shelving for locos and rolling stock

[jettrainfan]

My mom wants all of my model trains moved up to the attic, so she bought an industrial shelving unit from home depot. First thing i thought when i looked at it was "good for boxes... bad for stuff without boxes". So then i got the idea of making wooden shelves that are about 4-5 inches wide and so many feet long (i forgot how long the shelving unit is). From there, i'd have an NMRA track gauge and mark down the wood where ho scale rails would be. After that, i'd take my pocket knife and slowly carve down the line. The end product is basically 2 lines to be the same size as ho scale track, and would be lined up with about an inch of plexi glass so that if someone bumped the shelf, none of the models would fall off the track... easily  .

Anyway, i was wondering if anyone can give me tips or suggestions on this project. the soonest it will be done is October, so theres time to sort things out if needed.

Thanks for any help! 

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Depending on budget considerations you could save yourself time and work by just getting sections of flex track to lay on your shelves. That's what I did, anyway.

One Christmas many years ago, my dad had his uncle, now deceased, who was a pretty good carpenter, custom build me a display case out of oak with sliding plexiglas doors. I put sections of flex track on the shelves and set the trains on the track.

[jettrainfan]

Good idea, but it'll probably be out of my price range, got a load of cars with no boxes, sense most are older stuff that'll eventually be rebuilt, which will add up quickly, but will pay off.

[Doneldon]

jtf-

If you have access to a router, or can rent one for a day, you can rout rabbets the length of the boards
which are HO gauge and put your cars on those instead of tracks. This won't hurt your wheels at all and
it's a whole lot cheaper than track.
                                                    -- D

[mabloodhound]

Actually, a table saw would work perfectly.   Cut your first groove with the blade partially raised and then just move the fence over the width of the rail and cut the second groove.   I bet a friend has a table saw you could use.

[Keusink]

JTF

I just built one, 3.5'X8', out of two pieces of 5/8" plywood (3/4 would have been better, but heavy). Ripped the plywood, shelves are 4" deep, 5" between shelves. Holds around 70 freight cars and three trains of passenger cars.

One piece of plywood is the back, and the other is the perimeter and shelves themselves, ripped on a table saw.

Instead of track, I simply put a lip on the outer edge of each of the shelves, that extends about 1/4 " above the shelf edge. That keeps your goodies from falling out. You don't need to put rails in at all.

Our locos are in the same kind of cabinet, with a Plexiglas door for display and to keep the dust out.

Paint or stain to taste.

Chris