Ideas for Model Railroad Inventory - Excel Spreadsheet vs. Software?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Looking for an easy way to start tracking what cars and #s I’ve got. Have way too many cars to keep them in my head and initially just want to have an easy way to know what road numbers I need (and have) when I go to flea markets and shows.

Am on a Mac so most of the Windows-based commercial programs are not an option for me.

Hesitant to go the Excel route as I have no idea what fields are important to add. Looking for ideas and best practices…

Ideally, (though it’s probably too much to ask) does anyone have a source for a ready-made Excel spreadsheet or want to share their template???

Thanks!

2

Traffic,

I used Excel and it’s works great. I have my first column broken down into two categories (locomotive and rolling stock) then the following column headings:

  • Type - i.e. Diesel, Steam, boxcar, gondola, etc.
  • Builder - i.e. Lima, Balwin, Schenectady, etc.
  • Type/Length/Size/Capacity - i.e. HH600, 4-8-2, 6-panel wood, 10K gallon, etc.
  • Road - i.e. NYC, PRR, Erie, etc.
  • Road#/Name - i.e. 80515, Imperial Crown (passanger)
  • Sound - (Only for locomotives)
  • Manufacturer - Accurail, BLI, Stewart, etc.
  • Comments

That pretty much covers everything I need.

The sorting function of Excel comes in quiet handy, too. For rolling stock I generally sort by length/capacity then by road number. It makes it easier then to peruse my inventory list if I’m at a train show looking for something.

Hope that’s a help…

Tom

3

When I first went back to school in 99, one of my first class projects was devoted to Excel, so I made an inventory template that is pretty simple. I sorted motive power separate from other rolling stock, had it total my “investment,” etc. I’ve still got that same file working for me, despite different computers, OSs, 3.75 degrees, and years of additions and deletions.

One thing that might be useful to consider is JMRI. It’s the Swiss Army knife of DCC and I’m pretty sure has an app to build a car inventory. That’s something else to consider, as it’s open source and has a large community of users, enough so that it’s a de facto standard to use for all kinds of things in model railroading.

4

I use the freeware RRtrains software.

5

I have an Access database written by Dave Husman, it generates car cards and such for operation but at this point it’s just my inventory - it also inventories structures, track, books, and your electricla components as well as locos and rolling stock. Very comprehensive. There’s a handy “train show” inventory report to carry with you to train shows so you check and see if you have a particular item. It’s available via the Yahoo Group Car Cards.

–Randy

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Thanks Randy. Do you know if this will work on a MAC??? Is it cross platform or just PC only?

7

I have Excel, and am tolerably familiar with it, so I use it to keep my inventory. Excel will sort on any or multiple columns so I can see things anyway I like. I use separate wooksheets for different types of rolling stock, boxcars, hoppers, tankers, cabeese, locomotives. For each item I have columns for road name, reporting marks, maker, date acquired, cost, maintenance history, scale length, and a few other things. It will print out the whole inventory so I can take it to shows. I haven’t figured out how to make it print out car cards for operating sessions.

8

Can you use Google Drive? Their spreadsheets worked fine for me.

Charlie

9

MS Access is PC only. It will run on a Mac with Bootcamp, or Parallels or Fusion.

–Randy

10

I have been using Easy Model Railroad inventory software. Someone posted a link to it on these forums 2 or 3 years ago. It is very detailed in the information one can enter. Some info is required and some info is extra.

I do not use it this way but it can generate car cards and such. I use just to keep track of my stuff. It may have been a beta version but I am not sure of that. There is an address if you wish to make a contribution to the designers too.

It was a free download. I do not know if it is still free or not.

There are ways to design your own inquiries and turn those into spreadsheets. I am fairly certain the name is EMRI - Easy Model Railroad Inventory.

11

I used Excel to develop a file for my roster. The file has three sheets : cars, locomotives, vehicles. With Excel, it is easy to add whichever data you need.

With Google Drive on my iPhone I have access to my roster wherever I am, LHS, Train show, etc.

Send me a PM and I’ll send you my Excel file.

