Hi everyone I am hoping to start my train room in a couple of mouths , will be building display shelfs do I need to put track on the shelfs or can I put the trains on the wooden shelfs, I collect American flyer seen both on youtube, thank you!
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I donāt have any displays so Iām no authority. If it were me, if the locos/rolling stock were meant to be āviewedā then I would add track. If the shelves are just for storage than i probably wouldnāt bother.
Regards, Chris
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it is for viewing , thank you Chris
If you have a bunch of extra old track, you could do that. They are trains, after all 
Other people put down a thin wood strip, maybe 1/4" thick like lattice, that the train wheels could straddle. Or, make a small lip that sticks up along the length of your shelf.
You just want to keep things from accidentally slipping off, that is the goal. Donāt forget end caps or bumpers.
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With some of my HO scale locomotives and rolling stock, I just set the pieces on the wood shelving.
Rich
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Nice!
Itās personal choice how you display the trains. The wheels can just sit on the shelf, some people cut kerfs in the wood to set the wheel flanges in, some use track. I prefer the look of track and use extra pieces of SHS sectional track. Here is a picture of a 1952 Gilbert set on my office fireplace mantle.
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I forgot about cutting kerfs. That is another option that can work.
The advantage of kerfs in a display cabinet is 6 shelves with kerfs can be put in the same cabinet height as 5 shelves with S gauge SHS track. A similar ratio likely is true in other scales.
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Iāve used track on my HO display shelves as it was readily available and not too expensive. My G scale stuff is another story. G scale track, when you can find it, is just too expensive to use for display purposes. I place the G scale stuff directly on the shelves.
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THANK YOU ALL, That would be a lot of track , I just did not know if it would hurt to put the trains directly on the wood. Thank you all again!!!
that is nice that is what I was thinking about building. thank you Rich
that looks good with that track, thank you AmFlyerTom
Iāve got the O Gauge collection sitting on tracks. The tracks are a combination of Lionel Fastrack, old tubular track, and Gargraves I got a deal on. Thereās a lot of it and I didnāt do it all at once, just as the collection grew over the years.
I didnāt want the wheels sitting on bare wood which might have caused corrosion problems.
Anyway, this is portion of the collection.
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There was an article in CTT years ago about using pine wainscotting, which has grooves pre-cut into it. All of my shelves for O gauge use these boards, and they do a great job of keeping the trains in place without track. Long shelves will need some supporting structure, for the boards are thin.
For my Standard Gauge, however, I use 3/4" boards, and I put track on them. I donāt want a Lionel #384E or a Flyer #4000 tumbling to the floor! Itās not hard to find tubular track that is too rusty or bent to bother restoring for layout use, but it makes spiffy display track. You could shine up the outer (visible) rail, but I donāt bother.
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thank you palallin the wainscotting is a good idea I will have to look into it, thank you again !
With over 80+ locomotives plus rolling stock I put them on shelving with no track.
Off course if they were āon showā I would have them on track in cabinets.
David
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WOW Iām no were near that ,but that is what iām thinking thank you for the input David
I also do not use tracks, I have clear plexiglass shelving with a front lip and you can see the whole engine clearly. kind of like floating in the air.
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thatās a idea the plexiglass is a neat way to go,would never thought of that thank you trainlivebob.
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