Well, it's been a while since I have had trains on display, but I took the first step toward eliminating that this weekend. Since we bought the farm (literally) over 2.5 years ago, my trains have been packed up in boxes. So, a train room that looked like this....
... was quickly diminished to this; Train storage at the new house.
And yes, there are over 100 boxes just on the right side of the room, Lots more on the left.
At least I was smart and stacked all the train boxes in the room next to my train room, this way I can work in the train room without having to move boxes of trains. Unfortunately, time has taken its toll over the last couple of years and other things have rooted into the train room. So now I am actively working on removing said items to finally make some progress on the trains.
I figured it was time to start on the shelving. But the story doesn't really start there, it was a long time coming to get to this point... a lot of thinking, rethinking and figuring went into this decision. In the old train room seen above, I made all the shelving from MDF boards and I grooved them for standard gauge trains, plus a lot of 4" angle brackets. I was a good look and served me well. When I dismantled the room, I took it all with me with plans to reuse it. Well, with all the work involved with making those shelves (grooving, paint, etc), and considering my current health battles, my wife said I should look into alternative shelving; something that would be less work. When I showed her the alternatives, specifically the aluminum shelving, she was impressed and gave me the green light to move forward with this plan. Heck, I bought her a farm! (Hojack would understand how far that has gone).
I did a bit of research and found the 2 main players in the shelving world are: Glenn Snyder Display Systems (GSDS) and Trainshelf (http://www.trainshelf.net). Both are aluminum extrusions that can handle multiple gauges of trains, but that is not important to me as I will only be utilizing the standard gauge sizing. Some of the major differences between the two might not seem like much, but it did sway in my decision. The Trainshelf version extends past the side of the train, meaning that the trains do not stick out from the edge of the shelf. So, if you bump into the shelf you will not snag a train by accident. The GSDS shelf ends at the outermost wheel set which could lead to some trouble if not careful. I also liked the look of the Trainshelf as the train sits in grooves in the shelf and not on top of "rails" like the GSDS. This may be a personal thing, but I just like that look better for shelving.
Of course, the Trainshelf is a bit more costly, but maybe I could make it work. Did I mention I will need a lot of shelving? So, with a quick call to the man behind Trainshelf, Dick Wachtman, I was able to obtain a favorable bulk order discount, along with being able to pick it up to save on shipping (picked it up when I was at York). As an added bonus, since I was ordering in fairly large numbers Dick was able to supply me with lengths of shelving to suit my needs, in this case that was 8' and 6' sections with the majority of them being the 8 footers. My goal was to have as few seams as possible and to maximize my wall space. Plus it needed to fit in the truck! In the end, I ordered about 800 linear feet of shelving. Thanks to BlueComet400 for the recommending Trainshelf to me.
With the time change it starts getting dark very early, so I needed a good "dark time" project. This was it. Work started last week with the first wall. This is actually in another room next to the train room; the media room. This is where the big tv lives and the future home of my vinyl and cd collection... but that's for another day. The first wall has shelving 16' in width. They are spaced fairly close together, 7" from shelf top to the underneath of the next shelf. This may sound close, but it is ample room for most SG trains. In fact, most prewar SG trains are not very tall and the biggest top out around 6.5". But, I do not do prewar trains, but the more randomly-sized Modern Era Standard Gauge trains.
With the shelves in the media room, I wanted a the trains to be the wallpaper, so I placed the shelves a little closer than I have in the past. Also, this space will be occupied mostly by McCoy and CMC/CMT type trains so I will have plenty of room for most of them. The top shelf is about 10" tall so I can put any oversized items up top. The metal shelving here is complete but I still need to add a shelf at the floor and an vertical end panel to cover the sharp edges. The floor shelf will comprise of the MDF boards I harvested from the old train room with a small 2.5" kick plate added. The end panels will be made from MDF boards with some grooves routed out to accept the shelf ends and are only needed on the open ends of the shelving. The MDF boards will be painted white to blend in with the walls for a clean look.
On the opposite wall of the media room, I have added shelves above the couch only. These are also 16' long. I had planned to go all the way down like the other wall, but have currently reconsidered. Right now, the couch is more important in the room than the trains. Also, since I originally planned on only 8 shelves per wall I was already well past that mark. With the 4 shelves I am leaving off this wall (eight 8' sections total) I can finish all the walls I planned on from the start.... I think.
Now, on to the train room! This weekend the weather was cold and rainy. With little work that could be done out on the farm, we decided to focus on shelving. With the help of my brother (who was in town for the weekend) and our resident farmhand, Jason, we made quick work of a couple more walls. First is the 16' wall of shelves. This wall is the opposite side of the wall of the media room's "couch" wall.
The spacing on these shelves are a bit different from the other room. I needed to have shelves able to accommodate many trains of differing heights. This decision was not an easy one. So many factors and things to consider. What made it harder was that all my trains are packed away so I was unable to check train heights. So, a few friends helped out with some measurements. The majority of the shelves are spaced at 7.5" and the top three are a bit more; 8", 9" and 10" at the top. The other consideration for shelf placement was to make the light switches and outlets clear the shelving. All the main shelving in this room will be like this. There may be small sections of wall shelving that I may change the spacing, but I am not there yet. As a side note, I needed a quick weight test, so that is why the homemade diesel train is up there. I have nicknamed it "the Beast" for obvious reasons. The loco itself weighs in around 14 pounds and served this test well. For comparison, there is a McCoy steam locomotive underneath.
A few notes about my new train room, it is nicely sized at about 34'x19' but is plagued by windows and doors; Six doors and two large windows. So to say that wall space is at a premium would be an understatement.And I need all the shelf space I can get.
The first of the end walls was next to receive the shelves. These end walls will have 14' of shelving as seen above. This picture was taken during the install process showing my brother hard at work on the left and Jason manning the screw gun. This wall was a bugger. Not a very straight wall, so a lot of shimming was needed and took a bit longer.
A bit about the shelf install process. In a perfect world (or straight wall) the shelves go up very easily. They mount to the studs via screws. I opted to screw into every stud as I have some heavy trains. I used a #8 cabinet screw, these have the little washer attached to the screw head for a nice clean look. If you tighten the screw too much, it can twist the shelf. A little adjustment with shims and tightening/loosening the screws will make the shelf sit straight. I found that the easiest way to drill the holes into the shelf was to make a jig to drill onto a piece of wood. It is also a bit messy with all the chips flying, so I did it outside. Maybe I'll post a couple pictures of the process. Overall, they are very easy to put up and with a few simple hand tools anyone can do this.
I will keep you up to date on the progress. Right now, the rain has ceased so we are catching up on some farm chores. When I get back to the train room I will update this post.
Keep in mind, this was all my wife's idea! She's the best.
ARNO
