Cleaning the Train Room


B

beiland

Well-Known Member
I'm building my train layout inside a 12x16 Handi-House shed located in my carport,....early photo..
1607443508317.jpeg

Its basically a closed room with a single entrance door on that one end.

Yesterday I was doing a lot of sanding of cork roadbed (tapering/grading). It generated lots of 'dust' (more than I anticipated) over many surfaces inside. And of course that added to this dust that has collected for the past few years of construction inside.

I have tried to keep up with some cleaning of the inside, including often local vacuuming, and sweeping of floors, etc. But this recent dust storm has me trying to figure out some best solutions for cleaning it up. I really want a good solution that can be employed after I finish laying all the track,, and before I start to move a lot of structures in there.

...some sort of vacuum system hooked up to the door????
ideas entertained.....
 
IT's the same for all of us, and that generally means performing a task, or a series of them, and then deconstructing the chaos. You put away tools, pick up big chunks, then sweep, then vacuum. In my case, I also have to drag out the thick floor rubber mats and clean them.

I'm not sure I have the gist of your question, or what you're facing, but for me, the perpetual daunting aspect of building a layout is the mess. And the chaotic laying about of this, that, and two more of those. Bits of wire insulation, two needle files, some drill bits, a box of joiners, some rail ends nipped off lying underfoot. Sawdust and drill dust here and there, bottles of stuff on the floor under the layout where I can find them...which I have to do once a week for sure.

I think it's an important re-fresh to do a major organization and cleanup about every six months, depending on the chaos around you and the dust and dirt. Things have to be put away, in orderly fashion, surfaces wiped and vacuumed, floor as well. Then, you pause and consider where you need to go, what to do next, and think about it for a day or so to ensure you haven't forgotten something else that needs to be done first.

Then comes the process of generating that chaos all over again.
 
Here was a suggestion today on another forum,
Shop Vac sitting in the empty space in the helix with the hose running through a wall adapter?
Click to expand...

That's an interesting idea. Hadn't thought of that.

Wonder how much it would pick up. I guess I could 'disturb' the dust in the main room such that it might get airborne enough to get picked up by that vac hose?
 
The best solution is to try and employ materials /techniques /equipment that don't generate the dust in first place. I use a minimum of wood , but when I do use it , I cut it outside .
 
A shop vac with a paper filter bag over the normal filter will do wonders. As long as you are not doing too heavy work - it will generate enough suction for a lengthy hose like a couple of house type hoses together. Even have a smaller diameter hose for the layout portion.
Maybe operate the vac with a rheostat/variable transformer so you can have high/low suction?
You could place the vac outside of your layout building with piping thru the wall
If you wanted to get real fancy - you could "pressurize" the building with filtered air!
I do not know how dusty the climate is where you are? Just thinking ....
 
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Agreed, I try and do wood working out side the layout room as much as possible, but, there are times that that happens. Here, I am fortunate that I have an air compressor. I can open the outside window, the layout room entrance door (opposite each other,) and have at it!
 
GeeTee said:
The best solution is to try and employ materials /techniques /equipment that don't generate the dust in first place. I use a minimum of wood , but when I do use it , I cut it outside .
Click to expand...
Thats a nice idea, but not really practical in the overall scheme of things. Do you employ and roadbed materials such as cork, or homosote, etc?...and have you had occasions to creates ramps,....and all that drilling thru the plywood decks for the multiple feed wires, etc...etc.

When I was working on creating those nice long ramps for my yard ladder of turnouts, I employed several methods to sand down the cork. Hand board sanding keep the mess somewhat local, and I could vacuum it up with my hand-held vacuum. But it still created a lot of fine dust. Then when I sought to go a little faster, the power tools certainly made a LOT more dust.

I've even sought to limit the wood drilling of feeder wire off of my staging track by leaving then outdoors until I finish as much as that drilling as I can plan in advance.
 
Couple of other ideas on another forum,..

Go out and buy a box fan about 20"x20". Buy a 20"x20" furnace filter.

Tape the filter to the "air comes in" side of the box fan.
Stick it in the railroad room.
Turn it on.
Change out the filter when it turns brownish.

It's not a perfect solution, but it is cheap and you can just leave it running 24x7.
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Just put your vacuum outlet hose into the room with the suction hose on the outside, room will pressurize forcing dirt and dust out an opening in the floor or vent low down in the space. Blow everything off and watch all the bust exit the small vent. Make sure everything is closed off no open doors or windows etc. as this will be an escape point for the air and you will loose that positive pressure.
Click to expand...
 
beiland said:
Thats a nice idea, but not really practical in the overall scheme of things. Do you employ and roadbed materials such as cork, or homosote, etc?...and have you had occasions to creates ramps,....and all that drilling thru the plywood decks for the multiple feed wires, etc...etc.
Click to expand...
In short , NO , I dont use cork or homosote and I definetly do not sand , I use foam for just about everthing because you can cut it with a utility knife or a hot wire , neither of which generates any dust , plywood is cut outside if its needed. Ramps as we discussed in the other thread are built with layered card stock .

Its the materials and the techniques that you are using that is generating all that dust.
 
How about an Air Purifier sold in the stores. We have one at each level of our house due to my wife's allergies. The prefilter really collects the airborne particles and needs to be cleaned weekly. They come in all different sizes, options, and prices.
 
Cork Dust


Yesterday I was sanding a taper into some more cork roadbed,...BUT this time I moved the piece outdoors in my carport. Boy am I glad I did !
Look at this fine dust mess.
image-20201215100654-1.jpeg


image-20201215100853-3.jpeg


This is the stuff that is still 'drifting' around my train room.

I saw this ad today that started out touting its capability to decrease dust in a home,...BUT when I read the reviews its seems as though they are ALL touting its odor control,...not its dust control ??
https://naturefreshpurifier.com/
 
beiland said:
Cork Dust


Yesterday I was sanding a taper into some more cork roadbed,...BUT this time I moved the piece outdoors in my carport. Boy am I glad I did !


This is the stuff that is still 'drifting' around my train room.

I saw this ad today that started out touting its capability to decrease dust in a home,...BUT when I read the reviews its seems as though they are ALL touting its odor control,...not its dust control ??
https://naturefreshpurifier.com/
Click to expand...

Brian you get an A+++ for technique , I might suggest that if you dont already have some you might want to purchase some tack cloth from the hardware store to get the last little bit off the surface.
 
I will have to get some of those tack cloths. I had forgotten all about those things.

Ryobi hand held problem
I don't know whether to call this stupidity or just oversight on my part
wink
angry
surprise


Yesterday I was working on another section of my stone arch bridge and need to some more of that annoying cork dust out of the way. Why does it seem to hang around and just get 'redistributed' ?

Well, I discovered one of the problems. My Ryobi hand held vacuum seemed to be doing such a good job of picking up that cork dust. i discovered a lot of the very small particles were exiting out the relief vents !! You couldn't even see it streaming out because it was such small particle size, but when I looked closely at areas i had just vacuumed and had moved on to an adjacent area, I looked back and found 'new' dust in the area i had just cleaned.

I inspected some of the gaskets on the vacuum and the tight fit need to prevent this, and found that one has to be very firm when cleaning out this unit and reassembling it. ....one lesson learned. In many cases I was just redistributing my dust.
 
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