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Many options for displaying trains on shelves exist, from home-made to adapted furniture to purpose-made aluminum shelving.  All of these options work pretty well for trains out of their boxes and lined up as if on tacks (or even at other angles).

I am looking to display some sets in their boxes, however, and I have rarely seen methods for doing so.  Do you display any sets in such a manner? Have you seen any such displays? Does anyone have any brilliant ideas about how to do so economically both I terms if cost and of vertical and horizontal real estate?

I have thought about adapting some modular book shelf units, but the method strikes me as inefficient.  of course, there may not BE an efficient method.

What do you think?

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Sorry, who really wants to look at a box, I'd be more interested in seeing what's actually in it and knowing that is the reason you purchased the set in the first place.  I understand why people want the box in the first place as well as the shipping carton but don't understand the need to show the box to people and it seems like it would take up a rather large amount of precious storage space that most people don't have a lot of.  Maybe if you live all by yourself in a super large house, then I could see it.  If your wife (assuming you're married) let's you do that, whatever you do, keep her happy as she is a real keeper.

J. Motts posted:

Sorry, who really wants to look at a box, 

Honestly, the box art on some items is much more exciting than what's inside.  I get why someone would want this, as some of the boxes are just well done display items which was obviously done to help the item stand out on a store shelf and sell better.  Some of the best are the LGB sets from the early 90's.

There's a few options, but what comes to mind is if you have a standard shelf or display case (with a reasonable depth like the ones shown above) I'd build a wedge on one of the shelves with a small lip on the front to display the set box at an angle.  That way if you had one you wanted to display open with the contents you could do that without putting the pressure you would put on the boxes from their contents if displayed vertically nor having the possibly impaired view if you displayed them fully horizontal.

Another idea that comes to mind is again with display cases like the ones above.  If you want to show the outside of the box you could place it vertically on one shelf (as in the "living room C" photo above) making sure it's in between the shelf brackets and then place another glass shelf about halfway up the box.  Of course the second shelf would have to be of a lesser depth but the idea being you could have the pieces of the set on both the bottom and middle shelves and still be able to see the box behind them.  This would still allow shelves placed closely together to display a larger number of trains, but also to be able to see the box behind them (as long as you don't over clutter the shelves.)

I can say that

box art can be exciting.  For instance the box below, which is prominently displayed in one of my cases, is from 1908 (2nd year of American Flyer production) and is very rare.

The following boxes are from the mid 1930s and have great graphics

My last comment, is that everyone has their own likes and dislikes when it comes to trains.  Some people are interested in the history of the toy companies, which include all forms of paperwork from boxes to advertising, etc., and others do not care for the paperwork/box/history of the trains.  

NWL

Dave Ripp. posted:

I'm not sure how lighting affects box color the only worry I could see would be color fading.

Ultra Violet light does cause fading, which is why I have refitted all of my display cabinets with LED lighting, which does not cause fading and keep the items from prolonged exposure to direct sunlight.

I have also installed LED lighting in my train room.  I find it is brighter and shows the trains much better.

NWL

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