Ther was a tremendously interesting thread yesterday about whether foam on our railroads constituted a ‘illegal’ saftey situation. Why it was locked so quickly baffles me.
But the larger topic of safety issues on our railroads is, I think a very important one. Something we should take seriously and make sure that we minimize any risks our layouts may pose to our family and of course ourselves.
What are some of the ares where we could or should be paying close attention, as we build and expand our hobby presence in our homes?
Street rodders have voluntary annual automobile inspection programs where their street rods are checked to make sure you are not driving a suicide ride.
Perhaps the NMRA or our local clubs cold implement a program where a team of railroaders visits a fellow’s layout and gives things a good once over looking for safety and fire hazards.
Personnally, I’ve been surprised when my Rod failed inspection only to find out that I had missed some critical item.
Oh, and the program would be entirely voluntary, if you don’t want to be inspected, you don’t have to be.
The Canadian Street Rod Association puts on inspections at their car shows. I was surprised that the trunk mounted battery in my Trans Am was a issue because it was not in a vented box.
Interesting thought. In a basement, you do have to deal with building code issues, ranging from keeping 3’ clear in front of your electrical panel, and allowing for access to furnaces, water heaters and egress windows. Part of this is to provide easy access for maintaining your household systems, but you also don’t want to make a situation that puts part of the layout somewhere it can be genuinely hazardous.
While it would seem the layout itself should be relatively harmless, consider that most of our wood benchwork is not enclosed at the bottom, we often have piles of junk underneath, and a spiderweb of wires hanging there.
You don’t have much high voltage going on, but even 12-14v AC (typical constant voltage of a DCC-equipped layout) can generate a lot of heat if a short goes unchecked.
The key to success is to just take your time and plan your layout space so you don’t create problems for yourself, and be careful as you build it so that your structure, finishes and systems are properly installed.
If your layout is at a club that opens to the public, you have to pay extra attention to fire and life safety codes, because any space where a group of people can gather can quickly turn into a nightmare if codes aren’t followed.
More safety concerns come from the building of the layout. Use of power tools, some really hazardous materials, etc. Safety of these items comes under other review, just like building codes would address some mentioned above.
There’s a chart somewhere(I don’t have the patience to find it)that addresses the issue of amperage and wire gauge to pevent over heating. Most sets come with 20ga. wire to run one loco(sets as in LL or Bachmann and sold in Dept stores). I’ve seen mention in DCC columns 10-12ga for the power bus and 20 for feeders. Sadly, I feel this is inadaquet for running through foam. I don’t know how flamable foam is, but a lash-up of five DCC and sound Locos draws alot more current than one simple DC engine pulling six cars on a loop of EZ-Track.
My biggest safety concern is between the two cats, two toddlers and two adults with two seperate layouts in the same space, confusion might rule the day. Bulletproof track work, access proof displays, secure wiring, proper lighting, and other due diligance are priorities over rushing to get this built.
ps- My mother -in-laws cat just said “thank you” for letting it into the kitchen to get to it’s lunch. I’m all weirded out now.
tstage said that it had been thoroughly talked through, and that we should move on. (not a direct quote, but best that I can remember without going back, and covers the basic sentiment) No serious name calling or other personal attacks, just some less than complimentary thoughts on some public servants in general. I am curious as to why it got locked, the forum members were discussing a topic that they were interested in, in a fairly civil manner. I have seen the Big Boy vs Allegheny debates get much more uncivilised without getting locked. And we all KNOW that the Big Boy was a MUCH SUPERIOR LOCOMOTIVE, to the Allegheny [swg].
My wife works in the insurance industry, and safety in the railroad room is naturally, of first importance. Being a professional railroader, safety is job one, so here is how I have handled it, past and present:
On my previous layout, which was upstairs in a 24 x 45 foot room with six dormers and two exit doors, I went to the added expense of using lighted exit signs above the doors, and placed escape ladders of the type shown on TV (rope with wood steps) in each dormer. Windows were never blocked with layout stuff. As a former electrician, wiring was to code at all locations. The room was equipped with multi rating fire extinguishers every 15-20 feet, plus one in each of two dispatcher’s offices. Phones at the fascia were also available to handle outside calls with the flip of a switch. Electrical subpanels allow power to the railroad room, except emergency lighting) to be shut off at any of four locations within the room itself, as well as outside the room. Now that I have a much smaller room, I use only one subpanel with one shut off.
During construction, all guests are required to wear masks when working with the blue or pink foam, and extra ventilation to the outside is required when shaping it with hot foam cutters, as it puts out minute amounts toxic fumes, more irritating than hazardous, but dangerous enough in great quantity… All construction materials are carefully placed in the garage, not the train room and tripping hazards such as power tools are removed.
