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Best way to store trains?


abi1rhys2

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My 6yo son has received his 1st Hornby set for Christmas. At the moment the track is taking up most of the living room floor but when we put the track away, where is the best place to store the trains?? My initial thought was back in the boxes they came in, but wondered if there was an alternative that would keep the trains safe but also make them easily accessible when he wants to play with them?

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On the floor is not a good idea, the loco's will get full of fluff and grit, and stop working

Also the track is liable to keep moving, and will rapidly weaken the joints.

Then on top of that are people's feet! (literally!) the track and trains will not like being walked on!

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I keep my out of box locos in large low plastic see through storage boxes. You need a bit of fine corrugated cardboard to stand them on, so they don't move around too much, and I'm thinking of putting cardboard seperators in to protect them from each other. Best to store locos standing up rather than on their side. 

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Thanks for all the replies - I like the idea of using shoe boxes or similar plastic storage boxes with cardboard dividers!

We've mounted the trakmat onto a piece of plywood & nailed the track down. The floor its on is wooden so no carpet fluff! Once school restarts the board will be stored (somewhere yet to be decided!) but at the moment its getting played with a lot ! :-)

 

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I have a number of storage 'solutions'

 

I use the big cardboard trays from the supermarket that originally held fruit, and inside them I either store trains in their original packaging or  I put the locos and rolling stock for which I do NOT have the original boxes into small cardboard trays that used to hold 12 tins of cat food, or similar. These nest quite well inside the larger trays. The large trays stack quite nicely.

I have also used some plastic boxes with locking handles to hold the lid shut which were on sale at a toyfair, and which hold two carriages side by side with a card divider between them. These I use for my kit built electric multiple units.

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First of all, it is worth pointing out, I am not a collector.  My Loco's are regularly run./media/tinymce_upload/0009039_-_.jpg

I used to keep my stock in the original boxes but as stated above, they are extremely tight and I was risking damaging them, by trying to look after them!

I then decided to use shoe boxes, modified as shown in the pictures below and each box stores 4 Locomotives.  Basically, I have lined the bottom half of the shoe box with a piece of 9mm MDF as shown in the first picture.  I cut a piece of bubble wrap and this is just placed in the bottom of the box, to keep 2 Loco's apart as shown in the second picture.  The other 2 Loco's are kept in a tray, also made out of a 3mm MDF base with 9mm sides.  This top tray shown in picture 3, is a perfect fit in the box and rests on the MDF in the bottom of the box.  Again, Bubble wrap is used to separate the 2 Loco's.  All Loco's are stored on their side.

/media/tinymce_upload/0009034_-_.jpg

/media/tinymce_upload/0009040_-_.jpg

The short lengths of 3mm MDF in the ends of the trays are to enable them to be lifted out easily.

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Some excellent advice there.

I would put them in a shoe or similar box but put a piece of foam between them so they don't get damaged.

Also keep them in a dry place, ventilated place that is not damp and where the box will not get knocked over.

PJ

 

 

Foam will break down after a few years, which is why it isn't really suitable as Track ballast (as an example) Perhaps an extreme example, I gave WTD a loco which had been stored for a good number of years wrapped in foam and placed in a cardboard box. When the box was opened, to show him what a wonderful gift he was getting, it was found that the foam had degenerated to the extent the loco was surrounded by a lot of foam coloured dust 

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Some excellent advice there.

I would put them in a shoe or similar box but put a piece of foam between them so they don't get damaged.

Also keep them in a dry place, ventilated place that is not damp and where the box will not get knocked over.

PJ

 

 

Foam will break down after a few years, which is why it isn't really suitable as Track ballast (as an example) Perhaps an extreme example, I gave WTD a loco which had been stored for a good number of years wrapped in foam and placed in a cardboard box. When the box was opened, to show him what a wonderful gift he was getting, it was found that the foam had degenerated to the extent the loco was surrounded by a lot of foam coloured dust 

PP makes an important point in that nearly all plastic material in contact with your model will over time cause damage to the plastic of the model itself. Bubble wrap will also damage paint finishes on tinplate and other metal items too. The hard clear plastic used nowadays by Hornby and Bachmann is probably OK, but I am still not sure about the expanded polystyrene that Lima used to use and Hornby has done in the past.

Acid free tissue paper is usually the recommended material to wrap models in before putting them into boxes, although some top end models now come packed in soft cloth. These trains cost a lot of money so if you intend to keep them you should take reasonable precautions to protect them.

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I keep all my boxes in a metal filing cabinet and all my stock that is not on track in a plastic drawer stack.

This keeps the boxes pristine and keeps the stock clean, dry and safe but immediately ready for selection to rosta.

All my bits and pieces are in box files fitted out with foamboard dividers. Not ideal but what I had at the time.

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I keep some of my extra stock in A4 box files.  I've removed the spring clips and used corrigated cardboard for the partitions.  Deep enough to hold locos if required. Outer edges are lined with some leftover cork, especially needed around the metal lined finger hole.  Originally posted this on Saterday night, but as I included a photo, its still awaiting approval.

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I keep some of my extra stock in A4 box files.  I've removed the spring clips and used corrigated cardboard for the partitions.  Deep enough to hold locos if required. Outer edges are lined with some leftover cork, especially needed around the metal lined finger hole.  Originally posted this on Saterday night, but as I included a photo, its still awaiting approval.

I've noticed my earlier post has appeared but something has gone wrong with the image, so I'll try to post it again.

/media/tinymce_upload/004.JPG

 

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Hi

I found that plastic seed trays are good way of storing rolling stock I get 5 engines or coaches in a tray and about 20 small goods trucks. The really cheap ones are a little to flimsy for my wrenn stock , but ok for the majority of the rest

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I would just add that my plastic boxes with clips at the end are perhaps too long and wide, thus making it a rather heavy job lugging them around. I think I might well try to buy, say, the same type of box but about half the size just to ease this difficulty.

 

I suppose individual preferred methods for storage all need to match the number of unboxed locos you wish to store. I have rather a lot, so need a bigger solution.

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I would just add that my plastic boxes with clips at the end are perhaps too long and wide, thus making it a rather heavy job lugging them around. I think I might well try to buy, say, the same type of box but about half the size just to ease this difficulty.

 

I suppose individual preferred methods for storage all need to match the number of unboxed locos you wish to store. I have rather a lot, so need a bigger solution.

 

I suppose at your age you're getting a bit frail !!!

 

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Hi,

I've been using some of the "Really useful" boxes lined with medium density foam on the sides and top, and

conductive foam at the bottom to protect decoders from static electricity.  I'm sure some of the boxes are un-necessarily tight, I recently bought the twin tender Bittern. It was so tight in its box I thought someone had glued it in!  We also recently bought the NRM Flying Scotsman, and notice they have used the Bachmann style boxes.

I wish you could buy the new boxes.

Regards  john

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