Obvious Newbie awaiting my LOR Starter Packagr

[Orville]

dibblejr, most of us leave our controllers up and on year round.  There are some that take them down.  But a lot of us use the controllers for other things, like landscape lighting during the off-season.  At least that's what I do, one controller runs the spot light that lights my small waterfall/pond basin as well as illuminates my Lar"G"e Scale railroad if I want to run trains at night.    Once I can find my buildings for the railroad, they too will be controlled by one of the controllers in the off-season.

It's all up to a matter of preference and how you feel about leaving your controllers bolted down and left outside.   Mine have been outside for 6 years now, no fading, no issues at all.   Only lost a triac on one channel in one out of 5 controllers {now down to 4, sold one when I downsized to my smaller yard/home}.

So they hold up well to the heat in Florida where I live as well as the cold, when it does get cold here, occasionally we get freezing or just below freezing temps and that has never bothered them, as well as the harsh and hard rain storms we get.

These things are very durable.    Only one I ever had a problem with {casing} was when the lawn guys cut the yard and hit a rock, just my luck that rock hit a controller box, broke the box, but the rock didn't make it inside, so no damage to the workings inside.  Just got to get a new case for that CTB16PC, other than that issue that happened the 2nd year I was in my current home, I've had no real problems leaving them outside.

Haven't had any "humans"  messing with them, however, I have had neighborhood cats or roaming dogs snag a cord and pull it out of a dongle on occasion.  I try to tie the connections so that doesn't happen, but sometimes it still occurs, and I have to plug something back in. LOL

 

[dibblejr]

Orville

I also do model railroading but on a MUCH smaller scale than you "N". That's a great idea to use it for your railroad and other landscape items. We had a clubhouse and had our modules but after 20 years we tore it down and the club fir the most part went our separate ways. Still do some t-track stuff together. It's a dying hobby and with our membership down couldn't afford to keep up with the NMRA dues and what not.

i may do that but with my flagpole. Other than that all I have is a bunch of security cameras outside my property so not much more to use it for.

My luck is similar, just last week my lawn maint guys hit a rock and it somehow made it over my large deck on the second floor and through my livingroom door that leads to the deck. Broke two window panes. 

I know the boxes are very durable, I use similar for my security camera system and the one thing I don't have to worry about is theft or tampering. I was worried about the grass guys though ESP after the door incident.

My show will be very small this year but I'm already looking to move up into RGB next year and figuring out the whole house wireless adapter but I will do more reading on it. 

 

Thanks es for the reply, would be great to see your rail yard. 

 

Edited September 8, 2016 by dibblejr

[Orville]

I have O and G scale trains, but the O gauge is basically dead and I don't use it as much, maybe on occasion I may put something up around the Christmas Tree using it.   The G railroad outside isn't very large, maybe about 20-25' long and wider at each end where the loops are, it's a very convoluted dogbone shape since it is in a very tight space for the moment.

Now if I can ever afford more track and run it all the way around the house in a large rectangle, that'd give me some real working space, but for the moment it sits right next to and goes under the front porch area of my handicap ramp and just a wee bit out past the end/start? of the ramp.

Not the best layout out there, but at least it gives me something to run a train on and go relax when I want to just take a break from sequencing a song that could be driving me mad listening to it a million times over to tweak, or try to perfect it, which really never happens, perfecting it that is. 

But the railroad is basically out in front, more like the side, of the house, but visible from the road.   People always ask if I leave the trains outside all the time, nope, won't do that!   And then they ask if I take up the tracks every night!  Nope, they stay right where they are, they're bolted together just like the 1:1 tracks, so they aren't going anywhere, not unless someone wants to take them apart piece by piece and I'd catch them long before they even got started removing any of the track!  And the way they are put together, they'd have to come apart to steal them.