Alan got in touch. And I have to say, I agree with him. Why just dump your unused cars and locos in Model railroad storage boxes?
“Hi Alistair, I just thought that you may like to see the sought of thing that an odd mind like mine can come up with.
I wanted a storage shelf for my ‘O’ gauge vehicles and this was the start of “Justash Elf Village”, I could’nt see the point of plian shelves would appreciate all comments good or bad as we can always learn.
There are more photo’s of this and ‘Tramps End’ if you wish to see them.
Alan.”
A big thanks to Alan for sharing his opinion on Model railroad storage boxes. I have to say, I do agree with him!
Next, Cameron:
“Hi Al
I am a beginner in the hobby and have very limited space for my layout. It is a 4ft long end-to-end terminus shelf layout based in the South of England. I am about 70% complete with a couple of buildings to build and people to place but I have a small problem.
As I said I have a very small layout so I’d like to use the space as much as possible. But there is an area (about 1/5 of the layout) that is blank. I haven’t placed any scenic stuff down or buildings because I was hoping for some suggestions from you and the other model railroaders in the forum.
So far I have one suggestion from a friend which is to put a turntable in because it’s a terminus but there simply isn’t enough space.
Thanks Al for all the hard work and effort you put in to keep this forum going. I find it very useful.
I have attached some pics too.
Cameron”
Now some more of your tips:
“Best method of creating a landscape? Sprays. Just spray your layout with a spray gun or can (obviously before anything goes on). Then cover with another colour or go straight to laying track, scenery, and other goodies.
Bit obvious but it helps!”
— Jamie
“To BROWN or not to BROWN.
I have never been very big on the black ties of flex-track. I usually lightly spray paint the flex track with a dull brown acrylic ( I suppose a gray would be OK too).
This makes the shiny black ties appear more natural and weathered. Sure this will paint the track but a light sandpaper will remove the paint, restores the contact and rail shine. I also sand the interior of the rails to improve wheel contact.
You can also paint switches, turnouts and crossings to blend but extra sanding is needed at all electrical points of contact of the throws and frogs of the turnout itself.
I usually do all of this “RR tie painting” anytime before applying ballast.”
GRADING is not too difficult to achieve as long as you don’t exceed a max of 4.5% elevation.
Take in consideration the height of an over/underpass. The elevation angle is determined by cumulative height of… “the cork-bed ballast, the track/ties and the tallest car plus .25″ clearance”. This will give the total inches/degree of elevation on a run of 100″.
Lets say that the total height is 4.5″; that converts to a 4.5% elevation over a 100″ of linear track. If the running length of track is say 75″ then the angle becomes greater to 6.7% (too great and possibly will stall any long run train). Compared to a running length of 120″ (10-feet) equals 4.2% angle of elevation/grading.
Multiply your grading/elevation by 2 to allow for down grading as well at the same “gentle decline”
— Ron
“My tip is get the correct couplers you need so you dont get them mixed up like tyco or the knuckle couplers”
— Jason
In reference to rail cleaning after painting or for general rail cleaning.
Never use sandpaper as even the finest grade of wet & dry will leave tiny scratches which will attract & trap dirt & grime.
If you need to clean paint from the rails after painting or spraying use a small piece of softwood the end grain of which is ideal for the job.Any residue left over can then be cleaned simply with a piece of cloth wrapped around your finger.
For general rail cleaning use Isopropyl alcohol or mentholated spirits.
Also to keep rails clean eliminate any plastic wheels from your stock as these are like dirt magnets & simply spread the dirt everywhere.Metal rails are much better & even help to keep rails clean & extend the periods between rail cleaning.
Tony”
“Cleaning Wheels:
To clean my N Gauge loco wheels, I use earbuds and vinegar.
Dip the earbud lightly in the vinegar and then gently run the wheels. The angle of the earbud helps get right into the flanges and it picks off loads of dirt and greasey grime. I then simply pass a current to the wheels to turn them round and continue cleaning. Once finished I use a clean earbud or soft lint free to remove any residue.
Hope this helps
John”
“Tony’s tip on using a piece of wood to clean track is great. I have used scrap pieces of 1×2 to clean my n-scale track for years. When it gets really bad I dip it in alcohol before use. I regularly run one hundred plus car length trains and have maximum grades of about 2.5% on my layout. So, smooth operation is absolutely a must. Another tip I use is to clean my wheels on a straight spot in the track I place a piece of paper towel, spay it liberaly with alcohol and the just run the train. Make sure the paper towel is small enough to only break contact on a single set of pick wheels on the locomotive and be sure to clean the track every few passes of the train or you will just make dirty track!
