Design

On my boxes I cut a circular "notch" in the front edge of the box as a finger hole to allow the car cards to be easily grabbed when in the box.  I had been using 3/4 plywood and cutting the hole with a hole saw, like the ones used to install door knobs.  However cutting the half holes in the edge of the board was problematic and the 3/4 ply was very heavy.  

First revelation was that if I drilled holes down the middle of a board, I could cut the board down the middle and that would give me matching car card boxes.

The 3/4 ply was used both as a base to create the finger hold and as an attachment point to screw into through the fascia.  I realized that I only needed enough material to hold a 3/4 in screw and to provide the finger cutouts.

The result was I used masonite as the deck and glued a 1x4 to the bottom, centered on what would be the cut line for down the middle of the finger holes.

Construction

I figured out how many pockets I would need for each car card box.  I ended up with six 3 pocket boxes, two 4 pocket boxes and one 5 pocket box.  I use one pocket for each track.

Each box has a 3/4 wide piece of 1x2 the ends, with pockets 2 1/4 in wide and a piece of 1/4 in lath between each pocket.   The pockets were laid out on a piece of 1/8 hardboard.  The pockets are 3 3/4 in deep with an allowance for a 1/4 in piece of lath on the back.  The center of each pocket was marked.  A 1x4 was glued to the bottom of the masonite.  

A 1 5/8 in hole drill was used  to drill a hole at teh crenter of each pocket.  The 1 5/8 in hole was chosen for a very important reason.  I had one.

At this point the box deck looked like this, top and bottom.  Note the holes are not evenly spaced because the end blocks of the boxes are 3/4 thick and the dividers for each pocket are only 1/4 in thick.  Also the hardboard is wider than the two boxes because that was the width of the scrap I used and when I cut it to size the other side will be trimmed.  The heavier cross lines mark where the deck will be cut to form the boxes.  The top section will have three pockets, the bottom five pockets.

The fence on the table saw was set at 4 inches (the distance from the edge to the center line of the holes and run through the saw, the wide part was then run through the saw and trimmed down to a consitent width.  the piece on the left has the deck up (top surface), the piece on the left has the deck down (bottom surface) so you can see both sides.  Note the holes don't match up because the top one on the let is drilled for 3 pockets and the top one on the right section is drilled for 5 pockets.   You can see all the "doughnut holes" on the floor in teh back ground.

1x2 was cut 3 3/4 in long for the ends and 1/4 x 1 1/4 lath was cut 3 3/4 in long for the dividers.  A piece of lath was also cut to the width of each box as a back.

Assembly

The bases were cut to the length on the heavy lines, making boxes with 3, 4, and 5 pockets.  Note the previously drawn lines to mark the positions of the end blocks and each of the dividers.

The end blocks were glued to the base, flush with the front.  No, it didn't shrink, I just picked up a 3 pocket box for this picture. 8)

Then the back was glued to the rear of the end blocks and the deck.  By the way, the blinds were open, but the sun was setting, so the "blue" light from the sunset is causing my had to turn blue.  I'm not frozen.

Lastly the dividers were glued in place, with glue on the botton and back edge.

With teh car card boxes assembled, time to let the glue dry, then paint them and the installation process.

Neat idea

Unique, something I haven't seen before. Waiting for more photos...

Regards,

Joe W.

Good start

Following along with interest!

No top?

So I gather from the photos the box is only three sided?

Will have to see what it is like when you mount them, but right notw I could see cards poping out and under the layout.

Nice work, clean finish.

Installation

Installing the car card boxes is realy pretty straightforward.

I use a square to mark where I want the boxes on the fascia, normally the top or bottom edge of the fascia is horizontal, so I set the square for the distance, and use it to mark off the three horizontal lines, the top and bottom of the car card slot, and the bottom of the finger holes.  After marking the width  of the box on the fascia the vertical lines are marked.

I use a utility knife to cut through the fascia.  Less dust, noise and vibration.  Tempered masonite is tougher.  I generally used the non-tempered variety.  I use a straight edge to gently start the cuts, not applying very much pressure until a track is made, then cutting a little harder.  A new, sharp blade is a must.  I cut out the main opening first.

The finished opening is sanded with a foam sanding block.

The car cards rack is held up behind the fascia to mark the finger openings.  Make sure you hold it in the right position, if you mark it with the box on the front of the fascia, its easy to get the openings reversed and the cut outs may not line up with the finger holes (done it).

Cut the verticals with a razor saw on the marks.  Carefully cut out the bottoms of the finger holes with the utility knife.  I say carefully becuase you have to check yourself to make sure you are cutting out a HOLE and not a TAB.

After some sanding the finished hole will look like this.

Place the car card box behind the fascia in place and fasten it in place.  I use 3/4 in drywall screws with a finish washer.  You can attach it using the end blocks and/or through the tabs.  On short boxes I use the end blocks, for longer boxes I use a tab or two.

The car card box will store the car cards in the fascia and the finger hole allows them to be easily gripped to remove them.

