How do you store / organize your rolling stock and locos?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I’ll start by saying that being and staying organized doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m the person that puts things in piles and like a geologist, by looking through the strata I can tell the appoximate date of piece of paper or bill.

Now that my layout is mostly operational I am trying to figure out a good system to hold / store all my rolling stock / locos. I find that if I have them packed in a box the chances of me going through that box to obtain a certain item decreases dramatically.

Do you large stock holders use some kind of bookcase set up where you can see the “spine” of the box with the label of what is inside. Or maybe a different / better way?

And a further question - do you group your stock by road name or type of stock. That might be too picky of an inquiry.

Any tips, pics etc would be welcome.

Thanks,

charles

2

Once my new layout is built, all the operational equipment will be on the layout. The layout will stage about 35 complete trains, most in a range of 20 to 25 feet long.

Generally I have always had enough layout for the amount of rolling stock I own.

Sheldon

3

I have WAY WAY more rolling stock than I could ever use. I have a huge Tupperware container of kits that I haven’t looked at since I bought them, and tons of RTR stock that has not been out of the box.

What I did, was build a set of drawers under the signal control panel.

Each drawer holds about 25 cars, depending on the length. When I get a car ready for service, things like couplers, metal wheels and weathering, they go into the drawers ready, to run on the layout.

When I feel the need, I go through my unopened cars, and sort of “rotate the stock”.

I tried keeping things seperate, such as boxs in 2 drawers, flats, tanks, etc., but that didn’t work too well.

Passenger equipment I do keep seperate, in the 2 bottom drawers.

Good luck!

Mike.

4

I have enough space on my layout for all my locomotives and most of my rolling stock. I usually keep unused rolling stock in open-topped boxes beneath the layout.

5

All my locos and rolling stock are either on the layout itself or on the two shelves on the wall above the layout.

I did just purchase one of the A-Line Hobby Tote systems from Walthers so that I can start throwing away the boxes of much of the rolling stock. They are cardboard trays that can stack in a group of 5 inside a carrying bag.

I’m only going to keep the factory boxes for the very best of my rolling stock, the Moloco, Tangent and a handful of Rapido freight cars. The other boxes will get thrown away. I only currently have 6 locomotives of my own, and my son has 5, so keeping the factory boxes for them is not a big deal.

Between the two of us my son and I have about 75 freight cars.

John

6

My layout is smallish, so I rotate my rolling stock regularly. I bought a few Ikea office drawers and put them under my benchwork, and I place the locos and cars on mats that I placed on the bottom of each drawer (I hate removing cars from boxes!). The wheels basically rest directly on the mats. For the locos, I insert flexible bands between them for protection. The most expensive locos sit in individual cassette boxes (some are in plastic, some of cardboard), that I can pull out separately.

Maybe some day I’ll build some nice custom drawers. Maybe not!

Simon

7

My layout room has storage space beneath pretty well all of it…some of it for model railroad stuff, but also for tools and materials, plus lots of household stuff. Most of it is hidden behind sliding doors or lift-off panels.

However, most of the space used for storing rolling stock is visible.

My rolling stock, freight, passenger, and MoW, cycles on- and off-layout, depending on what I wish to use at any given time.

The locomotives stay on-layout, unless they’re in need of maintenance or slated for upgrades.

In the photo below, the top two Mountain Goat boxes are for passenger equipment, including baggage and other head-end cars…

…while the two boxes below have similar trays inside for carrying upright locomotives - used only when they need to be stored or transported.
I have a couple of similar boxes, around the corner from these, for MoW equipment. All are either in their original (or similar) boxes, laying on their side, other than items such as cranes, where they need to be stored upright, on their wheels, to prevent messing-up the boom cabling.

For freight cars, they’re usually stored in original (or similar) boxes, laying on their side.
Exceptions are flat cars and loaded gondolas (I use “loose” loads in gondolas, and often move them from one car to another). All cars with “loose” loads are stored upright, on their wheels.

The shelving, shown below, is deep enough to accommodate two banks of boxes, but I keep them all at the front edge, with a label visible on every box showing the car (or cars) in that box - that includes the road name and car number (or numbers if there are multiples in the same box)…

The boxes shown here, from t

8

Part of my layout’s benchwork is supported by two waist-high cabinets. The cabinets are spaced about 28" apart, so there’s room for stuff on the floor between them.

Atop the cabinets is my butt-ended staging. I can store maybe four complete trains on them. All the rest of my rolling stock, locomotives, and their maintenance tools/lubes, are split inside the two cabinets. Locos in one cabinet, all the rest in another. Works well, but I had better slooooowww down on the acquisitions.

9

I built an 8 track yard (unpowered each about 10’ long) under my layout. I have lights so I can see them well. I plan to do the same when I expand my layout. I also have rolling stocks and locos more than I can run. So I still have too many in boxes. I keep all the boxes. But I got many good ideas from folks replied to this post. Thanks!

Jerry

10

Hi Mike,

Those drawers are great! They remind me of an old map cabinet or something used when drafting was still a thing. Alas, a real map cabinet might not work because the drawers were only a bit over an inch deep.

