3.13 Car Card Holders / Sorting Rack

Modeling Information

Card Card Holders and Sorting Racks are used by modelers to protect the railroad roadway and scenery from accidental abuse during switching operations. Car card holders are located at the industrial location. The sorting rack is located in the vicinty of the switch lead. 

Here is an example of a card holder. It organizes the car cards, it protects the roadway and scenery, and it looks great!

The WWSL

The WWSL also uses a car card and waybill system. I use a car card slot for each track, spur or industry. At locations where trains are made up or broken, I provide a car sorting rack.

Car Card Boxes

Car card boxes were built from 1" x 4" and 1" x 3" luan strips and 1/2" x 2" poplar craft stock.  I use a separate slot for each industry or yard track, so every location gets a custom box with the appropriate number of slots, ranging from one to ten. 

 

Slot width and depth is based on the thickness of the car card and the number of cars that can be located on the track. I thought of using separators for each car spot and then decided that minimal spots and minimal car cards that it wasnt worth the additional construction effort. 

 

I added 2 inches on each side of the back panel of the car card box for installing a pen/uncoupling holder. See 3.13 Pen / Uncoupler Holders for details.

A major reason for the 1" x 2" luan for the front of the car card box is for labels.  The box is organized left to right based on the spur location. Labels are vinyl, spray glued to the luan and then coated with a flat matte finish to keep them from scraping off. 

 

The box assembly is then painted, labeled and screwed onto the fascia with 3/4 inch drywall screws and each end and in the center. The box bottom is level with the bottom of the fascia.

Car Sorting Rack

 

The sorting racks were built from 1/2" x 3/4" poplar craft stock and 1" x 2" luan strips and 1/2" x 2". I made a sorting rack for each switching location. 

 

The length of the sorting rack is based on the maximun number of car cards used at the switching location, in the WWSLs case 30 inches ( 8 cars). 

 

The size of the the sorting rack is so the card can be angled for easier reading and not tip over and fall on the floor. 

 

The sorting rack bottom is about 6" below the top of the fascia.