Displaying Trains

March 11, 2012

ok so this has come up in a number of threads and keeps being repeated and snaking other threads so i though i would start a new one on ways of displaying trains outside the layout or their bookcases. ill start with the reply to ken's question on the other thread. here goes

ive been trying to come up with a simple display system that would allow the trains to be easily lifted off on their track and base and run onto the layout, but it does take up quite a chunk of wall space and of course 8.5' long 16 car shinkansen is kinda out of the display option for something like this or even for a more permanent display as getting plexiglas longer than 8' or welded seamlessly gets expensive!

Does it have to be seamless?

I'd think a cartridge system using low-profile cartridges that could be lifted out and connected to the layout, coupled with a wall-mount shelving unit with small shelves to hold cartridges (shelves so you can have a mix of cartridge lengths) and a pair of ~5' doors or sliding half-size or smaller windows would work. You'd need some kind of angle-iron reinforcement on a long cartridge, but that seems workable.

Now manuvering a 2.6m (8.5') cartridge around from shelf to layout would be a project. And you might want some temporary removable walls on it to keep the train from hitting the floor if it fell off the tracks during handling. But I think (with sufficient wall space) you could display quite a number of trains that way. It's not something I could do in the current house, but I've been thinking along those lines for the future, as I know I'll never have storage tracks for everything I collect.

well if you were going to the trouble make a case for a full 16 car shinkansen I would like to have it one big seamless piece of covering as there is nothing as distracting as a seam in the middle of a case like that. we go to large lengths to hide seams in plex like that in exhibits as every little bit between you and the object really diminishes the experience of the viewer. you get huge better visitor impression/interaction when you dont have a case at all. as soon as there is something between the artifact and the viewer things just go bad and any thing that draws attention to that just magnifies this. in the end like you say trying to swing around a 8.5' long shelf would be quite the three stooges routine and i worry that the engineering to make it rigid and not bend would make it bulky, expensive and hard to make.

ok so what i have thought about over the years is to have a simple shelf unit that would be something like 4' long 2" wide and as thin in height as possible for a base for a length of track (probably tomix track because of its smaller roadbed appearance). this unit then could either rest on some simple shelf supports on the wall or be lifted down onto the front of the layout where it would rest in a mated trough so that the tracks would line up properly with a siding and you could run the train on/off the shelf onto the layout. pretty straight forward. you could make a little upside down U protector that you could drop over the top of the shelf unit to protect a train from rolling off the end or falling off the track and onto the floor when you are moving between the wall and the layout. there is a train storage system with a clam shell case like this with full padding so you can flip the box any which way. good in theory, a pain in practice, we had a 1m one and it just was a pain to use and cost like $75 for one!

on the wall you could have a nice backing piece of wood attached to the wall that would have thin shelf supports of some kind coming out of it that the shelves would rest on. in addition you could have a thin plex case that would fit over the whole backboard (like 3" thick and the size of the backing board) to cover the trains from dust. would be an effort to lift this on and off and would require a beefier plex frame to make sure it would hold up (a wooden or metal one would really box the trains in).

there are systems like that out there that are basically square plex tubes you run the trains into and place the whole tube on the shelf system, but those feel odd to me to box each train in and it gets back to the thing of it really increasing the amount of plex you are showing between the train and the viewer. these also get really expensive and finding square plex tubing the proper size gets expensive. round is easier and cheaper (still not super cheap) but then you have to get them sit with feet to not roll and they just look odd being in round tubes.

we may be doing a simple system like this for one of the jrm members modular layout they are doing this year. its a long thin modules layout that will not have a big yard to begin with. so to move trains on and off the layout easily w/o stopping the two tracks from running we are looking at making a shelf system like this so we can put trains onto a unit on the table and then just plop it on the layout and run them on/off quickly. then we could also have a number of the shelf units on the table for display, sort of a yard w/o the point ladder! so this should be the good test to see how well this all works.

other schemes ive seen like the multiple layer elevator yard or the revolver cylinder are just too much engineering and hassle and dont seem to really show the trains off well.

A lot of the fiddling for the wall case idea has come out of the desire to at one point try to do a shinkansen (or just japanese trains) exhibit here in the us somewhere. having a stunning case like this where you could really see the trains as cleanly as possible i think would be beautiful and show case the design and the evolution of the design so nicely. nice yellow cedar backing could be gorgeous! there are a few other interesting cases that could be done for models as well to really show them off and impress the viewer with the level of design and beauty there in them.

more ideas and discussion is welcome!

cheers

jeff

March 12, 2012

I was thinking about this issue the other day and did some research:

Commercial solutions

DIY solutions (in German only, but the pictures speak for themselves)

March 12, 2012

It gets expensive fast if you want to display 16-car shinkansen :)

March 12, 2012

Would love to do this. Then make sure everything has CL power so that I can light up everything. Although the only problem would be UV damage. Even in a deep and dark recessed corner of my basement, things will still eventually yellow.

