Since I do not have a layout anymore to place my trains on for photo ops, I decided to build two long shelves that I can put up on my bed room wall so that the last two things I see before falling asleep is my lovely wifes face and my favorite trains.
The shelves are built and white washed and put up but that is not where it is going to end, I've decided to best show off my favorite Santa Fe and Military trains that I am going to add straight tracks for them to rest upon, grass on the rest of the shelf and a few bushes and trees so that my trains look like they are parked on real tracks instead of just sitting on a shelf.
I can fit 2 locomotives and 14 cars on each shelf, (2 short trains 2 deep).
I was wondering if any of you here have done the same, make diaoramas to just show case your trains on when they are not being run?
Darn it, I just went to take some pics of these shelves only to realize that my wife took the digital camera to California with her....gggrrrrrhhhhh!
I'll post some completed pics when she returns on the 24th. sorry!
Johnnny_reb Once a word is spoken it can not be unspoken!
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I wonder what the wife thinks of this.. looking at trains instead of her; but I guess it's better than looking at other women!
Looking forward to the pictures.
Modeling the N&W freelanced at the height of their steam era in HO.
Daniel G.
I was in a temporary apartment for a few months years ago and put a couple of pieces of flex track up on the fireplace mantle and parked some rolling stock there.
But mostly because I had no place else to put them!
Craig
DMW
Yeah, I did this too-but not with the trees and such.
Since my layout (now being moved and added to) was on a shelf above my workbench, the shelf for the trains was above that (fairly high) so I got a glass shelf so I could see through the shelf looking up at the engines & such from slightly below.
Alas, my wife would not have let me put it in the bedroom.
This may be stating the obvious, but you know we just completed a contest for 2 x 8 shelf layouts.
2x8 Shelf Layouts
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
dale8chevyss wrote: I wonder what the wife thinks of this.. looking at trains instead of her; but I guess it's better than looking at other women! Looking forward to the pictures.
Hey !!!
I never said that I look at the trains INSTEAD of her, I look at both before bed, I will not even comment on riding either! (don't read too much into this!).
Jess:
I do a diorama every year around the holidays. It's WAY small (a loco and just a car or two) and I do the landscaping, trees and all. Every year it's different and is only up for a few weeks. Crazy...But fun!
I also have a beam above a door and window in my front / great room that is at about a 7' height. It extends beyond the paneling just enough to have a single track (HO) and has changing trains displayed on it...Sometimes for a year at a time, but changing. It has held a DM&IR ore drag, the GN Empire Builder, a local CCRY peddler fright and string of August Meininger Brewing Co. reefers behind a 2-6-6-2...Just to name a few.
Even after you have a layout, there is NO rule that says you can't display elsewhere too! Have fun with your idea!
Hey Guys, I borrowed a friends camera to post these pics.
The shelves are built, painted and up but the scenery isn't installed yet but you can get the idea from some of the pics here.
And this one is just for fun:
This is how I solved my problem with storage. They are made out of solid oak which I had them cut at the place where I bought them. I've intended to ad glass doors but haven't done it yet.
I also built this as a display for a single engine at a time:
Magnus
Magnus,
Wowee, those are some nice looking shelves and the single Loco shelf is really neat, Great job on both!
When I finally find a new house in warmer weather to move too I'm going to have a whole room for my trains and layout and then, If you don't mind, I'd love to copy your idea!
Thanks for the post!
Jesse Red Horse from the "Nuts about HO" Tribe!
Red Horse wrote: Magnus,Wowee, those are some nice looking shelves and the single Loco shelf is really neat, Great job on both!When I finally find a new house in warmer weather to move too I'm going to have a whole room for my trains and layout and then, If you don't mind, I'd love to copy your idea!Thanks for the post!Jesse Red Horse from the "Nuts about HO" Tribe!
Copy away Jesse. Glad that you liked them. Thanks for the kind words.
The way I got the oak cheap was that I went to a DIY store, got a bench top of massive oak and had them split it in four inch shelves with their saw which makes perfect cuts. The material which came to be about 850 inches of shelves cost me less then 250$.
Jess--
No WONDER I can't find any military equipment for my WWII-period layout, YOU'VE got it all, LOL!
Seriously, the shelving idea is a really good one. And the diorama idea makes a lot of sense. My late father, who was an excellent cabinet-maker (his hobby), made me a case to display my locomotives. It was my 40th birthday present, he'd just retired and decided to go into N-scale. I was able to fit about 20 locomotives into the case, and it's still here in the music room--first thing you see when you go in. I change the displays as I run the locomotives (of course, I've run out of case room in the past twenty-odd years as I keep buying new brass, LOL).
But I think your shelving on the bedroom wall is a neat idea. As you say, you can fall asleep looking at BOTH of your loves!
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!