I’m curious about how many layouts are in areas of your homes that are not heated in winter, how cold does it get in the room and have you noticed any adverse effects? Being in the deep south I haven’t worried about it much but I got to thinking about a good percentage of model railroaders live in some pretty cold parts of North America.
So, the questions are
1- how cold does it get, on average, in your layout area?
2- any bad effects?
Jarrell
Greetings from the Land of North Dakota.
It may come as a surprise to you, but we have heat up here. My train room is nice all winter long.
The summer, now THAT is a problem. We do not have air conditioning, and my train room windows on the third floor are huge and face west. I do not go up there in the heat of the summer!
My layout used to be in an outbuilding in northern Utah. It went through 10 winters there. Granted, Utah isn’t North Dakota, but we see the minus teens on occasion. There was heat in the building, but I only turned it on when I was working on the layout. There were no water pipes, so I didn’t have to run the heat to keep pipes from freezing. My water supply was a couple of plastic gallon jugs - sometimes ice would form on the water in these, so I know the layout experienced sub-freezing temperatures.
There appears to have been no effect on the layout. My scenery stayed in fine condition and the track stayed rock solid. My locos would have some cold-starting issues because the gear lube would be a little thick, but after a few minutes of running, things would be completely normal.
A year ago I moved to a new house and my Layout is now in the basement, where it stays at a comfortable temperature year round.
I am in Kansas City Kansas, just across the river form Kansas City MO, and I too have modern heat in the basement with the railroad. Obviously with the furnace in the basement, the basement/train room stays very nice in the winter, and the air conditioner keeps it very nice in the summer. So unless we have a power loss, the railroad does just fine year round. In fact, it is the warmest place in the house. Also the attached garage is a level up, but heated also from the furnace so I can run back and forth in my skivies and not be cold.
Bob
As I have read over the many years, cold seems less affactive on layouts than Heat.
The question may really be: how cold can one stand it while one is operating a layout. {unless naturally that one does not use it durning the winter}.
If one has ice in the whiskers or one hanging off the nose, and hands that are aching from the cold, and fingers that don’t move anymore, and ears that lost all feelings an hour ago, then maybe it be time to add a little heat.
They make great little wall mounted natural gas or propane fired space heaters. If the layout is used fairly constantly by one, one can keep it at 50* and turn it up when layout is in use.
{My layout, BTW is in a spare bedroom and is just as toasty as we are in teh winter doldrums, and while it IS warmer than the rest of the A//C’d house by about 2-3*, it is also A/c’d as well,}
I’m gonna be real surprised if we hear from very many people who live in colder climates and have layouts in unheated areas.
In the summer when it is hot, there are always ways to cool off, but trying to stay warm in the winter when it is cold presents a whole different problem if you don’t have a source of heat.
I live in the Chicago area and most of my layout activity takes place in the winter when it is cold outside and warm inside. My basement layout stays nice and warm in the winter and pleasantly cool in the summer.
Rich
I’m in Montana where we do have cold winters, but my layout is in the basement, along with the forced air heating system, and the basement temperature never gets below 50 degrees in the winter. My model railroad room is in a separate area with a portable heater which keeps the room short-sleeve shirt comfortable. I’ve never had a winter related problem on the model railroad.
Wayne
I live in western PA and my 25 x 75 basement is just a little too big to keep heated all of the time.
Most of the winter the temp will be around 54 degrees.
When I am working on the layout I usually have a long sleeve shirt on plus a hoodie.
With 8000 watts of fluorescent lights in the basement it does not take long to warm the room up to the 60’s
during the really cold days and I have an OPs Session - I have a few electric heaters that I can turn on to take the chill off.
Once the Operators arrive by the end of the OPs Session I have seen the temp above 70 degrees!
So everyone is running around without jackets.
It works for me.
As far as the layout being affected by the temp change - it isn’t
I run into more problems in the summer with Humidity!
