What are your preferences for securing buildings?

[Morian Miner]

I'm finally making some decent progress on my n-scale layout.  As I started working in the "downtown" area, I got to wondering how others choose to secures their buildings to their layout.  For my HO set, I usually just glue the buildings in place.  But, these are small buildings and the layout never moves.  I can see my N-scale set being a little more "mobile".  Not to mention, the buildings are larger.

 

So, does everyone still glue them in place? Use alignment pegs to keep them oriented properly, but able to be taken on and off? Or, is there some other method I haven't thought of?

[Sir Madog]

I usually glue my buildings down, but if you plan on having interior lighting, you should not go down this route.

[keitaro]

i think it also depends on the layout.

 

In the case of Sir Madog he is running little desktop modules and would be fairly easy to move around than say a large layout.

 

It's rather hard to move a layout with buildings glued down especially if the layout in question is going to be doing some fancy rotating and flexing to get it out of the room and cannot be left in the moving truck sitting as a table and has top be on it's side.

 

I see building destruction.

 

I don't glue anything except the stations.

 

I used plaster for the road and made it so it was the same height as buildings base so they could slot in perfectly. Though some buildings bases are a bit thicker/thinner than others.

[ToniBabelony]

I glue buildings down and have interior lighting. The reason for this is that the layouts I make a meant to be transported and should be able to be handled upside-down as well. I don't use much glue though -just a few drops, plus it's wood-glue on cardboard, so it'll come off easily if needed. Come to think of it: I glue literally everything down on my layout, just to make sure nothing falls off when moving the thing. It's all about dat robustness yo.

[Bernard]

As members have stated, it depends on what you're going to use your layout for....and who will use it. If it's for children I might glue them down because little hands can remove things very easily and as Toni stated, his layout has to be transported and you don't want a lot of buildings "flying around" in the car/van.

 

In my layout I don't glue them down because all the structures have lighting and occasionally you do have to fix things (loose wires, bulbs, change LEDs, etc) so it's easier to take the building off and work on it at your work bench. Also if you have a small layout and in the future you plan to build a larger layout, you might want to use those same buildings and it is easier to move when they're not glued down (and less messy) 

[The_Ghan]

I paint the base boads with gloss paint.  I glue stuff down with a water-based, water-soluble glue.  I'm talking about kids craft glue and the like.  The glue is strong enough to hold things in place, even for transportation and storage, but a firm pull or twist of whatever is glued down will allow it to come away from the gloss base.  The glue can then be dissolved off the part or model in water and the base is easily cleaned.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Railtunes]

I don't glue down ANY of my structures. I mount them on acrylic plastic bases that are set into strip wood frames or depressions in the layout. This allows a lot of good things:

- buildings can be removed to the workbench for construction, detailing and cleaning.

- the layout can be stripped for cleaning and repairs.

- the structures can be exchanged with others to model a different era or prototype,

- buildings can be kept in separate boxes to stay clean and out of reach of "little hands".

 

The wood strip frames serve to keep the buildings in their proper place on the layout and sets the foundation down into the scenery rather than just sitting on top of it, adding to the realism.

 

I also have larger scenes that incorporate several buildings and scenic elements in a scene. The whole scene is removable and, when used on the layout, has small magnets in the base that mate with flat anchor washers set into the scenery to keep them in place when used. This allows a lot of flexibility in scene placement by permitting the same layout to be used for several different railways.

 

- Paul Ingraham, AsiaNRail

[cteno4]

Paul,

 

I'm starting to use small rare earth magnets. You can get 1x2mm discs for 1-2 cents each on ebay. Glue 3-4 on a structure bottom, attach another set and glue down to the layout. Now easy magnetic hold/pop off. This allows the bldg to be pulled off for cleaning or use on a ttrak module or have multiple blogs that could plunk down onto the same spot for some variety.

 

You can also use these for your electrical connection. These magnets are usually coated with a metallic coating. You can solder wires to this and create a connection to bring power to the structure for lighting and/or animation. Just have to solder fast and keep the temp down as if you get the magnet too hot it will loose it's polarity, but with some low temp solder a very small touch of flux you can solder plenty fast enough. Then voila, no messy plug and extra wire to fiddle with to connect up to the structure!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[katoftw]

Yes removable seems the way to go.  I only have a few buildings as a beginner.  But since say Tomytec offer alot of variations of the same buildings with the same bases.  Being able to chop and change seems a smart move.  Thanks for sharing your tips.

[cteno4]

Yeah also with time you may want to add light or new details to structures so being able to easily remove them allows this.

 

As Paul mentioned, cleaning is also a must with time. Structures tend to be a magnet for dust. Being able to pull them off and carefully brush off or vacuum helps a lot. I find one I'd those big soft makeup brushes and a couple of smaller ones are great to get the dust off w.o hurting the details. Mini vacuum hose and brush (dollar store or ebay for less than a buck) works as well, but make sure to put a piece of pantyhose across the opening to the larger vacuum hose to vp catch any detail bits sucked off.

 

Jeff

Edited January 15, 2015 by cteno4

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I use adhesive pads for buildings; strong enough to keep them in place, but not likely to cause any damage if the building needs to be removed. Certainly the Tomix, Tomytec and Kato structures have an impressed section on the underside, which enables the pad to be in place without lifting the edges of the structures from the board. As my layout lives in the shed, the Sankei card structures have to be removable - the paper roofs do not like the cold! Smaller buildings, such as my tomytec portacabins, or GM concrete buildings are glued down using Evostick.