One of these threads I DIDN’T respond on? Amzing! I started with boxes like the Zian ones, but soon found that storing stuff on its side was just bad. No problem with things like Accurail and Athearn hoppers with molded on detail, but forget locos (pnety of bent handrails later…) and finer cars with fine detail like P2K tank cars. I have since switches to the ones you get from A-Line, where everything stands upright. Several shows back and forth plus a move, and all is well with my models, even the more fragile ones. The Axian ones I gave to the club - we have well over 100 Athearn/Accurail/Bowser hoppers to stock the coal yard with - and form the 100+ car train we occasionally run.
Intook big plastic tubs and built cartridges out of quarter inch ply. Lined it with that 1/8 inch foam. The cars stand upright. Foam is used to take up the space at the ends that reuslts from the various car lengths vs the cartridge length. Holds a lot of cars but is good and strong. For moving. They have gone through a move and came out mint
Nice is good, are they economical? Eventually I’m going to need some storage boxes for some of my more fragile engines. The Spring Creek boxes are good for models that are more robust like Walthers, many Athearn, Accurail, MDC etc.
I have a shelves full of these Sterilite plastic drawers. Each drawer can hold a ream of paper.
They can hold several cars each standing on their wheels. I use either green foam padding that was made for moving dishes or white foam padding that was made for shipping. I seem to have a lot of it from buying things on eBay. I use it on the bottom and also cut strips to go between the cars or locomotives. Sometimes I use the black foam that came with Athearn kits. I also use the shipping boxes I get eBay items in. The small Priority boxes work good for trailers and containers. Cardboard boxes that routers and computer keyboards came in I also use.
I’ve been on the fence for years to save the box’s the locos. and rolling stock came in or get rid of them. They do take up lots of room. I just can’t get rid of them. Whether or not a box for the item will matter in the future when I sell or stuff goes to auction I do not know. I see no difference at sales/auctions at this time for HO and N bringing more money for boxed items.
I use Spring Mills Depot (larger of the two) and Axian Technology Inc. (smaller of the two) neither are cheep, I buy them at shows, two or three at a time. These boxs come in handy when I want to change whats on the layout and want to change eras (pre PennCentral).
I found plastic boxes at Target with drawers in them that I mounted to the wall out in my shop and keep my freight cars in. For my engines I use fishing tackle boxes that I bought at Walmart. Of course we’re talking N scale here…
I just ordered mine as well as some extra foam and supplies, direct.
For unbuilt stuff, or that which can fit in the riginal box, I use plastic totes to contain. I’m still thinking on what to do for active models that might not be on the layout (such as cars ‘picked up’ at an interchange. I was going to use those plastic Sterlite drawers but the don’t operate very smoothly and the cars tend to bounce around even when wrapped in shop toweling (don’t use paper towels, they leave paper dust all over the model, the heavier duty shop towels provide more cushion and don’t seem to leave remnents). Depending on where these locations will by, I may end up building my own drawers into the layout using high quality ball bearing slides.
The A-Line boxes are for long term storage and transporting the equipment I take to club shows. There is, I think on the A-Line page, a PDF showing how to build a cart that holds the A-Line boxes, I think originally built by Jim Six or Jim Providenza (one of the Jims, I’m pretty sure) which is another option.
A guy at the club gets what I call pizza boxes, they’ll hold 20 full length passenger cars, it has five stalls each stall can hold four cars, two sets side by side and stacked.
I figure you could get 12, 40 ft boxcars in each stall.
Just don’t follow those metrics if your rolling stock has fragile details added to it. If they do only have cars laid on their sides and stacked two tall.
Modern packaging that is designed to not put pressure on fragile detail parts. For diesels, Atlas now screws the model into the plastic box liner so that the handrails never contact anything. Every new run locomotive I have seen in recent memory has had some sort of foam between the handrail and the hood.
The packaging that has come from the manufacturer for my newest locomotives has all been just amazing. The thought that goes into protecting the fragile model is impressive.
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For the OP who needs inexpensive boxes to store rolling stock, I like ther cardboard boxes designed to hold baseball cards. I think the boxes for 500 cards are perfect for an HO freight car. These are very similar to the newer plain white cardboard boxes that Funaro & Camerlengo and Intermountain use for their undecorated freight car kits.
