Shelf Queens?

Lee, that is the best answer so far posted on this topic.!! My wife always remarks the line about"....has the most toys when they die wins" but she is so,so wrong!!

Box Queens.. LOL..perfect!!!

IMO,  the best reason for keeping MPC I've heard yet.  

Trust me, someday, that colorful era will earn respect.. someday....

Joe

Here is a few of my American Flyer steam engines from the seventies and early eighties.

Jimmy...A FEW ?!?!?!

I like trains displayed on shelves as much as on the layout, but as you can see the empty spaces are for the ones on the layout now. I have my outside loop of minimum O-72 curves set up to run Legacy or conventional, I rotate engines and rolling stock often because I like to see all of them run.

Art

Using the definition that others here have applied, that a shelf queen is a loco that is broken/not repaired or one you won;t run because you don't want to wear it out, I have only three:

- MTH coal turbine.  I bought it at a steep, steep discount because it does not run, but that was fine because I just wanted to look at it anyway: too big to run practically.

- Lincoln funeral train.  I did run the loco.  Its tiny, delicate, has no e-unit or couplers , and just screams "I really wasn't made to run much."

- My Dad's 1930-something Marx wind up.  I restored it so it runs well, but . . .  

Shelf queens...what are those, guess I need more then two engines !  Someday...someday...

I don't have any. I run'm all.

They're only on the shelf for a little while.....

My Post War Lionel are shelf queens but they all run and are displayed on shelving,I run all DCS and Legacy on the layout.

I have a few shelf queens: the C&O yellow belly, too large to run on my layout(I didn't think it was going to be that large to run on my 036 when I bought it), so now it is on display, along with Lionel & MTH gold hudsons. I do have many 'box queens'. They are either put away after new issues, and some have never come out of the box

Martin H,

Thank you.

Im not sure what you wanted when you posted this topic.You haven't asked a question,or asked for opinions on your subject.So heres what I would say.If I walked into a guys train room that had zillions of trains on shelves and maybe I did or didn't know so much about trains,I would be thinking..this guy is a NUT.Nick

Here are my two shelf queen models:

1.Brass Chicago PCC streetcar-

I bought this model at Chicagoland Hobbies over 20 years ago.The custom paint job is the best I have ever seen.I could barely afford it at the time,but I couldn't pass up such a beautiful model.It runs fine,but I don't have a two rail traction set up.I think it is wired to run off the overhead pole,but I haven't tested it since I got it.

2.Pride Lines Hiawatha-

I bought this set new in 1989,I think.It looked great,but would not run.The engine chassis

sagged and was mounted crooked.It sat on my shelf for over two decades.I finally fixed the poor chassis problems and now it runs perfectly.

Dan 

2 nice pieces Dan

The green color on the streetcar must have been popular back then, our city buses here in Portsmouth VA were that color too from what I recall.

When I started modeling the first magazine I got was Model Railroader's 50th Anniversary issue which had a story about the Hiawatha, so good I thought they had really found one at first!

Wow - Love that streetcar.  And I agree it was worth spending just about your last dime on, if necessary.  Fantastic model.

I'd bet that every hobbyist on this forum has many more engines on the shelf than running on a layout. Lets face it, most of us as kids could never have the trains that we wanted. Now that the same group has the money; in the years of collecting they purchased everything that they ever wanted. Over a 30 year period collecting I have so many trains that I could not possibly run all of them. My layout has three loops running and when finished four loops will allow 4 train sets will be able to run at the same time. Add two on the siding and that equals 6 sets.  So what am I doing with about 30 engines and over 100 pieces of rolling stock? Its a sickness!

I'd bet that every hobbyist on this forum has many more engines on the shelf than running on a layout.

True enough Dennis, but are they SQs?  Have they ever been run?

I think, at least for me, that the definition of a Shelf Queen is changing to an engine that, due to age, or electronic/mechanical failure, no longer works, but is on display, anything else IMO is simply being "stored".

I'm glad to see very few responses are because they no longer work.

LOL, I just thought of another engine I have, my BEEP.  It's completely torn apart and has been for a couple of years now.  I don't consider it a SQ though because it's not on a shelf for display.

This is really it - we're kids inside  As I replied much earlier, it's just a matter of arithmetic - many trains, few tracks, so most locos are going to sit on a shelf, or wehere - on the floor?.  And you have identified the reason - the six-year old inside me loves almost every locomotive we see, so . . . .  

Displaying engines. I store my engines and cars in their original box if not being run.

The problem with storing engines on the shelf or on the layout for a long time is the dust accumulation.  Unless the engines (and cars) are vacuumed often dust can build up.  Glass enclosed display cases do reduce the accumulation of dust somewhat.

I have purchased some second hand cars that were displayed for a long time by the original owner that had to be completely disassembled and washed with soap and water to clean them up.

I have worked in bakery factories where the air is continually filtered and where the air is always in motion using fans to reduce dust settling. This is usually the best way to reduce dust accumulation.

At one time I may have done it BUT life is short and if you don't run them someone else will.

SO I make it a point that all our stuff gets track time. My son and I decide on a theme day or theme week or month and that's what we run. So if we want Santa Fe that's what gets on the track etc.

It's a lot of fun!!!

Some evenings my son and I have a frenzy night so anything gets on the track!!!!!!

hello guys and gals..........

No shelf queens for me as I have just 2 engines and I run both

the woman who loves the S.F.5011,2678

Tiffany

My only shelf queens are the gold plated millenium releases from MTH. But, sometime, when I get some batteries, I'll run them too.

Frenzy night:  every loco gets some rail time.  Genius!

I still have the Model Railroader 50th anniversary issue from January 1984 my Dad gave me.Pure genius concept that there was a Hiawatha engine found in a barn and the restored engine toured various layouts.The photo of the Hiawatha being pulled out of storage is one of the all time best model railroad photos.

Dan

Some evenings my son and I have a frenzy night so anything gets on the track!!!!!!

That's the one Dan

That and Bruce Chubb's Sunset Valley Railroad really got me hooked.  We need more articles/stories like those.

I know there's been an article about Ed Rappe's PRR layout, but I think it was of the old layout.  I don't think Ed has any SQs either!

Dan986

I love those pictures!!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing!!!!

Wow, those pictures are wonderful. A wonderful fantasy, that barn find.

I dont even have a shelf yet. 

Wow, those pictures are wonderful. A wonderful fantasy, that barn find.

 

It was a wonderful concept for the whole 50th anniversary issue and it was very well executed.  The Hiawatha visited all the finest layouts of the day in N, HO and O scale.  There was also a fold out with the original Hiawatha 4-4-2 locomotive and train set in drawn in color in S scale.

My grandmother has given me a subscription to Model Railroader for Christmas and I remember that issue fondly.  The 50th anniversary edition of MR is likely the reason I have a tinplate Hiawatha today.  It is conventional in all its open frame motored air whistle glory and kind of a shelf queen but I am awfully happy to have it.