March 12, 2012

the trainsafe were the ones i was referring to below. nice but expansive. for most options with any sort of clear plastic tubes gets expensive fast even for smaller trains. there is the cheaper polycarbonate tubes (usually used for mailing or packaging) but these are not very sturdy and if you get them thick enough to be strong they are not so clear, so sort of defeats the purpose of display...

downside of the tubes is that with all of them all hanging in their own tubes, almost like the display system is the big visual thing and grabs the eye so much more than the trains.

other issue is cleaning the inside of one of the tubes if needed is a bit of work. would need to work out a pole you could run through with a rag and pad the pole so it would not scratch the inside if it touched while pulling it thru.

the trainsafe transport container (non clear) is cool, but really expensive and fiddly. i found it hard to get the clamshell off w/o getting a couple of the trucks off the tracks...

jeff

March 12, 2012

Would love to do this. Then make sure everything has CL power so that I can light up everything. Although the only problem would be UV damage. Even in a deep and dark recessed corner of my basement, things will still eventually yellow.

clem

one of the reasons to try and use things that knock off as much uv and ir as possible with some sort of protective glass or polycarbonate layer. always an issue for a layout with any windows in the room.

if you are getting that much uv in your house to yellow things that badly i would first suggest just putting a good UV window film on the strategic windows that get sun or heavily reflected light. this can go a long long way to getting rid of yellowing or fading issues (uv can also break down some pigments). its really easy to apply, just wet the window and put the film on and squeegee out the bubbles.

the double pane glass in our house must have a lot of uv protection in it as we get little damage like this in the house, but we do have A LOT of BIG trees and long eaves so we dont get much summer sunlight at all, only oblique light in the winter so not so bad and we have a 40' wall of south facing glass floor to ceiling.

cheers

jeff

March 12, 2012

I think there are different requirements for what I'll call "usable storage" (as opposed to a Kato box, which is "compact storage") and "display". And the problem we're discussing is how to have something that's both usable storage and display.

There are three dimensions to this: how many trains can be stored (in a limited space), how easy it is to run them, and how well you can view them when not in use.

In usable storage, a whole train is kept together in a way that allows it to run onto the layout. Examples include a modeled yard facility, a hidden staging yard, removable cassette systems, elevator systems, etc. The primary goal here is functional, and the second is capacity. Display is a distant third, so most of these systems are either capacity limited (display yards) or don't look good (cartridge systems). Or both (hidden staging). These also tend to be built by the modeller rather than commercial (there is at least one company that makes a cassette-style box, but it didn't seem very good).

Dust is another issue: usable systems usually leave trains exposed to room air, meaning they'll pick up a layer of dust over time.

Examples (casettes):

http://www.zen98812.zen.co.uk/cassettes.html

The one commercial one I found:

http://www.brilliant-baseboards.co.uk/

In display systems, the focus is on seeing the train. Preferably as close to eye level as possible. Examples include the little plexiglass boxes with wooden bases you can put on a shelf to display a loco, or wall-mount shelving that can hold several whole trains behind glass. Both of those can look very good, but aren't much more easy to take a train from for use than a compact storage box. And the cost tends to be more in the "furniture" category than the "storage" category (i.e., really expensive).

Examples:

http://tracksidedisplays.com/

http://www.usadisplay.net/modeltrain.htm

Note: I haven't bought from either of these companies, although I have some cases similar to the usadisplay ones with a wood base instead of plastic.

The Wawiko tubes are as close to my cartridge-on-display-shelf idea as I've seen. The big problem with them I'd expect is that if the track is free to move in the case, then any tilt to the case while moving it will probably derail the train. I've had this problem with simple two-loco display cases: if I even bump the bookcase it's on, the track slides easily and the train often derails. You could solve that by gluing the track in place (hot melt glue, perhaps?).

As Jeff pointed out on the other thread, a Shinkansen is long enough to pose other challenges. The longest standard Wawiko tube is 2m (apparently they'll do custom ones though, and the price list goes to 2.4m), which isn't long enough for some models. And a wall case with a single-sheet front for best visibility is going to be expensive, if it's possible at all.

