Lazy train engineer

[dickturpin]

I have just joined this forum and recently changed over from 'OO' gauge UK outline to 'N' gauge Kato, lovely track and locos, but I may not get away with my previous practice of leaving trains on my layout over several days/nights collecting dust in my loft.

 

Do you guys leave you engines and stock out over night or pack it away after every operating session?

[David]

It depends. Those with a permanent layout often leave them on. As long as the power is turned off (power bar is best to completely cut power) it won't do them any damage, and you avoid having to handle the train frequently (parts, like couplers, can break accidently). Unless your loft is really dusty or otherwise exposed to some terrible conditions (in which case simply taking the trains off the tracks might not be enough) I'd just leave them on the layout if you can.

[CaptOblivious]

Welcome to the forum!

 

I pack mine away, but then my goal in doing so is keeping them out of my 2-yr-old daughter's hands! :D

[IST]

I pack my Portrams away because it is easy and only two vehicle.

But when I build a temporary layout on the floor for my British locos and DMUs, I leave them on for one or two weeks. I am too lazy to pack all away in every day. :-)

[westfalen]

At the club or at shows I pack my trains away, but at home they stay out for days or weeks before I swap them around for something else. I don't think N scale is much different than HO/OO in this respect, it's not as fragile as a lot of modellers from larger scales sometimes think.

[clem24]

Just buy a whole bunch of Kato engine houses and put them together to make a nice big garage! They seem cheap enough.

[to2leo]

I am too lazy to write what I do 

[Bernard]

Wow, that's a good question.....there are some trains that I leave out on my layout like my old Kato O series or any thing Bachmann. For the most part I put them away just in case the cats get into the train room.

[Martijn Meerts]

My Japanese stuff is mainly packed up, but the non-Japanese layout we're building is in a heavy test-driving stage right now, and trains will stay on the track pretty much all the time.

[westfalen]

Wow, that's a good question.....there are some trains that I leave out on my layout like my old Kato O series or any thing Bachmann. For the most part I put them away just in case the cats get into the train room.

Cats add a new variable to the equation.

[ToniBabelony]

I usually leave my stuff on the semi-permanent layout I have. I don't like to look of an empty layout when I wake up

[dickturpin]

Thanks for all your comments, I will try leaving my engines and stock out between operating sessions (approx twice per week). I have recently purchased a CMX unit for track cleaning so I will run that round a few times, although to get to all the track sections will involve some special operations.

 

[Guest ___]

I always keep my trains stored in thier box and never on the layout. There's just too much dust collecting i nthe train room not to.

[nik_n_dad]

We keep a number of things out on the temporary layout between running\playing with them-  it just takes too long to get trains out.

 

We did buy some women's cosmetic brushes (very soft) to dust off trains as needed.

 

For the layout we're building, I'm contemplating building in a mechanism to support some plexiglass or such over the yard to help keep the dust off of parked trains

[KenS]

Right now, all my trains are boxed up, since the layout is under construction. My eventual plan includes a set of storage tracks below the layout, which are partially covered, and I'm considering boxing them in for more complete dust control.

 

I've also been thinking of some kind of drop-cloth I could rig over the layout (using a lightweight plastic painters drop-cloth). I'd need to rig some kind of superstructure to the backdrop to support it above the scenery. But dust has been a significant problem during construction (moreso than it was on my previous layout, or perhaps I'm just more sensitive to it now), and that's motivating me to do something.

[dickturpin]

I thought I would show my CMX unit attached to an EF58, filled with cleaner and ready to go on track 1.