Hello all,

I've just finished building my H0 display cabinet and decided to make a separate post since it's not really a part of my layout.

Short backstory. I have several parking bays as part of my layout but found I still need more room since I don't want any items left in boxes.
My layout cannot accomdate anymore storage, so I decided to build a display cabinet.

I have one available wall and decided to make it the maximum size available. It sits just about a power outlet about 425mm from the floor and is 1.6m high.
It is 2.7m wide which is limited by power ducting on the left and my door entry on the right.

The design was to be a narrow as possible, since the wall is the walkway through to Wentüngen-Ost section of my layout.
I decided on a 4mm plywood backing with 42mmx19mm pine for the display shelves, the minimum width possible. The bottom and top are 65x19mm to facilitate sliding doors on the front so that people don't snag clothes or bump wagons that are on the display shelves.
Plywood sheets however come in 2400x1200 size, so multiple pieces were required to cover the 2700x1600.

2400x875, 2400x750 and 300x1625 down the side. The two large pieces will have a shelf over the join.







Of course the pine is never straight and requires attaching from one end to another so that they are bent straight.





I did 3 coats of Cabots CFP floor clear, which was leftover from when we had wooden stairs added to the house. The plywood and pine was all A grade / DAR and smooth, no sanding required.



The question was then what track to buy? Since it is a display cabinet and operation not required, I had planned to buy some of the old Fleischmann track with roadbed.
I wanted roadbed to minimize the amount of work to do, since I wanted the track ballasted.
Eventually I just decided to go with C track since it can look good with some work and I can also power it so that the tracks can power wagon LEd's etc or even as a test track for locomotives.
I purchased 182 pieces of Marklin C track 24188.
First the track was coated with a flat clear varnish to remove the plastic glossy finish which lightened the track considerably and also gives adhesion for the paint to come after.



I then decided to do a black wash over it all to add some contrast. In hindsight I should have skipped this step. Given my painting in the next step, this wasn't necessary and just make the track darker - though it does give a grimy look to the area between the rails.



A few trial runs with painting techniques. I had 15.4m of track to paint so I wanted something relatively quick. I was going for the browny red look similar to the prototype photo below.



38 3600 from the Wuppertal-Langerfeld depot with an express train near Gruiten. The train runs on the Cologne track shortly before the Linden junction in the direction of Wuppertal-Vohwinkel. The tracks on the left lead to and from Düsseldorf or to/from the Wuppertal-Vohwinkel marshalling yard. (07.06.1954) Photo: Carl Bellingrodt source: ESO





Here the display cabinet is now mounted on the wall with 30 long screws into studs and with the track on the shelves.
This was after painting the main body of the ballast but before airbrushing the rails and shoulders. Each track section/shelf took about 30 minutes to paint.
The sliding door rails have been fitted top and bottom.



I would then airbrush each track section, 3 passes on each side. It took about 15 minutes to airbrush and then clean the rail tops with isopropyl and the centre studs per shelf.



The track is now all installed. The sliding doors are also installed. Due to the size, I split it into 4 sections instead of 2 or they would be too heavy.
I also went with perspex to keep the weight down. Perspex is also clearer and safer than glass.



All that remains is to terminate the track power feeds. There is cable ducting on the far end which will connect to my system with an isolation switch.

A few things I would have done differently:

* skipped the black wash after the varnish coat
* had a 3rd wide shelf in the middle (65mm) so that the display windows could be split over two rows, reducing the height of the perspex doors by half to eliminate flex.
* added some additional screws into the bottom shelf, since it supports the weight of the display. Just for peace of mind (over engineering)
* I intended to install LED strip lighting above the shelves but realised this would only illuminate the wagon tops, so I decided to not do this but had already purchased all the hardware