Hey Erik, those are not scale golf balls on that shelf. What gives?
Perhaps, but the biggest truth of all is resistance is futile.
Actually, that’s only the second biggest truth. The absolute biggest truth is if momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy
Andre
One has a Santa Fe logo on it.
One has a BN logo on it.
And one is from Georgia’s Stone Mountain Park. Played there during the Atlanta NMRA (1995, I believe).
Erik
Maybe wrap them in bubble wrap and put them on the passenger seat in the front of your vehicle?
Oh OK, all is forgiven!
I had a period of 3-4 years where I changed cubes on average every 4 months, so I learned to “travel light”. [swg]
You could ‘farm out’ some of the things, get some co-workers in another area to let you use some shelf space in their area maybe??
I’m kinda wondering what the “doom” is. Every year hundreds of modelers move hundreds of the highest quality, most detailed models from their homes to conventions thousands of miles away. People go to modular layout exhibitions all the time. I’ve moved a half dozen times. What’s the big deal?
Instead of sitting there at lunch hour fretting, start packing up some of the stuff. I mean for gosh sake, you work at MR, just carry the models into the next office. Clean off a shelf in the supply room and put the models in there. If you don’t figure it out soon Sen. Phil Gramm will be making comments about you.
Dave H.
Go to your local Wal-Mart, Sams Choice, Dicks Sporting Goods, and pickup a bulk pack of “Air Soft Ammo”. Like a couple thousand of em. Find yourself a decent box, pour an amount in that will cover the bottom and give a good “base”. Place locomotives into box as well as any other things you don’t want broken. Gently fill the rest of the box with the pellets and give a small shake now and then to help them settle.
Packing peanuts are too big for locomotives, bubble wrap will wreck the details. The plastic pellets are small enogh to fit around all the little details and grab irons without damaging them.
I generally ship locomotives using this method as well.
Or just let them live on the M,R,&T for a while.
Graniterailroader, where’d you come up w/ that idea. It sounds really neat.
There have been a lot of really silly solutions to your problem offered here, but it should be obvious to everbody that the best solution is to pack them up and ship them to me immediately.
Tom
Go to a place that sells laminate flooring and ask for a hunk of the foam underlay sheet that they use. Use scissors or an knife to cut suitably-sized pieces (for length, I find that an inch or two longer than the car or loco works well, and, for the width, at least four times the height of the model), then place the loco in the centre of the sheet. Grasp both sides of the sheet, lifting the loco in the “cradle” thus formed, and lower it into the open-top original box. Place all of the open-top boxes, one layer deep, into a suitable cardboard carton or plastic container, and, keeping the carton reasonably level, carry it to where you want - another office, your car, etc., etc. As noted, it’s not like this is a cross-country move and you’re not entrusting the handling to baggage handlers or the Post Office. [swg] The material is strong and flat, allowing the trains to sit on their own wheels, and there’s nothing on which to snag details.
Wayne
I just spent an hour staring the process. The “doom” is simply the idea of having to do this at all. My time is much better spent on other things, like sorting the 6,500 railroad photos on my laptop (with Adobe Lightroom).
Techically, I don’t work for MR, I work for Kalmbach and work with all of our magazine staffs on their Web sites. MR’s offices are on a different floor (I’m on first floor, they’re on the second).
OK, I’ll stop whining.
Erik
No doubt! Be glad it’s not that huge Intermodal model complete with container ship and yard that they just showed at the California show.[:D]I bet THAT was a real pain to pack up.
Bergie, it is do-able! When I retired I moved my entire layout, everything on it and all the stuff in my in-progress and pending projects boxes from Saudi Arabia to Maine with almost no damage. What you need:
- Cardboard box
- Styrofoam peanuts
- plastic trash bags, wastebasket size
- Scotch tape
Cut up the plastic bags, wrap them around each model and tape. If anything breaks, it will be retained in the plastic. For fragile things like antennas or mirrors on trucks, place a peanut on either side of the part (outside the bag) and tape.
Use a liberal amount of styro peanuts in the box and carefully bury each bagged in the stryo. Seal the box and take home or some other safe place. If you object to styro peanuts, popcorn is a substitute, also well liked by mice and other critters. [dinner]
My stuff made it across the North Atlantic on a container ship in December (stormy times); how far does your stuff have to go??? [:D] I had almost no damage to small parts and that was easy to repair. The hardest part is any move is starting the packing…
If any of them had a styrafoam backing to them, a la Protos, then all you need to do is cut the notches with a letter-opener for the extra stuff. I had to do that with a BL2 for the vent included in the box
Otherwise, get sone old Athearn boxes and bobblewrap the engines. Place in athearn, tape lid down, stack carefully in a box. If you have anything like computer boxes, they tend to be the right lengeht for HO stuff. Or better yet, a keyboard box that opens like a pizzabox is the right height for an Athearn box. I’m transporting my Spectrum George Washington. in one, though I;m not using athearn bozes or bubble wrap since I;m not as worried about the details.
Try building a crash test suit for an egg. (the classic elementary project) Then you’ll get an idea on how an engine needs to move. If the egg survived a 12 foot fall, en engine will make it through a 12 inch slide in the back seat. Put engines and such on the floorboard. So when/if you have to make a sudden stop for one of the “FREDs” on the street, they’ll already be on the floor. If you have other boxes, seatbelt them in so they don;t hit the box pf trains on the floor as well.
DITTO (where did that nice smiley go???)
There had just been a series of computer upgrades at my company before my move, and I snagged a bunch of keyboard boxes for my rolling stock. Thin bubble wrap on the bottom, cut some cardboard dividiers to separate the cars, foam or styro peanuts between cars to protect the couplers, more bubble on the top. I did wrap the cars in cutup trash bags to retain loose parts if they fell off, but it really was not necessary. The result was NO DAMAGE AT ALL. [:D]
I keep the original boxes for my locomotives.
Bergie,
Why not try the A-Line Hobby Tote system?
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/116-19251
We’ve been using these with great success at our club for several years now (and you don’t have to get the bag, tho’ it’s handy). It’s even better when you get the optional foam blocks and foam sheeting.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/116-19300
What’s nice is that the locos don’t have to rest on their sides, they are to sit on their wheels. Also, the divider boards are short enough so as not to knock off cab window shades.
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
The problem, Bergie, is that you are too emotionally tied up in the models to move them yourself. You need to enlist the help of a trusted friend. Someone who can appreciate the delicacy, the value, the sensitivity of the issue. Someone who themselves has the graceful, practiced and sensitive hands of a brain surgeon as they keep safe your precious treasures. Someone like
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Dave Nelson
Whom you’ll notice, while protecting the bundles of joy, is still flopped over in a pile of snow without snow shoes LOL. (Meant as humor)
Though if you have soemone else do it, and they do hurt the models, then you can cause them excrutiationg pain for the rest of their miserable life!
The time I let Mike touch any of my models would truly be a cold day in… err… Waukesha! [:D]
Good stuff, Dave.
I like the computer keyboard box idea. I’ll have to talk to my friends in IT.
I’ve spent a couple of hours working on the shelfs with the fragile stuff. Not too bad so far… except for the fact that I now have more “stuff” showing up in boxes at home (on the dining room table, mind you).
Erik