# Just curious



## mickey (Jan 28, 2009)

I see a fair number of pics if outdoor layouts with lots of buildings, cars, animals, people, etc., you know, staged scenes like I see the indoor HO guys do. That seems like a lot of time and effort to bring it all out and put back up, unless it is just left out all the time to get messed with by Mother Nature plus domestic and otherwise critters. You guys with those setups, do you haul it in and out or what? Just curious.


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## catherine yronwode (Oct 9, 2013)

I am new to outdoor G-scale and i have asked this question of many old-timers. Answers vary, and the variations have told me a lot about the expectations and interests of those who run trains outdoors. 

I have not made up my own mind and cannot speak from experience, but this is what i have gleaned from a few folks who have been in this for decades -- and, before i start, let me tell you, they themselves do NOT agree on one answer, that's for sure! 

Here are some of the variations i have seen:

Building materials are important: The use of wooden buildings (and varied types of wood) versus plastic buildings (and varied types of plastic) versus metal or concrete buildings (faced or not faced with wood or stone) will inform your choice of what to do:

Wooden buildings do not last forever in prototypical or in model form. To some, this is a drawback. To others, it is part of the artistry of the layout, and the idea of repairing and replacing is built into the enjoyment of the hobby. Choice of the best wood (e.g. redwood versus pine versus oak versus outdoor grade plywood) for your particular installation and according to your taste will help you to either delay the inevitable decay faced by wooden buildings or to accept it gracefully. UV-resistant urethane coating is an option some folks advocate. Most people with wooden buildings bring them in during the winter. Not all do. 

For some, plastic is the solution, for others, its durability is not offset by its "cookie-cutter" look. Weathering and kit-bashing help, but the Piko or Pola building that appears on everyone's layout is just that -- a stock building. Some people bring their plastic buildings in during the winter. Not all do. 

Metal or concrete buildings are specialized and expensive, and if they are to look really convincing, they need to be faced with a surface such as wood or stone or brick. Many people who have metal or concrete buildings leave them out all winter. 

Bases: Some folks pour concrete pads and pick the buildings up off of the pads, leaving bare pads out all winter. Others adhere the buildings to durable hardyback concrete board or other stable surface. The hardyback may or may not go onto a permanent concrete base, but in either case, it makes a nice stable way to pick up the buildings. It can be cut flush with the building (such as a farmhouse) or an edge can be left (to indicate a city sidewalk). 

Weather conditions: In some places, dry winters mean the buildings can be left out most or all of the year. In other places, they are put away in fall and only come out in spring. In quite a few places with mild and semi-arid winters, the buildings can come in when storms are predicted and go out when the weather looks good again. 

Building design: There is a reason that most domestic architecture in the United States is designed with pointed gables that shed water and snow. Flat-topped industrial buildings with mopped asphalt roofs are quite prone to leaking, both in the prototype world and in the scale model world. Farmhouses hold up better than you might think, because they are modeled after prototypes that are built for rough weather. 

The scale of a raindrop: A man who builds wooden G-scale buildings once told me that "every time a raindrop hits a model house, it has the scale impact of a baseball." I don't know if that's accurate, but you get the idea, i guess. Misting the buildings as you water the plants is a heck of a lot gentler on them than letting it rain on them. 

And that, my friend, is the general landscape of variations. 

Now everyone will pitch in with their own experiences, i am sure.


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Here's my situation:

I live in San Diego where the climate is mild and mostly dry. We do get rain, fog and dew, but no snow and very little hail. 

I try to leave as much stuff on the layout as I can, because A) I don't want the hassle of setting up and putting away a lot of stuff; and B) if I had much storage space I would have built an indoor layout!

However, I love realistic, detailed structures and scenes!

So... I use weatherproof materials and construction methods. My most recent buildings are made primarily of Sintra PVC board with some styrene details. My older buildings are styrene, or metal, or stone and mortar. I paint the structures mostly with exterior grade latex paint (thinned as needed), plus some craft acrylics that have proven to hold up well. Everything gets a coat of Krylon UV resistant matte clear for protection from the sun.

