Dear “Florida” Guys and Gals:
I am from the Northeast. We have visited Florida numerous times and in different seasons. Now, considering being transplanted ‘snowbirds’, a question has come up. What does the climate do to layouts and rolling stock and what do you do to protect your investment?
I run both HO and O scale. The HO is Atlas NS and the O is Lionel traditional tubular track.
As always, many thanks.
I am from the Chicago area, and my wife and I are spending our first winter in Florida (Fort Myers) as trial snowbirds. From November through February, the weather is perfect (typically in the 70’s during the day and 50’s at night with relatively low humidity.)
I have not set up a layout down here because I am renting a condo, and I miss it greatly, contenting myself by building small structures, browsing the Walthers catalog and reading train magazines and forums when not golfing.
But, from what I hear, beginning in March (or April at the latest) and continuing through September, the temperatures are beastly and the humidity is worse. I have been to Orlando in June, and my advice is too build and operate a layout only in a strictly dehumidified environment.
I am sure that other readers of this forum with first hand experience will have more to say.
I’m in southwest Florida and nothing will happen as long as you have your layout inside under a/c. You just need to keep the dust off like up north. If you set up in the garage you will have humidity problems and the heat will be more than you can stand for 6 months every year. You won’t be motivated to work on the layout.
The humidity will affect wood and any woodlike products like plywood, homosote or MDF much more than it will bother pink/blue foam. Of course, you may not be able to find foam in warm climates. Any Floridians know if foam is available at your HD or Lowes?
Florida is very flat and low elevation. It’s basically one big sandbar. The water table is high. Consequently, there are very few basements in Florida, so the traditional layout location is not likely to be available. Many homes are built for “downsizing” retirees and empty-nesters, so you may have to specifically look for an abnormally large place just to get a train room.
My in-laws live in Florida, and we visit frequently. I agree with the weather assessments. People do the snowbird thing for a reason - you don’t want to live there in the summer unless you’re very tolerant of hot weather.
Remember, “ITS NOT THE HEAT–ITS THE HUMILITY!”
Having spent one tour of duty and several extended TDYs at Keesler Field in the '50s and '60s I can tell you this: there is no power on God’s Green Earth that could ever compel me to reside within 100 miles of the Gulf coast at any time between mid-April and mid-October. Give me 115° temperatures in high-summer anytime compared to 95% humidity.
Be that as it may I have always heard that humidty is more continuously detrimental to layout integrity than wild extremes of temperature but I’m sure I will get opposing views to that statement. A model railroad acquaintance from my active duty days had built a retirement home in the B’luxee. Miz-zipi area complete with a purpose-built train room; the trade-off was that his wife got a Mercedes. He had installed a dedicated air conditioning system for this layout room specifically for the purpose of keeping the humidity low during the summertime. I’m not advocating that extreme–this guy had recently been riffed as a Major and when he retired in about '79 he was going to be drawing in excess of 25 grand a year so he was going to be able to afford the expense; it does go to show, however, that his experience in that climate warranted that kind of expenditure. I know of at least two individuals here in the Desert Southwest who have dedicated air conditioning systems for their specifically-built train rooms.
having been “lucky” enough to have spent several years where the Florida weather was considered local news, be aware that there have been times when central Florida “enjoyed” a solid month at a time of rain during the cooler months! Also, if hurricanes aren’t your bag, Florida isn’t your state.
(Apropos of which, I can’t help but wonder if RT’s riffed Major in Biloxi survived Katrina. That whole area was pretty well flattened.)
When I finally, absolutely retired a few years ago, I could have moved to almost any place in a couple of countries. I decided on a place where hurricanes are things that happen way off yonder, tornadoes are a once in a decade (maybe) event, the summertime temperatures are extreme but humidity is usually measured in single digits. Also, I can travel from Egypt to Rome by way of King Arthur’s Court, 1930’s Noo Yawk, Paris and Venice in the space of a few city blocks - and there’s nothing as entertaning as watching a world-famous casino go Bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-boom!!! and vanish in a cloud of dust.
The entire output of the Denver Mint, deposited continuously to my checking account, wouldn’t pay me enough to move from Sin City to Florida.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in a North Las Vegas garage)
Rich HO Train, Paul,Mister Beasley, R.T.Poteet,TomikawaTT: Wow! Looks like a ‘trend’ here. Five replies and I think I am getting a message here. I look forward to reading more posts on this topic and THANK YOU for your replies.
