Hello all, I have a few questions for all of you experienced modelers. How do you keep track of all of the equipment you own ? How do you maintain it ? I read a lot of peoples postings on here daily, some of you have a large amount of equipment. As do i ! but it"s getting a little hard to keep track of everything, i’ve read peoples post on what they have, some of you own a lot of steam engines. Not just three or four , but like fifty or better, same with the diesels , I’ve seen people post the numbers of their fleets, and i sit back and say wow. How do you maintain control of all that equipment by yourself, I’ve got about ninety five engines and over three hundred and seventy freight plus passenger equipment. and i find myself a little behind keeping track of what needs work, like installing a decoder or something. Or like changing wheels on freight, you know like going from plastic to metal wheels . i try to keep most of the fleet organized by putting information on the computer using microsoft word.
But it always comes down to me forgetting something, and then i realize that after i’ve went out and bought something again that i already have it. So whats the secret to keeping everything organized as well as maintaned with your equipment ? And do you do this yourself or do have someone helping you ?
Nothing is perfect, but I use the car card/waybill operating system. That means if a car needs maintenance, a bad order slip sends the car directly to the shop (mmy workbench with a track from the layout running over the top of the work bench.
I maintain three Excel data bases, one on locos, one for Santa Fe equipment, the other for foreign equipment. Again, when a car shows a problem, the car is removed, an entry made on the data base for that car and it leaves the layout for the workbench. When I do some maintenance work, I simply hit the data bases for the problem and then make repairs. Same with diesels.
I also maintain a fourth Excel data base for the diesels that are semi-permanent consists so I can keep track of consist numbers assigned.
I keep track of all the equipment I own with a program called Yard Office. Google it and you can download it for free. I also keep a hard copy of everything in a binder that I take to shows. As for maintaining everything I basically just do it once a year, usually the fall as that is the start of model railroad season for me. Rolling stock gets Kadee couplers installed before going on the layout and all wheels are checked to make sure they are in gauge. The locomotives that are used on the layout, roughly 35 or so get checked out in the fall but honestly they don’t need much servicing. As for the rest of my collection of loco’s, around 1 hundred or so they only get serviced when they need it. I also keep a maintenance record of all my loco’s. Basically each loco has a sheet and I record what I’ve done to it since it was purchased. That is kept in another binder.
I keep track in my head and a great tally sheet kept in a backed up folder.
You could use “note pad” if you back it up.For years my favorite method was maintenance cards made by using index cards since every car and locomotive had one…
I clean and oil my locomotives once a year.Freight cars only as needed to replace a coupler spring.
If you’re interested in trying out a free and comprehensive on-line inventory and utilities system , I recommend dallasmodelworks.com. Just register for free as a member and use the “My Railroad” feature to enter locomotives, rolling stock, etc.
You can use it to keep track of your rolling stock, locomotives, structures, and even your books and videos. It can also generate waybills for operations.
Well thank you everyone for responding to my questions, this is truly an ease of burden on me. I was begining to wonder if i’ve gotten in over my head. You know what starts out as fun and then gets a little serious, really starts to take on a form or shape of it’s own, and if not kept in check can get out of control. I will definitly try all of these solutions and see what will be right for me to maintain control of this railroad. again i thank you all.
In this day and age, I use a computer to keep a list of all my rolling stock. There are special purpose model railroading programs for this, but I use Excel. This is because I am pretty familiar with Excel, I happen to own a copy of the program, and Excel is very powerful. Excel spreadsheets (called “workbooks”) can be subdivided into “worksheets”. I have separate “worksheets” for locomotives, various kinds of freight cars, passenger cars, cabooses, and so on. I store my models in the original boxes. The boxes are kept in cardboard cartons. The cartons are sorted to match the “worksheets”, i.e. hopper cars in one carton, meat reefers in another and so on. This reduces the searching for a desired piece of rolling stock. Stuff not found in a carton is supposed to be on the layout.
I have columns for name of item, reporting marks, maker, home road, length, maintenance history, date acquired, cost, and type of construction (steel or wood). Excel makes easy addition, subtraction and rearrangement of columns. It also allows sorting of each worksheet on any column. I can sort by reporting marks, road names, anything thing I have a column for. Excel will print out your worksheets, giving you hard copy to stick in the glove compartment, just in case you wind up at a train show and need a list of what you have and what you don’t have. Excel is much better at tables and columns than Word is. Changing column widths, rearranging columns, and sorting is easy in Excel, whereas it is hard or impossible in Word.
If you don’t have Excel and don’t feel like paying for it, there is “OpenOffice” a competitive office package that is much much cheaper than Microsoft and includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, and some other stuff. I’m told that Open Office can read and write files compatible with the Microsoft products.
I actually have excel but don’t quite know how to use it. From what your saying it would probaly be the way to go, theres probaly a tutorial within microsoft to learn how to use it . I was gonna try one of the downloads that one of the other members had suggested like yard office , either way i have a lot of information i have to re-enter into any program i should decide to go with . Thanks