all unfolded.

-Crandell

8

Hmmmmm, just a thought, if you talk to your insurer, ask them if any of their adjusters are into Model Railroading.

Maybe he’ll have a heart!

Then again,maybe you’ll make a new buddy who might offer to help clean your trains up.

Like I said, just a thought!

9

sorry to hear bout the flooding of your train room. what scale is it. if it’s n scale maybe i can help you out a little bit by selling you some of my n scale that hasn’t been used yet for about half off what they sale it for at a reasonably priced train store. as i am more into o scale now. just pm me and we can discuss it furthur. but anyways sorry to here that.

10

Rudy, very sorry to hear about your mishap. I had an entire test floor get flooded from ABOVE when a cooling tower water feed line burst. We had Niagara Falls over all our million dollar semiconductor testers, as well as all the Probers. We were able to salvage everything. We used fans to dry out all the testers and electronice, unplugged all the PC boards, cleaned all the contacts and cables etc., so it can be done.

You have received some verry good advice from many of the guys already. The most important things to do is get the equipment dryed off as soon as possible after any flood. Using WD 40 is good because it is a Water Displacement fluid. You may have to remove the shells if the water was dirty in order to makes sure eveything is cleaned thoroughly.

As for insurance coverage, this is a double edged sword. Yes, if you had flood insurance, and yes if you can show them the damaged equipment in the flood, but on the other side, you may have a deductible, it might be as low as $250 or as high as $1000. Also, many insurance companies raise your rates the next year after a claim is submitted. Some of the better companies will give you the first occurance with no increase, but if you have two claims within 5 years, up go the rates!! So that is another consideration.

On a final note a wise old EE told me when I was 24, this little saying and it always stuck with me: “The objective of all good employees ( home owners in this case ) is to anticipate all possible problems before they occur, and have ready solutions to solve them when/if they do occur. However, it is difficult to remind oneself that the Initial Objective was to drain the swamp when you are up to your a** in alligators”!

Rudy, I am sure that building shelves for your basement storage is high

11

Thank you for your suggestions. I have been cleaning other things up, so haven’t done much with the railroad stuff. It looks like I can salvage most of it with a little TLC. Initially I just wanted to through it all out and give the railroad up. Thanks again for the suggestions and support.

12

I would use alcohol first, the purest I can get, to remove as much water as possible from electrical/electronic parts. Then dry with a hair dryer. Then follow the other instructions above.

Good luck. Sorry to hear of your misfortune.