Is Your Train Room a Mess?

OSHA would have me arrested if they knew. I am going to kill myself in there someday.

No train room but my work bench is a mess. 

I like to keep mine as presentable as the rest of the house, as it is on street level.  If guests want to come over, I don't want to rush around cleaning up.  Even if I'm working on the layout, I clean up at the end of the night.

Guilty as charged. Still under construction and the associated debris is there. 

I got to admit, at least for now, the train area looks pretty neat.  This will change in the Fall (after my daughter goes back to school) and I do some more bench work for the new layout.

 

Hasn't always been neat however.  Once upon a time, many years ago when I only had a 4'x6' layout, it did look like this for a while:

 

 

 

Jim

Mine is Always Clean, even under construction, it was always cleaned up...Come on over to TENNESSEE, and See...A Clean Atmosphere for the Trains, Special Guest that drop in, and Family And Friends....The real Reason, is for the Trains, it's a Huge Investment...

Thanks for This Thread, and Keep a Your Act Clean...Happy Railroading....

Mine is in pretty good shape and for some odd reason the work bench it too. I try to keep the layout pretty clean, even when working on it I clean up at the end of the day. However, the work bench does get out of hand occasionally.

Mine...well...It's usually clean.  Except for the days when I tell the wife I'm gonna work for an hour or 2...and after 5 she's hollerin about the 'other' stuff I need to do.  Then I might sacrifice cleanliness for happiness 

If you want to see messy you should see mine as it looks right now.  Being in the middle of a complete tear down it's kind of hard to keep anything clean.

No, not at all.

My layout is a catch-all for projects in progress, and the work bench gets cleaned when I can't find magnetic screw holders and other tools. Someday...

No train room, but my designated "hobby area" in the Florida Room tends to look in disarray sometimes.  Have to clean it up when company comes over.

 

My weekend 6x8 carpet on the tile floor in the Living Room with ever changing designs gets set up on Saturday morning and then put up Sunday night.

Mine used to be a lot worse. For years it was more of a dumping ground for tools, materials, all kinds of train stuff, and those things I just couldn't part with. But as more of the track has gotten done, the mess has been partially consumed as well as moved away from the train room.

 

Now the real mess is coming from construction. Sometimes it is clean enough to run trains, sometimes not. This week not.

 

I don't expect it to be perfectly clean until the scenery is completed. That could be a couple more years.

 

This is where it all began back in 2003.

 

 

This is almost the same view earlier this year.

 

2003

 

Today that view across the room no longer exists. This is the closest I can get. Point is the mess is gone.

 

If you're asking me, it's super clean. If you're asking my wife, it's a complete mess!!

 

 

Mine is always clean.  I can't stand to have a messy train room.  When it is under construction I am constantly vacuuming up the mess.  I would keep it clean if I never had any guests.

 

Art

Right now the layout is a mess. Finshed laying new floor in the basment and relocated the layout and redid the wiring. Still need to organize the layout.

I do not have a train room, but does it count if you have a narrow path to walk into one of your bedrooms that you use to store your boxes of trains?

Um, yup...

 

The basement where I thought I'd build a permanent layout isn't mine exclusively. All the family excess is down there, as well as the washer/dryer, lawn and garden equipment, a stand-up freezer, a "second" refrigerator and an electric treadmill, not to to mention "outdoor" furniture that mysteriously took up residence in the center of the room right after it was first used for a housewarming party.

 

There are items there intended for accommodating guests during cookouts that can't actually be used because the basement is too crowded to host any events (even if they were to take place mostly in the backyard).

 

After building out about 3/4 of the shelving for my around-the-walls layout, I stopped construction, mostly discouraged because the area is so crowded that it's difficult to clean it. The layer of gritty dust on the boxes down there (amazing because it's a finished basement) serves as a reminder that my current basement is not an ideal place for unboxed trains, so the living-room "test track" is the only place that actually operates. And the videos I shoot there are composed in a specific way to conceal just how crowded it is. 

 

---PCJ

My train room is just where I store my trains and parts and some guns and books and some other odds and ends. It pretty much looks like it sounds like it would.

Mine is in the garage, so not only messy, but very dusty. Thank goodness for the monthly train day. Forces me to getrdone once in a while

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

 

Actually, the train room itself is pretty clean and well organized. The workshop in the next room is another thing altogether...

Yes.

1)A "mess" is really a relative term.

 

2)I think my mess is a relative of what Jim had in the past, maybe even a twin brother! 

 

Tom

 

 

I learned a long time ago that neatness is the key to success. Like Art, we keep our train rooms immaculate. Guests can arrive unexpectedly and we are nor embarrassed to show the layouts.

I'm actually working on cleaning it up right now, having finished one stage of a project (work on my two club modules).  Witht hem set up next to the layout, there is no room, so something always suffers.

 

I used to have stuff piled all over the layout when it was only track, but, as the scenery expands, I have to keep that under control (Tip of the Day:  cluttered layout?  Do your scenery, and you won't dared pile cr@p on it!) 

 

That means the crap gets piled on the shelves, however

My train room is my bedroom so I keep it as clean as possible.  But since my layout is presently under renovation, turning into a 1940's era Army base, this area is a bit cluttered.  I always keep my trackage clean so I can run if I need to.

 

Steve and Lady

Oregon

Wow, now I don't feel so bad!

No it is not.

 

Jeff Davis

Work in progress for making trees (experimental phase) is a little messy but nothing like when going through big part of my renovation.

I know where everything is. Sometimes it takes a while to find it.

Not really a mess,  but there are stages in the construction (stated on this forum) that I would like time for to complete.  But non completion does not make it look messy thankfully.

 

Mark

Oh God, you had to ask. 

 

Right now, I am working on installing backdrops.  This is a major project that is going to be followed by the installation of the PRR Panhandle bridge.  The backdrops are large (4' x 8') painted 1/8" masonite sheets.  These should have been installed before the layout was built, but that didn't happen.  So the train room has some of these lying about.  It also has storage boxes that need to go back under the layout as well as some items from my parents house.  Assorted tools, screws, wiring, old power supplies, bits and pieces - yeah, it's a mess, but it is better than it looked about 2 months ago. 

 

George

Lets just say the train room is always work in progress...

Its what to do with all the empty boxes that drives me nuts!

That is what the attic is for!

 

Jeff Davis

I keep my train room clean because it is a finished room with carpet and bathroom,could not live without a bathroom as this is a separate building.

Mikey

But what about when the train room is the attic??

Yes...a complete mess as I'm tearing down my layout to rebuild.

-Greg

Right now, no, because I just had visitors to the layout on Saturday.  It will start to get messed up again until I get closer to having people over again.  The main problem is tools that I get out just tend to stay out because I might need them again soon.  It amazes me some of the items I find on the layout when I go through a cleanup to get ready for a hosting party.

You and I must be twins, because that's exactly how things go at my house too. There is always an open invitation for forum members to visit, but this is why I ask them to email me as far ahead as possible.