In a recent move, I had just a few days to get moved out of my house and into another. It can be done. I have done it before pre-train display cases. When it came to moving my trains, it seemed a daunting task and it was going to take forever. See, I love my trains, but do not show the same affection to their original boxes. I have most of them, but they are not kept in any sort of order. Searching for each box per piece would take way too long given the number of pieces that I have; literally hundreds of locos alone.
So, I grabbed a boxcar and headed to Lowes. I was looking for some sort of safe storage alternative. I actually thought of the pipe insulation. The foam type that is split so you can place it around the pipe.
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I tried a piece of 1" insulation which is the diameter of the pipe. I split it open and placed the boxcar in it. I kind of manipulated the insulation to see what would happen to the car and it looked like it may work. I bought a whole bunch. I couldn't keep it full length due to the flop factor so I cut them in half for two 2-1/2' pieces. I opened up a piece of pipe insulation and place a loco inside. As it stood the loco could actually slide the length of the insulation, but when you pushed the seam in the insulation together, it locked the loco in place Such that it was only touched on the "four corners" of the loco. The round insulation gripped the loco at the bottom outer edge, then circled out around the handrails and came back to catch the top outside corner of the loco. Not wanting to take the chance, I pinched off the ends of the insulation to keep anything from falling out. At this point I was preparing for sunshades, horns, and what not being broken off. I started loading the locos using the seam of the insulation as the top. One has to hold open the insulation and place a loco in each time. I didn't have time so they went in loco after loco with nothing in between not quite coupled to each other (In the pic I am using a loco box to keep the seam open).
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Well, I loaded all my loose locos from the display cases which included custom pieces with all kinds of added details. When they were packaged, I did the cabeese; all those tiny cabeese handrails and smoke stacks, etc. When a tube of insulation was full, I wrapped tape around it every 6 inches or so to keep it from opening up and to provide enough "squeeze" to hold everything in place.
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So here are the results: After driving 800 miles, I unloaded everything and I had zero damage, not even the cabeese. Couldn't believe it worked and I have never moved my trains without breaking something or losing something while trying to put it into its own box (or taking it out). There are a couple of reasons it was successful and I think those were the round hole only touching each piece on the edges and the softness of the foam which is considerably softer than the foam the trains come in.
I don't know if I would put anything between each piece in the future. They are held snug and will only couple with each other if the come together. Something in between may actually damage or warp the handrails. I would probably use something other than packing tape, too. Just thought I would throw it out there. I don't visit here as much as I used to so if this has been done then my apologies.
I think of those guys at the train shows with a gazzillion hoppers. Quick and easy.
