Looking For Input On My Category Ideas For My Excel Inventory List

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello everyone,

I am working on creating a Excel Inventory list for my model railroadng equipment and keeping track of it. I have some category ideas, such as keeping track of what and how much I paid for. Do have a look and please tell me what you think and what I should add or remove.

  1. Manufacturer.
  2. Locomotive Type & Class.
  3. Livery & Lettering.
  4. Real Prototype Manufacturer - Examples being GE, Baldwin, Lima etc.
  5. Real life length.
  6. Scale Length, and scale ratio.
  7. What hobbyshop, online retailor, or model train show I might this from.
  8. The price and what countrys dollars I bought it in, and translated to my countries dollars, and the extra amout I had to pay.
  9. Shipping, taxs and tarrifs payed.
  10. Rolling stock and type (include if piece was ex road)
  11. If locomotive was installed with DCC, or DCC ready. Also include what make of decoder installedIf I tell a piece of equipment, how much did I sell for it, and how much did I loose? Also include shipping to customer who bought it from me.
2

My sheet just has:

  1. ROADNAME

  2. REPORTING MARKS

  3. CAR NUMBER

  4. BASE KIT MANUFACTURER

That is all I need to know. I see no point in keeping track of where an item was purchased, or how much I paid.

-Kevin

3

you really don’t want to know how much you have invested in the hobby, lol

4

I see no point in keeping track of stuff liek shipping and tariffs. I do record purchase price if I remember it.

Other important info - coupler type, weight. wheel type, wheel manufacturer, truck type, truck manufacturer.

Pretty much everything is neatly in Dave Husman’s Access database. It’s called Car Card Generator buit it also inventories everything - locos, rolling stock, structuures, etc. and has handy reports including a simplified list to take to train shows to avoidf buying duplicate equipment. Older versions didn;t have this built in so I made my own.

–Randy

5

Coupler type: All Kadee

Weight: Under 50’: 4 ounces. 50’: 5 ounces. Over 50’: 6 ounces

Wheel type: All RP-25

Wheel manufacturer: All Kadee

Truck type: 90% Bettendorfs or ASF Ride Control (I can’t tell these two apart)

Truck manufacturer: All Kadee

No need for me to keep track of any of these.

-Kevin

6

You have lots of data points rolled into the same field, which will make them less useful for figuring anything out, to make it worthwhile, you need to break the individual data elements out.

A lot depends on what the purpose of the database is for. This seems to be an financial profit and loss balance sheet rather than “model railroad” inventory. The entire thing appears to be about the cost or value rather than the use. That’s fine, but I can’t really offer too much advice on whether these are the right fields because most the of the databases I’ve built were for model railroad, rather than financial, purposes.

7

Spread sheet software makes me nuts…

I have a simple list typed up in a word doc that is easy to edit.

I have no interest in automaticly calculated totals…

It is broken down first by roadname, then by car/locomotive type, then each item is listed with the following data on a single line:

Road number

Description

Prototype year of manufacture

Color/scheme

Model manufactrurer

Model part number

Aprox cost/value

Availablity code - is it ready for the layout, or still to be built.

I have separate data on locos which documents more detailed prototype info, modifications, measured specs and performance testing.

Sheldon

8

I see. I should have mentioned this (as my screen kept disappearing to the left and deleting my progress) but I want to keep track, to see ho pricing changes and flucuates, as I wish to compare the retail price of say, a walthers goldline autorack to its model train show price.

Prehaps I should leave that work to keeping invoices and something else.

9

Well I don’t know where you are, or what kind of train shows you have/had in your area, but tracking train show prices vs retail prices is true folly.

Train show prices are based on the individual situation of the seller. Some are serious businesses trying to make a profit.

Other sellers are just in the “train show” business as a “hobby”, not really needing to make money.

Others are people just getting rid of stuff they no longer want.

Some are true “junk” collectors in the “yard sale” business.

Fact is today, most new product can be had for 20% to 30% off retail, sometimes more.

Why worry too much about that?

Other fact you should understand, you are young correct? Adjusted for inflation, and considering the improvements in quality and detail, model trains cost the same or less today than what they ever have in the last 50 years - trust me, I was behind the counter of a hobby shop selling them 50 years ago, and I know what wages were 50 years ago…

Sheldon

10

I guess I am doing this all wrong. I only have the four columns, and never wanted to keep track of anything else.

