I am looking for a rolling stock storage product called Collectors Protection System. It’s been a long time since I have seen these in the LHS. This is basically a flat cardboard box with dividers, about 16" x 32". The box says Hampton Hobby Products of Allison Park PA.
Does anyone have any info on this product or a good substitute [?]
Thanks for any help
Jim
A-Line makes ‘Hobby Tote’ storage containers in several sizes and they even have nylon transport bags for them. Walthers sells them:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/116-19255
Jim
I work in a big office environment. I pick up the keyboard boxes from the computers when I see them in the hall. These boxes are fairly solid, low and flat. I find they are great for storing most rolling stock and locomotives. Of course, the ones in storage aren’t the nice highly-detailed ones, so for that you’d probably want to add some spacers to the inside.
Well ALL of my cars and locomotives are vauable at today’s prices.[swg]
Those keyboard boxes sounds like excellent storage boxes…[tup]
IIRC that’s what I used when I moved last summer. They come in a BIG cardboard box with enough material inside to make 10 of the storage boxes. They come flat, you have to assemble them and put in the dividers. I thought it worked well, you can adjust the dividers to accomodate cars and engines of different sizes. I think I ordered mine directly from the company but it’s been a while now so not sure…I think I saw an ad in MR??
That sounds like the ones I have. Your right, they used to be in MR. The LHS broke them up and sold the boxes individually for around $5 I believe. I bought 6 and should have gotten more. What I liked about them was the cost. I really don’t need a blankie and pillow (foam lining) for the cars. They are only sitting under the layout.
Jim
For storing my rolling stock, I bought those plastic rolling drawers from Staples and lined the bottom with either bubble wrap or rubber shelf/drawer liner material. I stored my old HO trains this way and when I converted to N scale, I did the same, I just could hold more trains per drawer:)
The bottom drawer holds all my locomotives, the next one holds all my boxcars/reefers, another holds all autoracks, another all intermodal, another drawer all passenger cars, etc.
I make my own storage boxes out of boxes I get from work. Since I don’t have a permanent layout at the moment, I need to keep my cars stored someplace. I used to keep them in their original boxes, but they had no padding for the most part and took up a lot of space. I had looked into the hobby tote system from A-Line and some other similar ones, but found that they are too pricey.
So I made mine: The first image is of the empty box from work and some extra styrofoam I saved from when I bought my bed rails. The box is approximately 12 1/4" by 12 1/2" and about 5 1/2" deep. The second image is the front of the box. I can come up with about 2 or 3 of these boxes a week from work. In the third image, you can see the box cars nicely stored and although you can’t see it, they are double stacked with foam in between layers to provide extra padding. I have 16 box cars stored in this particular box, they are 50’ HO box cars BTW. There is also a cardboard cut to fit into the box to provide a more sturdy support in between the car layers. I cut the foam to fit into the box and in between the cars so that there is minimal movement in side while I move the box. All in all, I pretty much paid zero for these storage boxes.
During my recent move I wanted to pack and transport all my train stuff myself. I found two sources of boxes that are for me just right for storing/moving rolling stock. First. I needed some “unusual” size boxes - I went to ebay. There are a couple of sellers that specialize in boxes - in more sizes than I imagined. Although you have to buy a quantity, even with shipping they came in at less than going to a office store. 2, 3, or 4 inch high boxes work best, depending on the scale modeled. The second source was U-hall, not for boxes, but the boxes they sell the packing paper in. After fininishing packing, I noticed that the packing paper box appeared to be just the right size for HO rolling stock. If you know someone that is moving, check it out. I also like the idea of keyboard boxes, saw several being tossed at work the other day.
To divide out the boxes I use poster board bent sorta like an accordian.