Building A Carry Case For Rolling Stock

December 16, 2005

Arizona is one of the most fascinating places in the United States to be involved in railroading of any type. It wouldn’t be unfair to say that Arizona owes much of its past growth to the railroads. Arizona itself, is an amazing landscape of striking contrasts – from snow covered forests in the north, to blazing desert sands in the south.

The state hosts the transcontinental lines of both the major western railroads: The Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe. And both of those lines are steeped in historical predecessors, the Atlantic & Pacific, the Santa Fe, the Southern Pacific, and even the Texas and Pacific.

And the state is filled with optimistic short lines to serve the lumbering and mining interests of the earliest pioneers. Lines like the United Verde & Pacific, Verde Tunnel and Smelter, Arizona Mineral Belt, El Paso & Southwestern, Arizona Eastern, Maricopa & Phoenix, Bradshaw Mountain, etc. Many are fallen flags, but some are new like the Black Mesa & Lake Powell and the many incarnations of the Apache Railway.

Arizona is also home to the Ponderosa North Model Railroad Club. The club has a modular layout that is housed at club members homes. This layout is a working layout that is run at model railroading events like Railfair & the Great American Train Show. Work is normally done at these events to show both a running of trains and a demonstration of how to work on a layout providing visitors with help building their own layout.

The Ponderosa North Model Railroad Club also has one of the most informative model railroad club websites on the net. Do have a look because it is well laid out and has some excellent model railroading information and tips.

To give you an idea here is a snippet from a page on building a case for carrying rolling stock to swap meets and model train shows.

Here is an extract from the page courtesy of the Ponderosa North Model Railroad Club.

At a swap meet Matt & I were at recently, Matt took a final look around to see if there was anything he could not live without. He ran across someone selling a tool box that had been converted into a carrying case for rolling stock, complete with 4 trays. I thought it interesting too. What a great way to transport rolling stock while minimizing the chance of damage! However, we both thought the $65 price was a bit much, so we decided to have a go at it ourselves. Here are the results.

Now as we looked at tool boxes we got the notion that a 19″ long tool box might not hold enough rolling stock for our needs. So after some brain storming and thought, Matt came up with a better idea. We would use a tub, the 58 qt. size you can get at Walmart. Not only did we get 3 larger trays but we also got extra space to either add 2 more trays or what we did, use the space to transport buildings, tools, etc. Note you can make 1 or up to 5 depending on your needs. If you make more, you can always leave trays home if not needed and gain more building space.

While the basic tub construction was the same, Matt opted to use 1/4″ plywood for his tray base & I used 1/4″ Masonite. Both cost about the same, the Masonite a bit cheaper. I thought the Masonite would keep sanding down and less chance of splinters as the trays got old. But you have to drill some pilot holes to make it easier to nail the frame to the tray base.