Prototype Loco Display Stand
History
Many of us are fortunate enough to have more than one loco or more than one type of loco and would like to have more, but not necessarily the same again so the club decided to offer some limited-edition locos. These are not new locomotive builds, but a change to those that are already out there intended to enhance your collection and build value over time.
In 2018 the club launched a choice of four limited edition A4 loco in experimental purple, followed in 2019 with a choice of nine LNER green versions.
To display the locos Nick Beard designed and made a rotating turntable to fit on his camera tripod and this solution worked well for us for five years.
The Problem
In 2024 the club launched our third limited edition, Sir Nigel Gresley in current day BR Blue condition.
In 2025 David Price took a chainsaw (model sized) to a terminally dead Mallard loco and produced ‘Arfer’, an educational cutaway loco for use at shows to demonstrate how OO live steam locos work.
For the last two years these two new additions have just been displayed on the table top and as the photo shows are easy to overlook.
Over this time we have discussed various options for resolving this issue and many alternative shelving systems looked at. Most good ideas fall short at the ‘how will we transport it to shows?’ hurdle. If any of you have ever seen the Xtrail when it is loaded you will realise that anything much bigger than an A4 sheet of paper will just not fit. As a result no progress has been made.
This suddenly became more of an issue following the Alexandra Palace show where not having a proper display plinth contributed to some damage to ‘Arfer’s’ operating mechanism.
The Solution
Having finally reached ‘finger out’ time, for the last three weeks some serious planning, design and extensive cardboard engineering has been undertaken finally resulting in a stand for use at the show.
Design criteria
The stand can be assembled quickly
No tools are required to assemble/disassemble
When collapsed it can be packed into small spaces within the existing transport units.
No additional storage space is required
The Result . . .
Please note . . . . this ‘Arfer’ is an imposter - a cardboard cutout used as a placeholder whist the real thing is back at its home shed for damage repairs.
The majority of the unit packed into one of the existing boxes with the two sides in one of the two portfolio cases that already travel in the car.
If the prototype turns out to work well it will handed over to Nick, our resident joiner for him to build the proper wooden version.
If you want to see the real thing please come along to one of the shows.