Train display shelf and sunlight


L

littlejoe

New Member
Hi People,

After years of collecting my trains and keeping them in boxes I have now the space to setup a display shelf to better enjoy them while not running. My only fear is that the attic where I will put them has two windows and plenty of sunlight, that makes me fear that if I do not do something, even if the trains will not get direct sunlight, their colors will start to fade with time (and I fear not too much time).

I'm planning buying a shelf with glass doors so dust will be more or less discarded as a big problem (I know those doors are not very tight anyways) but light can be. I even thought about putting some darkened glass instead, but not sure will help and also models will not be clearly seen though that.

Suggestions? How do you guys keep your models?

Thanks

Regards,
 
I don't have an answer for the light but another consideration would be HEAT .. it the space is in the attic and it gets that much sunlight, I would think that it probably gets pretty warm. How would that affect your trains?
 
Thanks, heat is an interesting topic I had not consider, but I think even in the summer will not be too much of a problem for the models (it will be for me for sure :))

It's not a very typical attic, as the roof is between 6 and 12 feets from the floor it doesn't get too warm as to damage the models, but certainly I will keep an eye on my thermometer during comming summer (south hemisphere here).

Regards

JL
 
Well at least the locos would get realistic weathering effects from the sunlight. As far as heat concern, if you don't have an air circulation system up there you can expect high temps. By just installing an exhaust fan in the attic will lower the temps a bit. That will save the shingles on the roof too.
 
It might be a bit costly, but most picture-framing places offer UV resistant glass for painting they frame. I'd check with one, if there is one in your locale.

So far as heat is concerned, if your attic is not heated or cooled, the temperatures could vary considerably from season to season, which could be more of a concern than just heat. I'm not saying that you should install climate control, but certainly adding an attic fan and probably some insulation might help your whole house be more comfortable. I live in a two-story house with a crawl space for an "attic". We have central air conditioning. But with high ceilings, during the summer, if I didn't have an attic exhaust fan (just in the ceiling of the second floor, with exhaust ports in the roof), the temps could get very uncomfortable in summer! I don't have to heat the attic, of course, but probably the way to keep it warm in the winter would be to open the ceiling vents or turn on the attic fan. Might cost more due to escaping heat from the rest of the house, but it is an answer mechanically-speaking.
 
Thanks for the answers!

I will see what I can do to put an exhaust fan at the top of the roof (actually vertically over the wall) as indeed it must be of help in the summer.

About the sunlight, I think I found the solution, checking the web I see that most of the polarized films have 99% UV rays filtering, since UV rays are the ones attacking plastics and paints, I think that if what they advertise is true covering the windows with that should create a safe environment in the attic. The only problem is that one of the windows is made of a dozen of different pieces of glass so putting the film will not be too much fun, but in the worst case, I can even put it on the glass of the shelf instead :D (not the black films of course)

Makes sense?

Also, the shelf has internal dichroic lamps for illumination, are they safe?

Thanks!
 
I'm not sure about the dichroic lamps, but I use LED strip lighting for my Lionel display cases. I'm lucky enough to have my train room in the basement in a room with no windows. I don't have to worry much about sunlight damaging my large Lionel collection.
 
Any craft store that does framing should be able to help you out.

You can get glass/plastic designed to protect things from color fading UV rays. Sorry I don't know all the specific terminology. They should be able to get you some and even cut it to the size you need.

My local Hobby Lobby is able to do this, but how helpful they are might depend directly on what sort of associate you end up talking too.
 
For the lighting I found that even if the shelf has dichroic lamps, there are now led lamps that are a direct replacement, so I can just remove the original lamps and put the led ones without any modification.

For the UV rays, I found the best option seems to be to add some film to the glass, the best one seems to be this from 3M, it filters 99,9% of the UV rays and also the heat while keep the glass still clear. Really sounds like somethin to add to all my windows at home too :)

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/...ial/Sun_Control_Window_Films/Prestige_Series/

Regards!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top