Your thoughts on a Loco ‘Shadow box’ Display

How about an SD45 in PC, SD40-2 in CR, and something newer in NS ??? Just an idea !!! The SD45 would be less expensive than the E8.

 

Thanks, that is a big help. I have a Kato SD70M NS and an old Bachmann GP40 CR already. I once rode with him in a NS SD70 on a visit to Pittsburgh.

 

I can't find a PC SD45 right now in N scale, but I'll give it a week and then I'll just have to buy a E8

 

Well I bought an N-Scale ATLAS SD-45 #6234 from eBay for $40. I hope I haven’t made a mistake. I didn’t think of it until now, but maybe they all should be the same brand. Right now I have Atlas, Bachmann and Kato. Since I just bought the Atlas PC, maybe I should buy an Atlas CR & NS.

I probably should have just got him a single Kato Penn Central Heritage and saved some money. LOL

 

It may be easy to secure the locos to the track by some strong yet fine wire. Run the wire front to back over the trucks so it doesn't show on the truck side frames, then through a small hole drilled in the track bed, and then secure the wire under the platform the track and loco mount on. Depending on the how fine the wire is and how thick the platform you should be able to hide the wire ends in a small routed recess.

 

Thanks John,
I have a small train in my office at work mounted to a piece of door molding and I used hot glue to glue the wheels to the track. The hot glue held up but the trucks broke off then I glued the trucks to the axles. That worked for a while until the trucks themselves broke off from everybody handling them. I don’t know what they are doing to it while I’m away, but every week there is something else broke off. Luckily it’s just a cheap train my wife got for free from Readers Digest. LOL
I may do like you suggested, but I think I need to run the wire up into the frame. I’ll have to ship it one way or another either in my luggage if I give it to him personally or by UPS if I send it, so I still will have to make some sort of cradle behind it to support it and thinking about using the hot glue to glue the back of the body to the cradle.

 

Well I got the box almost done. I fit tested it with the glass installed but I still need to sand and put a finish on it before gluing it together. I’m still waiting for the Penn Central and after the finish dries I’ll start putting in the track.



I also need to figure out what I’m going to do for the background. I’m not sure if I should do 3 separate backgrounds for maybe just one large one of a yard or something.

 

Anybody here from around Pittsburgh PA?

I need 3 scenery photos from around Allegheny County for my background. Each picture will be sized to approx 3 ½” x 8 ¾” and should be appropriate for N-Scale. They probably should not have a train in them unless it’s a yard photo but at least someplace where trains pass and not inside Kennywood Park LOL.

Anybody have anything that I could use for this shadow box or do you know of some on the internet that I could use? I’m about 2500 miles away and cannot take them myself.

 

Search Flickr for "appalachian mountain panorama" or "Pennsylvania panorama" etc. You'll find some wonderful photos that you can adjust to fit. I did this for a small diorama in my office and it looks great. You might have to do some stitching, cutting and/or scaling in Photoshop (or GIMP). If you need help with that, I can be of assistance.

Just be sure to contact the photo owner (Flickr makes this relatively easy) for permission, if needed.

 

Thanks Twindad, I guess it’s all in what you search for. All I’ve been coming up with is maps. LOL
I never thought about flicker, but that’s a great idea.

 

I now have all 3 locos that are to be mounted in the box, but I’m not so sure about the Penn Central. I wonder if I haven’t made a mistake by not going with the F8. The PC SD45 is old and used while the other two are new unused. I know I can buy a new E8, but I can’t find anything else new and I’m not sure if he will even notice.

I’ve been looking for photos of Penn Central’s freight hauling and can’t find much although I have seen a few photos of E8s hauling freight. I just don’t know but it seems like they mostly had passenger trains and other RRs did the freight hauling. Does anybody know for sure? I guess I could ask my brother-in-law what he was working on back then, but he might get suspicious after all the questions. Plus he knows I only do South West Railroads.



On another note, I was planning on using Code 55, but due to mounting problems I may cut up some long pieces of Bachmann E-Z Track that I have squirreled away. I guess I could ballast it the same way I’ve seen Unitrack done.

 

Finally found some time to work on this and it’s almost done

I’m still looking for a background and not sure if this is going to work. What do you think?
I still need to secure the locos and add ballast.

Sorry about the photo Quality. I have no idea why it looks so out of square:blush:

 

I'm impressed with how you put it all together. Looks good.

Do you have something a plague that gives recognition to his service as a rail?

 

Thanks Rick, I want to have something engraved with his name and years of service to mount on the front of the box, but I don't know anything about that stuff or where to go to have it done. I've seen trophy shops around and I guess could ask one of those places or maybe a jewelry place, I just don't know. I was going to ask around at work because they have had special plaques made up a number of times, but everybody was taking time off for the holidays. I was the only one in the whole office working yesterday.

It just now dawned on me that maybe somebody on eBay makes and I'll do a search there as soon as I finish posting.

The other thing I want to do is make up a label to glue to the back describing the locos and note that they are real operational N-scale Locomotives so years down the line after he's gone, it doesn't get tossed in the trash.

Update: I just found this place on eBay that has the type of label I’m looking for. I just wish they had some railroad symbols to go on the ends.

 

Thanks Eagle2 for the recommendation.

He was visiting with us just before he retired and was looking for Railroad stuff to place around his house. He said was NOT going to miss working on those trains in the ice and snow during the winter, but he was going to miss all the good times.