BOB H - Clarion, PA
My next door neighbor has his HO layout in an old mobile home. While heat and cooling is available, he operates once a week and only heats and cools when operating. Temps here can reach 100 plus during the summer and drop to the teens in the winter. The layout is at least 10 years old, double track main, large hump yard, nice scenery. Temperature changes do not create problems. 40 plus car trains are the norm. The layout operates flawlessly.
Look at it this way The prototypes operate in all sorts of weather so If we are truly modeling a prototype it should operate all year rouund as far as temps go.
Now snow and rain might be a different story Maybe I should try building a weather proof outdoor HO layout LOL.
I close all my air outlets in the basement except the one by the back door. That one, plus the furnace in the basement, the air ducts not insulated, and the outer walls insulated keeps it warm enough for me - mid 60’s.
Paul
Cold is relative. Having lived in Western South Dakota, I define cold as, Can’t drive a thumbtack into the ground with a sledgehammer. OTOH, the showgirls next door think it’s cold if they have to wear long sleeves instead of tank tops.
My layout space is an un-climate-controlled double garage with an east-facing steel door (insulated, somewhat) and vents open to the outside. Temperature ranges from the low 20s (February pre-dawn) to 120 or more (August mid-afternoon.) Humidity is usually in the single digits. Construction is steel stud `C acts like L’ girder, with thin foam over cookie-cut plywood. The major impact of the temperature variation (which can easily be 50 degrees in 12 hours) is that rail gaps are necessary. Any rail that isn’t free to move will buckle. Joints which are butted solid at 120 degrees open up to (average) 1.5mm at 20 degrees. Because I trim my rail ends to allow it, my rolling stock will operate dependably across gaps that wide.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in a Southern Nevada garage)
I live in Michigan and my layout is in the loft of an unheated garage. My concern is the effect of cold on Digitrax Loconets. They recommend that they should not be exposed to high heat or cold cold. I just came in from turning on the floor air conditioner to 70F. With several $1000 of DCC equipment, I don’t want to abuse it. What is your experience with -20F to 100*F ? Bob Hahn
My layout is in a large 11"X20’ space with 10 ft ceiling. Open vents around the top that helps to let heat out, but lets escape in the winter.So it will not get heated in winter.
It Gets as cold or hot as the outside temperature, high teens to plus 100 degrees.
Only the heat has ever effected the track work and since I started to gap new track and gaped some old track the heat or cold is no longer a factor in running trains.
The weather has never effected my Digitrax system. I think what they mean is that do not have it in direct sun or in front of a heater or air conditioner. Of course when it is close to 50 deg. or under I am sane enough to not operate trains. Though at those temps the system has worked fine for short periods where I tested an engine that I was working on.
My choices were, spend money on making the space comfortable in all weather and not have any money left for the layout or build the layout and just deal with the weather. The N scale model train layout won.
My layout is in a semi-finished (uninsulated or heated) basement. Summer temps hold in the mid-60’s, with a dehumidifier running continuously.
In the dead of winter, it dips to the mid 50’s, and I use a space heater when I’m down there, which takes about half an hour to get the temp back up to the mid-60’s (believe it or not, when there’s a foot of snow on the ground and the windows are covered, it holds the heat better).
I don’t have any issues with extensive expansion and contraction. The only reason I use the heater is that the mid-50’s is a little chilly for my taste.
I live in Massachusetts, and the basement is completely unheated during the winter. Keeping myself warm enough to want to spend any time down there is a much bigger issue than anything I’ve had related to the layout.
The only expansion-contraction that ever posed a problem was on my previous layout when I foolishly built a lift bridge across an aisle from my island layout to a wall shelf. Until I tore the layout down I usually had to line up the rails by hand with a screwdriver after forcing the bridge into place.
Mine is in a heated basement and I do get some expansion/contraction issues with some track - especially where I have insulated joiners - but nothing too serious. Two summers ago I had to replace one section of buckling flex track but that is the only problem I have ever had.