Displaying model trains outside of your train room

I have a Lionel Big Boy above the TV in the den along with the K-line "survivors" caboose. No display case for them. In the living room, on the fake fireplace's mantle, my Milwaukee Road S-3 pilot with case.

Hear are my cabinets I keep my trains in. I do have 1 more to hang up as soon as I get a chance. These are in my living room.

I have 48 linear feet of shelving in our office/den/dog sleeping room and the shelving is directly above my desk.

In my old house in Virginia I had a Lionel Standard Gauge Hiawatha on the mantelpiece and some other trains on top of a long, low bookcase in the guest bedroom. When I moved to bigger quarters in Arizona, the trains all wound up in the train room. 

Nowhere. Not a single item. The trains and everything associated with them are displayed and stored in the basement trainroom. I preferred that arrangement, from the first day we got into this hobby, and my wife concurred.

FrankM.

The hutch in our dining room provides a place.

The 2026 that Santa brought me in 1951 is in honored retirement on our coffee table, and only runs at Christmas time.  All my other trains are downstairs with the layout.

One way to start a conversation with new company in living room.......

Steve, Lady and Tex

I very briefly got the foolish notion to display a locomotive or two in the family room. Not well received. Two Glen Snyder shelves got "recycled" before they even made it into the house. Currently stored in boxes under the bed. Very sore subject around the household.

Gilly

Frank M., re : "the wife concurring.."  Yeah that's kind of what I sense here.

Gilly, probably would get same reaction here.  Might require further "research."  

I'll post pictures later.....but I have to laugh.........

I have a few engines in our family room on an antique shelf that has been in my wife's family over a 100 years.......

I normally dislike interior decorators.....they think you are made of money......however, the one we had that decorated our main floor told my wife that "you must have trains displayed in this room.....it's who you are..."

Needless to say, I was floored!  

Peter

I have my Dad's mid-1930s wind-up tinplate Marx 0-4-0 tender, two cars and caboose on display in my study, along with a Lionel Lionel funeral train and a Darsted 2-6-2 tinplate tank engine (just because they are pretty) on a shelf across the room.  At home, that is it.

I have a 3rd Rail ATSF Northern, 2929, in a display case near the door of my office here at work.  People love it.

Just now, we are attempting to remove the "dust collectors of our lives" (sounds like a soap opera).  Over the years, I have had various collections displayed, Murano glass clowns, 50's art glass, copper ware, trains, books, nut crackers, and I am sure some other things.  

Here is the rub, we also have three house dogs, who like to roam the woods, and despite our constant cleaning of their 12 respective feet, they bring in copious amounts of dirt, that turns into dust, and deposits itself on all our displayed treasures.  Cleaning is a real nightmare, hence we have attempted to eliminate most of the displays for now.  

But, that said, I truly enjoy looking at fellow member's displays.  Letting others look at your stuff is part of what this is all about, isn't it?  

Simple answer: No.  However, I certainly would not mind a train on the fireplace mantle or somewhere else on the main floor. Even my 'train room' is on a lease with lots of easements, covenants and restrictions.  The carpet central runs around an end table and TV and in front of a couch.  Please watch your feet when watching TV down there! The legal department of Lykens Valley Central obviously did not have a bunch of Harvard Law graduates working for it.

We have trains on display in both our living room and family room. It was my wife's idea.

How's this?  A little too tacky perhaps?  James, Nicole, what would they call this across the Atlantic?  A "Soo on the Loo" maybe?    

Mike, we are like you, love to do it but the space that could be used for this purpose is taken with something else family related.