I have done the opposite. I moved from FL to CA to UT. I didn’t have a layout till CA but with global warming CA was as hot as FL while I was there. I can say that the heat doesn’t affect the layout. But if you are moving to FL take my advice. Do Not put the Railroad in the garage. The rain and humidity will turn the table into mush from what I know.
My in laws lived just north of Ft Lauderdale, my mother-in-law is in a nursing home there. So I have gone down there on numerous occaisions. I have no desire to move there. The summers are beastly, the humidity is terrible, and the hurricanes are frequent.
Enjoy
Paul
I must have come from a different planet than the rest of the responders.
We’ve been in Central Florida now for a few years. I’ve built a layout for the first time in nearly 30 years while here. So far I’ve not had any heat or humidity issues as I was able to locate the layout in the Air Conditioned part of the house.
I agree that you don’t want to use a garage here for anything other than the Car(s) & Storage.
Heat & Humidity back in Oklahoma were as bad or worse at various times than anything I’ve seen here. My layouts there, built in a storage building, suffered from heat damage in the summer. It also can get mercilessly cold in Oklahoma so they weren’t usable during much of the winter even with a heater in the building.
Of course tornadoes can pop-up at any time in Oklahoma - like earlier this month, being much larger Hurricanes aren’t capable of that kind of surprise.
Mark Gosdin
Just as a descent heating system makes it possible to live with some degree of comfort in the North it is central A/C that makes it almost bearable to live where there is a high level of humidity. We can get acclimatized and feel extreme effects of temperature much better than visitors do. However, this can not be said for model railway layouts - they never get acclimatized without our intervention and humidity is the kiss of death for our models should their environment not be temparature controled.
I’m not sure if this rule of thumb applies any longer - or ever did, actually, but what is a healthy location for a computer is a place of equal benefit to a model railway layout.
Bruce[:)]
I lived in Fort myers in the mid 80s…I would love to be able to give you a good answer but I wasn’t able to have my layout up when I lived there.[|(] The local model railroad club seemed to have few problems though.
Hot and humid in the summer, varies (can be cold one day then hot the next) in the winter.
I had a layout in a garage for a while, and the humidity played havoc on the wood benchwork. Having an insulated garage with A/C didn’t really make it much better. Pretty much after a year and a half, the whole layout was starting to warp.
You can get pink(HD) and blue(Lowes) foam but only 3/4 inch thick. You have to cut and glue two or more sheets together to get the thickness you want. Actually latex caulk works well as an adhesive and won’t harm the foam.
Traindaddy,
I live and work in Miami FL so I can give you my actual experience. I currently have a layout in my garage (contrary to what many posters recommend) and it is a workable option. I used hollow core closet doors for my main yard area and glued cork roadbed to the doors before laying track. I have had some expansion and contraction problems but nothing major that affects operation. You might want to leave one or two rail joints on your layout unsodered to allow for the expansion and contraction. For other areas of my layout I used exterior grade plywood with adequate framing and painting to prevent warping. I don’t have AC in the garage so summer (May-October here) can be very hot and humid, but a few fans keep the air moving and I can work with the temperature. A lot of the heat in a garage has to do with the orientation of the overhead door (North and East are good ) West is very bad. My garage is facing North so the sun never directly shines on the door keeping the heat down.
I hold regular operational sessions (4-5 people) in the evenings and the operators just wear comfortable cloths and know temperature is going to be warm during the summer months. I do limit operational sessions in July and August to avoid the really hot months. I use fans to move the air and leave the door to the house open so some of the AC circulates into the garage.
As others have mentioned, a garage is not a great option, but with no basments down here it is one of the few options if you have if you want to have a layout. If you can insulate the walls and doors and add an AC unit to the area you plan to build the layout in so much the better. One other model railroader that lives here has a layout in his garage but built a separate area and added AC. Another one of my other friends even has a layout in his attic. Not to many model railroaders down he
TOM and ALL: Thanks for your insights. I’ll keep you updated.
I’m glad that you replied with a different point of view. I too am moving to Florida (The Villages up near Ocala). My only option for a train room/man cave is the garage. Our house has a 2 car garage and a golf car garage. I’m going to wall off the latter and set up some kind of AC and dehumidifier to help. I think it will work and a 9 x 11 layout will be enough to keep me busy for a while.