Large Scale Central

Shelving for my trains

General Discussion
#1

I’ve been toying with the idea of finally unboxing all my rolling stock and building shelving specificly for storing rolling stock. The idea is to ease using the equipment, and to allow me to either dispose of or store elsewhere all thier enourmous boxes. Well, this weekend, er Friday (since my weekend is Fr-Sa), I did some quick mesurement’s and headed off to the local hardware megastore. Got all my lumber (and some extra PT 2x4’s for the outdoor work of course!) and began teardown of the old shelving the previous homeowner built. I managed to get one side completed today, and work started on the other half of the shelves. Of course I wasted no time in setting up all the cars I’d shoved outside to clear the staging yard for the days work. And here’s how it all turned out:

As you can see in this picture, the bottom shelf isn’t as wide as the upper shelves. One reason is HD didn’t understand what cut a sheet of plywood in half means, I ended up with a 4’x4’ 2" and a 4’x3’ 10". The other reason is I figure making the lower shelf 6" shorter will ease viewing and adding/removing cars from the tracks’ below.

#2

Very nice. I have a similar arrangement in my garage. The staging tracks run out the window, and occupy 2 walls of the garage. Makes it easier than carrying outside what you plan to run.

#3

Very nice Chris.

Are your shelves dead level from front to back, or did you pitch them slightly to hold the cars on the shelf?

If level you may want to put some kind if a stop on the front edge. A thin strip of wood would do it. If your house is anything like mine, slamming doors, dropped frozen turkeys, or a truck rumbling down the street can set up some pretty good vibrations. You wouldn’t want any of that pretty rolling stock to work its way off the front of the shelf and tumble to the floor.

When I built my storage shelves I ran the “tracks” parallel to the front edge of the shelf. Your method is better as it makes easy access to any car and maximizes use of space.

#4

I like that. You’ve got a vertical yard there, a bit like Golding’s “Fiddle” yard.

#5

Sweet Idea. Do you mind if I steal it, file off the serial number and call it my own?

#6
Jon Radder said:
Are your shelves dead level from front to back, or did you pitch them slightly to hold the cars on the shelf?
Yes I did Jon! Looking at what some of my LGB cars are fetching these days, I didn't to take any chances with them rolling out of the shelves.
Steve Featherkile said:
Sweet Idea. Do you mind if I steal it, file off the serial number and call it my own?
I don't think that would be the first time this idea's been pilfered... :D
#7

I did something very similar in my garage - for added safety besides the slight slant, I use a bungee cord across the front to keep any accidents from happening. I swear we have Ghosts in this house that move things that shouldn’t have moved in the first place.

#8
Steve Weidner said:
I did something very similar in my garage - for added safety besides the slight slant, I use a bungee cord across the front to keep any accidents from happening. I swear we have Ghosts in this house that move things that shouldn't have moved in the first place.
We have those "ghosts", too. Six years old, infinitely curious, and deaf to any "Don't touch!" command (or they hear it as a challenge rather than a prohibition). (And you know what happened during Prohibition ...)

Yes, Cale, wait till you go through it for the second generation … :stuck_out_tongue: