Thoughts on Arranging Your Display Shelving Units

As a collector of prewar trains, I group the trains by both age/era and type.  For instance, I have streamliners displayed together, freight sets from various eras (ie late 20s early 30s) displayed together, passenger sets displayed together by both type and era.

One thing you will likely find is that once you put a train on a shelf, you might have extra space on either side.  That is where you can fit miscellaneous engines/cars/accessories/etc.

My suggestion is for you to display them how you think they should be shown.  Once you start putting trains on the shelves, they will sort themselves out, as it is surprising how much space the trains take up.   

As mentioned, do a search, this forum, for train shelves. A lot of good information.   Glenn Snyder Display System, a key phrase.

I used to separate into main sections, steamers in one area, diesel in another, box cars etc. Over time I have switched it up and organized them by train consist. Makes for a fun look and if I am missing a car the opening stands out.

How to arrange train items on display shelves is a purely personal decision. You did solicit opinions though so - I placed heavy expensive stuff (engines) on the bottom four shelves where an accidental trip to the floor was less likely to be fatal. Rolling stock and cabooses are displayed above in a manner that I chose to be visually appealing to me.

Curt

Thank you gentlemen for your great answers, they all have some good advice.  Juniata Guy, I think that your advice about putting the expensive heavy engines on the lower shelves closer to the floor is an excellent idea, my room where they would be displayed has carpeting with a pretty thick pad underneath but even at that they can still bend or break something when they hit.

vash44, I have or did do something similar to putting steam all together and diesel all together but then started putting trains together so I could just pull the whole train down when I would go run, made it much easier when I was trying to throw a train together to run at the club but I'm still rethinking it all and still trying to decide which is the best way to go.

Thanks for your very welcome answers.  I plan on doing a search to seek out more information.

Have a great rest of the week.

That is a tough one.  Originally I only bought engines so it was pretty simple.  Then I decided to buy passenger sets so I would do an ABA or ABBA and eight cars or so or if it was a steam engine, five cars.  That took up a lot of space so I try to keep it to an AA and five cars.  When I did the MTH F3's up through 2000 I did both AA and ABA depending on the road. That pretty much took a wall.

The only real answer I have is to keep adding shelves.  I would like to get freight cars up but I do not see it happening because of space.

This is an interesting topic that I am currently trying to figure out.  Since I have only a limited number of shelves and a bunch of rolling stock in trays under the layout, I currently put the most fragile cars on the shelves:  Billboard reefers, Canadian Pacific Holiday train set, MTH cars with pups, etc.   They also are also the most interesting to look at.  But then that might not be a good idea because when I reached for one pup car the other night, it slipped off the shelf and crashed on the layout .  I never put engines on the shelves because I don't trust my hands or my eyes because if those wheels aren't all in the grooves of the shelves....

I agree with keeping heavy/expensive stuff low but if you have numbered sets they should be displayed as a whole. Or if you must break them up into various shelves it might be a good idea to tag the underside of the individual cars with the set # or have an inventory list so that, God forbid, if you should meet an untimely demise, your significant others know what goes with what.

@J. Motts posted:

So my question to you all is how do you all arrange your trains on the shelves?  Do you arrange them by types of trains like passenger trains, steam locomotives, diesel locomotives, freight cars then maybe just passenger cars and miscellaneous types of cars by themselves?   I have one shelf that has nothing but SP cabooses on it and it is 142" in length and has space for about 3 more cars.  Do you all arrange your equipment by road names and then by steam, diesel and so forth?  I'm just having a hard time trying to figure out how to display my trains so that they make some sort of a statement that when people see them it gives them an idea of what I have and what I like.

I'm ashamed to say, I just stuck them up on the shelves in a very random order.  Anyone seeing my shelves could pick that up in an instant.  I did try to put the matching engine next to the passenger cars, but that's pretty much it.

As for heavy/expensive stuff on lower shelves, I guess it depends on your train room.  My expensive stuff is all on the higher shelves, as my trains are in the basement and if it should ever flood, I am hoping that it will not reach the upper shelves.  Plus, it is easier to see them at eye level.

I kind of mix them up a bit.  I do try to keep the sets together, but I do like the different colors mixed in.  Black engines next to a colored diesel, and/or cars.  Something that adds interest.  I'll even put items from different eras next to each other.

