Anyone have any experience with building handmade shelves for your trains?? What is the best way to do this?? I have a basement that is finished and would like shelves for my trains. Is the metal stripes with shelves that you put in on an angle then push down, the best shelves?? Or just plain old wood shelves?? I like oak wood best. I have a wall that is about 15 feet long and others about 8 feet long. I have both O gauge and standard trains i would like to put on these shelves. Thanks.
I used the metal strips with the angle pieces you described. The long term advantage is that you can always adjust both the height and width of the shelves to suit future needs. I used a maple stain on my shelf boards, then applied a couple of coats of tung oil as a finish. When one coat of oil dried I used 4xxxx steel wool to buff it down and then applied another coat. If you want the wood to have a nice glow you can use the steel wool to buff down the final oil coat and then use a furniture wax like Bri Wax to finish the wood. Also, a friend used his table saw to cut in grooves for the wheels.
currently at work, but one of the advertisers in CTT makes aluminum shelves for trains, I have seen them and they look sharp.
That given, you say you like Oak. I am thinking of actually making a cabinet with Oak trim for my trainroom. Will cut down 1/2 b/c plywood or simply use 1x4s for shelves with Oak finish trim outside. I will be using 4" end caps or perhaps just finish off the entire end with a single strip of 4" wood. Then, mount to the wall. This will allow for some LED strip lighting to use for backlight. I may even mount a mirror to the backing so that it reflects outward too. Tough without pictures, But I have seen similar done elsewhere.
dennis
Yeah, thanks for the ideas. I like the idea of having LED lights and mirrors in the back. That would be a nice touch. Cutting groves for the wheels is a good idea, so they dont go rolling off the shelves. I have all the tools to do it, just need the extra $$$. Oak is not cheap. But, oak is strong and matches my decor. I also, like the idea of the metal railings on the wall, so you can adjust the heights and locations of the shelves. With the oak as the shelves, i think it will look good. I have seen other people with this setup. I hope those shelves will support my big standard steam locomotives. Thanks.
This is one of my future projects - if anyone has pictures of shelves they’ve made or put up, please post them so that we can see how they look.
I made my shelves from ¼ “ glass cut into 3” strips. I had the glass left over from a job, and took the glass to a local glass shop who cut and polished the edges for I think $3 a cut. I attached the shelves to the walls with 2 ½ angle brackets held in place with screws and or drywall anchors. A dab of caulk on each angle bracket keeps the shelf in place.
The neat part is the shelves are virtually invisible so you see trains not shelves.
Jim
I started out having the trains sit on straight sections of track, but did away with the track. Get them up good and level and rolling off has not been an issue. About every six months or so when I dust, a few move a bit, but I just push them back against the wall. The picture shows it but I originally had the support against the wall going down, but changed it to going up. This way the trains on the shelf hide the angle bracket. The longest of the shelves are 4’ and the braces are spaced 30" I think.
Jim
I purchased some premade shelves from Home Depot that were bracketless. These hold some 40+ pounds pretty easily, and are deep enough to have three rows. Not optimum because you can’t see any of the trains in the back two rows, and they are only 30" long. Doing this all over again, I would Get a sheet of 3/4" ply, or MDF (depending on if I want to stain, or paint), and start ripping down 4.75" strips to make the bookcase, and 4" strips for the shelves, and glue and bradnail it all together. Should look good.
Stay tuned, I’ll have pics for you on Sunday of custom made oak shelves my son made for me a few years ago from white oak, drop dead gorgeous. The wood came from a tree on our property.
How about shelf track systems?? They any good? Seems like they are easy to install. Just metal strips that go upright on the wall, then add the supports, then any kind of shelves you want. Also, they are adjustable and can move up and down for different size trains. I seen someone that has these. Looked great and easy to do. thanks.
This is a photo from a friend’s train room showing one wall with the prefabricated shelving. They really do a nice job.
An for those that don’t know, that Atlantic Coast Passenger Train is a WOW!!
My oldest son made these shelves for me a few years ago, he never took any woodworking classes in high school but was drawn into woodworking as a hobby after he finished college. He has done some amazing projects and I was VERY pleased to accept these. What was really neat was that we had an Oak tree die on our property and we saved the longest part of the trunk and had it quarter sawn, lots of board feet for his shop.
Here is the detached shelf, notice the square holes and round pegs
Here is the receiver board anchored into the wall, that was a royal pain
Empty shelf w/track, you wouldn’t have to have any track
Shelves w/no flash
Shelves w/flash
Memo to self: work lights do not make good studio lights [:)]
I built mine using 1"X4" clear lumber. Some I buitl to showcase a specific type like the FM shelves. There is a similar GG1 area and then some 8’ longs to pile the equipment into. I started by running the lengthwise boards across the table saw to add grooves. i thing not only does this help keep them in place, the look better than sitting up on their high rail flanges. Each of the intermediate cross pieces was also narrowed 1/4". After assembling then to the top and bottom pieces i went around the back side of the outer pieces with a router to take half the width down 1/4’. This then makes a nice 1’4 pocket in the back that I cut and fitted furniture grade 1/4 plywood to. The are then fasteed to the wall at the wall studs by driving screws through the back piece into the wall. The big shelf in the picture is easily supporting over 200 pounds of locomotives. 
When you run out of wall space for shelving, don’t forget the area between the top of the layout table and the floor. These shelves were built with 1" x 4" lumber.
Robert
I used closet kits from Home depot. Double angle iron snap in brackets, very strong. With MDF 1X4’s and milled the track grooves into the shelf.
Also used pine 1x6 and 1x4’s backed with plywood shown in the last picture. The one below utilized a cove for shelf brackets supported by show case clips and brackets in a kit.
I recently built shelves on the cheap for my son’s basement layout. They were made from scrap 1*12’s that we ripped down to 4" wide, then cut grooves in using a table saw. I painted them with leftover primer, bought some cheap brackets at HD, and used brass hinges from HD as bumpers ($2.50 a pop). Overall cost probably less than $30. It is a great way to get control over his collection, and looks good from 5 feet away 
.
NH Chris
I’ve mentioned this before: I mounted 36-inch K-Line O27 track on plywood using corner braces. Besides being cheap, it blocks very little of the view of the trains.
NH Chris,
Post some pictures of that layout for us!
I built shelves on the cheap using a sheet of 1/2" MDF cut into 3 1/4" strips for the shelves. The backing to the shelf unit is a piece of 1/4" hardboard. The MDF shelves are nailed and glued to the ends and through the back. MDF is a type of compressed wood product and is not very strong so it must be supported by attaching it to the back. Instead of cutting grooves in the shelves, I cut strips of 1/8" hardboard 1" wide and glued to the center of the shelves.
One advantage of building an entire unit to hang on the wall is you don’t need a lot of attachment points. Mine is held on the wall with 2 screws.
I have one unit that I varnished natural and another that I painted all white. I noticed that I liked the white unit better because it shows off the trains more dramatically than a darker color, just look at all the shelving photos on this list and compare the wood shelves with those that are white or with white background.
