I saw some gorgeous ones on FB this morning

Wish I could find them again. Probably about 30 inches long, 4-5 inches high. Backboard is taller, and it is screwed to the wall through that. Glass front. The trick is that they were scenicked. 

 This would work for trians

This would work for trians 

I have seen ones that are narrow wood shelves with a glass front

I think that would look best. Nice presentation, keeps the trains safe and uses little of your precious living space.

I don’t transport trains but I think I remember one of the modular club members showing me a cardboard case that has slots for trains. 

Display vs transport - diff needs, diff boxes

[caveat] I am kinda long-winded, I try to be complete and describe both failures and successes. Knowing what does not work really helps me.  [/caveat]

For display, I want space above the train to show off the details.  For transport, I want the loco and rolling stock snug, unable to rattle around.  

Transporting -  What do the experts do?  At a recent large hobby show I observed the people with large collections.  About half used the A-line cases and bags. A few used other commercial boxes and bags.  Others bundled each unit in a few layers of either paper shop towels or regular paper towels, and stacked them like wood in large plastic bins. Of the people using commercial boxes, some used shop towels in addition to the box padding.  I use a different method, IMO their methods are better than mine. Experience - foam catches and tears off small details, I learned to wrap locos in paper or plastic if they go into foam.

Display - I built 2 wooden cases, one worked. The first is 30 x  30 x 3.5 in deep, space between shelves 3", hinged door,  acrylic window, the wall is the back of the case. Grooves cut in the shelves act as rails to accept flanges, and 4 grooves for two parallel "tracks". In brief, the door tends to sag, and the 2 layers of trains is good for storage, not great for display.  The second display case is much more effective.  It is for one long train - 1x4 lumber 6 ft long, 3 1/2 in between shelves, 3 pieces of clear acrylic sliding in slots.    If I build more cabinets from wood, they will be no more than 3 x 4 ft for carrying empty through doorways, and only one train deep, with sliding acrylic panels. Acrylic instead of glass, because I will drop them. I am wondering how to add LED strip lighting - IMO, warm white looks best for a room in a house, not too bright.  

I considered extruded aluminum shelving. One brand is superb and outside my budget, others work well and more in my budget. 

3 sources of aluminum display units:

• Showcase Express -  does everything well, pricey but great if you can afford it. The extruded Al shelves are large C-channels that lock together to form larger display cases.  Designed to accept vinyl windows, backgrounds, and LED strip lighting.   $17.50 per foot in 2019, about the same price or less as rolling stock per ft.
• Trainshelf - extruded Al shelves that are fastened to the wall
• Glen Snyder Display Systems - extruded Al shelves that are fastened to the wall

I am trying to work myself up to the Showcase Express system.  Mirrored shelving for 100 pieces of rolling stock would be $2200.  sigh.

Like Doug,

I had written a long response, but I dumped mine.  FWIW, I see three distinct classes.  To Doug's, I added storage that is compatible with 'layout-feeding'.  In this case, you need easy but safe access (i.e. padded, but easily extracted, not wrapped in bubblewrap, as an example), accurate labeling, but are unconcerned with transport or display.  This category in my mind is addressed by drawer storage with buffered trays, allowing the rolling stock to fit loosely in a padded space but be found and extracted at a moment's notice when it needs to hit the layout.  Should also provide storage for associated car cards, if you use that system.

Solutions that serve all three purposes would, in my mind, compromise too much, so any attempt to market a product needs to determine which purpose(s) are best served as part of the marketing plan.

I personally am happy with my solution based on IKEA ALEX drawer units - six drawers per, fits under the layout, and can be rolled around when the work crew needs to work under layout.  What I'm still working on is a tray or liner system for these drawers, to keep the cars from slopping around too much.

Just another thought for you.

Blair

Long narrow glass front cases?

Anyone know of glass( or plexiglass) fronted units that can be connected end to end to make wall storage of trains? I have a wall about 15 feet long in my train room that would be a great place to store trains or long cuts of cars . Something like Lawyer's book cases with open ends so they could be connected would be ideal....DaveB

Pick the correct scale

https://www.showcase-express.com/product-category/train-display-cases/ho-scale/

Note in the photo how long they are. You can get all kinds of sizes and they grow as you need them.