I think Lionel did the same thing when they put sets together.  What looks appealing.

Here are some ideas for display shelving, made by our OGR Forum member @idea-thinker, and they hold a whole lot of trains. He and his wife built these in his custom shops, and they are solid wood, glass doors….. I took the pictures and wish I had the space for these beautiful cabinets. Happy Railroading Everyone

I used to have my trains organized by type such as F3's, GG1's, Jeeps, Steam Large and Small. I decided to change things up and put them on the shelves in a total random order. It seems to be more interesting to view them. When I had them organized as I stated above you could view them in just a few minutes and then you seen it all. By having them in random order it takes a while to see them all. Currently we have about 2500 pieces on display in a random order and I personally really like it and many other that visit like it as well. In the end you should display them the way you like to see them.

Thanks;

idea-thinker

Nice cabinets! I'm contacting you Idea-thinker! I could use a couple, esp if staggered shelves as shown in the pictures!

In the meantime, Here are my display cabinets. Photos by me.

Holy smokes, I went to look at the posts on my thread, it's 5:20 in the morning here in the DFW area and you guys really got me to thinking, leapinlarry, your post of ideathinker's shelving units just blew me away.  Those are just gorgeous, I love them and would love to have the space to have a set of those.  I really like them, they would keep the dust off of all of the equipment that is in them.  I don't have near what ideathinker's collection amounts to ( I wish I did but I'm really happy with what I do have) but then I'd need a much larger house again and Momma and I are getting up in age now so its best I don't.
Thanks guys for the newer answers after my 2nd post, posts of food for thought, GRJ, I'm pretty much like you, I just put stuff on the shelf and go from there.  At first I put all of my steam on one wall along with some rolling stock, then I put all of my diesel locomotives on another wall along with different cabooses and my 3rd wall consists of mainly SP equipment with a couple of UP -JLC 3985 and an N&W Class A 1218.  Now after reading all of the posts so far, I'm seriously rethinking how I'm going to reload my shelves, I will still keep my wall of SP stuff as that is what I have the most of but I want to redo the other 3 walls and then go do some space stalking for room for the rest of my shelving units, about 12 to 15 left, that should allow me to pretty much display the rest of what I have.  Wonderful ideas and suggestions, they are all very much appreciated.
I hope everyone has a terrific weekend.

I have some Glenn Snyder shelves with several of my favorite things. Mostly box cars with beer.

When visiting a collection, I enjoy seeing a logical arrangement - sets or similar cars together.  However, I'm not much of a collector (although another member of the household might disagree), so the main purpose of my shelves is to have trains accessible so they can be put on the track.  I try to keep related items together, but minimizing wasted space means that's not always possible.

I try to locate lower-value stuff at knee and elbow level.

I have a couple of the reefers that you have, most of what I have are PFE and SF.

I forgot to mention earlier this morning, all of my shelves are screwed into each stud that they cross with at least a 2" deck screw or a 21/2" deck screw, if the holes don't match, I drill a new one so I can hit the stud.  I also have the 50 lb wall anchors (screw in type that becomes part of the sheet rock) so that the shelves are very sturdy and doesn't move when you put down
one of the really heavy locomotives, like the 4-8-4's, 2-6-6-2's and some of the Cab Forwards, all of these suckers are nice and heavy and I'd probably have a heart attack if one of them fell from the shelf.  I guess you could call me "Over Kill" obsessive.  You invest large sums of money into these engines and rolling stock and you surely don't want to see them come off the wall.

@J. Mott’s, JEM, thank you for your kind words about @idea-thinker, and his remarkable shelves/Cabinets, which are one of a kind. Today, I’ll show you my shelves around my train room, no comparison to my friend the @idea-thinker. Your thread is very interesting and growing. (My shelves came out of a dumpster at my cabinet makers place of business and my wife helped me put them together, free) Happy Railroading Everyone

Now, this is a picture of @Farmerjohns, wall display that is so beautiful and and it was made by his good friend Steve that’s a master wood worker. There’s so many gifted folks helping us have fun in the Hobby. Happy Railroading Everyone

Just don't let it get to this point...

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.47...p;pid=ImgRaw&r=0