As an off-shoot to the thread…Do you save the boxes…I’ll create another thread since many folks said that they throw away the boxes.
My personal experience. I have a small layout. As a general rule, I swap out cars and locos from time to time, so I’m always taking them from and putting them back into their boxes. Also, when I’m not running the layout for a while, I clear out the layout of all cars and locos just to keep them from getting dust and damaged.
Of course, I do this because I have a small layout and I don’t mind.
In MR, I often see these wonderful layouts with lots of cars on them, and think to myself what a chore it would be for me to do what I normally do.
Do you keep your trains on the layout? Do you park them in a “safe” place? How do you protect them and do you have suggestions for others?
Some stay on the layout but most are stored in travel boxes with foam lining. Some I made myself from Bankers Boxes that you can get from Staples and others stores like that. I glued thin foam to cardboard dividers between rows of cars. 8 HW passenger cars or about 20+ hoppers, boxcars, and others. My locomotives go back into the original boxes.
I leave my trains on the layout. I do have a staging area which is covered where most out-of-service trains live, but I don’t pull cars from sidings just to store them for a few days.
Seriously, I would guess that all the handling, boxing and unboxing would be more likely to damage small parts than leaving them there and just worrying about a bit of dust.
My trainrooms have always been in finished spaces, not basements, and the last couple have had air conditioning that keeps the air pretty clean. The trainrooms are a good ways from the kitchen, and nobody smokes in the house, so dust and other airborne contaminants aren’t a problem.
Although my layout is not up and running yet, that question sure pulled a lot of weight last Winter.
Tunnel to the left…
with a descending 2% grade and two radius turnouts, can eventually go under the layout giving me three long lines of staging. A bit of disassembly will be required without disrupting the layout, so it’s doable.
A major factor for layout storage will be the presence of larger yards and hidden staging. These invite on-layout storage. Some may be inclined because particular cars significantly enhance the appearance of certain scenes (like hoppers rounding out the look of coaling facilities, tank cars at fuel farms, etc.). And some folks perhaps store off-layout because they’re not inclined for their goodies to gather dust - though I think of that as just another form of poor-man’s weathering.
We can dispense with the issue of roaming housecats, pet racoons and skunks. [(-D]
All of my cars are either on the layout or on the workbench being built or repaired. Eventually I will have to cassettes that I will use to hold staged cars on racks near the staging yard, I will use them to swap out cars on the layout. I will take 15-30 cars off the layout and put 15-30 cars on the layout so there will always be a little turnover (about 5-10%) of the cars moving on the layout each operating session. But everything will be on the rails, nothing in boxes.
I rarely take a loco off the layout once it has been put on. Dust is not a huge issue for me and a quick clean of a loco parked along the edge of the layout is done with a can of dust off, a Q-Tip, or for more troublesome spots I cut a bit off one of those Swifters and slide it under grabs and other areas. I also have rolled a bit of swifter around a skewer making a large Q-Tip type tool. Those bits of swifter really grab the grimy dust. I will take rolling stock off for a clean every ten years or so. I’ll grab a bunch of cars and go at them while watching hockey.
The only time I ever cover the layout is when we do renovations. Nowhere in the house is safe from reno dust. I use brand-new drop sheets from the dollar store, never used drop sheets.
I have about 20 locos and just over a 100 rolling stock but things are starting to get a bit crowded and I have been looking at adding under-layout staging. Just not sure how to get them down there. I can have two 40 to 50-car trains parked on sidings leaving it clear for other trains to traverse the layout.
There is not much more I want to acquire so layout population growth will be slow. I will deal with the problem when the time comes.
I always park everything where it will not end up on the floor if we have an Earthquake as we do get a shake once in a while.
I enjoy these questions, maybe next week’s should be, how large is a small layout how large is a medium layout, how large is a large layout? Haven’t had that one for a while and I find those are good discussions.
For me, the cars in industry tracks or yards stay put. I have a couple of yards with a track or two I use as kind of a visible staging / fiddle trackage. I just run the layout by myself, so the last thing I do is set up the next train for the next “session” in one of the yards so it’s ready to go. I have way too many engines to keep more than a fraction on the layout, so they do get moved off and on as needed.
Yes! Rolling stock stays on the track ready for the next running session. They are taken off only to change from steam to diesel running (or vice-versa) or if the grandchildren ‘take control’.
My smallish layout does not allow me to leave my 30+ locos on it. Many are stored in drawers. I also have some O scale rolling stock that I only use during the holidays, under tree.
I swap out trains in staging/interchange to see different cars. While one train may consist of 7 woodchip hoppers, I will often change out to different roadnames, so those cars have to be stored somewhere other than staging.
Since I frequently handle the cars, its just sort of habit to put them all away if I think I’m not going to be running for a while. And then when I put the 30 or so cars back on the layout, its usually a different combo of cars than what was removed.
Locomotives do tend to stay on the layout longer but are placed in a protected area.
I am happy to say that I’ve never damaged a car by handling it normally. All of may damage comes at the workbench when I am fiddling with it for other reasons…repair or weathering. This is also why I’m quick to return flawed items back to the dealer. I have damaged something further when I try to repair a car that I received damaged.
If you store cars on the layout, I can see where you’d want to safeguard against them rolling off the end of the layout…LOL. Build properly, modern models are very free rolling.
I purposely designed my last layout, and my new layout, with plenty of staging so that all the equipment can be on the layout.
I can’t really imagine having much more equipment than the layout can hold. The new layout is designed to stage between 30 to 35 trains, depending on length/type.
Most of the staging tracks will handle trains of about 40 typical 40’ cars, or 50 two bay 34’ hoppers. Nearly every train will have between 2 and 4 powered units for motive power.
I can’t even imagine taking any number of these cars/locos on and off the layout on any regular basis.
In my world dead end tracks have bumpers of some sort…
As a few others have commented, I avoid handling the models. Not that it is a problem, it is just easier.
As someone interested in both mainline and switching operations, trains come out of staging, go to the main (only visible) yard, and are broken up for switching to the industries.
Pickups from the industries are made up into trains that then traverse the mainline and return to staging.
So I see different cars all the time, to the tune of over 1000 of them.
Had to think of something to make the chore easier. Perhaps becoming a bit old school from the harsh lessons of my youth[(-D]
My Mom, (Bless Her Heart) used to come up to my room and drop off the vacuum cleaner saying, “JOHN! , Put Your Toys Away, Or I Will Find A Place For Them!” [:S] Found out early, that usually meant the circular file[:(]…[(-D]
Just like the vacuum cleaner back in the day, the Tracks will need a good cleaning frequently to keep smooth locomotive operations in-check. How does one clean Track quickly and efficiently with rolling stock and loco’s all over the place? [:^)]
Since there’s not far to go, they can be put away quickly in those harbor freight totes underneath.
Still room for plenty more slide-outs. Just need to re-visit the fabrication department[;)]
PS Was quite disappointed five years ago when there wasn’t enough room for a bigger layout. Now, with the limited amount of free-time, sometimes the smaller 51"x 87" feels like biting off more than can be chewed.
Tunnel to the left…
