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I've been wanting to display a couple of engines in the office of my business for some time, but since it is a fairly dusty environment, I had never done so. While walking through Hobby Lobby last night with my wife, I noticed the shadow box picture diorama pictured below. These are normally $60 ea., but were on sale at half off, so only $30 each.



After measuring it up, I thought this might be a good choice for an engine display case. (Interior dimensions are 9"x 24"x 3.5" deep). So I picked up a couple and my Saturday afternoon project was set. First I tore out all the "stuff" on the interior and disposed of that. Since this "stuff" is both screwed in and glued in, it left a bit of a mess on the interior back wall. So...my next thought was what to cover the interior back wall with. If I'd have had some type of background picture to cut up and install in it that would have been great. But instead I went to our local dollar store and picked up one of those cheap 12"x 48" mirrors you can hang on a door. ($6 at the dollar store). I removed the mirror glass from the frame and then I got out the glass cutter and cut a couple of pieces to hot glue to the interior back wall of each case. Pretty simple project that left me with a couple of dust proof display cases for less that $35 each. An MTH Premier SD90MAC and a Railking FEF worked in each real well. Since I have duplicates of each, I don't mind displaying these in the office. Will probably bring up some interesting conversations with customers.








The Lionel Fastrack fit in these perfectly, but you sure could use other types of track as well. I'm sure a couple of pieces of Gargraves cut to fit would look extra nice as well. But I had the Fastrack in stock, so that's what I'm using for now. The mirrored back wall allows you to see both sides of the engine. But if you had some extra scenic "backdrop" from your layout, that could also make a nice background.
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