At the end of work sessions, power tools are unplugged and put away and hand tools are securely stored.
All edges on the layout are rounded and during construction, joist tails and such are hand painted flourescent orange so that wandering foreheads and shoulders do not meet up with them.
When using cutting tools, soldering tools, or anything else that will throw dusts, chip
I’d agree. The “foam” thread started innocently enough, and the OP even said that he didn’t want to start an anti-government-regulation rant session. But, by page 2 it had turned into precisely that, and I suppose that caused it to be locked.
The thread brought up some very valid and interesting issues, but it was mostly questions and few answers. Once it drifted off-topic, it didn’t belong any more. So, it was locked, but not deleted. If the thread itself had been offensive, it likely would have vanished.
Our Mods are pretty good. I’ve seen a few threads where they’ve gone in and surgically removed individual posts, rather than the whole thread, to get rid of offensive material. They left in the “wheat,” and removed the “chaff.” (Of course, they probably put the chaff in their blenders, died it green, and used it for ground foam. MR guys are like that.)
I suspect that the greatest danger our homes face from our layouts is leaving stuff plugged in. Whether it’s a soldering iron that tips over and starts a smoldering fire, or a transformer that shorts out in the middle of the night, it’s always best to unplug or shut off stuff you’re not using. I use a terminal strip with a single on-off switch to shut off my whole layout. I’m using a soldering gun now, rather than an iron. The gun forces me to hold down the trigger to keep it on, which is a safety feature in itself.
Besides, Big Boy is easier to spell. Anybody know why the BB in Scranton is 80% rust? Don’t they believe in paint?
I looked over the OP in that other thread and if fumes are bad, they’d ban the changing of baby diapers without the use of protective breathing apparatus.[2c]
In regards to the foam topic, I tried an experiment this AM, namely taking a piece of blue foam outside and using a lighter applied a flame to it, it melted, gave off a little black smoke, and if I kept the flame on it, it would sorta burn but it fizzled out without the direct flame, so I consider that while there is a fire risk from it, I think all the other stuff on the layout might represent a higher risk than the foam underlay. Traditional newspaper and cardboard underlay for hydrocal might actually be lot more risky but using common sense in design and planning should make the layout as safe as any other peice of furniture in the house.
On my layout I use a powerstrip with an on/off switch and I’m trying to train myself to make sure is off whenever I leave the garage, I always check the throttle before I leave the layout area to make sure its off, but the ultimate solution is maybe to simply always unplug it at the end of a session.
I’m more worried about all the other crap in the area that the layout has to share with thats beyond my control to toss out, than with anything else.
PS I’ve seen some road legal retro Rat Racer hot rods that are beyond unsafe! How the hell they got past the DMV is beyond me.
Agreed. Three switched, surge protected strips for mine. One for the Dept 56 and O scale train display. One for the DCC(when I get there) with it’s three boosters. One for the DC loop, switch machines and lighting. No wires hanging down for the kitties to play with.(My last layout’s yard switches never did work more than one day in a row)
Having a carpeted floor keeps me from slipping when reaching over the layout. Using the overkill philosophy for the building of the underneath storage makes not only leaning on the layout safer, but I can walk on it(stooped over)with all 200lbs of me. Sturdy=safe. Lighting structures, use no more than 80% of the power supply’s rated amperage output. Why? Even tho most can put out 20-100% more than their rating, with the trend of our friends in that populous nation making these things being towards shoddier rather than better, I’d not risk power supplies at their top amp rating.
Wall warts use power when they are plugged in. Save a watt, save some cash. Take the money and donate it to our the “Enlarge Chip’s Basement” fund. Have a small fire distinguisher handy in your shop/workbench area. That way you’ll know a real fire from a steam engine’s smoke. Do your wiring with the power off. Even a low voltage shock can make you
Get this - Sound-equipped DCC engines are a safety feature. Why? Because they remind you that you’ve left your layout on. If I’m running trains or working on something, and then I leave the room and get distracted, a noisy Alco RSC-3 or a Hudson idling on a siding will remind me to shut off the layout. With non-sound engines, I lose this protection.
Make sure your significant other knows that sound engines are much safer than non-sound engines, OK? [;)]
I use a Weller. It’s better than the one I remember having as a kid, but that was 40 years ago. It’s fine for most stuff, but I realize it’s really too big for doing circuit-board work.
DO NOT STICK YOUR TOUNGE ON THE RAILS!!! ESPECIALLY WHEN PLUGGED IN!!! (for you DC users such as myself) and when the power pack is on full!! The only word of advice from me… got my little brother with that one once (heh heh)