I like the Wawiko's, but at 67 Euros for a 2.4m tube, plus at least 19 Euros for the wall fixture, the cost is going to add up fast.

March 12, 2012

Note that older fluorescent lights (the long tube form without a plastic diffuser) used in some shop light fixtures can put out a lot of UV. Newer tubes are better built and don't have exposed clear glass at the ends, and any fixture with a plastic diffuser should block all UV. Compact fluorescents (the screw-in lightbulb replacements) with exposed tubes have also been reported to have very high UV output in some cases. Even halogens and incandescents put out a small amount of UV, that can matter to sensitive dyes over time (more often an issue with photographic prints than painted objects).

Any glass window that lets in direct light will cause rapid color fading. Indirect light will do so over a longer interval, as UV scatters (the sky is blue because blue scatters more than red). How close you are to the equator also matters, as there's more UV the closer to it you get.

A plexi case like the Wawiko will do some good, but I wouldn't put one in direct sun and expect it to work over the long term. A glass case (unless it's treated with UV film) won't block UV at all.

March 12, 2012

Ken,

my idea is merging the cassette/cartridge idea with the concept of furniture display case to get the best of both worlds. the cartridge/cassette is down to just a shelf base and track.

the trainsafe tubes i think the track is attached w/in their tubes. would be pretty easy to make a jig to hold the track, slip the tube over it all and screw the track into the bottom of the tubes.

http://www.train-safe.de/index_en.php?section=12

using round tubes adds a new challenges into attaching the track and keeping the tube upright.

one issue with the tube display cases is what happens if were to really jar it and the train is completely derailed w/in the tube! i guess you would just have to try and tap them out the tube end carefully. this is where i like the idea of just having the bottom shelf with the track and having a protector piece you pop on top when you move a train and then pull it off once on the layout or on the wall. its the getting it off when going on the wall thats hard if you want the shelves stacked close together. perhaps a little pop out shelf at the bottom of the cabinet that you would put the train cartridge on and remove the protector and do the last little lift onto its shelf w/o any protection. i guess if you wanted to be ultra safe you could do a system of little flex threads that could loop over cars to hold them down gently.

display cases have two purposes, protect the object from stuff (dust, uv, fingers, etc) and framing/presenting the object. the protection part is usually the one that ends up battling with presentation part! the more you can reduce the amount and details of the protection part (ie any edges, corners, etc) the better as these are the thing that grab the eye and distract it from the object and remind the brain that there is something between the eye and object. this is why i like the idea of a single pane of plex between your eye and the train with a larger wall case than many smaller cases. the tubes while being cool i think just end up drawing so much attention to the tubes and shelf brackets rather than the train itself. they also dont do much for framing the whole presentation on the wall, which is something i think could be a really nice dimension to the display. lighting will also be tricker with the tubes as the corners and tops are going to pick up odd reflections and light dogs.

the standard wall display cases i have trouble with visually as the shelves are usually very thick and run to the ends of the case and they always have a wood frame on the outside. this ends up closing in each train into a very dark little nook. again the case becomes the big visual object over the trains. lots of HO, O, and lionellers use these shelf units and i am always amazed at how such big cars can be minimized by the shelf units!

i keep cruising home despot and the like to find an aluminum channel stock thats got some other purpose thats like 1.5" wide with like 3/8" channel walls of like 1/8" or less material. havnt found plain stock like this thats less than 1/2" high, but that might be what is needed to keep them stiff enough. would be nice to do wood, but i worry that it will be hard to get really flat and straight stock that would stay that way at 3/8" or less thickness. nice thing about U channel is that if you turn the leg side down you could just have very thin shelf supports coming out from the back board with just notches for the channel legs to rest in to lock the shelf onto the supports. this way the front of the support could be flush with the shelf and not stick out into view. plain 0.5" x 1.5" x 0.125"channel stock costs about $6/4' train section. not too bad

cheers

jeff

March 12, 2012

I've always been fascinated by the train elevator, but it would cost about as much as a house for our fleet:

http://ro-ro.net/

We ended up with a wall of these, which doesn't allow running trains out of it, but it does look nice:

http://www.sfdisplay.com/nscaletraindisplaycasecabinetwglassdoor.aspx

March 12, 2012

there was one that was like a big revolver (gun) cylinder that would rotate to put a track on the layout. each track had to be gimbled to keep it horizontal as the whole cylinder rotated. there was a video on it but can find it now. was pretty wild to watch it come around!

ive had my fill of mechanical contraptions like this as we used things like this in exhibits a few times and man not fun!

cheers

jeff

March 23, 2012

The "revolver" is a custom unit Train Safe built, as a demo I believe.

http://www.train-safe.de/index_en.php?section=40

I would think that I would rather have a fiddle yard that I could lower a sheet of lexan over.