The only wooden structures are trestles, mine headframes and ore bins. For these I use Western red cedar, and they are painted, not "raw". 

My layout is unique, in that I use handmade, scale plants instead of live plants. Most of these are made from parts of plastic flowers, modified and painted with latex paint.

I used to leave figures and vehicles out all the time, but now I store them and only put them out for show. The figures are made from poly clay which is incompatible with the Krylon UV clear. As a result they fade badly, and repainting them obscures the delicately sculpted details. Cars and trucks have clear parts that are not UV-safe, and of course these can't be sprayed with Krylon either. Since vehicles and figures are fairly small, it's not much trouble to store them off the layout.


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## Rod Fearnley (Jan 2, 2008)

I only bring Locomotives in every end of run. Figures, vehicles and various other items of scenic value in for the winter. Everything else stays out 24/7/365


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## mymodeltrain (May 14, 2013)

I live in Nashville, we have quite a lot or rain in here. And the Summer is also very hot. But it seems my wood and plastic buildings survived for a year now. The only concern is my garden rail is in the shade, it is good since it is cool for trains and for us to be around in a hot day. But it's not really good for plants and for drying up wood buildings after the rain. I bring my locos in after a run, but I have 2 or 3 locos that I leave them in the garden rail all the time since I wan to watch them running at night. My best time of the working day is midnight run. In the weekend, I let the trains run all day.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Tucson AridZona here ...

Wood experiments have all self destructed, I'm pouring my 4th concrete building now... mind you these aren't fine scale, oh no, I call them Rough Scale ... roughly to scale artistic representations...too heavy to move.
Like Ron above, I only handle my engines, I built a two train car barn for my rolling stock and outdoor storage. The barn is inside the layout for safety, a loco is the best way to get the cars out.
It's time to redo the engine shed roof, the smoke cupola and roof boards are failing.

John


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

I leave my buildings out like Ron. Engines and cars come in. If the forecast is for no rain, I'll leave them out.

Most of my buildings are POLA plastic buildings. Most have been outside for 20-25 years. Some appear to be on their last legs. I'll try regluing later this spring and see if that helps. 

Chuck


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

I'm in Orange County CA. I bring the structures out the beginning of May, after the Santa Ana winds, and have to put them away in the garage at the end of Sept, before the Santa Ana winds.

The trains always come in at the end of the day except if we are doing a weekend open house, in which case I will cover them with a tarp and not water that evening, and they come in on Sunday. Same goes for the _dozens_ of metal cars that will rust in no time. Finally, the extremely detailed and fragile pieces and figure come in at the end of the day.

But most stuff and the figures sit out continuously getting watered 3 times daily between May and Sept.


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## TJH (Dec 27, 2007)

I'm in Orlando, Fl. Nearly all of our structures and figures go into a covered storage area when the layout is not being run, with only the track and a few proven durable pola buildings or basic structures like station platforms left outside with the track. most of our buildings and figures are on bases or foundations and are preassembled so you just bring out a whole scene essentially. That's how much of our town is constructed. Plenty of other stuff is free standing though. My grandfather is pretty creative with figures and other layout details so it's fun to let his imagination run wild when he sets everything up. keeps things interesting because it doesn't always get set up the same way every time either. This can also be fun when people come over to visit, because different people inevitably tell different stories using the figures and accessories (like animals, stage coaches, etc). It can be time consuming. It can easily take us a good half hour at least to set up all the buildings and figures, as well as bring out the locomotives and cars to run a 2-3 trains. Personally, I'm not as into the buildings and people as much as he is. I can happily run trains with only the station and maybe one or two other buildings being brought out. It's gotten even more extensive since these pictures were taken, but this facebook album of the layout shows how it can look in both its full set up and naked states. Start with picture #40.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.515865743802.2019097.5104642&type=1&l=070b677f2c


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