12

If you have the software, go with Excel. I actually used Lotus 1-2-3 many years ago to start, and then migrated to Excel. The thing is, you can totally customize it to your own liking, and can “play” with it any way you like. I have spreadsheets for my Lionel collection, as well as HO, and can only say “it works”!

13

Inventory should really have a database (like many file folders in a drawer) as opposed to a spreadsheet (primarily for math functions). Spreadsheets can be used as an alternative to a database if the needs are not too in-depth.

Nolansoft’s MDB Viewer Plus is a complimentary (and portable) database program that even includes mild relational database reporting (meaning a report using more than one database) with “one-to-many” and “many-to-many.” Do download the PDF instruction manual. MDB Viewer Plus’ native DB format is Microsoft Access’ MDB or ACCDB (without the need to have MS Access installed). There are many DB import/export conversion formats available to either databases, or spreadsheets.

Open-Source OpenOffice, or “its crisper” OpenOffice fork, LibreOffice, also has a database, as well as spreadsheet, and word processing. Links here are to portable versions of each program.

14

Open Office can be downloaded for Mac. A spreadsheet can be made with the rows the cars and the columns the various attributes. Whats important is what['s important for you. By using a custom spreadhseet you can include stuff that you want and leave off the stuff you don’t really care about. If your primary concern is operating you might not care about the manufacturer’s model number or the condidtion of the box. If you are a collector having a good original box might be important.

Databases take more technical knowledge to roll your own. For most people who just want a list to take to shows and swap meets, a spreadsheet will provide all the power they need.

15

For all of those who use spreadsheets for tracking their model railroad inventories, would there be an interest in sharing fields to create a master spreadsheet template that we can post online? I’d be happy to take a stab at programming one and sharing it - if everyone wants to provide ideas and input???

My thinking is that providing a free Excel template of the fields that we all feel is important we can create a ‘best practice’ and help newbies like me to start in the hobby.

Any thoughts on this project?

16

Hi,

Here are some other fields that may not have been mentioned… Mfg number, car color, # of doors or bays or tanks, car build date (very important to me), cost, date purchased, maintenance done.

17

I’ll go along with the suggestion for LibreOffice’s “Base” (database). It’s free, constantly being updated, and works on Mac, Linux, and Windows.

Using a database gives you a lot of flexibilty that you don’t get with just a spreadsheet. And if you find there’s something you DO want to use a spreadsheet for, it’s a simple task to copy it in from your database:

Open Base, click on “Tables”, right-click on your database, and click “copy”.

Then from the Base menu bar, click File, New, Spreadsheet, and then paste.

Now you have your complete database, including column (field) headers in a spreadsheet.

And you can set up custom queries and reports, too. For example, I have a bunch of “canned” reports for each manufacturer, with the data grouped by car type and sorted by road name, road number, etc. I save them in PDF format (again, all within LibreOffice), and keep them on a small tablet I take with to train shows.

Oh, and the queries that the reports are based on can also be copied into a spreadsheet, the same as outlined above for the entire database. Of course, you can also set up other queries that don’t feed a report and copy them, too.

It’s a very powerful and flexible cross-platform tool, and way cheaper than the “paid for” products.

18

Are you able to share or post a representative pdf so we can see what data you use?

19

Your enthusiasm is appreciated, but a spreadsheet is so simple to create, I’m not sure it’s really necessary to “crowd source” a generic template to post to the web for others to use. Tstage had a pretty good start on suggested fields, a

20

Part of the problem is that what you want to use the list for determines which fields and their order. For example if I wanted a list to take to a show to decide what models I needed or had, I might want a list that was ordered:

Manufacturer

Model number

Type of equipment

Road name/initials

Number

Color

Slogan

Couplers

Special equipment (DCC, etc)

On the other hand if I wanted a list for use on my home railroad I might want a list ordered like this:

Initial

Number

Type

Length

Capacity

Color

Slogan

Home road

Special assignment

For my own inventory I would want all the above plus:

Coupler brand

Wheel type and brand

Weight

Length

DCC decoder model

Sound equipped?

If I wanted a list for my insurance records I would have all the above fields, plus the following:

Purchase date

Purchase price

Current value

Added details