I hate my layout

[joefryfry]

....I do have more room in my house to put a layout, but the room is a storage room that is unheated. It gets very cold in there in the winter and warm in the summer. I live in PA, so we have all 4 seasons here. I've read a little here and there about expansion and contraction on a layout. I wondered if I put a space heater in there in the winter to minimize the temperature range if that would make it a good place for a layout. Could I put a layout in a place that possibly has large temp swings?

If you're already having some issues with track moving on you, most likely due to expansion/contraction; moving the layout to the storage room would probably give you fits! Depending on how your bench work is constructed and the materials you used, it may be subject to a lot of expansion/contraction issues.

I haven't worked with N scale since about 1970, but I do recall that working with that scale and even HOn3 was a lot less forgiving then HO. What is a minor shift of the track or very slight bump in HO would most likely be compounded in N scale.

Most important, we've had a half dozen homes burn so far this winter here (KY) because of space heaters (electric and kerosene) so think long and hard about that too.

I'm still considering the storage room, but would have to really not push tolerances with the track laying I suppose. We've used space heaters since we bought our home. We use the plug in radiator kind, which I feel is the safest type.

[tetters]

Hate is such a strong word. How about dislike or perhaps "you are unhappy" with your layout?

[shortliner]

.........
* The movers used by the military, to relocate military families. ( Least expensive, but not necessarily the best )

Having done the same thing numerous times - you rapidly learn to go out and get as many estimates as possible, and then only put in the most expensive three!

[Russ Bellinis]

Joe, It is probably more usual than not to build a layout, then take it apart and rebuild and so on a number of times before you get it to your liking.

[Jim From MT]

Temperature changes can play havoc with trackwork. I was a member of a club (now disbanded) that had the use of a large building at a local museum. Montana has some extremes of temperature and the results showed up every spring when we opened the layout for public display and operation. Track would be bowed by high summer temps and pulled apart by cold in the winter. Don't give up on the layout. I understand that blank doors make good tables for N scale layouts and they should be easy to move from place to place. Jim K

[Russ Bellinis]

Temperature changes can play havoc with trackwork. I was a member of a club (now disbanded) that had the use of a large building at a local museum. Montana has some extremes of temperature and the results showed up every spring when we opened the layout for public display and operation. Track would be bowed by high summer temps and pulled apart by cold in the winter. Don't give up on the layout. I understand that blank doors make good tables for N scale layouts and they should be easy to move from place to place. Jim K

It doesn't even take extreme temperatures. We have a member in the modular club who used to preach that the joiner tracks between modules should should have all of the rails touching when we set up. He was in charge of set up art a local shopping mall one weekend. The mall was indoors and climate controlled, but it had skylights in the roof of the walkways to allow for natural lighting. We set up on a Friday night and he proceeded to "show" us how the joiner tracks should be installed. When we test ran the layout that night it ran better than any set up we had ever done previously. I got there at 7:00 the next morning to get trains running and play with trains before the mall opened and the rest of the guys showed up. Before we had dcc, we were limited on how many trains could run at a time, so when a lot of guys were there, time running trains for individuals was limited to allow everyone and opportunity to run.

As the sun started shining through the skylights and warming the West side of the layout, the tracks started to "kink" from heat expansion, and we had to remove the joiner tracks and cut them shorter to relieve the pressure. As the day wore on, the heat "focus" on the layout
moved and we replaced joiner tracks in the North and South ends. By the end of the day we were replacing the ones on the East side of the layout! Eventually we had the entire layout redone with enough air gap between the modules and the joiner tracks to allow for expansion and the layout had no more problems that weekend. It was not a really big temperature change, just a bit of solar gain that caused the problems. Having the space of a business card between the rails and the joiner tracks was enough to keep everything under control, but being able to slip a business card at all of the joints was essential.

[MountainMan]

What would have happened if the rails were continuously soldered to each other throughout the layout?

Prototype railroads are exposed to enormous natural extremes - do their rails "kink"?

[FCIN]

Prototype railroads are exposed to enormous natural extremes - do their rails "kink"?

Absolutely!!! What we called "Bucked Track". Pretty common occurrence on welded rail in the hot summer. I've seen instances of the track where it "bucked out" to the point that a train could not safely pass over it. The cure is to cut a thin slice out of the rail, shove it back into alignment and then re-weld it.

I made the mistake some years ago of soldering all the joints on a layout and I'll never go that route again. Even though the layout was point to point and only 34 feet long, I experienced several instances of the HO track "bucking". Fixed it just like the prototype, but I'll never again solder all the joints. This was in a basement with very little temperature change year around, but lots of humidity swings. I know that some folks recommend soldering all joints for better electrical flow - but I'll just put feeders to every turnout and every section of track. Won't even mention all the problems when I wanted to salvage all the turnouts for use on another layout.

[Russ Bellinis]

I think a good rule of thumb is that you can solder two sections of flex together, but then allow the two ends to be free in rail joiners with a gap that will allow a business card to act as a "feeler gauge" between the rail ends.

[Justinmiller171]

I think a good rule of thumb is that you can solder two sections of flex together, but then allow the two ends to be free in rail joiners with a gap that will allow a business card to act as a "feeler gauge" between the rail ends.

Apparently the Prototype does the same thing

[Russ Bellinis]

When you think about it any heat conductor will expand and contract with heat and cold. Insulators will not. On the other hand, any porous substance will soak up water or dry out and expand and contract with humidity. Generally our bench work is wood, a porous insulator. If your layout is in a part of the country with swings in humidity, your bench work better be sealed on all sides with paint or sealer to keep moisture cycles of dry weather and humidity form causing the wood to expand, contract or warp. You need to cut appropriate gaps in rail to allow for expansion and contraction of the rail with temperature swings. I think the main difference is that I think the metal rails respond more quickly to heating or cooling than wood does to humidity and drying, but both problems need to be addressed unless you live in a dry climate where the humidity just doesn't change much.

[MountainMan]

Prototype railroads are exposed to enormous natural extremes - do their rails "kink"?

Absolutely!!! What we called "Bucked Track". Pretty common occurrence on welded rail in the hot summer. I've seen instances of the track where it "bucked out" to the point that a train could not safely pass over it. The cure is to cut a thin slice out of the rail, shove it back into alignment and then re-weld it.

What happens to that piece in the middle of winter at maximum contraction? More buckling?