Dave

11

In the old drafting rooms at the GE plant where I retired from there were dozens of blueprint cabinets, some going back sixty or more years. Others quite modern.

I could have taken them all as they were hauled out to a scrap dumpster (along with all the ink and vellum drawings dating back to 1927) These print files command a hefty price. Most of the drawers were closer to 2½ to 3 inches deep. Some thinner. Some were five feet wide and were set up so they could fully open!

All gone.

One of my ex wives was an architect. I made an office/studio for her. She left it behind (and the drafting table, too [Y]) and the next day I moved my model RR shop in there. I built drawers for drawings which just happen to be perfect for rolling stock [:-^]

Drawers_aplenty by Edmund, on Flickr

Drawers_aplenty-2 by Edmund, on Flickr

There are six drawers and I really need to thin out the “stuff” in them!

Shop-Floor by Edmund, on Flickr

Good Luck, Ed

12

Good morning

Some decent storage examples here gentleman. The problem I’ve always found with any kind of storage is the more you have the more you fill and the more you need[:-^]

Found these fastener totes at Harbor Freight to store rolling stock like Matchbox cars were back in the day.

Built a custom layout cabinet with plans of storage underneath.

Eventually the two center doors will be shortened to install a pull out for the control panel.

Removable slide outs were installed not long ago and have room to add quite a few more.

The layout cabinet is on carpet knap hugger wheels for layout accessibility.

The hardware used allows completely disassembly in case It ever needs to be moved somewhere.

TF

13

Hi Ed,

I love your office space, especially since you seem to have it very well organized. The drawers look great.

There is only one thing that I disagree with, and that is that the old fashioned glass in front of the monitor is empty!!! I try to keep my glass full all the time, both figuratively and in real time![swg][(-D][(-D][(-D]

Cheers!!

Dave

14

I modified a regular bookcase to fit under the layout and then built saircase shelves for each shelf for out of box rolling stock. Works great and I found it best to just place the roling stock on the shelves without track underthem like was originaly planned.

15

I keep fresh ones staged at strategic locations around the layout.

Manhattan Calling by Edmund, on Flickr

Come to think of it — I’m getting thirsty [:)]

Cheers! Ed

16

Mine are on a cabinet shelf organized by type of car.

17

In my case, as my layout is built that the rail height is approximately 36" high, there is room underneath for some plastic shelves that were purchased from the local big box store. One set of shelves were a pair of three shelf units that were purchased for very cheap. They were assembled in three two shelf units. Later when I needed more room, a pair of four shelf units were purchased and they again were assembled into two shelf units. Those units fit wonderfully under the layout. (I have has to put in some cup hooks under the layout to contain low hanging wires but that is a good idea no matter what’s underneath).

As to how I store them, all the engines and almost all the cars are either in their original boxes (where possible) or else sutibly sized replacements (Some are old Athearn boxes, others are blank cardboard ones of similar size i.e. http://www.ebay.com/itm/265489278344?var=565299635710). My passenger engines, cars and a few caboose for mixed operations are in a couple of the already mentioned A-Line boxes.

As for the organization, they are grouped by category. Engines, caboose, boxcars, refeers, hoppers, MOW, etc.

18

First, I share the OP’s lack of organizational skills. I’ve tried my whole life to become better organized but having now reached my 70th birthday, I’m beginning to doubt it will ever happen.

I do have a method for storing rolling stock and locos. Sterlite makes plastic 3 draw cabinets in a variety of sizes and I’ve got about a half dozen with shallow drawers just deep enough to store HO equipment. The drawers stack and I keep them on a shelf next to my staging yard. I discovered several years ago that I have accumulated more locos and rolling stock than the layout can hold without clogging up the works so I now fiddle equipment on and off the staging tracks as I see fit. Each drawer is dedicated to a specific type of rolling stock (boxcar, reefer, coach, sleeper, etc.). Locos are rotated the same way. Rotating the rolling stock keeps the operating sessions from looking the same.

The downside is that they have become relatively expensive compared to what I remember paying for them. On Amazon, you can get a four pack for $15 apiece but a two pack raises the price to $21 apiece and a single unit costs $26. It seems to me I bought mine at Walmart for around $10-12 but that was about 15 years ago.

Amazon.com: Sterilite 9.625 in. H x 11 in. W x 13.5 in. D Stackable Drawer Organizer : Home & Kitchen

19

I too use Ikea drawers- The Helmer ones. I really like these- deep enough for HO. I line them with the cheap Microfiber cloths from Harbor Freight. They keep the cars from rolling and fit well in the drawers. Initially I had used the kind of spongy blobby shelf liner (a similar product is also made for tool boxes) and discovered to my surprise it attacks paint, bubbling it up. I had stuff stored on the wheels but four had fallen on their sides. One was a total loss and the others I was able to salvage with heavy weathering- one less successfully than the others.

20

As I was reading your post these words jumped out at me ‘‘spongy blobby shelf liner’’ before I understood what all you were saying and I all most hit the ‘‘Emergency Stop Button’’. Then I see you caught yourself before too much damage was done. That stuff is nasty on plastics.