I seeking advise and experience on those that transport their rolling stock and locomotives from venue to venue. What methods and products work the best to keep the fragile parts and expensive items from breaking during transport?
GoleyC
Most of the guys in my club use the hobby tote system. It is a bit pricy but very good in protecting whats inside.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/116-19255
I made my own out of thin foam and a box I got at Staples called a bankers box. I used foam core board as dividers.
Pete
I got one of those grey plastic totes you can buy at Wal-Mart for $4.96 and then got some thin black foam and some balsa wood and I mad shelves inside of the tote, I put the engines in the bottom and then each layer above has a balsa wood shelf for the foam to lay on and provide stability as I place my rolling stock inside. I have two totes one is used only to carry passenger car and the other one has the engines and freight cars. Makes it easier to carry and store while at a venue. SteamDemon
Thanks for the feedback. I think I"ll try the plastic tote first since that will be the most inexpensive route to go first and if that doesn’t work out well, then I"ll go with the other more costly route.
If the plastic tote doesn’t work out, with the Walters totes, on average how many cars can fit in there?
Goley,
I use Axian Technology storage boxes. They’re made out of cardboard with foam padding to keep everything from shifting. They even give you additional foam inserts for customizing, as well as a label to label what’s inside.
The boxes will store up 16 - 40’ boxcars/20 - 55-ton hoppers. Granted, they aren’t inexpensive but they do do a very good job of cushioning items.
If you end up using them for long storage, the manufacturer suggests - as a precautionary measure - that you line the boxes with either thin plastic (e.g. like a dry cleaning bag) or tissue paper. According to Axian’s insert, there has been rare cases where the foam can stick to painted rolling stock or locomotives when sitting for long periods of time.
I picked up a couple of packs of tissue paper @ Michael’s for <$2. I overlap a couple of sheets on the bottom and over the top of the contents and that seems to do the trick.
Hope that helps…
Tom
I use cardboard boxes with a hinged lid (some call them sample or display boxes). I lined them and subdivided them with foam rubber about 1/4 inch thick. I obtained this foam padding from a carpet store. This is not the typical carpet padding that is made of recylced foam pieces. It is a better quality unbroken foam.
What ever type of box you use I would recommend always using a thin piece of plastic around each car. As already has been mentioned it protects against the foam sticking to the model, but it also protects any delicate pieces from snagging on the foam as you put the model in or take it out of the box. For the plastic I use a new paint drop cloth that I cut up.
I can definitely concur with Tom; the storage boxes offered by Axian Tech ( www.axiantech.com ) are superior to anything else in the way of inexpensive carrying cases, offering very good protection and transportability for your HO, or N, models. See their ad in the November MR on page 24, upper left corner.
However, from experience in doing train shows for many years in conjunction various clubs’ modular layouts, I really don’t recommend lugging your best equipment around from one show to the next. You’ll almost certainly end up damaging at least a few treasured items in the end. It’s far better to choose some of your second tier equipment, or even a specific set of rollingstock you can dedicated to just running at shows.
CNJ831
I basically bring the same stuff to the shows I go to. I keep everything in it’s original packaging and transport it all in photocopy paper boxes.
For cars, I use tubs with flip-top lids (so they don’t get lost) and soda flats, the card board trays under 24 packs.
!(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x218/MFJ_album/Model trains/8-2-09049.jpg)
This box has 6 layers of soda flats. They hold 10 50 foot cars, or various combinations of different sized cars. The cars I haul around are less detailed (Accurail, Athearn, MDC, older Walthers, Atlas Trainman, etc.) with less stuff to break off. The fancier cars and cabooses go back in the original boxes. The tub has some extra room to slide a few of these in.
Engines go back in their original box, or an Athearn box with foam in it, when the original P2K box is too big. When I go to a big show (Trainfest) I end up taking 4-5 tubs of stuff, plus toolboxes, food, etc. It’s kind of a big deal.