Ant”
That’s all for today folks.
Please do keep ’em coming.
And if today is the day you get started on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.
Best
Al
PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.
PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.
And there’s the Silly Discount bundle too.
EXELLENT IDEA, VERY COLOURFULL AND SERVING A PURPOSE
really a good idea
great idea my mind is geting on a bit but certinly not as good alan,s
a great storage idea,some of the cars/vans are certainly not trash. With large layout what about a multi-storey carpark to keep the stock active and enhance the scenery.
Imagination is a marvellous thing. Congratulations on a brilliant idea. Quite often when we store rolling stock, vehicles etc we are inclined to forget what we have (I do anyway) This is great. Congratulations and thankyou for sharing
EXCELLENT! Not only does he put his “abandoned” stock to use but he does it with skill and beauty!
Or, incorporate as an above ground parking garage similar to Chicago on your layout.
Hi Alan ,, What a bloody good idea ,,, I love you ideas , please keep them coming ,,,, Peter ( Australia ),,,,,,
Hi Alan ,, What a good idea ,,, I love you ideas , please keep them coming ,,,, Peter ( Australia ),,,,,,
I like it
Very inspirational
Great idea! Time to get unused cars and locos out of the box.
Awesome idea. One could also go a step further and put shelves like this into a working layout.
I have seen a lot of ways to store items from a layout, but never one like this. Great work, I think this will be hard to better.
What a great way to go! So many of us box them back up and forget what we have until we pull them back out. This way you can enjoy them all the time. Using scenery to enhance the look is another plus.
Keep those great ideas coming!!!
We hping to move to a farm soon and on this farm there is an old Nissan Hut (ex war hut for soldiers) and it’s my plan to turn it nto a musuem for scale models both plastic cars trucks and railways. This have given me a good idea on how to go about it. It’s a great set-up.
Many many thanks guys. There would have been a lot more to “Justash Elf” but we only had 5′ to play with. The scenery was decorated by rosemary, my wife, she also built the walls stone by stone. As for your comments, Brilliant.
“Tramps End” is just a diorama but I’ll see if I can get it on for next week.
All the very best guys, Alan and Rosemary
awesome foreign engine and cars
Just plain cool!
Excellent idea, but how do you keep the dust out?
just a great way to display everything and everybody gete a look not hidden in a box the background is also worth taken a look at its great.
Great Ideas Here Alan! I like your Shelving Design!
Looks lovely but is it not bit of a dust trap. I like to keep my stuff in boxes so they stay nice and clean. Good idea if you need to display it all. When I get stuff out of the boxes and put it on the layout it seems fresh to see it again where as if it has been on display you seem to get used to seeing it all the time.
But if I wanted to display it this is certainly better than plain wooden shelves for sure.
Very smart idea. That’s great that you can see every thing at one time, instead of having to dig in a box. Better for the cars too.
Thanks for the idea.
A wonderful idea for displaying my out of period trains and vehicles, and other non-train related items I build.
Thanx for this.
Very timely. Thanks for the tip. I was getting ready to start building a storage shelf today.
very colourful,great idea.but as already mentioned by John a bit of a dust trap
Very great idea. It’s the best way to store pieces not being used at the moment and allows a person to remember what is avaiable and easy to get when an idea strikes. Also, thanks Al. I really enjoy your emails and have your favorite resources.
Hi Guys, Thanks again for the comments, as for the dust, well we are old friends….
Alan
Beautiful idea.
Would love to see the “Tramps End” you menti9on.
–Ben
Jolly good show, absolutely fabulous
Great idea. My grandfather and I setting up an O guage layout and we have some shelves that would work perfectly for this.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful ldea!
I Like It!
Always good to see other peoples ideas. From them, other ideas spring.Great to see all the articles over the last year, here’s to seeing even more. Can we see some actual layout plans too when people send in there pictures it would help ever so much to get more perspective. Also Al, please increase the font size of your email when you send it out to us all-my poor eyes are straining to see the print!!
Great idea i love it. You always need somewhere to put retired gear.
