Storage Organizational Choices

[Alaska Railroader]

Bryan, I like your photo "booth" set up right there on the shelf!

Karin

[DKS]

Bryan, I like your photo "booth" set up right there on the shelf!

Coincidentally, I did the very same thing...

[elnscale]

Search is your friend: 

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=28867

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=26848

Hello Ian,

Yes, thank you, it is. And I did do a search before I posted.

My angle on the question is different from those posts which really ask about what you put the stuff in. And predominantly, the responses are about that.

I am more interested in how people organize, or order if you like, their stuff.

I am currently (a) storing my car type and (b) randomly stuffing into boxes for several years because I have not done (a). I want to fix this situation so I am looking at what other ways that (a) there might be because (b) doesn't work for me.

[peteski]

Search is your friend: 

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=28867

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=26848

I thought that this thread was a deja-vou all over again (but I was too lazy to dig out those related threads). 

[rogergperkins]

Steve (ELN...),
My method of organizing has been by car type: i.e. all 40' single door together etc.
Freight separate from passenger, locomotive is totally separate container.
My preference would be to have a cabinet where trains could be set up on track on a base that could be moved to and connected to the layout, so
that I could run from different eras or different mixes of cars. 
At age 73+ years, the main function of organization is how to find it when I want it. 

[elnscale]

Peteski, what's with the snark?

Those threads (which you say you were too lazy to go find) deal almost exclusively with what people put their stuff in.

I asked the following three questions in the original post:

• How do you organize your rolling stock in its storage, by railroad, by type, by ???
• What about stuff that you probably don't want and should sell, is that set aside?
• If you have an inventory, do you have the storage location included, and if so to what accuracy, e.g. bin 4 versus bin 4 drawer 3, row 2, item 5

That's what I am interested in (and a number of posters have given their details). I have an opportunity to rearrange what I am doing. So that's why I posted. I read those other threads when they were live. I searched before posted. So what's your beef?

[peteski]

Peteski, what's with the snark?

Geez, aren't we touchy?!  No snarkiness or beefiness was intended - I was merely showing my contentment that Ian dug out those related threads.
 

[elnscale]

Well, you, by quoting Ian and including the same emoticon, also labelled me a troll.

That's what I object to.

To others, who have posted useful information, I thank you and I am sorry for the sideways digression (which I hope is done with) of my responses in this thread.

[VonRyan]

I asked the following three questions in the original post:

• How do you organize your rolling stock in its storage, by railroad, by type, by ???
• What about stuff that you probably don't want and should sell, is that set aside?
• If you have an inventory, do you have the storage location included, and if so to what accuracy, e.g. bin 4 versus bin 4 drawer 3, row 2, item 5

Personally I organize my stuff by car type.
in my three cases, I have things organized as follows:
Box #1 contains wood-sided ice-reefers (40 and 36 foot)
Box #2 contains 40 foot boxcars
Box #3 contains everything else and three overflow reefers that didn't fit into Box #1

In Box#1 I have reefers grouped in two major groups which are Atlas and MT reefers, and then I sub-group them by the main color of the sides (yellow, white, etc.)
In Box #2 I start out with my REA cars (B&O wagon tops in both REA schemes, and an MT REA x29, and then I mostly have the rest of the cars grouped by the type of 40' boxcar they are, and then even more so by road-name if I have two or more of one road-name of a particular style of 40' boxcar.
In box #3 I start out with my 13 Kadee PRR H31 hopers, then the rest of my 2-bay 55-ton hoppers, and then I have everything else somewhat grouped by car type (like gons and flats) but it mostly comes down to how closely can I cram everything together so as to get the most cars in the space I have.
I have a briefcase in which I carry my Locomotives, brass N5-C with marker-lights, and any super specialty rolling stock that I'd prefer in a separate jewel case, which in this case is one of the giant Atlas tank cars (in the GATX demonstrator scheme) that I keep in a Kato engine box.

My arrangements are mostly to keep things as tightly packed as possible since when I go to shows with the N-Trak club, I almost always carpooling with someone else and I'd rather not be a burden with the large cardboard and excessive-foam "Car Cases".

-Cody F.