-Kwevin

11

Here’s a screen capture of the spreadsheet I created to produce car cards for my layout. Minimal info, but enough to adequately describe things for operators to identify. Info can be sorted and arranged using the usual spreadsheet commands. I suppose I could have gone gung-ho and included all kinds of additional info, but I can always add more columns later if I ever get some spare time.

Regarding the first few entries in the table . . . Atlas produced the Omya pressure-aide hoppers in only two road numbers. I wanted more than two, so there are some duplicates. Happens a few times elsewhere farther down in the spreadsheet (doesn’t show up on this screen capture).

Robert

12

That information would be very useful for model railroad operations. Minimal, and not cluttered.

I do not understand why someone would want to keep track of all the purchase prices, shipping, taxes, tarriffs, tips, discounts, coupons, and so on.

I do not have a budget for the trains. Sometimes I have money for them, other times I do not. I really do not want to ever look at exactly how much I have spent in the past 35 years.

-Kevin

13

I tend to get carried away when making spreadsheets, for most any purpose. For the ones I make and find most useful, I would agree - less is more.

The spreadsheet I use most often is for my budget - or more correctly, expense tracking. I have a broad category for “Recreation and Hobby”, which includes RR stuff, but also everything else spent on fun and games.

I don’t want to break it down further. Being retired and single, I only have to answer to myself, but it is insightful to see what’s spent on stuff overall. Have some heavy months, have some light months.

14

I agree with Kevin. All you really need is the model rr manufacturer, car type, railroad name, car number and description. I do add the manufacturer style number to avoid duplicates. For engines, I add the wheel arrangement (4-8-4 – for diesels I add what type – GP40). That’s all I need. All rolling stock has Kadee couplers and metal wheels. I don’t need to know what I spent or what the going market rate is at a particular time.

When it’s my time to go to that freight yard in the sky, my nephew gets it all. Let him worry about it!

Neal

15

I fiqure I broke even over the years hobby wise. Data base only needs type, make, number and if you want cost, include everything.

16

I have a spreadsheet, but the important things are road name and road number. I bring a copy along to train shows… Remember those?

I don’t want duplicate road numbers. I have enough of those. I have been increasing my supply of home-road boxcars, and fortunately Accurail comes out with another Milwaukee boxcar about once a year, so knowing what I already have comes in handy.

My locomotive roster includes decoder type and I’ve added CV settings in case I ever have to reset them.

17

I have yet to make a spreadsheet for my freight/passenger cars, but here’s mine for my locomotives:

Brand - engine manufac

Prototype - loco company, loco class, wheel configuration

Number - road number

Steam/Diesel

Orig/Ebay - market price for the engine at the time of purchase. Original is Hobby shop price, Ebay is the average used price

Sale price - how much I paid, and notes if it came with sound/dcc, or other things

Mechanical (if it runs) - marked green if runs fine, light green/orange means it needs upgrades( gearbox, motor, etc)

Detail/Paint - marked green if its fine, light green/orange if it needs paint, or additional detail

DCC/Sound - whether if it has DCC or Sound. Orange if current decoder is unsatisfactory, and may want replacement.

Lights - if the engine has incandecent bulbs, or otherwise unsatisfactory lights. Working LEDs gets the green.

Coupler - proper coupler height, and kadees gets the green.

Keep - Green if I plan to keep the engine for the foreseeable future.

Sell? - temporary column, helps me determine which engines I care for the least and are candidates for selling. Usually these were impulse buys

Modifications- green are things I’ve already done, blue are things still yet to be done.

If all columns (“mech” through “keep”) are green, then the entire row turns green.

this isnt my entire list (I also have a list for locos I sold with sale price), but it gives a good idea. I like to keep track of everything I’ve worked on an engine, so its a bit more detailed and confusing than most. But it works for me!

Charles

18

1 - can be helpful to identify what you have

2 - if you’re rostering locos, important

3 - optional/not required. Probably best in an optional “note” field

4 - optional/interesting but not required unless you’re trying to make sure

5 - if I record length, i usually record the “scale” length. (The difference between a 40’ and 50’ boxcar makes more sense than 6 or 7 1/4 inches…)

6 - I don’t get this. Scale ratio? Unless you’re building multiple layouts in multiple scales, this would all be the same. If you are doing multiple scales, make a copy of the document/sheet and track HO and N etc. separately.

7 - who cares

8 - could be good for insurance purposes to ballpark things, but your “replacement” value ten years from now w

19

And some are just out to lunch…

20

The only reason I keep track of what I paid for something was for insurance purposes. I have pictures of most of my engines, and can correlate the pictures to the spreadsheet. My biggest fear is if there was a fire, and being able to prove my loss.