Assembling Your Model Train Display

By Victor Epand


Do you know the difference between a toy train and a miniature railway? The perfect display is the answer! By assembling your model train display correctly you will get more positive comments from those who you decide to share it with. Friends and family alike will appreciate the attention to detail that you put into it and the care you exercised when building your display.
After you have decided what model train set you are going to be using and what sort of display you would like then you need to gather together all your building materials. This list of materials will be based on the size of your model train set. You would not want to gather together a bunch of materials just to find out that you have wrongly judged the train layout's relative size so it is best to make sure you know the overall measurements of the finished train set.
To determine this you should actually do a dry fit of your track beside the display that you are adding it to. What this means is that you will place all your track pieces end to end including adding the curves on your display table but do not connect them. This will give you the overall measurements for the track. If you find that you want to build it bigger and smaller then this is the time to add those in so that you do not have to try to add them later.
Once you have decided the best layout for your track you will be ready to attach it into place. For this there are two main options. You can either pin them into place or you can glue them down. Glue is a very stable way of holding the track sections into place however it is not authentic and can sometimes look bad if applied incorrectly. Pins look much better as they can simulate railroad spikes. The only downside is that they can come loose over time so you will have to do a bit of preventative maintenance.
Now that you have decided how you are attaching your track you are ready to do so. If you do decide to go with the gluing method it is advisable to use a few pins here and there to still retain the semblance of realism. If excess glue gets on your tracks you can just wipe it away with a lint free cloth. If you use simple paper towels you can end up with more of a mess than you started with.
Once all the sections of track are in place you just need to give the glue time to set up. Usually overnight will do just fine. If you just used pins then a slight tug on each section will ensure that they are all snugly in place. Next you can do a quick test run of your locomotive. Let it run around the track a few times and see if any part of it threatens to pull loose or is not lined up correctly. Once your locomotive has made the run several times successfully then you should be good to go. Just add your cars to your engine and you are ready to roll.
Victor Epand is an expert consultant for model cars, model trains, and model trucks. You will find excellent hobbying and trading resources here for model car tricks and model train.
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