Storage Organizational Choices

[elnscale]

I have about 600 freight cars and 50 locomotives in storage drawers organized by car type. For example, all of the covered hoppers would be together. If there are a large number of particular type and they occupy several drawers, then I generally have sorted the like roadnames together.

However, for the last 3 years, as I have accumulated more stock (about another 300 pieces), I have generally, when it's not on the layout, just accumulated the pieces in random boxes.

I have just finished off cateloging all items that were not previously done and I am now going to buy some more storage drawers and organize everything that is not properly organized.

I am not sure that I want to have stuff organized the way I have it and now is probably as good a time as any to reorganize it and so...

So that's the long preamble to the questions which are:

• 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

Looking for opinions and suggestions.

[JMaurer1]

I consider myself lucky to have a fairly accurate list of most of my rolling stock. As for organization, I try to keep it by car type...boxcars kept in one box, hoppers in another, etc. Any further than that is just too much work since I never know what cars may interchange onto and off of the railroad. On one hand, I would like to have all of my rolling stock stored in Axian storage boxes, but on the other, I've found that if MT cars get too far away from their box for too long, the box often disappears.

[Kisatchie]

I just use cardboard Office Depot file boxes. I put 40' box cars in one box, 50' boxcars in another box, covered hoppers in another, and so on.


Hmm... I have a box for
bananas, and another
for termites, and a
refrigerator for beer...

[sdodge]

I have around 400 pieces of rolling stock and they are stored by car type in Axian storage boxes. I have a detailed inventory of all cars using a free program I found but location in the box is not listed. All pieces I don't want and will sell are stored in bankers boxes in their original jewel cases.

[rogergperkins]

I am wrestling with this same issue as I take the MTL jewel cases from a container and attempt to find the car on the layout. I have a general idea which yard it is in.
I am thinking that my primary road, i.e. B&O will be the last to come off the layout.  I am considering putting all B&O in one container and all others in another box.
I may need a separate box for passenger only which is all B&O or Pullman.
I have Excel spread sheets as a digital inventory of all these items. So will print the sheets to put in each box.  I Think?

[DKS]

Storage:



Rolling stock organized by general type (locomotives, passenger, freight), then by road.

Inventoried using an Excel spreadsheet, which does not indicate storage location.

[railnerd]

So that's the long preamble to the questions which are:

• 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

Looking for opinions and suggestions.

I've recently become a fan of the 4 & 9 litre boxes from http://www.reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/usa/.



They stack very nicely, and the 4 litre box is my "go to" size for carrying my rolling stock, as it fits a few layers of MT and/or other plastic boxes quite well.  For whatever reason I cannot convince myself to dispense with the little plastic boxes and move to something like the A-line:



-Dave

[nickelplate759]

Regarding the Axian cases - have you seen any issues with the foam marking the finish of any of the rolling stock?

George

[bbussey]

I built a floor-to-ceiling bookcase for storage.  Since I model two eras (1956 NH and 1980 CR), I organize by: general type (freight/passenger/power), era, region (east to south to midwest to west), railroad.  Some of the specialty unit-train stuff such as TOFCs, auto racks and complete passenger consists are grouped on different shelves.



I wrote a VB program specifically for my roster, since I record the dimi-data and any enhancements to each piece of equipment, along with motive power maintenance schedules.  I also keep track of the rolling stock ratios based on road and equipment type and restrict myself to 300 pieces of freight equipment per era to keep things reasonable, with the home roads having the highest amount of equipment followed by the affiliates, direct interchange, indirect interchange, and other.

[rogergperkins]

Bryan, I like your approach.  I also model at least two separate eras: steam and sometime later than the 1940's. 
Previously, I had a large layout that allowed for a hidden staging yard where post-steam era equipment could be stored on layout, but theoretically off line.
I am hoping for a larger layout than the current one, but still suspect I will need to opt for offline storage which allows easy access to run alternate eras.
I have considered a car ferry on a rolling cart, but am not certain what that would entail.  If locomotives and rolling stock could be stored on track in a cabinet, and
then placed on a cart and rolled to layout to attach to a siding, that could be THE ANSWER.  Just thinking outside the box.    The plastic storage box.

[bbussey]

I've seen that done, where a rolling cart serves as a pseudo "car ferry" that attaches to a stub end staging area.  I've also seen the same scenario but with a cart that has multiple shelves that can be raised and lowered.  Those are options to store excess equipment without packing it away in jewel boxes.

[sdodge]

Regarding the Axian cases - have you seen any issues with the foam marking the finish of any of the rolling stock?

George

I have used these for 5 years and have not noticed any issues with the foam marking the finish. And the room they are stored in is cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

Steve

[mcjaco]

Regarding the Axian cases - have you seen any issues with the foam marking the finish of any of the rolling stock?

George

I've yet to see that.  We have some guys that line their boxes with Saran Wrap to keep the small detail parts from catching on the foam.

[Ian MacMillan]

Search is your friend: 

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

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

[Nato]

                 Several,methodsI have used over the years.VHS tape storage cabinuts that came either as U-Bild It kits or assembled furnature were great for storage, They can be rolled around(have casters/wheels),I have two of these,one I assembled, one from Sears, I store a huge number of boxes stacked on top of each other on each shelf,the ends on the jewel cases or boxes are readable ,jewel cases for N scale freight cars will also fit stacked on the narrower shelves on the doors when opened. I arranged cars by road and type. The only thing is with the Demise of VHS Tape,anyone but me even still have a player? These storage units are hard to find. When my layout room was built in 1997 I paid big bucks to have custom storage drawers and cabinuts built in, micro trains cases were even measured to get the right measurements for drawers, My problem now is too much stuff ("you can never have too much stuff":George Carlin),custom storage is filled up with books, magazines,drawers over filled,now my work bench and parts of the floor in the room have stacks of Locomotives and cars,some in cardboard boxes. Time to De Junk my train life and stop buying locos from obscure shortlines,because I think they are interesting,.The plastic storage drawers on wheels shown in an above post work great. I robbed one set from my computer work area and have some locomotives and cars stored it it under the layout. If the layout is ever completed and other junk & stuff stored under it gets removed, then I would buy more of these that could be rolled out from under,from behind front curtins below fascia. Map storage trays would work great for car and loco storage,they are not however cheap,used ones and lo end assembl-it yourself cardboard & metal ones can be found. I have not used my assemble it one for this purpose,but it is mighty tempting. Nate Goodman (Nato).