Lost half my train collection.

@Merlin posted:

I just wanted people to know that over the years (23) I have made my basement water proof from hearing about horror stories like this. I had French drains installed with 2 sump pumps. All appliances,furnace,water heater,washer and dryer are all installed on cinder block. As you can see in the pictures I put shelving all around the walls of the bsmt with 2 feet clearance. Anything placed on the floor had to be in plastic containers. The one thing Mother Nature got me was the sewage. You think you can plan for everything but you can’t. I am having a back flow preventer installed on the sewer line next friday but I have to say the pressure was so strong that I hope this will help if it happens again. In NJ Home Insurance does not cover flood. You must purchase flood Insurance which cost around 2 thousand a year. My mistake was not insuring them. I did look around last year and received a quote for a 125 a year. I felt confident that nothing would happen and it came back to bite me in the end. I do agree the storms are getting much stronger and will start affecting more of the communities unfortunately. Thank you for all your responses. I am following your directions and have 4 cans of air cleaner and some gallons of distilled water so hopefully I can post some videos of some running trains. Thank you everyone.

Flood insurance only covers where there is an external flood, like if a river or lake overflows, water rises on the property and floods the house. It doesn't cover if ground water comes up, if for example your sump pump fails or you lose power. Where I live, which is a once in a hundred year flood plain (basically means never outside Noah showing up), it is up to about 600 a year (I would guess people in flood zones, like near the shore, it is a lot more).  I haven't checked into it but I have been told you can protect the critical gear in a basement for situations like the sump pump breaking down, etc as a rider on a homeowners policy that flood insurance won't cover.

Backflow valves on sewers can fail. Many years ago my wife and I lived in Hoboken, NJ (right on the Hudson river) in a basement apartment. The Hoboken sewer system was notoriously bad, when you had flood high conditions on the hudson river due to super moons or storms, the system would back up. Our apartment had a backcheck valve, and there were several times it didn't work, so it may not always work (but better than nothing)

From all of this, I think I've learned something. Right now I have most of my trains (over 200) stored in computer printer boxes. All in my basement. The boxes are just the right size for trains in original boxes and other cloth wrapped trains. Of course all are cardboard. I'm now in the process of transferring all to large clear plastic tubs with good sealing tops. I can see at a glance what most items are and worst case they'll float.

Hielsie

Lynne Carper wrote:

“I'm now in the process of transferring all to large clear plastic tubs with good sealing tops. I can see at a glance what most items are and worst case they'll float.”

Yes your bins will float, but the lids are not water tight, and, if they’re top heavy, the bins will flip over, disgorging their contents. Been there, done that, got the tee shirt.

Merlin, Sorry to hear of your problems. I live across the Hudson, in Yonkers where we had 7.8 inches and were up until 3:30am trying to stay on top of things. This was on top of the third wettest July and 4th wettest August ever. We had water coming in, but minor compared to you and lots of others in our area (including neighbors). 

Good luck drying and restoring things.

Tom

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

Yes your bins will float, but the lids are not water tight, and, if they’re top heavy, the bins will flip over, disgorging their contents. Been there, done that, got the tee shirt.

It was this recollection mentioned in a previous Ida thread, that leads me to suggest if you're storing trains in plastic bins, to load them so they're bottom heavy.

I got only a film of water in my basement, less than a quarter-inch coming under the backyard door once the drain there was overwhelmed by the amount of roof water coming through the connected downspout during the heaviest 3.5-inch-per-hour downpour. but it managed to spread from one end of the basement to almost the front entrance. Only some cardboard boxes housing non-train bric-a-brac got wet, but maneuvering a shop vac to get at all the confined spaces was the most time-consuming part of the immediate cleanup.

---PCJ

Our prayers are with you and hopefully this won’t happen again. I’m on the Tennessee/Kentucky border and so far we haven’t been flooded. It’s got to be very disturbing. Thank you for this thread, it is wise to get train collection insurance. Good luck. Please keep us informed of your progress.

@clem k posted:

I was watching a scale battleship video, where they go out in a pond and try to sink each other. The ones that sink they pull them up and take apart. Then spray the electronics with an aresol can, put them back together and they're back in the battle.  Be nice to know what that stuff was?        

Probably Mass Air Flow Sensor cleaner…

https://www.amazon.com/CRC-051...631740746&sr=8-2

Sorry about the flooded basement. That is simply awful. One could never foresee that situation happening in their house.

Tom

Really sad to hear! Glad that you managed to same some!!

Cheers,

Geary