A dust trap yes, but with the blow duster used for computers, and the swiffer-type dusters, this can easily be taken care of.
when i had my lay out at my old address i used to have an (upper level) over a part of the track with sideing etc where i ( parked) all my old gear if i ever wanted 1 of the trains down all i did was alter points to which ever i wanted, never had to handle them and they were on display for ppl to see. cars where parked up there to in what someone once said looked like an area where new cars are stored..
i`m just about ready to start a new layout at this address now got a bedroom virtually to my self.. at least 3/4 of it anyway 🙂
Perfect
Great idea. Now I have to unpack the boxes that are in boxes to see what I have… Really a nice set-up…
Very cool. I have a lot of old Lionel and Ives stuff that would look good on shelves like that. Much better than plain shelves. Good job that!
Can anyone tell me the schematics for a reversing track, please?
like your collection I wish i can followed your foot step,very nice……
Great idee cool loved it
Justash Elf Village… Ouch!
Love the name though!
Another good idea to put in library
What a marvelous idea! Thanks, Alan. The scenic touches really improve the whole “open storage” bit. I have a space I can use just 30″ wide, 4 or 5 shelves high. Now, if I can just figure a way to do something similar, but with all my N-scale extras on one or two top shelves, and below that some of my dozens of model autos at many different scale sizes, ranging from 1:24 to O to HO to N to Z and even smaller, with many sizes between. Can I keep all that from looking like a messy hodge-podge? I must try it.
Excellent idea. It could be further improvised. Had I been you! I would have parked all the vehicles as if they are at street crossings with red signal on. However, it’s never to late. Can be organised, if you fee. Good luck.
GOPAL DAGA, CALCUTTA INDIA
What are pilan shelves?
Pilan shelves are exactly the same as plain shelves after you have learned to proof-read your inserts !
Alastair – Anyone said Thank YOU for moderating such an excellent and appreciable site. Very useful hints-n-tips which I selectively use for modelling wargames because I just ‘appreciate’ rather than partake..
That said, have you considered a ‘bring-&-buy’ page for your “fan-club” to sell-on their surplus rolling-stock / exchange spares / or gift oddments of ??? items that other hobbyists can’t locate /?
What a GREAT idea!!!!
Great ideas and real nice backgrounds. The works really look good with the addional backgrounds and sidings work added. Since I’ve shelved my items NOW I can do some background work to make it more attractive. Thx for another good idea.
Harold Jr.
Hey, this guy makes me look bad. He scenery on his storage shelves and my layout is not finished
really good idea in fact excellent
Sure is a fantastic solution to that old storage problem with everything at hand, identifiable and ready to use. Great job mate,
A great way to rotate stock on a larger layout too
I need a place to store railway cars. I might try putting the railroad freight cars in rows like the lories, buses and cars. It would be easy to use my leftover sections of flex track that way.
Brilliant looks great
Very nicely done are the back drops o or ho ?
Great idea…. like the storage solution…..thank you for sharing…
What a nice presentation and excellent piece of workmanship! I’ve been worrying about how to do this for my own set-up. From the photo, it would appear that Alan is working in a fairly large scale, O or S? I am modeling in N so I suppose if I tried his approach, it would scale down considerably – or am I mis-iterpreting the photos?
Still another great idea! I could even visualize the back of the shelf with a scene on it as a backing to a layout – still another useful purpose. On one side the diorama as backdrop for a layout while on the other side safe, attractive, clean shelving for the train, cars, and pieces. Never can be enough shelving for all the parts and parcels! Thank you for sharing. Trainman
For Cameron: Have you considered an end cap to terminate your ‘blank space’? Make it look like a mountain with two tunnels emerging from it. Make the tunnels as deep as two widths of you track. In that way, your train will appear to be entering or exiting a tunnel in a mountain.
Love it, great idea as long as you have the space! That’s the only downside I see
Brilliant!
very nice collection. good idea.
I try 90% of all tricks and ideas that appears on your Blog. Thanks as nearly all work
Allan, Your display is a brilliant idea, but, it is clear that the surveyors had a little too much “liquid lunch” before laying out the display track.
The idea of reusing things is a skill that is often lacking today.
Keep up your great work.
Cameron, the tunnel idea for the corner of the layout is also an ingenious idea.
Nice layout.
Frank (Surrey, Canada)