Clark, thanks for the kind words.

Rolf, the track, signals, and some of the structures stay out year round and get watered twice daily.

Our climate (coastal Southern California) is mild staying between 45-95 degrees year round, but, we get extremely high (60+ mph) Santa Ana winds and most of the structures are stored in my garage between November and April so they don't get ripped to shreds/blown away and have their wiring ripped out (all structures are lit).

The trains, some of the delicate vingette figures, and metal die-cast cars come in at the end of the day (the die-cast cars rust too quickly otherwise).

Many live in colder climates and continually post pics of their trains plowing real snow with both wedge plows and snow blowers.

Vandalism has not been a problem (even though this is in our front yard) because we live in a really good semi-rural neighborhood, and it is very hard to see the railroad from the street (about 100 feet away and 20 feet lower).