Saturday 28 May 2011

How to get 150 pieces to a railway exhibiition safely? Well 144 actually!

After spending a week cleaning all my rolling stock and loco's for the upcoming Perth show, I was faced with the delima of transporting them safely to the show.
 Not wanting to take a fleet of cases and having to wrap each piece in bubble wrap or keep in their own packaging, a better way needed to be found.
I came across a A3 size draw unit at Ikea for $220.00 that suited the brief, with the added bonus of being the exact height to fit under the lower level of the layout. The draws do not come out of all once assembled, which is great for us that are heavy handed or clumsy, no draws hitting the deck when pulled out to far.
To add dividers into each draw, I cut some strips of MDF and glued them into place. Once the dividers were set I then glued some foam trackbed (DCC Concepts) to both the sides and the floor. This provides the safe cushioning for the rolling stock.

The bottom two draws I choose not to do as these were at this stage for two Auscision Yellow boxes for the bulk of my locos.  They easily fit in and with the space around the box I have used this for stowing some tools (saves another box).
"The block of flats (124 x rolling stock and 20 loco's)
All up the project has cost $360.00, but I feel that this will be money well spent. I have decided to call the unit " a Block of Flats"

Today we are off the do a total assembly of the "Hawkesbury" and test run every one's rolling stock. Hope to show some pic's of it, so those that won't see it in Perth can have a look.

Until next time, regards
Alco

1 comment:

  1. Great use of the Ikea set of draws!

    I have one that sits under my workbench, filled with models in progress, as well as a lot of modelling tools.

    Also seems you got a bargain. The draws cost $279 over here in NSW.

    Cheers

    Chris

    ReplyDelete