i need to pack my cars away for a move. i have many of the boxes. brass locos have foam cutout boxes. other loco boxes have molded plastic or styrene foam inserts. i’m wondering about the boxes the cars came in
i seem to recall the car kits having some crunched up paper filler (which i threw out). when i re-pack my cars, should i add some cruched up paper or is it really unnecessary?
I am guessing you are working with HO scale models.
on the brass painted loco’s I think the paper was to protect the paint from the foam? On thoes I would use tissue paper to protect the paint.
On rolling stock I don’t think you would need it- Seems like the paint on factory painted plastic models, the paint is tougher. On the brass with foam, I think the MFG was protecting the paint from foam in case there was a chemical reaction from the foam. JMO
Woodone is correct. For brass the tissue paper is to isolate the paint from the plastic and in turn the box foam which can react and damage the painted surface.
For rolling stock, I would suggest ssomething to keep the cars from moving length ways and damaging the coupler. Paper, foam, whatever.
I use bubble wrap. There are some that have had trouble with that but no one knows why, I beleive that it is packing before the paint cures and with acylics this can take a lot of time. In thicker paintings in the art world, that can take years, even in the hobby world 6 weeks is proubly what you need depending on conditions.
As long as the material has some give, it really doesn’t matter. But it needs to fill the empty space in the box completely (at least sufficiently) to keep the car in place. No sliding around.
I’ve seen those plastic retail or grocery bags crumpled up pretty tightly and used as packing material.
I used to pack cars in the boxes they came in, wrapping them up with a paper towel. Problem was that I had to take couplers off the longer Athearn cars because the boxes were too short.
Now I use Axian Technology storage boxes and carry bags. They’re a bit pricey, but they provide good protection and the bag makes it easy to carry them with you. Here’s their website: Model Railroading Storage Boxes (axiantech.com)
For rolling stock with fragile details, such as brake wheels above the roofline, I use white glue to add a slightly over-size block of soft foam to the car’s box - note how the sides of the box are bulging somewhat…
Once the box lid is put in place, the foam will compress enough to keep the car from moving around inside the box. If necessary, add an elastic band to ensure that the lid stays in place.
For really fragile stuff, like these tank cars from Tangent, I use soft foam, cemented in place, and shaped to accommodate each particular item, placing the car on a sheet of foam material (it’s sometimes used as a packing material, but I have some that’s used as underlay for laminate flooring, which is a little stronger)…
…when the second car is placed in the box, with its wheels against the cardstock divider, and the lid put in place, neither car will move, even if you shake the box…of course, while holding the box’s lid in place.
For passenger cars and locomotives, I get produce boxes, with lift-off lids, from the supermarket…
…then use corrugated cardboard and a hot glue gun to fabricate compartmented trays, which can be stacked in the boxes…
While the box shown above is merely for storage under the layout, I’d add crushed tissue or paper towelling to prevent end-wise movement if I were transporting those cars.
The procedure is similar for locomotives, but
I’ll affirm that.
You never know how much impact shock from what direction from which pothole these things are going to encounter in transit.
And then there are drops and falls.
(don’t ask me why I’m saying that, it will force me to lie to protect my ego) [;)]
Good points. Keep in mind that most of what I offered shows storage boxes, but for transporting such items, some sort of cushioning might need to be added, to prevent movement inside the box.
Wayne
Over the last 4 months I’ve wrapped about 225 pieces of loco/cars as I removed them from the layout and staging, etc. before I took down the layout.
Subsequently, I’ve removed about 150 or so as they sold, and then I packed them for shipping. So far, no damage has been reported.
Everything shipped so far fit in the original boxes. Each loco and passenger car had secure factory packaging and I only had to add a piece of plain paper towel here and there.
For the freight cars, I wrapped each with a sheet of plain paper towel, put in the box, and then added wadded up toweling to the empty spaces. Once you lay out the towels and set up, this process goes pretty fast.
My challenge will be coming up soon, when I offer up various cars with loads and such that won’t allow them to fit in the factory boxing. As shown above, I’m sure I’ll be doing similar - custom building cardboard boxes to the size of the car, and of course still using those paper towels w/o color designs.
Bubble wrap is cheap and easy to purchase. Most vendors I order from on the HO swap site use it. Most cars only need one layer of covering. You can either tape the bundle or not.
Greg, are you moving South? Have you had enough of the cold?
You say this is for a move, not for storage.
This is how I did it when I moved to my house 21 years ago.
Package each freight car in a 1 gallon food grade zipper baggie. This gives the paint OK protection, and if any parts come loose, they will be in the bag with the car they go with.
Place the cars in large cardboard moving boxes with foam packing peanuts all around each car in its baggie. Foam peanuts are available from U-Haul in big bags for less than $10.00, so this is not expensive.
Label each box clearly with the contents. Maybe even buy red tape to seal these boxes.
Unpack as soon as you can. This is a moving solution, not a long-term storage solution. Leaving the cars in the baggies without the weight on the wheels for a long time can cause some bad things to happen.
This worked for me with no damage to any freight car.
-Kevin