schubert box

Eh? What have shoeboxes got to do with model railways? Well, the best place to answer that question is here.

Ever since seeing these amazing shoebox designs, I've wanted to have a go. I won some 009 bits on ebay and here's the result so far....I've spent a few evenings so far knocking something up..  There's not much to do now, the wiring is through connectors on the back of the box, one reason it doesn't fit snugly into the shoebox. The buildings. These were from an ebay win too, an HO building which had fallen apart. I think I might like to add lights as I've done interiors to the upstairs of the buildings too.

The plan is pretty close to Carl's original but I've replaced the sector plate with a traverser and the boat with an 00 siding which is just long enough for a 'standard' wagon.

The base is 9mm MDF doubled up and I've cut the traverser out of the same material, I figured that with a good sanding and a bit of wax it should do the job. It works Okay but the wiring is a bit clumsy and kind of snags the traverser. The track is all Peco 'N' gauge from my local model shop - I was too impatient to wait to order proper 009 track! The point is controlled by a rod (florists wire) in a channel under the point. To be honest, the box (plywood) is just a smidge too large to fit snugly into the shoebox I had (It's pretty close to the 13"x7"x5", just poor carpentry to blame!) , so I have used a cheap storage solution from IKEA and fitted some scrap polystrene to pad out.