I was looking at some photos of John Allen’s legendary HO layout, the Gorre & Daphetid (pronounced “Gory and Defeated”) and thought about how such a work of art was lost to fire. John died just a short time before his layout went up in flames back in 1973. Apparently, he had a space heater that he never used personally that was turned on by some his friends who operated the layout. The heater was faulty and the combination of fire, photographic chemicals, wood, etc. led to the destruction of this fine layout.
If you think about it, the potential for fire is real for anyone who has a model layout. We use electricity for power, with the potential for shorts and sparks - a source of combustion. We build our layouts out of wood, foam, homosoate, etc. - a source of fuel. Then we have paint and glue as accelerants. A very hazardous mix! Keep an old ZW cranked up for a while and feel the heat it can put out!
What precautions do you take against fire? A fire extinguisher (ABC to handle wood and electricity)? A surge protector? A fully staffed Plasticville fire department?
I know I don’t want my layout to go the way of the Gorre & Daphetid!
Great subject, Dr. John & It’s good to be reminded of this from time to time, and tell newer people coming into the hobby, I have surge protectors, but I am constantly making sure my transformers are unplugged. I have a gas space heater I make sure is off when I leave, too. I wouldn’t have that, except my wife would freeze me, keeping the furnace so low. I like heat!! I think I will get a fire extinguisher, now that you mentioned it. Thanks, John
I have a very good power strip with circuit breaker and surge protector [that does NOT interfer with TMCC nor DCS]. Since I need more spaces for the big power supplies, I have another real good one feeding from that one. I always turn it off and unplug it when I leave the room. The layout I will be building will have a feed of 220 from the breaker box to a breaker box in the layout room. This will be the main disconnect for all electricty for the layout [already have all the things to do this]. This is overkill but I did it that way for my old basement layout. I like the breakers close to the source of any danger.
Chief: That is not overkill, We spend Thousands on our trains & countless hours & irreplacible memories that go with every piece we own, a few hundred bucks is well worth it. Regards Steve
If I remember right you could use a ABC but the have one out there now (the name is slipping my mind ) but it is used in places were there are a lot of electronics eg. computers in a office complex. I will research and try to get the type to you tommorrow.
Jim D.
a.k.a. SOCKO
Are you refering to halon extinguishers? Good for electrical equipment, bad for people. They displace oxygen. I had not thought of an extinguisher for the train room, but with one in each vehicle, two already in the house one in the garage, what’s one more, ~ $20? Well worth it!
Halon is bad for the environment and toxic. I would use a CO2 extinguisher. A dry chemical extinguisher would leave a residue as well as make a mess. CO2 is great for electrical fires and won’t damage your electrical equipment.
As important as a way to put out a fire, are precautions to keep one from starting. This is as good a place as any for me to preach again that layout wiring should be sized appropriately, not according to the normal current draw of the trains and not according to the voltage drop along the track, but according to the fault current that the transformer can deliver.
Halon isn’t available anymore due to safety concerns. CO2 is a good alternative or check with a fire equipment supplier to see what they suggest for your application.
I have a phone in the train room to call the fire department when I really screw things up. It has been almost three years since I was doing the breakfast dishes and had to call the fire department when the dishwasher caught on fire. For some reason Mrs. Buckeye keeps a close eye on me when I now run the dishwasher.