I finally got my "storage and transport facilities" sorted with everyones help, thanks! The case is indeed from a BBQ set on Amazon, there are tons of them to choose from. Initially I bought 2" acoustic foam which was too thick, so too deep for the cars and the case. Then I found 1" acoustic foam as shown. This is what Larry had shown also. He is using stacking trays. I will use a flat piece of thin foam on cardboard to hold the trains in the case when closing and opening it. The wall mount case is indeed sold for "HO" scale train display. And when it fills up strips of 3/4" x 1" wood painted black will double the capacity. My wife chose black...
And Larry I think I have read every post on eXact Modellbau now. Amazing craftsmanship and for me very entertaining. Wow!
Hello! I haven't built this yet but was wondering if any one has tried it before. I got some 4ft. fluorescent bulb covers Made of clear plastic. bought them at Lowe's in the lite I'm going to use 1in. X 3in. wood frame the plastic covers are 1.671in Dia and I have 11 of them. I was going to drill holes up and down in the center of the two sides and space them apart and one middle support. I have a render of what that would look like and a few photo's of the tubes with Z scale Trains in them they will also take "N" scale I think! I'm working in Z scale and think this would look good hanging on a wall. I also thought of taking a string of small LED and running the on the inside of each tube on top side to lite them up!
Hey I was thinking! kind of dangerous! I found these transparent Fluorescent bulbs covers. getting ready to make a storage case that hangs on the wall and can be use as a show case too! These come in 4 foot length and there are two sizes I'm using the larger size it might fit "N" scale to but I'm using them for Z scale.
I finally got around to starting my "double decking" project for my display case. You can see the blue foam inserts which allows for twice the amount of trains per shelf. I actually like the light blue "sky" color of the foam so much that I'm thinking of just putting some sky posterboard in the background and making the entire thing have a sky backdrop. (eventually might paint the foam anyway, blue or whatever.) My original plan was to paint the foam black and go with the existing black background look. It looks overly busy right now with both colors in play, plus the wide variety of rolling stock in the mix. And I still have about 1/3 free space left too. Anyway, work-in-progress but thought I'd share.
Hey that looks great! The blue board insulation foam is easy to get, cheap, and easy to work with. And it looks like a blue sky, it is obvious that the trains show up better against the blue. If you can find a good match for the blue foam it would be really easy to get a cloudy sky effect by spraying blue in a mottled pattern against a white background. I may give it a try myself. Something like a Robin's Egg blue sprayed onto strips of white poster board. Lots of potential here. I got the black version of this case and it is a good deal and well made. But 1/3 free space? Slacker! Fill that sucker up! Or, if you want to create more shelf space... How much for the BNSF swoosh? The Lone Star cars look terrific too. I'm jealous.
Nice display cabinet Doug!!! Would you please tell us more about the cabinet, dimensions, what scale and how many railroad items can you fit on the shelves. Plus anything else you can think of. It is one of the best display cabinets I have seen. Joe
Thanks for the positive comments folks...much appreciated! Joe, I purchased the display cabinet from sfDisplay.com--and also available via Amazon--for around $100. (see https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001CSR6O2/ref=ox_sc_mini_detail?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A25NXKGCOVWWK9 ) The outside dimensions are 19-1/2 inches (H) x 37-1/2 inches (W) x 2-1/2 inches (D) and of course the inside shelf dimensions are slightly less. All of the models you see are Z-Scale (1:220) and how many will fit depends of course...you can see that I was able to place ten grain hoppers across, yet the longer passenger cars only allow for 6 plus a loco. The cabinet itself is designed to display HO-Scale (1:87) models, but I got the idea of a "stair-stepped" display from a buddy who has a stepped display shelf for his N locomotives, and at some point it struck me that an HO display case would be perfect to do that sort of setup with my Z models. And by default it is a longer shelf which means I can truly display representative trains which was something I was striving for. The "steps" are 1/2 inch styrofoam from Lowes, cut with a utility knife and a straightedge. An entire 48in x 96in sheet costs around $15 I think? You only need about 8in x 37in if you can find a half sheet or someone with decent size scrap pieces. Out of the box there are six shelves in the cabinet, and the steps double that to twelve shelves with which to display these wonderful models from AZL, Micro-Trains, Pennzee/Full Throttle, HoboTim, Robert Ray, et al. If you figure an average number at 9 cars per shelf, that's a little over 100 pieces of rolling stock that can be displayed...which is great in my opinion. I'm very happy with how it is turning out. Now if I could only have such luck with building my layout!
So as a bonus, I thought I will describe what I plan to have displayed. Some of the items are already in place. So, the plan: (top to bottom) 1A: General manifest freight cars representing cars that would be switched by the DGNO on my layout. (the 3 freight cars on the right of 1B will be moved up along with the CSX covered hopper and 5 or 6 other cars...likely to include a couple more syrup tank cars which are among my faves. 1B: BNSF Work Train and Trinity Railway Express RDC's. Pretty well as-is...will add a couple more hoppers to the work train. 2A: Amtrak Texas Eagle - the consist shown is actually accurate to the actual train. One of the shorter examples of it, but runs that way on occasion. 2B: Trinity Railway Express F59PHI and Bombardier Commuter car trainsets 3A: BNSF Unit Grain Train 3B: BNSF Unit Grain Train 4A: General manifest freight cars representing a typical UP freight train. (UP is a big player in my operations so UP-centric cars are a must) 4B: BNSF Military Extra. Represents the front section of a military train I am modeling that I photographed back in the early 2000's. 5A: Ringling Bros Barnum Bailey "Red Train" Section B 5B: Ringling Bros Barnum Bailey "Red Train" Section A 6A: General manifest freight cars representing a typical BNSF freight train. 6B: BNSF Intermodal Train
Thank you Doug for the information on your display cabinet. I think I will order one for my N scale Frisco train cars and locomotives. May have to order three, I have about 135 units in Frisco and another 130 units of various railroads. Right now they are stored in two Apple boxes. Apple boxes make good storage devices because they use heavy cardboard and are a nice size, they hold a lot of stuff. Your local grocery store will give you some for free during the late summer and fall when the Apple crops are harvested. Joe
Joe, just FYI there is an N version as well. It is smaller, but just know that--using the HO version--you might not be able to do the "double-decker" scenario for N. Practically speaking, the clearances are pretty tight even for Z. Not saying it won't work, as theoretically it seems the dimensions would work out (might be slight overhang on the top level) but it will look pretty cramped I expect. For storage, I currently have most of the rolling stock still in its original jewel cases and stored in four clear plastic Container Store "boot boxes" that fit under my bed. From my N days when I belonged to a modular club, I also have a few "TrainboxesPlus" boxes that use that heavy cardboard you mention and have foam-lined trays for storing and transporting cars and locos to/from shows. If/when I ever get back in that mode, I do plan to utilize them in this capacity. Currently, space is at such a premium that if I used them now I would have to store cars in the garage and with this Texas heat we're enduring now that wouldn't be very good for them I'm afraid. But the boot boxes fit *barely* under the bed so my trains stay nice and air conditioned.