N Scale Garage Layout

Happy New Year to everyone. Gentlemen, I have a layout currently located inside of my house but I have now been pushed into my two car garage. I would like to know and/or like to hear some pros and cons with building a layout in a garage. Just to give a little information about my garage as it stands, it is attached and have insulation in three of the walls and above the ceiling. It also have sheetrock and power on three of the walls as well. I am not interested in converting this into a room unless I REALLY have to. And if I have to, it has to be able to be removed for resale. Also, there is not heating/cooling vents inside that space. I need help guys and I would really appreciate your insight!

Samtown

 

This may start an argument, but it wouldn't be the first time !!! I know people have successfully done it in the garage, but I'm against it. It was -40F here yesterday, and this past Summer we had several consecutive days of well over 100F and high humidity. Also, other things live in the garage. It's just a matter of time before that ladder, rake, shovel, etc. finds the layout !!! Another issue is bugs. No, I ain't scared of 'em, but they can be a real PAIN !!! Several years back I spent most of a day cleaning out a mangled Wolf spider from my favorite Kato E8 !!! YUK !!! One more obvious thing. SOMEBODY'S car will be sleeping under the stars at night !!!

 

I have a layout in a garage in San Diego. So, the temperature and humidity changes are minor! I sheet rocked the three walls and the ceiling and it works well for my train layout. There is also a pet rabbit with straw in the garage and a few spiders. The rails get dirty fairly quickly, so I did a lot of hand cleaning. I have tried various track cleaning cars but none of them worked for me. But, now I have stopped hand-cleaning as I purchased the expensive CMX car which applies spring pressure to the rails to clean it effectively, what a relief!

 

Go for it! I lived near DFW airport for many years and my layout occupied my side of a 2-car attached garage. I actually installed a vent from the house A/C and heat over the garage (probably violating building codes along the way).

If the floor is unsealed concrete, seal it.

Install gaskets on the bottom(s) of the garage door(s).

Accept the fact that you'll have to vacuum the layout and may have to remove locos and cars for a good wheel-cleaning.

Scrupulously clean your track, buy some No-Ox, and put a fine coat of it on your rails.

Consider buying and building a shed for your garden equipment, although in my opinion that is more a space issue than one of dirt and chemicals.

Depending on what part of the Lone Star State in which you live, a space heater for the winter months would be a good investment. A good-sized fan will keep you reasonably comfy until it gets really hot. I suppose you could invest in a portable air conditioner as well.

Laugh at the people who cannot enjoy outdoor model railroading when you open the garage doors on comfortable days. Hopefully you'll draw a crowd of impressed neighbors!

Good luck and be sure to post updates and progress photos!

 

A little over a year ago I moved my “train room” from a spare bedroom in the house to a detached garage. My concerns were high temperatures and dust. I had seen a number of layouts in garages so was aware of the drawbacks.

What I did was to build a room in the back half of the garage complete with insulation and sheet rock. I also added vents under the roof overhangs and a turbine vent near the peak of the roof. Because the concrete floor had so many cracks I ended up building a raised floor with a ramp at the entry. I also added an LP air line for my air brush and a vent to the outside for my paint booth. The overall size is 21 x 10 ft. I did leave the one south facing window in place. Even doing all the work myself, I ended up spending over $2500.00 to do all this.

I’ve used it through a full summer and winter now and overall I’m quite happy with the arrangement. I am building an around the room layout but I also use the space for working on modules, DCC decoder installations, and all sorts of N scale model building and painting.

I am generally comfortable if the room is between 60 and 80 degrees. I am in the SF Bay area of California so our temperatures don’t get that extreme. The ventilation idea has worked out real well so far. The hottest days last summer which were in the mid 90’s it got just to 80 in there and was the coolest place on the property. Next summer I may add a retractable awning on that south facing window.

Another thing I had done to keep the room cool is to light the room and the layout with LED’s. There are some good products available now and the prices are coming down. Side effect was that my wife liked the LED’s so much she has me replacing all the lighting in the house little by little.

When the cooler weather came I blocked the vent that is near the peak of the roof. I have an old electric heater I use to get it up to at least 60. That’s not too hard to do except for our coldest weather when it gets down to below 40 at night. Next step would be to get a better heater.

Regarding the dust, the half the of garage that is not the train room is a typical garage space. It has my table saw, drill press, and other power tools. Keeping the door closed between the two and sweeping / vacuuming the garage part helps to keep the train room clean. Of course even in the train room there is dust from scenery materials, cork road bed sanding, etc.

It’s not perfect but it’s the best I can do living where we do and I am quite happy to have it.

