After evaluating my available house space for where to construct my latest HO Model RR, I’m planning on setting up my layout in my garage which has only an outside entrance. I live in So. California if anyone knows the weather here, it gets hot in the summer (100s) and can get down to close to freezing in the Winter.. Rain is usually around Dec. to March or April and the amount varies year by year. Problem is that my garage is not sealed like a room in the house, nice and finished with environmental control, insulation and airtight doors. It’s basically, outside Stucco wall against tar paper, 2 X 4 studs visible from the interior and that’s it. Big garage door is leaky all around the edges. There are air vents open to the outside with wire mesh for some unknown reason around the bottom of the walls. There is only one window so that’s not a problem. I’m concerned that my locomotives and critical electrical components will deteriorate in that environment. I think the rolling stock will be OK, not sure about how the typical scenery materials would be affected.
I was thinking of just taking all the electrical Locos inside the house after each session to protect them, although that would be a big hassle every time I wanted to operate the Layout lugging the Locos back and forth from inside the house.
Any observations or suggestions would be appreciated or advice if you have had the same problem.
I can remember reading that some proposed never soldering rail joints to allow for expansion and contraction of the track. Eventually I realized that they were talking about garage based layouts that had large temperature swings. Since my layout is in the basement with only a small fluctuation throughout the year I ignored that advice and soldered all the rail joints and have never had a problem.
You may have that problem if you don’t do more to finish the space. Maybe someone else can define the amount of temperature swing you can tolerate.
I also live in SoCal, but near the beach. Our garage temperature extremes are far less, 58 to 60 minimum, 80 max except for a few days/year when it can hit 85. One thing we have is a large exhaust fan that draws air in those small vents and discharges through the much larger vent near the hot water heater. I use this once in a while on hot days when all three cars have been run to exhaust the engine heat.
You can insulate and drywall the walls, but the ceiling also needs to be done for it to be effective. I replaced our garage doors with 2" thick doors that have insulation between the inner and outer wood panels. The window glass is 1/4" laminated tint glass. It has the same mu (conductivity rating) as double pane glass.The doors seal tight to the weather stripping around the opening.
The small vents at the sill level are required by code. If, like us, the water heater is in the garage an additional much larger vent is required near the water heater. Your vents likely have 1/4" screen mesh. The fire code has been changed to require 1/8" mesh. I have retrofit our attic vents but have yet to do the garage vents. There is no planned enforcement by the fire marshal of these code changes. The “enforcement” is the insurance companies are looking at denying coverage from external fires if the retrofit is not done. This is per our local fire marshal and two insurance brokers I use.
All this insulation and drywall will narrow the temperature range but it may still be larger than you want. I have about half of my Gilbert train collection stored in ceiling mounted racks in the garage. The temperature range I listed above has had no affect on the trains for the last 35 years.
Not that building and operating a layout in a drafty unfinished Nor-Cal garage wasn’t fun and exciting, but it was often less than comfortable out there, with dust and dirt a constant nemesis. The improvements mentioned are neither easy nor inexpensive, especially if not DIY, but will make Model Railroading a much more pleasant experience while going easier on your equipment.
Regards, Peter
I actually have my layout in my garage in a harsher environment than you do. (Southeastern Montana.) We can get temperatures anywhere from -40 to 110 during the year.
Admittedly my garage is a little more finished: Drywall on the walls and a bit of insulation. However it is unheated. This time of year I usually have quit trying to work in the garage as it’s too cold. I switch to my fall/winter/early spring projects that are kept in the house.
Even before this layout, the equipment sat in an unheated outbuilding on the ranch I grew up on. I never had any problems with them. (Montana is a bit drier than California on the humidity side.)
The track isn’t soldered. The regular rail joiners connect the track and it’s nailed down to cork bedding.
Montana; I was looking at some videos about a remote town there and how people maintain their isolated lives in cold Glasgow. It certainly has an appeal when you live in the L.A. area including the uncrowded lifestyle rather than millions of people everywhere you look.
Anyway, does your climate affect your locomotives and any critical electronic components,
not just your rail joiners? Also how about your scenery materials? Do you have much rain there?
I’ve been concerned that leaving all my gear out in that leaky, drafty garage would take its toll
on the delicate operating mechanisms in the motive stock.
Why don’t you use a gas or electric heater in your garage so you can work there?
@Big_Boy_Forever
My garage is fairly good for keeping water and snow out. Some problems have cropped up in a few spots with water or snow getting in but I think I’ve got them solved.
Given how dry our humidity is, I haven’t had any problems with rust or corrosion.The equipment is in boxes and sits on plastic shelves when not in use.
I also take all the engines out and run them every spring to shake off the winter inactivity.
As to the heat question, there are a few places where it’s not insulated well enough and there’s not really a good place to put a heater on the floor. (Just about all the floor space is taken up. It’s also a workshop as well.)
Personally, I would never build a layout in a spacethat was not finished and has a stable environment
I built one layout in a garage attic, large space, 1000 sq ft. Fully insulated and heated/cooled. In the most extreem weather I kept the HVAC running 24/7.
Generally, here in the mid Atlantic a high percentage of homes have basenents which are very climate stable in most cases.
My current layout under construction isxin a 1500 sq ft basement. Pretty much 65-70 degrees all year
Same here. A garage is the last place I would want to build a layout. A far better alternative would be a bedroom layout or an under the bed pullout layout.
