How do you dust your trains

I use a large soft bristle paintbrush, works like a charm.

My wife gave me a very nice make-up kit with several soft brushes.  Those brushes along with compressed air, may be twice a year a complete shelf cleaning.

Dust/weathering. Potato/potahto.

I use a photographer's blower brush, which allows the brush to separate from the blower.

I'm old school.

I use a make-up brush from my wife.

 

 

Joe B.

I have a crew of Lego people come out each night and clean the layout and all the cars.

I think of dust as natural weathering..... so why dust?!  

 

I also love Grampstrains response to the this post :-)

lol

I use the soft paint brush for most of the dust, but it doesn't clean the finer details like roof walks. I might have to break out the air compressor to really get things clean.

as they go by i hold a vacumn over them..

I also use makeup brushes. They work well.

Ive been using the vacuum with a soft brush attachment and I put a nylon in between the hose and the attachment to catch any small parts that may come off. Haven't lost any yet but its nice not to have to worry about a windshield wiper being sucked into oblivion. Just doesn't quite get all of it.I just wanted to know if anybody had anything better

 

If you ever loose some small part take on the floor, take the vacuum hose and put a ladies nylon over the end of the hose. catches all the little parts and other crap but works awesome.

Llrr 1555, your maid creeps me out

 Ostrich feather duster, sometimes gentle blasts from a "Dust Off" type product.

I use makeup brushes. Ended up buying nicer brushes than my wife uses. Oops....

 

Gilly

Agree with you there!

 

I just tell everyone that it is soot from the steam locomotive!

 

2" soft bristle paint brush

Matt, I'll bet you get some interesting looks when you go to buy nylons.

You should have seen what I had to buy when the dog was in heat

Elliot, im surprised you didnt comment on my other post, that one was with you in mind

 

I resemble that remark!

Air compressor.  I put about 12 cars or engines in a flat plastic tub that closes with a lid and carry them up and out to the garage, get a folding table (assembly line) setup and lightly blast them with compressed air.  Maybe a little windex if necessary and do it a ll over again until they're all done.

 

Normally don't have any noticeable dust but do that about once a year anyway

Lately I've used a "swiffer" duster sheet on smooth surface cars and accessories with good success.  Works well with the extension handle to also remove dust from building rooftops.  However, swiffer dusters do not like real coal loads - they can get caught on the rough edges of the coal.

Soft brush, canned air and a small shop vac with the small shop vac tools. 

Hey guys,

 

I built a box with 3 vacuums I can attach. A small vacuum blows air down on the train to blow the dust off. Two larger vacuums attach on both ends and suck the dust out so the dust doesn't escape into the room. I was tired of dusting the other ways. I just run whole trains through the dustbox.

 

In the video you can see I threw a bunch of dust on the flatcar and gon. When they come back out of the box, most of the dust is gone.

 

I dust them by leaving them on the layout and then creating a lot of dust during my remodel of this house. I de-dust with my trusty air nozzle.

This is a great idea for a larger layout. Dust is OK for weathering to a point, but if it gets too heavy it's unsightly. I was toying with this idea myself, thinking that you need a combination of compressed air to dislodge the dust, and a vacuuum to remove it.

Sometimes if my trains get really heavy dust I will take trays of items outside to blow them off, and use soft paint brushes also as necessary.

 

Maintenance is a lot more fun when it can be done expeditiously! Which is why I run home-made track cleaners (underneath ordinary freight cars) on most of my regulat trains. It effectively prevents larger problems of dirty wheels and unreliable operation down the road.

I use an old fashion horse hair mens shaving brush. The bristles are very soft and does a great job of dusting my engines, cars, buildings... it is gentle but does the job.

I just let them sit out- they get "dusty" easily enough...oh, you meant "remove dust"!{my bad}

Me too....and a Q-tip for some stubborn areas. I may steal the wife's 'canned air' she uses to clean her sewing machine at times too. 

The whole pack was $4 or $5 at MalWart, I use the ones on the right to dust my locos (along with the occasional canned air.)

 

I've been pondering the idea of some sort of draw fan near the layout to not only suck dust into a filter, but ideally smoke from smoke units so I don't eventually get that lovely residue all over everything (I enjoy the spectacle of steam locos bellowing smoke WAAAY to much to run without smoke as many do.)

I doubt if the real railroads are dusting their trains.(Yes,I know they wash the engines.)

Makeup brushes and/or shaving brushes work well enough for me.

My best tip get some q tips and a keyboard spray can with air .

I soft 2 inch paint brush labeled for train dusting only so it does not get used for something else and canned air. Saw it a long time ago and looking now for rechargeable versions of canned air so don't have to keep buying canned air takes away from the train budget!

I use just an air can. Attach a small straw to the nozzle and the force is huge and blows off dust quite well.  Also i store my fleet when not running with a towel over them and that helps a lot.
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