I want to store some on my model railroad stuff in an out building while trying to complete my layout. The temperature in the building would vary between 20F to 110F and humidity would peek at 100% in the summer. What stuff would be safe to store in that environment? Thank you in advance.
Seriously? Nothing would be safe! Some plastics could even soften and distort. And 100% humidity would mean it’s under water! Put the stuff in double-thick moving boxes and store it in closets, or in the middle of the layout room floor, moving it around as needed.
Be sure to wrap everything in plastic, and keep it well padded. Storing model railroad equipment and structures in a structure or environment that is not at least partially climate-controlled is just asking for trouble.
Decals are definitely out.
Not a good idea…Use storage boxes and store in the house…
WILLY6,
You may have a better chance,with those big plastic,rubberized storage containers,but that is ‘‘iffy’’.
Cheers,
Frank
Forget it !
If you don’t have room to store the stuff inside your house, find a Public Storage facility nearby.
You can rent an indoor climate controlled unit for that not much money per month, and the first month is usually $1.00.
Rich
With the electronics alone found in model railroad equipment, that swing in temperature and up and down humidity could ruin many expensive electronic items. As others have already posted, plastic warps fairly easily too. I stored some of my model aircraft collection in an out building for only a couple weeks while I did some renovations and was surprised to see a few fuselage and wing pieces badly warped in that short time. So, I have to agree with those above, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Good luck and happy modeling!
Don.
I lived in Bullhead City AZ (Yes I know it’s not the end of the world but you can see it from there) and I stored my RR stuff in the garage, In the summer a couple of times the garage got over 130 and warped some of my buildings and some of the plastic truck side frames on a couple of diesels. I was able to replace the truck frames but the buildings are only suitable for an alien invasion scene. i was lucky at best because there is like no humidity in Bullhead or it would have been a lot worse.
So like all of those say above don’t do it.
PV Rich
Anything smaller than G-scale, which is built to withstand such extremes of temperature and humidity, should not be stored under such conditions. The high humidity combined with high temperature can result in a lot of mold, mildew, and rust. The thin plastic shells can be distorted.
3 Words: Don’t Do It.
I’d imagine that Kadee couplers would survive.
Anything else, though, would be taking a big and expensive chance.
You will need a new storage place. Any wooden parts would quickly warp and distort, and as was already said, some plastics would be damaged. The high humidity would encourage metals to rust/oxidize, so any brass track would be damaged too.
FYI: 100% humidity does not mean that the building is underwater. 100% merely means that the air is saturated with water and any decrease in temperature will cause it to precipitate.
S&S
Step 1) DO NOT ask New Jersey Transit for advice.
Step 2) Find the high ground.
Step 3) The Wine Cellar might be a good place, nice even temperate and humidity…
But, it might as well be. [(-D]
Rich
True, if the outdoor temperature drops enough or the ceiling gets cold, then you will have the unusual situation of it “raining” indoors. I always wanted to model weather on a layout, but that is definitely the wrong way to do it.
S&S
S&S - theproblem is that the temp usually falls at night, and that extra moisture comes out of the air in the phenomenon we call dew. Trust me, I’ve been on camping trips where it feels like you got rained on in the morning. Cardboard boxes have neen known to wilt in my garage!