As a collector I have had several locos sitting in glass cases never to be run. This may be the fate of my Visionline Big Boy as well. I was just wondering what locos, if any, people have "under glass"? And,do you make your own display cases as I do?
Bob C.
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Nice display cases. Nice displays.
Bob C.
Just one, a gorgeous 3rd Rail ATSF 2900 Northern, which is on display in my office here at work. I went to an internet site and ordered custom display case for it. Many people admire it and roughly 10% of my visitors are, to some degree, into model trains and recognize the loco.
I really like how some of your cases have scenery in them; very creative! I'm almost strictly an operater. The only thing I intend to leave in the box on a shelf is the Lionel Eagle Scout boxcar my father gave me. Other than that, I run evrything I own
Zero.
.....
Dennis
My vintage Lionel and Ives are in a tall glass and oak display case(7 shelves) but I occasionally take them out and run them.
The only one I have is from back when Lionel under the Richard Kughn era redid the Hudson with display case. I only ran it when I got forward and reverse to make sure it ran. It has been on display ever since .................Paul
My SMR General and Texas engines are currently under glass, and I have a case for my SMR Yonah, but don't know where I'm going to put it yet. Other engines will probably wind up under glass, but all will be run at some time or another.
Andy
None under glass, but the one that comes closest to being a shelf queen is my dad's old 1946 Lionel 2020 turbine. But even it sees active duty once or twice a year.
One under display glass, and this wall display that was built as a birthday present. Holds some of my Pre and PW Lionel plus PWC series Military engines. I favor N&W J in the real world, and Military and AEC in the fantasy train world. G
When I get my train room built, I'm putting in a variable lighted glass display case on at least one wall.
Plan to rotate my UP collection through it. Will also hold a few of my mint items.
Brad Rock:
How did you get that loco from the Lionel archives?
Bob C.
None.
Robert,
I lucky and won it in an auction at the first LCCA Red Carpet Event and Lionel Open House in Concord NC in 2013.The folks at Lionel pulled several pre-production, engineering samples and other goodies from the archives for auction. My wife really had fun and won two items, a pre-production Allis-Chalmers car and an engineering mock-up of the operating brakeman car. Here are some photos of some of the items that were on the auction table. Mike Reagan was kind enough to provide me an e-mail documenting the provenance of the items.
I like seeing what others have 'under glass.' Interesting to see what others find special to them and why it is kept as a special item.
Of all the trains I have had thru out the years none has ever been under glass. Everything runs at times.
If this brings you enjoyment, that's all that matters. But to me, having a $xxxx locomotive, never to enjoy seeing it run, the sounds, smells, is like having a completely restored 1930 Duesenberg,'69 Hemi road runner,etc gathering dust in a climate controlled garage.
Just a couple of my favorite engine. The Lionel 773 type Hudson. Yes they do get run.
Zilch. They are toys, and toys are meant to be played with (Ever seen Toy Story?). So I play with all of mine. And I'll keep playing with them until they die. And if I can't fix them, then they'll probably get gutted to become dummies to still be run on the layout, or given to the kids to be "pusher" trains for the loop of FasTrack I keep on the living room floor.
I picked up a couple of display cases for my 3rd Rail NYC Super Hudson and SP GS4 Daylight to try and keep the dust off them. They still get run but it makes two less engines I have to dust off.
Pete
"Locos Under Glass" sounds like a menu item. None for me...
They still get run but it makes two less engines I have to dust off.
just think of the dust as "weathering" 
I have three locomotives "under glass"
A 3rd Rail PRR 2-8-0
Lionel Gold Hudson
USA 1:29 scale (G-gauge) Chrome Santa Fe F3 A-B
(cover removed for photo)
Also I have 12 MTH freight cars: the first 6 Premier boxcars and first 6 Premier tank cars.
I really don't have any "under glass" or covered in one of those plastic covers. While I do have some trains that go back to before WWII only for display, none of them are in any kind of display case. Rather, in the train room (basement) I keep a 20" X 20" "box" fan, under the train table, running constantly. tightly taped to the back of it is a 20" X 20" funace filter that collects dust from the air, generally before it sits on any of my trains. It seems to work pretty well because I only dust off my display trains about onve a year, if that often. haven't experienced any damage from falling objects in all the years that the trains are down there, so I've never been too interested in display cases when I've seen them for sale.
The fan/filter combo also tends to keep the dust off of the layout, reducing the amount of track cleaning needed.
Paul Fischer
I have only one and that's the LTI era circa 1991 New York Central J-1E in its original display case which sits atop my desk so I can look at it while I scan the forum, write, etc. I run it sparingly.
Bob,
I have a couple under glass but the main one which hardly ever gets any run time is a Weaver Lehigh Valley John Wilkes.
Tony Sincius
TCA# 97-45101
None. They are all run. If or when they quit running they will be repaired, sold or scrapped for parts. Some are in boxes, don't have room for them all at one time on my layout, but they get rotated. I may have one or two that have not been put into the rotation yet.
The majority of the trains I own are in cases or on display. These range from O Gauge sets or engines that may or may not run, LGB trains I don't have room to run, HO and N Gauge trains that haven't run in years.
The only trains I regularly run are the following in O gauge:
-6 (soon to be 7) engines.
-About a dozen freight cars
-8 passenger cars (two trains)
-One bump and go trolley.
There are plenty more "non-runners" than the photos show!
Some of you guys are real kill joys
. This wasn't a post asking your opinion on collecting versus operating. Instead it was meant to trigger a response on seeing trains for display, how they are displayed, etc...
Not to tell someone how best to handle THEIR trains. Not a collector, skip the thread.
Frankly many here have more trains than you can ever run. Do you run every train you have every day, week, month how about year?
Too many of mine were collection dust in boxes so I now get to display them and show them to guest. Point out the history, or the difference, or compare the PW to the PWC.
All of mine have been run too, but some sit under glass waiting their turn. G
That was done by MTH for the TCA 50 yr Anniversary. http://www.mthtrains.com/content/20-3129-1
Bill
I've never bought an engine or any other rolling stock with the intention of putting the item on display.
For me, that would be an indicator of a poor purchase, as I buy items because I want to run them on a layout.
Jeff C
Lots on shelves but they all run but one G-scale set (see later). The one "under glass" train is a brass G-scale model of Walt Disney's backyard locomotive, the Lilly Belle. It was produced for the Carolwood Pacific Railroad society a few years ago. It's never been run. The G-scale cars on the shelf are also CPRR replicas of all of the cars in Walt's backyard consist, including the Yellow Caboose.
Many of my Demo models will be under glass. So far I have these:
None of my O guage locos are under glass. I did make an end table though with an N-Scale layout I made inside with a glass top. If that counts, then CB&Q F3 is under glass with a few older cars that were my dads.
I have 9 ... This old MTH GG1 hasn't been run in 12 years
and the other 8 are in this display case.
One advantage to under glass collectibles is that you dont have to worry about operating problems.
Bob C.
I have several shelf queens awaiting a spin or the hacksaw, whichever comes first!
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