Building a frame with shelves in it and a lexan cover is pretty easy if you just want to hang it on the wall. Powering the track is just a transformer and connections to the track, we all do that, heck, use UniTrack and make it painless. The HARD part would be making the engines NOT move!!

Now, one that moves up and down and connects to the layout, that is a whole 'nother ball of cheese....

March 23, 2012

ha never saw trainsafe's prototype. cool

the one i was looking for was ho or o scale and hand built. i cant remember if there were even tubes around the train cartridges. the cylinder ends were plywood. there was a video of it, quite amazing and its been around for a while.

only issue with dropping a plex lid on a yard is dropping it cleanly, but could just hinge down from the wall behind. also unless you use really heavy plex you will need to have some supports w/in it as thinner acrylic will bow with time if not supported well on larger spans.

jeff

March 28, 2012

This Kawai slim collection case might interest some....

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10085779

March 28, 2012

thanks bill, very interesting. nice small case.

these would actually be very easy to make in the shop. nice for a few small trains. only issue is the sides are a bit heavy. i keep meaning to see what is out there for acrylic boxes that could give some clear edges. there are some poster frames like this, but not sure how deep they are.

jeff

March 28, 2012

We ended up with a wall of these, which doesn't allow running trains out of it, but it does look nice:

http://www.sfdisplay.com/nscaletraindisplaycasecabinetwglassdoor.aspx

These are also available from Fiber Hobby . com in Las Cruces, NM

March 29, 2012

there are a lot of these out there. theres a couple of guys that sell them at our local train show and i think they do the garage shop thing making them. several companies usually advertise in the rr mags as well with the standard wall shelf like this for rr and diecast stuff.

btw could not find a fiber hobby. is it a hobby lobby?

jeff

April 2, 2012

btw could not find a fiber hobby. is it a hobby lobby?

http://fiferhobby.com/html/train_display_cases.html

sfdisplay imports them from China. I think fiferhobby gets them from sfdisplay. A little cheaper from sfdisplay when you use their free ups ground shipping coupon, which everyone gets when you order (no connection to them, just passing on info)

April 11, 2012

I have to second the motion for the sfDisplays.com cabinets. I have several and am very happy with them. I have the walnut ones with the black background.

Amazon currently has them for $69 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001CSKGSK/ref=s9_simh_gw_p201_d17_g201_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=16WSNFJ0JJTXD2ABMAKC&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470939031&pf_rd_i=507846

sfDisplays.com lists them for $79 http://www.sfdisplay.com/nscaletraindisplaycasecabinetwglassdoor.aspx

But if the comment about free USP shipping from sfDisplays.com is correct, then $79 may be the better price.

May 7, 2012

Very nice display units!

SfDisplays website offers LED lighting.

On the flip side. Until we have the room to display the whole train, we can store the book style cases in Bookcases.

I found one for my apt closet for $30. Laying on its side, the dimensions are perfect and I can store 8 Kato Storage cases per section vertically in a stylish way. The closet door is usually open anyway. Use the 20% off coupons they send in the mail. I'll end up getting another bookshelf.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?sku=17122452

May 7, 2012

skip,

Suggest something with doors. It minimises dust and humidity is easier to control.

Cheers

The_Ghan

May 8, 2012

China Cabinet?

May 8, 2012

Curio cabinet? All kinds of sizes and shapes.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=&q=curio+cabinets&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=CoCoT-vTIoS_6AGizaDUBA&biw=1331&bih=535&sei=HYCoT_WIFojD6AHrhdmcBA

May 8, 2012

I bought four cupboards for storage, not for display. I've got one of those dehumidifier crystal packs in each to keep the humidity down, as well as a dehumidifier, which I need to run from September-April - the warmer months in Sydney. I go to this effort because I like the storage sleeves and containers to also be in prestine condition.

Cheers

The_Ghan

May 8, 2012

I bought four cupboards for storage, not for display. I've got one of those dehumidifier crystal packs in each to keep the humidity down, as well as a dehumidifier, which I need to run from September-April - the warmer months in Sydney. I go to this effort because I like the storage sleeves and containers to also be in prestine condition.

Cheers

The_Ghan

i recently purchased some cheap $20 cupboards from miscellaneous cheap chinese store.

love having proper cupoards as since moving they have been in a big box.

btw since today's delivery i now need another cupboard lol.

Displaying Trains

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