How do you store the locomotives that you are not using? I am modeling HO scale diesel and I cant have all my locomotives on my layout at once and I was looking for ideas on storage. I don’t like to put them back in their boxes due to small details getting damaged or the plastic handrails pushed in and I will often switch or rotate them on and off the layout quite frequently. It seems to be a pain taking them in and out of the boxes. I have been using plastic slide drawers with foam on the bottom setting the locomotives on their wheels inside the drawer and this works OK but I was wondering what everyone else uses, thanks.
I had some unused wall space. I bought 4 shelf hangers and laid a piece of 2 inch foam on top (2x8 in my case) I them laid a bunch of flex track I bought at a garage sale and some old turnouts and had a nice yard. It holds a lot of stuff. I later connected it to the layout, but that only half works as a staging yard. I may ad a second level to hold more stuff.
I use a couple of those smaller plastic storage tubs with the locking lids. (from Wally World) I try and put them back in the boxes too if detail permits.
I pick up a few small cardboard boxes from the coffee machines at work. They’re big enough to hold any engines or rolling stock, and I can put in spacers to separate individual items. Still, they’re small enough (about 8x8x16) that I don’t end up with a whole bunch of things in one box. I stick with the same size boxes all the time, so they’ll stack nicely, and I can find which ones I want from labels on the sides.
I’ve also picked up a couple of computer keyboard boxes. These are very flat, so they hold a single layer of rolling stock without taking up a lot of extra space, and when I open the box everything is right there in one layer.
Since our display case isn’t quite finished, we store all ours in those cardboard train cases…We’re hoping to have them in their new home soon.
i store my locos below the layout
http://www.joe-daddy.com/1-mrr/images/Layouts/Jeff/PICT7393_18.jpg
I built a display rack for mine that hangs on my bedroom wall. It gives me space to store up to 36 locomotives.
I made some drawers with dividers with foam rubber glued to the divider sides,with a space just wider then a locomotive, the foam protects the finish.
Must have a too small of a layout.
I have a couple of extra drill tracks and the round house track and still short of space. Since I’m still testing the track work I will run different ones around to check how each handle the circuit. Still a few spots to recheck and fix.
I have been storing mine in the orig boxes for years. When I move to my “permanent” retirement home, I plan on shallow drawers with labels. A couple of years ago, I saw a perfect set of drawers in Ikea. it was about 12" wide, 16" deep, and 3’ high - the drawers were about 2 to 2 1/2" deep - perfect for HO![8D]
Mine have been on a glass shelf above the layout (gives a nice view from a low angle, too). I’ll be moving the layout soon, but not the glass shelf, so I’ll have to come up with something different. Good to see the different ideas here.
I use the bottom (drawer section) of an ancient china cabinet and the drawer section of an cheap, old desk, both on rollers, under the staging yard portion of the layout. The locos are stored upright on the clean paper drawer liner with a piece of paper toweling folded loosly between them lest they scratch or snag.
I’ve had bad luck with foam under oily mechanisms. It once made a hard glop that had to be removed from wheels, sideframes and gearboxes with a wire wheel. I have heard of fellows having similar problems with a rubber-like mesh liner material sold for kitchen drawers.
Cars are stored the same way but can be stored in two layers by putting a layer of crumpled paper towels on top of a layer of cars, placing a cardboard divider the same size as the drawer on top of that, then starting the second layer. This is in HO. I’d be concerned about the weight of a second layer of O scale cars.
I rarely store two layers. I plan to soon get around to a regular schedule of rotating one or two tracks of the staging yard through the drawers each month.
I store the operable rolling stock that won’t fit on the (at present mostly unbuilt) layout in cassettes - lengths of steel stud material with flex track laid (on thin foam with latex caulk) on the inside, rain gutter fashion. One of my storage yards has a ‘ferry slip’ where one end of a cassette can be connected to the fixed rail to transfer cuts (or complete short trains) from layout to cassette or vice versa. There is a simlar ‘ferry slip’ at the end of the main line connection to my ‘end of the railroad’ module.
The cassettes vary in length from 27" (handles a teakettle steamer and five four-wheel wagons) to 48" (12 wagons, with a thin foam ‘cork’ in each end.) The ones I use most are 40" long - just right for a one meter length of Shinohara flex track. Empties are stacked wherever. Loaded cassettes are racked on shelf brackets on the wall across from the ‘ferry slip,’ which is inaccessible for railroad building (personnel door at one end, hot water heater and backup refrigerator at the other - yes, I could build bridges, but it would be too much effort for too little gain.)
The nice thing about cassettes is that they are roll on/roll off - models untouched except for an uncoupling probe to open the Kadees if the whole train isn’t going on the cassette.
Hope this has been helpful.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I am thinking about glueing small track sections down on the inside of a drawer to store locomotives in so that the wheels stay on the tracks and not on plastic or rubber material. I was also thinking of using Woodland scenics track bed pads.
D&HRR,
I stored my locos in their boxes for several years. A real pain when I wanted to switch engines. Because my grandson is always switching things around and getting the engines out of the boxes was sometimes difficult to do without damaging them, I had to find a better way.
I switched to the plastic tub storage containers. I lined them with bubble wrap and made trays for a second layer out of corrugated cardboard and more bubble wrap. This worked for awhile but became cumbersome as more locos were added to the roster and my desk/workbench became cluttered with spare locos.
After several mishaps I decided on wall mounted storage. The shelf below is the result.
I made the self out of 1/2-inch red oak plywood. All of the joints are glued and screwed. It is a lot stronger than it looks. I intended to close in the back with a sheet of styrene, but never got around to it. It wouldn’t be much of a trick to attach sliding doors. But because it is mounted behind a door I decided against it.
As you can see the loco shelf is full. Time to build another one! And maybe several more for the rolling stock. The plastic tubs are still a pain.
More details on my web site. Link is in my signature. Just push the What’s New Button and look for the loco shelf thumbnail.
Wall mounted oak display cases with clear glass or acrylic doors. The larger one has groves in the wood shelves for wheels, I put flex track on the shelves of the other one.I found I needed one just for the Thomas stuff and the steamers.
Tilden
I am taking the same approach and have a helix down to the lower level. I haven’t quite finished the lower level yet because it would likely interfere with me completing the wiring for buildings and such underneath the layout. How do you contend with needing to get underneath the layout without the lower level blocking access ? Do you have a track down to the lower level or move rolling stock and locomotives by hand ?
I went a similar route. Mines not as big or as nice but it serves the purpose.
There’s two lengths of flex track on each shelf.
My layout is 20X30 and I just have too many locomotives to have them on all at once. I have been collecting locomotives for many decades and I have a grand total of 476 (give or take some not completed with details yet), all diesels with about 80% being Atlas. I have always had the passion of building, painting and detailing locomotives and that seems to be the strong point of my interests. I do like to work on the layout and scenery but everyone has a strong point of interest in this hobby, mine being diesels.
About half of mine are stored in their original boxes but the rest are stored in these.
You can pick these up at Home Depot or Canadian Tire and they seem to be on sale every other month. I’ve got 5 of them(back row, right hand side) and store 6 locomotives in each of the top two drawers. The rest of the drawers I use to store supplies like ballast, scenery materials, switches, decoders etc. I’ve got 3 of the big drawers packed full of trucks, trailers and automobiles and I big drawer full of DPM buildings. They come with wheels so they move around very easily and keep everything inside dust free. They fit very nicely under the layout as well.