Your hepa filter only cleans the air that goes through it.

Air in the atmosphere will not be cleaned by the hepa filter, unless that air goes through the filter.  You might try a small portable hepa filter in the layout room to clean the air in that room only.

...if I could just get the

...if I could just get the dust particles to stand on end like static grass!

A 20" box fan with a 20" x 20" filter attached

I used a cheap ($15.00) 20" box fan available for purchase at many places and attached a 20" x 20" high efficiency AC/Furance filter to it using blue painters tape - total cost $24.00.  I ran it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and it really helped keep the dust down in my train room.

Dust elimination

What a fantastic idea. We may have to try that at our club layout.

sometimes the simplest solutions are the best solutions, an alternative is one of those high tech air cleaners that wood workers use, but if yours worked well it would need to go for more than ten years to equal the cost of the high priced spread and that would involve replacing the fan as well as the filters every year.

Thanks for sharing.

OBTW have you actually got started on the bench work and track for the new layout last thing I saw was track lighting.

Rob

Fan and filter - Fantastic in simplicity

What a great, simple idea.  thanks you much for the suggestion.  I will try it right away.

Other Idea

I heard this form Chessiefan2 on YouTube and he uses a large plastic cover on his layout. He said, "I'd rather damage trees and buildings rather than try to vacuum up dust. I can always fix trees and buildings." He likes it since he operates on the weekends and not everyday.

This is a wierd

situation to me, and it shouldn't be but it is.  A week or so ago there was a thread started on dust and bugs (spiders as I recall) and I remember posting using hedgeballs for the spiders....anyways..in that post I mentioned that spiders don't go into that room, or if so very rarely and 99.9% of the time there are no webs (one of the reasons I declared that space for my layout).  I smoke cigars (Backwoods, if you must know...Clint Eastwoods-cool) most times whilst running ops on my layout, or doing scenery or whatever.  Sacrilege for trains!  For whatever reason, only now some 4-5 years after starting my layout, did I run a shop-vac with the small keyboard attachments to remove some dust on some heavyweight passenger cars (matte black on top so it was starting to show).  Again, 4-5 years!  And the only DCC issues I've had are the occasional, typical black crud on the rails. That really makes absolutely no sense, and goes against every sensible model railroad theory/practice.  Smoke and dust are bad for model railroads....yet I get away with it somehow.  Never a dust nor never a smoke issue.  Nothing special- it's a basement, 'rubber'/foam-backed orange/black carpet with blah-gray faux-wood-grain paneling (the 70's ROCK!) and I put in a sheet-rock ceiling to replace a drop-panel ceiling for sound-deadening when my step-son lived in there for a time...no filters or anything... 

That room is like Olympus I guess.

Just throwing that out there.

Thanks Rob & Michael24

Years back I tried the

fan filter arrangement.  It worked well with two filters - one on the back of the fan frame where the air is drawn in to the fan and another on the front of the fan frame where the air exits the fan.  The filter on the back prevents dust getting into the fan motor, of course.  The front filter catches any dust/debris that goes through the back filter.

The fan blades should be removed every 3 to 6 months, cleaned with detergent and warm water, rinsed well, dried and filters replaced, if necessary.  And, since you have the fan blades off the motor shaft, why not lubricate the motor -  keeps it quieter and running smooth. (the box fan I have was bought in the 1970's back when they had metal frames)

You don't need the fan running at full speed.  Low speed is fine since you want the dust to stay in the filter, not forced through it.  In the better weather, and depending on the size of the window if you have one in the room, you can open the window, set the fan on the window ledge, and let it blow "out" the window to prevent dust re-circulating in your train room.

As far as the black crud that comes off the rails on to the wheels, it's a fact of life in any situation where you have wheels running either on rails, pavement or in mechanical equipment.  It is that .01 percent of dust that even a Hepa filter cannot pick up.  Just try cleaning your rails and wheels, send a train around the tracks for two or three runs, then run a piece of paper towel over the rails - it's baaack.  I prefer to think of it at as dead dust mites that just didn't out of the way in time.

After all, what fun would this hobby be if it wasn't for the occasional break for maintenance ?

G.T.

Basement dust

This doesn't exactly pertain to Michael's situation but I will throw it out there for everyone's benefit. My model railroad is being built in the basement. The floor is cement and the walls are concrete block. Both of these items create their own dust. The floor was already painted but I put another coat on it anyways jsut to be sure it doesn't create any dust. The block walls are covered with 3 coats of Dry-Lock. Not only does this prevent dust, but moisture as well. There are no windows and I keep the door closed as well. The fan idea mentioned above is a tried and true measure as well. I've heard of several people doing that over the years.

Todd

dust

I just post my first topic.

I use a method of scenery construction which generate nearly no dust and mess.

Check in the new topic " clemi mine"

Marc