I am interested in purchasing a nice display case to mount on my wall to hold some of my HO engines and cars. I would prefer it to be wood finished, but metal would be okay too. I want it to be deep enough to allow the trains to have some finger room behind them to grab, and I would like siding front glass doors instead of hinged ones (either on the side or the top). I don’t care if it has a mirrored back or is wood or black finished. The shelves can either be flat or have flange grooves routed in.
I have seen some cheaper ones online but they don’t have all those features. I am thinking of dimensions roughly 2’x3.’ Anybody have one and can point me in the direction of where they bought it?
Model Railroader often has ads for such display cases. I’ve had one for 40 years and it has held up quite well - 5 shelves, sliding glass doors, lock, wall mounting, felt background. They are not cheap, but you get what you pay for and of course its like a good piece of furniture and will take the test of time.
I made my own display case. This one is poplar, but good white pine would work as well. You can do this with just hand tools, although I will confess to owning a RAS and using it. The finish is just Minwax. The sliding doors are plastic, which is lighter than glass, and won’t break if you drop one.
A friend had one with hinged doors with magnets. We had a small earthquake and the hinged door popped open while his ones with the sliding doors didn’t. Fortunately, Three of the engines fell on a couch and survived.
I have one and it’s great. Solid oak, sliding glass doors, dovetail joints, grooved for wheel flanges, and a plywood back. It won’t fall off the wall once it’s mounted to something solid. I highly recommend them and mine came direct from Greenway. Not cheap, but worth it. You never have to worry about hearing a big crash and finding all your prized locos in a heap of broken glass on the floor because the case fell apart after 20 years.
I build my display also. I had more depth to work with so I tiered 8 levels 78" long. I had enough flex track for the shelves, because I use battery on board two tracks are DC powered (switchable) to keep the batteries topped off.
As I live directly above the White Wolf Fault I really need to get some Plexiglas or Lexan to keep everything hitting the concrete floor when we get the big one.
I still haven’t adjusted to my LED lighting in the garage, even the flash didn’t do much.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
I built a display case with the flange grooves. You don’t need a dado blade. You can use one of the plywood blades as they are thin enough to make a good groove.
Mike,
You make your bets and you take your chances with UPS. My case arrived in flawless condition. A friend of mine has purchased 5 of their display cases in the past 15 years and has never had any issues, either.
Hi i use these display cases cheap but do the job the sheves have 2 track groves cut into them and take HO/00 Gauge with no trouble, They can be wall mounted but don’t use the way they say, so i use L shape wall bracketsthe 2 units i have also have perspex sliding doors, cost about £40, and they do lots of sizes to suit you needs, ready made.
Makes sense. This is a great thread b/c I’ll eventually want a shelf. Not sure if cheaper to make my own or order one. I could use extra road bed to put the cars on instead of directly on the shelf.
