The only thing I save boxes for are my high end locomotives on the off chance I would want to sell them. I think those are the only items that would have a high enough resale value that it would be worth my while to keep the original boxes. I just acquired the entire Walthers 20th Century Limited set so I’ll probably keep those boxes as well since the set might have a significant resale value.
I expect that I’ll get carried out of my train room before I’d sell any of my good stuff so the few extra bucks I might get for having the original box a freight car came in is hardly worth the extra space that it would require. I do have a lot of stuff left over from the stone age that eventually I’m going to get around to dumping on e-bay or my LHS consignment shelf. Those boxes are long gone and none of these pieces is going to get me more than a few bucks. If I sell them on e-bay, it will probably be in lots.
I keep all original boxes for two primary reasons:
Since I have temporary small layouts, at any given time I have many of my stock protected in their original boxes in plastic storage bins under beds (locos) and on shelves (rolling stock) in the garage.
Resale value, for me or my heirs “if I should die before I wake”. That’s also why I maintain complete roster inventory on Excel spread sheet hard copies filed with home insurance papers.
Since I’m a pack rat to start with, yes. I keep them to store rolling stock in when they are not out on the layout and also for storing spare parts, etc. A lot of them are Athearn BB but some are yellow boxes from years ago.
My rolling stock is 100% Walthers passenger cars at this point. Their boxes are beautiful, and I keept them all so far - but in reality they are useless once I install grab irons, the cars won’t fit back in. That’s sucks quite a lot actually, because EB and Hiawatha boxes provide great protection and come with a nice sleeve. But Walthers, in their ultimate wisdom, decided to make plastic forms cling closely to the car as it’s shipped, with no grab irons. So now, I have to buy 3rd party HO containers and only keep couple of Walthers boxes for memory sake.
I only throw out the boxes for rolling stock that will be permanently left on the layout. I have thrown out most of my Proto Ontario Northland locomotive boxes as well. Why keep them if I have no intention of selling them in the future. I have kept the boxes for all my other loco’s and passenger equipment as well as anything I take to train shows.
I think many of you are missing the point, here…its not something that can be controlled, with some of us. I certainly realize that it is aberrant behaviour.
I recall reading a book on Astrology, many years back, describing the Leo/Virgo rising personality, and this question appears: Do you realize that not everyone saves nice shoe boxes?
Its even worse when its a possession you’ve really longed for: the box was the first thing you saw, at the hobby shop, so its an integral part of the whole.
With the layout still under construction all but a few of my models are still in their original boxes, organized by car type and stacked so the ends are visible. With a Sharpie I mark a “KD” for those where I have installed Kadee couplers (those that still have horn hooks [!] or Baker couplers [!!!] are kept on a separate shelf with yet to be built kits) and I mark a “W” for those cars I have weighted to NMRA standards. If the car cannot be weighted to standards for whatever reason (empty flat cars for example) I have a line through the W and mark the weight they do have. So at a glance I can see if a car is more or less layout-ready.
One nice feature about the original boxes is if the hobby shop had its name on the price sticker – some hobby shops long gone are represented – and of course the original prices are often good for a laugh (or choked sobbing).
Even odder than keeping the boxes – I keep the original instructions even if for an Athearn bluebox long since assembled!
Every box from every piece of rolling stock and locomotive are put into larger moving boxes bought in Home depot labeled on the outside as to which boxes are inside, just in case I ever sell something I know where the original box is. They are all stored in the loft out in my shop. and some in my attic. Problem is I never sell anything so why in the heck am I keeping all of these boxes? I haven’t got a clue.
For some dopey reason I was even keeping the boxes all the Walther Cornerstone and other structure kits came in, duh? now I just cut the covers off and file the instructions just in case I Need them for reference or something Yeah ok thats what I keep telling myself anyway.
