Collection Changes Pt1: Reshuffling Asia

Sometimes it appears, to my wife at least, that I am constantly rearranging the layout of the Yesterday’s Airlines hangar space. This is partly true but mainly I’d like to think due to the slightly ad hoc way I come across new display cabinets rather than just my own internal mania. Anyway, since I last updated on the status of the hangar there have been two rearrangements and now the display space is looking topnotch.

In this part I take a look at the new cabinet that allowed me to reshape the storage of the Asian fleet and free up space in the benchtop cabinets.

The tall cabinet when I first put the CX fleet in it - circa July 2017

Hopefully the new layout will cater for future growth requirements for the foreseeable future and it certainly provides a nicer more aesthetically pleasing arrangement for the collection. I have to say for the moment I’m happy with the new setup and in this and the next post I’ll walk you through the gestation of the changes.

The initial driver for the change was that once again the most recent attempt to keep the Cathay collection enclosed was not working out well. The tall thin display cabinet I had acquired, admittedly at a snip, was a nice extra space but also not ideal. For starters a relatively small cube shelf is not ideal for fitting in aircraft. This is one of the reasons I’ve been against the standard IKEA Deltof cabinets. Not only do they come with only a few shelves but they are also too small to allow for the sort of by airline or geographical region layouts I favour.

The tall cabinet had many of these issues and was already a bit tight for what I had. I also found myself forced to accommodate some aircraft at the bottom of the cabinet close to ground level. It is damper down by the ground but also the aircraft are not as well-lit and are a lot harder to see.

Above: The top two shelves of the new cabinet. Hong Kong Airlines, Cathay Dragon and Chinese cargo

The answer was another secondhand display cabinet I picked up from a jewelers that was closing down. This was wider but slightly shorter allowing itself to fit nicely in the available space and still allow access to the wall cupboard above. In addition, it meant that I could fit in a small bookcase on its side at the bottom within which my collection of ‘Airplane’ magazines could reside.

Above: The next two shelves of the new cabinet: Cathay Pacific and Air Hong Kong
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Shelf wise the new cabinet could fit in the entire Hong Kong fleet (not just Cathay and Dragonair but also Hong Kong Airlines and HK Express). Additionally, there was also room for the Chinese cargo airlines to join them providing some much-needed breathing space in the two China cabinets for my growing Chinese passenger fleet, which itself had a minor rearrangement.

Changes in the 2nd China cabinet

Now Shanghai Airlines has been moved up next to the new colours China Eastern fleet. Xiamen Airlines and Sichuan Airlines share a shelf with China United. Below them the Air China group carriers Shandong Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines are placed together for the first time with the independent and smaller startups nearby.

The non Chinese Asian fleet

Back in the new cabinet and beneath the Hong Kongers there is ample room for the Asia fleet. I admit that non-Chinese Asian airlines have never been a high priority for me but there is still a passable arrangement of mainly classic types from Japan, Malaysia, Korea and the like. One fleet that has grown quite a bit in recent times is that of Singapore Airlines which now has about a quarter of the entire Asian space for itself.

The movement of the Asian fleet out of the benchtop cabinets means there is now more space for South American, Mexican and Canadian additions – partly because the UK fleet has also been moved. This leaves the benchtop cabinets arrangement significantly altered as even those who have not increased space (Russians, Africans, Middle East) have moved shelves. ​

Where did the Brits go? Well to the tall display cabinet that had just been replaced. After much effort I was able to shunt the US collection sideways a little to slip in the cabinet next to the Europeans giving the UK its own space. This was not however destined to last as we shall see in part 2 of this series.

The short-lived movement of the UK fleet to the tall thin cabinet can be seen on the left here

So the first change (which actually happened back in March) provided more space for most parts of the non-US collection area and a much nicer display for the Hong Kong and Asian fleets. In part 2 the Brits get moved again and it is the turn of the USA to get an upgrade.