Dust on Model Railroad Layouts and What's the Best Furnace Filter to Use?


Greg@mnrr

Greg@mnrr

Section Hand
Our 40 year old house gets dusty after just a week after a complete cleaning. A thin layer of dust is on the tables and other flat surfaces. Just had all the carpets cleaned and it was no help in controlling the dust. Granted, with the sub-zero weather the furnace is operating almost 24 hours a day and moving a lot of air, but it is dusty. Just changed to more expensive pleated filters to no avail.

I closed the furnace outlet in the layout room which helps a bit. I hear a lot of pros and cons about duct cleaning and not sure if that's the correct route to take either.

I want to try the best furnace filters, but which ones? I see some advertised for $29.99 each.

Maybe our house is normal....?

Any suggestions?

Dusting a layout is a job.

Thanks.

Greg
 
I suppose our house isn't any worse than a lot of others, but I've never worried too much about dust, just kept the track cleaned. With the small n scale, I'd probably tear up too much stuff trying to dust it.
 
Since my layout isn't even a layout yet, I have no advice on this subject, but I do have a thought. Instead of calling it dust, maybe call it real world weathering. If anyone disagrees, toss em out of the train room, problem solved.

Jesse
 
I agree with ya Jesse. It will probably take some of the shiny new look off of things. I've always been able to weather my rolling stock, but just can't bring myself to mess with a nice loco, I just let the dust settle. :)
 
I have the opposite problem. I want to make my loco and cars look old and we'll used, just have no idea how to do it. Lol

Jesse
 
Greg@mnrr said:
Our 40 year old house gets dusty after just a week after a complete cleaning. A thin layer of dust is on the tables and other flat surfaces. Just had all the carpets cleaned and it was no help in controlling the dust. Granted, with the sub-zero weather the furnace is operating almost 24 hours a day and moving a lot of air, but it is dusty. Just changed to more expensive pleated filters to no avail.

I closed the furnace outlet in the layout room which helps a bit. I hear a lot of pros and cons about duct cleaning and not sure if that's the correct route to take either.

I want to try the best furnace filters, but which ones? I see some advertised for $29.99 each.

Maybe our house is normal....?

Any suggestions?

Dusting a layout is a job.

Thanks.

Greg
Click to expand...

I don't mean to sound flip, but how about stopping shedding skin? And walking around? Those two things contribute to much of the dust that doesn't come in through the window cracks, door seals, etc. In other words, you can't do anything about it over the long term. Even the best filter on the world's most expensive and best furnace will not stop this problem. You bring stuff in on your shoes when you enter...now it's inside. So does your pet. Even an electronic air filter built onto your furnace as an add-on won't take out everything.

About the best you can do is to use your vacuum cleaner in reverse and blow heavy dust off your layout's surface. Or, stand well back and try your leaf blower.....? :cool: For the rolling stock, I use a soft camel-hair brush while I blow with my mouth.
 
I'll second what Crandell said about body shedding dead skin. You might notice the biggest build up of dust is in walk in closets. That's were ya change clothes and the dead skin gets scrubbed off with moving cloth over skin. One of the truth tellers of this is look real close at the dust and you will see human hair mixed in with it.
Using a body lotion to moisturize your skin will help reduce dry skin flaking quite a bit.
As far as removing dust from your layout, use the dust attachment on a vacuum and put a nylon stocking over it to keep from sucking up small details that you want to keep on the layout.
 
It's true, most of the dust in your house is from our own bodies ins the form of body dander; or, shed off old skin. I don't know what to do about that.

My house was built around the turn of the last century (1800). As near as I can figure, (we own the abstract) it was likely built around (1800 to 1910). I don't feel that the age of the house has much to do with the amount of dust that the house has. Yes, I get dust on my layout; however, it really doesn't seem to be a problem and I run cars with Masonite Cleaning pads under them interspersed in my trains and seem to be able to keep ahead of dust as a problem. Dust build-up on the layout does add some natural weathering. It's just a problem on the track.

We had an electrostatic air cleaner in the cold air return on our furnace system. It worked good for about 10 years and then just stopped working. They want $900.00 to replace it. I think not!! They have much better systems now, it might be worth it to check to see what is available. However, I feel $900.00 is too much to pay for dust removal when a cheap filter does a good job!

Greg, would you be able to hang a curtain around your layout? I have seen this recommended as a method to keep dust to a minimum. Good luck!
 
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Mark:

My layout is in its own room that has finished drywall walls on three and a half sides, a drop ceiling and carpet tiles on the floor. The one problem is that the layout room has to be shared with the furnace and hot water heater. I don't know if a curtain would be of any additional help to reduce dust.

Thanks.

Greg
 
Not for the railroad but the house in general. I have the normal filter on the forced air furnace and I put a filter on each intake vent. That way most of the dust never even gets in the ducts to begin with. The filter at the furnace is a special one that came with it. It is an inch thick and a pretty dense foam. I wash it out twice a year. The filters on the intake vents are the standard cheapo fiberglass ones because I have to cut them to fit. I replace them every two months or as needed.
 
Some improvement in the amount of dust may be realized if your furnace can be modified to accept a 5" media filter rather than the typical 1" furnace filter. We opted for a media filter when we replaced our furnace a two years ago. We did it for health reasons, and we've noticed a reduction (not elimination) of dust throughout the house.

Below is the media filter we use. They are available in various lengths and widths but are nearly always 5" thick. To work properly, they require a sealed cabinet for the filter at the air intake of the furnace. Replacement filters are $30-40 and must be replaced at least every 6 months.

You can also add an electric air cleaner to some furnaces to further reduce dust and other contaminants. You'll spend a few hundred dollars for this option. We did not do this.

- Jeff

51hh%2Be4ObRL.jpg
 
I get lot of dust in the house in summer, I live south of the grain elevator. Im still in early layout setup doing ground work,
dust not to bother some yet.
 
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