Brad Myers
Peninsula Ntrak / AsiaNrail

My Blogs:
http://www.n-scale-dcc.blogspot.com/
http://www.palisadecanyonrr.blogspot.com/
http://tokyo-in-nscale.blogspot.com/

 

I also had a garage layout about 7 miles south of DFW airport, from 2006-2012, when I moved south to Mansfield. Wonder why I never met Paul!

Similar experience, sealed garage floor, added portable AC unit for summer, which usually held the temp to no more than 85 degrees. If you buy one, oversize it from the SF recommended. Originally from Chicago, I never had trouble with coolness, I just put on a sweatshirt. I did have one buddy whose sweater sleeves always toppled over things, so make sure you work or operate carefully.

Tried to seal all openings around the door to limit AC leakage. But, it only occupied half the garage, and I pulled the car in and out from the other half. Actually occupied more than half, but I elevated the moved layout just over mirror height.....Also, had windows and metal garage doors but found 1/2 inch foam fit right in the garage door slots (including windows, which I covered, painting the outside of the pink foam for aesthetics from the road, to keep the sun out and for security) Lastly, my buddy Soo, built a large overhead shelve system/valence/rack to hold lights and double as storage, but think it probably limited dust a bit from falling on the layout. Could have, but didn't use the George Selios method of hanging plastic sheets from that to reduce dust further between sessions. Probably would help, as I noticed my hidden tracks of all makes stayed cleaner than the exposed ones.

Eventually, the summer of 2011 (I think) where we had 100 days over 100 warped the woodwork, etc., must enough that when I moved, it wasn't worth saving, even though it was designed to move in 3 big pieces. So, extreme temps can be a problem beyond human comfort.

Had the usual rail cleaning problems, although noted that my Kato unitrak that ran behind my water heater to the coal branch, always stayed cleanest. Might recommend you use that for all hidden tracks if you can.

Lastly, have to mention the time a possum got in the garage, and seemed to systematically run the main line, destroying many structures and derailing every train in my hidden staging in the process.

In general, the temps, the rail cleaning, etc. did reduce my layout enjoyment. So, far from ideal, and if I had an alternative now, I would have built a smaller shelf layout or room size layout indoors. Its a tough equation - more layout and less enjoyment over indoors with a smaller layout you can enjoy more. What is funny, is I had built maybe 90 ft of mainline, and over 20 staging tracks, but all I really did when I got home at night was half an hour of switching, after bringing the train to the yard, or maybe running up a nice branch line I had built.

In the end, I figured if I could get over the mental hurdle of just pretending the train had just arrived with another crew, prior to me entering the layout room to be the union rule yard switcher, I could then switch happily for the hour, and avoid thousands of dollars worth of construction. Not that I did that in the new house, BTW, basically building a new layout under the same general operating premise as the last one. But, you could!

 

This summer I converted my 20 x 20 attached garage to a hobby/train room. It has a 16' overhead door, finished drywall and wiring. Did not have insulation or HVAC.
In preparation, I had insulation blown in the walls and ceiling and added 1 3/4 foam panels to the door. I installed a 20,000 BTU split unit heat pump with one wall hung inside unit for heat and air. I keep it set to 65 in winter and 78 in summer. We live in north central North Carolina where the summers get hot and humid (like 30+ days over 90) and the winters are normally 28 low to 50 highs except for like this morning that was 16 and the garage was 63. The garage temps swing about 5 degrees with the extreme temps. I couldn't compare the cost increase in A/C cost due to installing a new unit in the house but for both it was less than the old system a year previous. Last month cost me $.24 a day to heat the garage. I moved the layout (8' x 14' L shape) to the garage last June. The layout is made of pink and Woodland Scenics foam supported by an independent wood frame and does not show any effects from climate change. I have not had a problem with dirt and dust because the overhead door opens infrequently. I am very happy with the space.

Harold

 

My layout is in the garage.........in Montana. My garage is like yours with insulation and finished walls. I don't find it to be a major issue. My only issue has been occasional smells.........like the hot engine/fresh cut grass smell after I mow the lawn. I try to keep the door closed except to move things in and out. Temperature-wise, it gets cool in the evenings here and not overly hot during the day during the summer, so the garage stays comfortable without any major temperature fluctuations. In the winter I leave the door into the house open and that keeps the garage tolerable. Even at -30 outside, the garage will stay in the upper 50s.....at "normal" temps it will be as warm as the house. I have a heater, but you need to plan ahead because it takes a few hours to get the garage comfy if you close it off and then try to warm it. I've found the slight increase in the house heating bill from leaving the door open is less than the cost of running the heater at full blast for a few hours once or twice a week and the garage is always ready to go. Surprisingly, dust isn't a major issue..........I have some G scale stuff displayed on shelves in the house, and they need to be dusted just as often as the garage stuff.