Exactly. And, Dave: that (the instructions) is what is inside all the boxes I’ve stashed in every basement nook and cranny…and I realize doing that is even stranger than saving the box…its not like you could send away to Athearn to shoot you some more PICKLE TANK CAR side braces, like they’ve got a big shelf with them, in their warehouse.
It’d be more like (voice of Athearn employee of ten yrs. tenure)–“you gotta be [kidding]* me…we used to make a pickle tank car??? Was it in the shape of a pickle, like the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile?”
Actually, they’re still making the pickle car, in both open- and closed-side versions, I believe, and selling them as part of their Roundhouse r-t-r line. I have one of the original open-sided cars (sorry, no photo) and the braces are easy to make from .015" music wire - cut to length with a cut-off disc in your Dremel.
Hey, thanks for that great tip…its LOW on my priority list, as I still feel a little like a [twit]* for having bought two pickle cars in the first place. I recall them being on sale for around $1.50 (and I’ll readily admit I’d buy the two of them again, at such a price.)
But now that retirement looms so close, I will, indeed, eventually get back around to seeing those weird freight cars, and wanting to spiff them back up (with new braces, made from music wire…which I assume I can get from a musical instruments store)
Next big project after that will be to scratch build some sort of industry, to justify having that rolling stock on the rails.
For that price, who could resist? [swg] Mine’s currently used as a water car for work trains. Any well-stocked hobby shop should have various sizes of music wire in stock, but a music store will, too: it’s also known as piano wire.
This is partly Walthers and partly scratchbuilt, but with suitable signs, I suppose it would make a decent relish works. [(-D] Of course, then you’ll have to buy relish-service boxcars. [:-^]
Nice looking industrial corner…and, assuming that is a mainline running between the loco and the boxcars, it hides the curve quite well.
Wouldn’t it be great if we all had access to a long, narrow space, so we didn’t have to do any curves at ALL? Its always the most “giveaway” spot on a layout.
One of the big inspirations for me, in this hobby, was to visit the L.A. County Museum and drool over what must have been a 200 foot long shelf display, that disappeared into the wall at both ends. It was in O scale, yet was only two rails, and someone had done a spectacular job of making it all look real…especially compared to what I’d done with my LIONEL set, at that point (where all the scenery looked amazingly like a RUG.)
To view such a big display at eye level, was the other jawdropper. (Of course, now that I think about it, “eye level” back then, would be WAIST level, now.)
Athearn / TM / Ulrich – yes, or at least a supply of them. Great boxes to store a LOT of things in; they make good paint booth stands; and they are good for presents. MANY of my Christmas and birthday persents came in Athearn boxes. Maybe ONE was actually a kit, the rest just used the box.
I do keep most of the Loco boxes, especially the brass and Broadway. Most of the rest get the labeled ends torn off to mark the spot in the storage tray. I put the reporting marks on the end if it is not there already, and date ‘built’ on the back side.
It is interesting to look at some of the older ends and realize the discount pricing I got – $1.75 instead of $1.95. And it still took a couple months to save up those quarters.
You’re correct: that is the mainline bisecting the plant. It leads to an interchange track on the opposite side of the aisle, accessible via a lift-out. Here’s a view from the opposite direction:
…and another showing, just barely, the entry door to the layout room:
Also on the opposite side of the aisle is a run-through track for continuous running, seldom used unless visitors just want to see a train run. Otherwise, the layout is point-to-point-to-point for operation.
Box saver? Me?? Absolutely…Expect I not only have boxes for my rolling stock and locos, I have the boxes for turnouts, the DCC system, structures as well as the everyday dishes and glassware, the teakettle, coffee maker, stereo components, DVD players, speakers etc etc etc. My reasoning? Well, in case I move, which I seem to do about every 10 years I can pack everything back into its original box, move it, unpack and, yes, save the box. Could I be OCD???
Us N scalers have it easy… I have boxes from locos that were made before I was born! One good med. moving box and some clever tetris-style stacking, and it’s all packed away until I move again