This car card box needs its second coat of paint, and the edges of the hole need to be painted, then the fascia needs a couple coats.  The final result, after all the painting and application of labels looks like the picture below.  I don't put a cover on them because I've never needed one, but if you wanted one you certainly could add one.  It could be made of hardboard, poster board, cardboard or even paper.  The car card boxes here were recycled from a previous layout and didn't have the end blocks, so they are all secured through the tabs.

Installation

Very nicely done Dave. Clean and out of the way.

Art

A different way of doing things

Interesting how your recessed car card boxes appear to be exclusively for storing the cards. And nicely done.

I just don't think that it would work with my mindset of doing things - I like to be able to flip through the car cards in a rack, quickly comparing them to the cars on the nearby tracks.

But if you have no need for that, this definitely keeps the fascia neater.

How I use them

I have one box per track. When I switch that track I remove the car cards from that track’s box, review them to see what gets pulled.  There are sorting racks if I need to sort them or I can just hold them while I switch (what most people do).  When done they go back in the box.

i do it this way based on prototype experience where the railroad keeps its inventory by track.  Switch crews would often just run a track list and just use that to switch.  Car card boxes by track keeps that mindset.

Heavy duty

Good to see the progress. These look like heavy duty card boxes. I like the way you built finger clearance into them.

Bob

Difficulty

They are very functional but not hard to build at all.  Having a table saw helped, but a circular saw would have worked.  The only other specialized tool was the hole drill.

Surface mounted boxes

If you wanted surface mounted boxes, the methods used in the "Throttle holder" thread could be used with different spacing to create a car card box that would be on the fascia.

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/32844

Very good and a great idea

I like these, almost enough to switch to car cards! It's also easily modified to fit other types of paperwork.

Neat!

Dave,

This is a very nice application. You mention each track has a slot in the box. Would the slot represent a bill box for each track? Does the prototype have a bill box for each track?

I'm planning a new layout and this looks like an idea to use.

Eric

Bill boxes

There was one bill box per agency.  An agency was an area managed by an agent.  It could comprise a station or several stations.  The agent would leave a list wrapped around the waybills (if any).  The train would leave any waybills it had for set outs there.  The older the era the smaller the agencies were.

Railroads inventory cars by tracks, especially in terminals.  A track list is the basis of a train consist.  A track list is the basis of a switch list.  My daughter was working in Los Angeles (she's in advertising) and spotted a wad of railroad papers along the tracks where they were doing a photo shoot and picked them up for me.  They were a bunch of track lists that a crew printed out to do their work.

Even before computers railroads kept books of track lists to maintain inventory.

Basically there are two schools of thought on bill boxes.  Most people either use one box per track,  or they use a three box per station system, one box for set outs, one box for holds and one box for pick ups.  With the one box per track you know where the car is, but you have to look at the waybills in each track to figure out what to pull.  With the 3 box system, you know what to pull but have to find where the cars are.  One box per track organizes stuff by "track list", 3 boxes per station replicates a "work order" (the modern name for what a modeler calls a "switch list").  If you have larger switching areas, the 3 box system requires a "from" line on the waybill so you know where the car is, otherwise you have to "helicopter" over the whole area to find the cars to be pulled.  With one box per track, you don't really need to have a "from" line (or a lot of detail on a from line) because you know where the car is.  If you have smaller switching areas, its not as big a deal.  If you have 6 cars at a station finding hte 2 you have to pull isn't a big deal.  At Coatesville I have a 25 car yard and 38-40 industry spots (some of which are in buildings) so finding 15 cars to pull is a bit more problematic without knowing where the cars are.

Just depends on how you want to organize things.  Neither way is wrong, both ways work.  

Great Build

Hi Dave,

I like the look of those car card boxes.  I have tight clearances in my aisles, and that's one reason I've leaned toward switch lists.   This gives me a good option if I decide to switch to car card boxes in the future.  Also, great photos showing the build.  I think even I could do this!

Nice...

I like those boxes, nice job. I think they might look even better with the bottom of the half-circles closed, just a piece of masonite glued to the bottom or similar. Do you need to keep them open on the bottom to function properly?  Maybe its just me but seeing through them to the underside of the layout is kinda like looking at the man behind the curtain in Oz. Great idea, and well-executed. 

Randy

Holes

Thanks everybody for the kind feedback.

Yes you could put something under the holes, It could be something as simple as a piece of black posterboard glued to the bottom (after the boxes are painted). With the fascia painted black and a black skirt, I never really noticed that the finger holes have no bottoms.

If the half holes bother you, you really wouldn't like the vertical car card boxes I have near the main yard.  They have a 1" hole drilled into the back of the box right where the top of the car cards is so it makes it easy to grab the vertical cards.

One other consideration if you want to use recessed stuff is you have to have room to recess it.  That means you have to have switch mechanisms, Tortise/Bluepoint mechanisms, wiring, benchwork frames, fascia braces, girders, joists, etc, etc. out of the way.  It does require some prior planning.  That's why on my previous 2 layouts i used open grid benhwork, but made the grid 6-8" below the rail level, just so I would have room for all the controls and recessed stuff.