 

My layout is in the garage (in Las Vegas) and I helped my Dad build an HO scale layout in his garage (Northern Minnesota). We both have finished garages, in his we framed a wall infront of the door as well. Climate control helps in any environment. As mine is also a garage, I will be adding dust covers to help with cleanliness, but right now, the vehicle I park in the garage doesn't run ('48 CJ2A), so the door only opens when I'm working on benchwork.

 

I've found this to be a significant issue. So much so that I've determined it's best to lay track during the hottest part of summer. My layout is in a finished but un-insulated and a non-climate-controlled garage in Northern CA. If I lay track in the winter, I leave some pretty big gaps between lengths of flex-track and just hope it's the right amount come summer. Also, right now is the "bolster pin dropping time of the year" with my metal or metal under-frame cars.

 

It wouldn't work where I live; High Desert dust temp differences. But nice idea

 

My previous BN Boise sub was located in a non climate controlled garage in El Paso. Other than dust I never had any real problems with the layout. I did not have any track kinking problems. My new layout is in part of the garage but I am working on an enclosure to keep out dust. (El Paso gets some pretty good dust storms in the spring. Rivaled ones I saw in Iraq)

 

No kinkyness in my garage! I laid Atlas code 80 on AMI instant roadbed over cookie-cutter plywood and L-girder. Maybe I was lucky. I do seem to recall some unsticking of the track from the AMI.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

I agree with a lot of that about temperatures, dirt, other equipment, vehicles, bugs, track cleaning. I'm building in the garage in northern Nevada. Temperature swings are frequent. I've insulated the garage door. I run space heaters for comfort when needed. I've laid some interlocking foam squares for protection from cold concrete, plus cushioning on feet. Stapled plastic sheets on the ceiling joists are temporary, but help separate the upper space to limit the heat rise. I'll add Sheetrock or foam to ceiling later as finances allow. If you want to only heat half of your garage space, consider hanging plastic sheet from ceiling on your layout boundary. If the garage door has to be opened regularly, the plastic will hold heat long enough for it to open/close and a space heater won't have to work as hard. In the summer, raise garage door 3-6 inches and open side door/ window to create a draft. Any little amount of comfort improvements will increase your enjoyment of the space.

 

I recall only one kinkage due to heat, although there seemed to be several minor misalignments vertical and horizontal in that 100 consecutive days of 100+ degree temps. On that layout, I used nails, not liquid nails to secure the track and that may have made a difference. My unballasted staging tracks had a lot of wobbles after a while, but strangely, never had derailments because of that. It seems a stout gluing of ballast kept the main exposed tracks in place.

Overall, I think it takes real extreme heat to kink track, if laid with gaps, etc., but you will always get a few.

 

Hi David. What part of Northern Nevada? I'm from Tonopah and building a layout based on the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad. Good tips for a garage layout.

 

Tphmike- I'm up in Sparks. I drive thru Tonopah often for work. Maybe one day I'll park for a while if you're available for visits. I drive one of the many Sherwin Williams trucks you may see rolling thru there.

 

Reading all of these replies,, makes me nod my head in agreement. While reconstructing Rossford Yard's layout in the garage space,,,the biggest thing I saw was,,, just when the portable A/C was doing the trick,, some one would open the garage door,,letting the heat back in. I HATE heat!!! I work in it,, I work with it (welder),, I DO NOT WANT TO PLAY IN IT!!!

So I kept a fan on me while I worked on the layout in the garage space. It was ok,,, I always have a fan on me no matter what.

Now for my experiences, I live in Central Texas between Waco and Temple. My current layout is in a 2 car garage. No portable A/C. I just try to plan to work on the layout in the morning hours in the summer. Depends how I am feeling,,I may work, I may not work. Right now it is most awesome in the garage, I love these temps we have been getting here in central Texas.

I did notice my track have kinks in it. Mostly in my yard during the summer. My Atlas CD55 track is secured with spikes into Homasote, to fix the issue, I just cut small gaps in all the joints and that fixed the issue. I also had very slight movement in my trackage on my helix. That CD80 track was secured with an latex adhesive.

As for cleaning the track, I try to keep my garage door closed for the most part. I have not run trains in quite awhile,, right now I slight yellowing on the rails. This spring I am planning on polishing the rail and taking notes and conducting running trials to see how fast the conditions worsen.

I will say by having the garage finished will be a big help, our property here was originally the model home,, so the garage has insulated/sheetrocked walls,, plus plenty of electrical outlets installed. The garage doors are also the insulated kind.

I say go for it,, but remember the P's,, prior planning prevents pi__ poor performance.

Adios Wyatt