Static Electricity Problems

In my post of July 29, I described how a low-cast rubber mat solved my floor covering problem. Well, I was a bit too quick to brag about it. Everything was fine until the weather started to get colder and the humidity lower. Static electricity reared its head. Walking only about five feet would generate enough static to put out a great spark when I touched almost anything, such as the rails on the layout. With sensitive decoders and command stations about, this did not seem to be a good situation to have. The question was what to do about it.

One end of the wire is stuck into the rubber mat about 4 inches while the other is soldered to an alligator clip which is then attached to a grounded nail.

I looked through various pages of advice on the internet and one suggested grounding the mats. I did this with a piece of 14-gauge solid wire stuck into the side of the mat. An alligator clip on the other end allowed me to attach the wire to one of the nails I shot into the concrete to secure the benchwork. This actually helped the situation but did not reduce it to levels I thought were acceptable. More research was done and I found an industrial static reducing spray, Staticide ACL 2001. I ordered a gallon of it, sprayed it on the matting with a garden sprayer and let it dry. It worked! The static electricity was gone. 

At the same time that I was applying the anti-static spray, I replaced the matting in my humidifier on the furnace. It hadn't been done in a couple of years. Right away, the humidity jumped up significantly which will also help the static problem during the winter. When I lived in Southern California, humidity, or lack thereof, was never a problem so this is rather new to me. The perils of living in the midwest, I guess. At least now I won't be blowing decoders during an op session.

Oakdale Water Works

Oakdale is shaping up as nice little town. We have hotels, stores, industry, a public water works and even a public bandstand. The view of town as you cross over the tracks is fairly attractive. I meant to mention last time that the dry goods store and cyclery were made from a Main Street Heritage kit. These are attractive resin kits and go together easily. The painting is always the problem, though, with an 1800s building. It just takes time to get right. The cafe next door is also Main Street Heritage. The newspaper building is from California Models. Although they are mostly cardboard kits, they go together quite nicely. Next door, the photographer's studio is a Woodland Scenics kit and Kathy's Confectioneries is scratchbuilt with an interior.

The new water works building is placed pretty much where nineteenth century Oakdale had the prototype water works and was about the same size. Made from a DPM kit, all I did was brick up some of the windows and add a smoke stack. I have not found any photos of the real thing so the signs and building appearance are freelanced. Adjacent to the pumping station is the wood water storage tank. The tank is very close in appearance to the prototype tank.

At the far end of Oakdale, the railroad passes over J Street on a short trestle. In later years, the underpass was filled in and now the road goes over the tracks in Oakdale.

Due to several out-of-town trips in the last couple of months, the S&C has not had any operating sessions for about three months. I've scheduled one for this month and the date is coming up quickly so I had to clean the scenery stuff off the layout and get ready for that. The south end of town still needs the gas works to be finished and a fairly large grain warehouse to be built. That's next on the agenda.