How many of you just cover your engines @ night when you leave them out?
I know of the train sheds but I was just interested in njust covering the engines electronics.
Sean
Sean McGillicuddy said:Who leaves them out?
How many of you just cover your engines @ night when you leave them out? I know of the train sheds but I was just interested in njust covering the engines electronics. Sean
Where’dya live?
Tierra del Fuego?
Anything I leave out is fair game for our travelling community - last year they even stole twenty garbage bins from our street…'sides, there are family cars for sale on a local car lot that don’t cost half the price of some of our loco’s.
tac
www.ovgrs.org
Leaving your engines out uncovered is not good.
I’ve done it a few times after a night of running trains.
Condensation created problems and probably would even if I had used some type of temporary cover.
Anything electrical is best stored in a climate controlled environment.
Ralph
I keep all my stuff in the garage. Then again, I’m lucky enough to have a garage window even with my layout and just run them inside. Others have storage areas outside for their rolling stock. Engines I wouldn’t keep outside. Like Ralph said, condensation can and will build up inside one and then you have problems.
Like Ken, I have a connection to the outside and never leave engines out. When first playing with TrainOps I left some hoppers and boxcars out and it rained unexpectedly. I won’t do that again.
I leave a select train out all year round.
But, having said that, no locomotives or better rolling stock are left out.
If I lived in a more secure environment, I meet leave the Accucraft stock out. I like the weathered look my Bachmann gets by staying out.
Jon, my EBT Caboose just joined the outside crew.
I have a mountain I built. I park the train in it and have plugs for the ends to keep critters out.
seems to work ok, but would not do it to offten, to much money in the trains.
Oh, the horror 
Here in Tennessee anything covered does worse than uncovered. Buckets, tarps and boxes trap ground moisture overnight and create a higher humidity environment.
I open the door and back them into the basement.
Jack Barton said:I'd say the situation here in NC is probably the same. Ralph
Here in Tennessee anything covered does worse than uncovered. Buckets, tarps and boxes trap ground moisture overnight and create a higher humidity environment.
I park the train in a long tunnel. So far it seems to do ok, even in light to moderate (by San Diego standards) rain. We usually dry out pretty quickly after a rain. However, during extended or frequent periods of rain I wouldn’t leave the engine out, due to concern over lengthy exposure to moisture.
After an operating session I pickup the engines (only 3 or4) and put them in a chest of drawers in the garage. The 35 to 40 frt cars are left out unless rain/bad weather is predicted then they too are picked up and put in the garage. Although I have a privacy fence I fear damage from the elements more than vandalism.
It is inevitable that something cooling down --eg motor–will attract the moisture condensing out due to cooling .Hot air holds moisture , cooling air will precipitate it out .
Thus , any cover put over the loco may generate its own mini rainstorm . Survival stills used by the forces rely on this fact .
Car exhausts rot for the same reason .
So why chance it ?
And consider that it will happen in buildings , wooden ones will warp , glue comes unstuck , the nature of the liquid being a bit insidious .
Take them all into a warm shed , or garage .
Mine used to get driven into the conservatory .
They have never suffered damage .
Mike M