I seem to battle this during my construction phase. As I do other wood working projects, I get too much dust in a short period of time. I stole some layout shots from other threads(if I used yours, thanks). How do you keep these detailed layouts clean and "presentable?" Or does the dust add to the "look"? What works for you?
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I dust my trains with a static duster hidden in my tunnel. Cut it to fit your tunnel space and mount it in the tunnel or mount it in a drive through building. Every time the train goes by it gets dusted...This tip was published in the January 2016 CTT issue by me. As for the rest of my lay out I occasionally try to dust with a small hand held vacuum and the static dusters.
For me i don't like to do any dusting ,i hate it but once in a while i will take the roofs off of my plasticville buildings & wipe them off ,then give the trains a quick wipe down i don't go crazy with the dusting ,if i had to do it on a regular basis then it wood feel like a job & i wouldn't enjoy the hobby if somebody doesn't like the layout with some dust on it then they don't have to come back to see it ,i am enjoying the hobby in my own way ,don't sweat the small stuff ,it isn't worth it ,if you don't mind dusting thats ok ,if not just have fun .
My solution?.....
or....
...depending on the mood.
dkdkrd posted:My solution?.....
or....
...depending on the mood.
Let's see, which one... 
Maybe something like this would do the job
I use a fine brush to dust the tops of my automobile models and trains. The rest is "weathering".
I use a woman's makeup brush (very soft) and a vacuum cleaner for the rolling stock, engines, and roof tops. The track gets an occasional trip with my homemade track cleaning car MOW fleet. A shopvac with a brush attachment does the table areas where it won't wreck stuff. The rest just stays there.
Dennis
I really like the French duster method shown above! Hmm, now how do I create dust? LOL
. . . or this . . .
Hmm, maybe I could cut up random strips of homasote to bring in those french dusters! LOL
On the more serious side...
I have this vacuum accessory set from Micro-Mark....
It can be of help on the delicate, small dust removal jobs.
Swiffer technology is useful, too, in certain areas.
Then, Woodland (Scenics.....I can't get used to their shortened new name!) has a new product that at least one of our (LHS) customers has raved about...
Haven't tried it myself.
Gene,.....I like your 'telltales' duster!
KD
Dust? Dust? ............really? It's weathering man!
I used to use a Rainbow Vacuum to do most of the equipment and a soft paint brush to touch up between using the vacuum. The Rainbow is a canister unit that pulls the air through a water bath and does a really good job emitting clean air that does not re deposit the dust in my room! A side benefit is that I can easily look through the water before discarding for any parts that were inadvertently sucked up...
When dusting my shelves throughout the house, I turn on our monster whole house fan and use a small brush to dust off all the engines and cars. The house fan sucks the dust right out of the air 
works like a champ
Hi,
To clean dust off of the trains I built a box with a vacuum that blows air down in the box and 2 vacuums on both sides of the center suck the dust out of the box. This way the dust does not escape the box except in the vacuums. I just run whole trains through while the vacuums are running.
Below is a link that I hope works to show it in action. The train goes into the box with the dust on the cars and comes back to the starting point with the dust blown off and sucked away. Be sure to observe the dirt and dust on the flat car and gon before it goes into the box.
Looks like that worked pretty well, pretty cool invention there! Drive through train wash so to speak.
I also like the one above with the trains going under the static duster brush. Another drive through train wash...
The train vacuum tunnel seems to work great. Nice idea!
NJCJOE posted:
Reminds me of Caddy Shack " Just doin' a little cleanin' "
I try to prevent the dust by using covers. This works well for my shelf layout, but would probably not work for large layouts. Takes less than a minute to remove or replace. Made of sections of plastic sheet with cardboard "legs". The plastic has static properties so the dust clings to it. I have used this over six months and there is never dust on my trains or buildings. The legs are propped against the backdrop and layout fascia.
To DKDKRD: Always the second photo!!!
My Duster is an old vac tube/pipe with a 1" 1/4 whole ...with a 1" 1/4 PVC 2 1/4 " long cut length wise so it can clip onto the vac tube that allows control of the amount of suction you want. ( or just use your hand to do the same thing )
The brush on the end is a soft Horse Hair round vac attachment...Amazon about 5 bucks
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