Dust, dealing with it?

So as most of us here, dust on our layouts, buildings, locomotives, trees, and all else is an issue. I still can't figure out how to get it out of the trees and stuff? But I was looking for something else and found this brush in my stash. Have no clue what it is called or why I have it? But man, this thing for dusting off certain things is awesome, structures, vehicles, roads, rolling stock, locomotives, etc... Be CAREFUL of very fragile parts though. I even lightly dusted the railings on some of my locomotives, once gain be careful if you have a bunch of tiny parts, which I don't on most of mine! Repeating myself have no clue what kind of brush it is or what it is called, or why I have it?



Part on the Left I cleaned with brush, on the Right is still the dust I need to clean off. If I can't get it off by the figure I'll use a cotton swab. And No I still won't clean it as often as I should, me lazy And when the overhead lights are off, what dust?

Now how the heck do I get it out of my trees? If it's even possible?

 

Hmm... it looks like the
brush bristles are made
of Orangutan fur...

 

I certainly hope not!

 

There's no blanket solution, just an array of tools for each situation.

I'm using a fan brush I bought at an art supply store (and a lot of other stuff for the layout ) for the more delicate items. I also have a long-handed soft-haired straight brush to reach out over the layout (6x8 feet).

I also have a mini-vacuum cleaner for picking up excess static grass. Works somewhat with dust, too.

 

Mine was sold for applying makeup. Don has one.

Richard

 

I'm glad you asked this, as I have the same problem and have never overcome it. It's trouble enough to vacuum track, equipment, streets and structures, but yeah, scenery is near impossible and given a few years, all of that nice verdant green appears to have been oversprayed in gray. I used to cover my layout with lightweight plastic sheets, but they were a pain to mess with and deterred me from running trains.

I'm somewhat considering a room air cleaner like this, but they're awfully expensive, even the largest are scaled only for small rooms and I don't have a good centralized place to set it down. I changed my HVAC filter last week for what good it will do.

 

I bought a smallish one about a year ago, one with an electrostatic filter. I put it in the living room for a test and it never left there. My train room is just off the living room, and I rarely open the window in there. But the dust levels in the apartment have dropped quite a lot, even in the train room.

The model I bought was under $100 and it happened to be on sale. I'm always watching for deals like that and there's usually one on exactly the item I need exactly when I need it. I either have a knack for it or someone is looking out for me...

 

i run a vacuum over the layout twice a year .. it's one of those hand held dust busters with a small bag fitted on ,,i do -mostly- the track, but also do lightly the pieces between the the tracks ... no other cleaning is done ..

 

Good to know @Mike VE2TRV . You're like my brother, always finding just what's needed at just the right time at just the right price. My luck is always the opposite.

 

I recently starting using this...

It's a cleaning gel, I break off a tiny amount and dab dust away on my locomotives and models, especially before painting. Doesn't appear to leave any residue that I can see. Haven't used it on the layout, but for models it works great. Before when I'd airbrush, I'd invariably get trapped dust that I missed. Not so much after I bought this on Amazon.

Edit: I use the blue colour coral, no idea if it's physically different than the yellow. Smells like lavender.

 

That's interesting Stephane. I like that you can dab with it, which is much less likely to break off details, even tree branches, road signs and such.

 

Must look into that stuff. My landlord doesn't use good furnace filters and took out mine when I used it.

 

Since The INDIANA RAILWAY is in a separate layout room, in the basement, installed 4X8 sheets of plywood attached to the exposed floor joists. Room was paneled with wood paneling also. There was NO way to install a dropped ceiling, joist from floor height took care of that idea. Installed plywood with pneumatic staples[they hold GOOD], and did spackel over staple marks. Was a bit of a pain to do, but looks good and has lasted. NO plumbing lines above ceiling, so hopefully will never have to take down. Plywood ceiling has cut down DRASTICALLY on dust, on the railroad.

 

My layout takes up all of our attic and has a wood floor. That helps some, plus I rarely, if ever, open the windows. I have a Misubishi MiniSplit heat pump dedicated to the room, so I am no cycling much air from other rooms below. I still get plenty of dust over time. Using a shop vac' w/ micro attachments for layout vacuum chores. I have a really fine duster brush that is perfect for engines and rolling stock. Also, whenever I take equipment into the work shop for tune-up, repairs, or bad-order cars, they get hit with compressed air to knock the dust off before going back to the layout.

I've had this discussion w/ the mechanical (HVAC) engineers I work with. They have said filters and air purifiers will help, but the best thing would be to have a higher positive pressure in the train room than the adjoining rooms. Of course, that isn't practical with respect to cost. So we have to fight dust the best we can just based on how much is getting into the layout room. Mine isn't too bad, but still gets dust. The buildings and rolling stock are my worst "collectors" over time. The layout itself isn't too bad and I it does get vacuumed periodically. Here's a shot of the attachments I use on my small shop vac' kept in the layout room.

 

Well any house has issues with dust. It's just that model railroad layouts have so much stuff on them to collect dust The more detailed it gets, the worst it gets, plus the harder it gets with tiny items, tight spaces, etc... My gaming PC is Black so I have to clean it often, and inside also once in awhile. I don't think we will ever win the dust battle, just do the best we can?

 

There's even dust up in outerspace. It's causing issues at the space station, moon and Mars explorers.

 

Not much for carpentry, but a West Texas Blizzard is what we call a dust storm, so I cobbled together a frame out of most 1x1 inch lumber strips and drape a solid painter's tarp over it. Attached to the rear backdrop it rolls up and out of the way. Helps a lot.

I tried thin plastic sheeting: that was awful. Clings to every structure, every tree.