I’ve been thinking of doing a partial finish in the garage for only the Model RR area.
Insulation between the 2 X 4s in that area, with sheet rock over it and maybe some
hanging industrial plastic partition like you see in factories on the opposite theoretical
wall (where no real wall exists). That would cut down cost and time to get going.
How do you attach a sketch or photo on this Forum?
You haven’t mentioned whether you will be garaging a car in the space. If not, consider framing a wall next to the garage door and finish it out. I know lots of folks who have done this in Texas for either a bonus room or a layout space. You might be able to install a hotel style HVAC unit, if your electrical system allows for it (have a professional do the wiring).
As others have said, put up insulation and wallboard on all exposed walls/ceilings. That will help, a lot.
Like one of the responders here asked, “Don’t know what your budget is?”.
Well, my budget, including time, is not up to the task of doing the entire interior of the unfinished garage, including a hotel HVAC and applicable special professional wiring. All that would cost thousands of dollars. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have thousands of dollars to modernize
my unfinished garage in order to build a model RR. If I did, I would have done it already and it would be common sense to anyone, anyway, if you have the money.
I suppose some people do have readily available funds at their fingertips to do such a project
in order to put in a model railroad, but I’m not one of them. So I have to make due with what
I have in the least expensive manner possible.
Anyway, it is not so easy to afford things here as it is in other parts of the country where the
cost of living is sensible and American citizens well being, including financial, is respected.
Also, it is not always so easy as some may think, for middle class Americans to pick up everything and move to another state like some corporations and wealthy Californians are doing.
All that being said, I’m just trying to focus in on building a layout, with what space and other factors involved allow me to do, because I think Model RRng is a great activity for various
reasons, combining 3D Art, engineering and many other aspects into one constructive hobby
and positive endeavor.
California born and bred here, and I ain’t goin’ anywhere, so don’t wanna’ get ya’ started. Didn’t let not having the funds to improve my garage at the time stop me from building and enjoying a model railroad for many years. Sure glad about not missing out on the fun of a father and his son and grandsons playing with trains together, even if in a less than ideal environment. Spring and fall were best, but in the summer we’d be wearing shorts and running trains, sweaters in the winter. Yeah, more rail gaps to cut, track cleaning and layout maintenance, but we got better at it while developing other useful hobby skills. The Athearn Blue Box locos and rolling stock we were running back then did suffer some rust, but didn’t seem to faze em’. The power packs, automotive toggle switches and Hankscraft turnout motors held up fine. Don’t know how such conditions would affect today’s DCC stuff.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way, go for it, tons of fun lie ahead.
Nice looking yard from what I can see of the ladder.
Just me I’m old now, kids are old. Had a full bedroom layout when they were small.
Lot’s of Athearn Blue Box. No DCC back then, just “blocks”. Turnouts weren’t the best.
Now I have Shinohara turnouts.
Thanks for the “unfnished garage inspiration”
Did you do any sealing of cracks and gaps or insulation at all?
Theme will be a Short Line .that interchanges with a Class 1,with small yard, serves a couple industries and a mine community (coal or ore) in the mountains**. Maybe, 70s and 80s Era.
Also a tourist steam train & F-Unit with old passenger cars. Got all those cabooses in a special deal, which originated from an estate sale. Guess I’ll have to have a Caboose Track.
Will be lots of folded loops at different elevations. Yard will be at the lowest elevation, similar to what I see in your photo.
**I was taking inventory.of my rolling stock & locos here.
Athearn, Roundhouse, Bachman and Misc ** I plan on repainting or remarking some cars & locos as patched cars purchased from retired **RR Lines. That way I can keep the original paint scheme, like with the Rock Island stock, ** which has nice graphics.. Have lots of Kadee couplers and will replace any that don’t with Kadee.
Before I moved this past spring, I had just finished fixing up the detached garage that I had planned on using for my layout and art studio. This was the last update video that I did on the work showing the work I had done as well as the costs. Granted, I’m in Ohio, so there’s going to be some differences, but hope this look at what I did with my garage helps.
Your post shows the absurd cost of finishing an unsealed bare bones garage just to have a
model RR layout. Maybe if you are Wealthy it makes sense. I suppose to some people
money is of no concern.
No offense meant, it’s just that not everyone can put out 16 Thousand $$ to upgrade a garage
so they can put in a Model RR layout.
Thanks for the kind words and sorry about the late reply, other than add a rubber strip to the bottom of the wooden tilt-up garage door didn’t seal any cracks, nor add any insulation. The garage door had some sizable gaps on both sides, luckily on the lee side of the house. Again, glad I didn’t wait to finish the garage before enjoying a layout. Though in retrospect some things could have been done piecemeal as time and money became available, like adding insulation, wall board and a threshold (also helps keep out the mieces’) to the side door.
After tearing down the old layout which stood in good stead for 22 years was fortunate to have the time and funds available to finish out the garage before building a taller point to point switching layout. A lot of the lumber from the old layout was used on the new one.
Btw, those two grandkids in the previous photo can no longer be trusted, they turned 30 this year, but I digress. The finishing job was no where near as expensive as Kevin posted, but that was 14 years ago and was fortunate enough to do most all the work myself, except for installing the insulated roll-up door. Skipped a built in heater-AC. Model Railroad aside, it is nice to have a more comfortable and stable space to do other projects, the laundry, work on the vehicles, storage, etc.
Appears you have a nice collection and some fun projects lined up with lots of train running.
