Hi All: I tried looking this up on the search function. I received 7,222 Pages and 72,218 Items. Most of the replies that I read, were older than 2010, and were repetitive, and didn’t mention actually wrapping the cars in something to protect them.
I want to store some of my rolling stock. Mostly freight Cars, I have several boxes to store them in, but what do I use to wrap them in without it sticking to the cars, or marking The finish on them?
Each box will hold about 10 cars–depending on their size, and I want to store them for I don’t know how long at this time. Doing some remodeling in and around the train room. I though of bubble wrap, but read somewhere not to use it, don’t remember why.
I don’t know why you were told to not use bubble wrap, but that’s what I would think of first. The bubble wrap with very small bubbles, not the large ones that would take up so much room. I don’t think there’s anything in bubble wrap that would damage or mar the rolling stock over a long period of storage.
One thing I would avoid is the spongy foam material used as cushioning by Bachmann and some other manufacturers in their original boxes. The current formulation may be okay but some of the early foam packaging I have dealt with deteriorates over time and turns into a sticky goo. In one case, the foam packaging for a Japanese HO scale brass steam locomotive manufactured shortly after World War 2 was stuck to the model so bad that it had actually eaten into the brass.
I’ve even encountered some styrofoam peanuts that deteriorate, probably because of EPA rulings.
Hey, I’ve got some long term experience on this problem! Having had a large amount of RR cars - at one point well over 600 - and either not having a layout or layouts that could only handle a portion of the total, I’ve had a storage problem since the early 1970s.
Most of my long term cars are Athearn BB (or similar). When built, almost all of them would fit in the original boxes. My packing material of choice was plain white paper towels. Typically one wrap of the car was enough, and torn in half paper towels rolled up would be stuck in the open areas.
Those that wouldn’t fit in the original boxes were wrapped in paper towels and put in plastic storage boxes.
The boxes have always had a home on closet shelves. And with the rooms climate controlled, I have no problems with rust or the like. Yes, the typical 30-35 year old paper towels have yellowed a bit, but there has been no harm to the cars in any way.
I use Axian Technology (and most recently A-Line) storage tote boxes for storing my rolling stock and locomotives. The Axian boxes are lined with foam and provide very good support for it’s contents However, Axian also suggests - as a precaution - to lay either white tissue paper or dry cleaning bags between the foam and your rolling stock or locomotive - i.e. in the outside chance that the foam might stick to any painted surfaces.
I don’t know if bubble wrap would leach or degrade after awhile and you’d run the risk of ruining your locomotives and rolling stock. In your case, it might work best to just store your stuff in their individual boxes, with some rolled up “unpatterned” paper towels to keep the contents from shifting around. You could then store the boxes in those clear storage bins that you can buy at Wally World for storing all sorts of things. That will keep them dry and they stack easily.
I have my better cars (expensive, special, etc) in boxes packed like this boxcar and three covered hoppers. Many of the much cheaper, rough, trainset and rebuilt junk cars are kept unwrapped in a cabinet stacked one on the other.
It was actually an MR article that said not to use bubble wrap. I personally have never had this issue or has someone I talked to that had cars stored in an extreme climate. This probably all stems from a lack of knowledge of acrylic paints. They set up fast but take a very long time to fully cure. Quarter inch thick can take a year or m,ore, not that we ever paint our models that thick but that just shows an example of the long cure times. I am sure that if you paint a car in acrylics and two weeks later you wrapped it up, if you stored it for awhile, it would be ruined as it takes longer than that to cure even in the thickness we use (note I said CURE, not DRY).
My off-layout cars are usually in a palstic drawer unit I got at Walmart, sitting on, but not wrapped in, bubble wrap. Cars for longer storage are in their original or simialr boxes, I never thrownt hem out. Do not use tissues or ordinary paper towels, instea I wrap them with a piece of blue shop towel, or in bubble wrap. I too have never had a problem with bubble wrap doign any dmaage or leaving a mark. Bubble side against the car.
For transport, I had a Spring Mills box, and recently dumped it. Too much damage from the cars and locos laying on their sides. It’s fine for a fleet of Athearn and Accurail hoppers and the like, but for anythign nicer or taller, not so good. I switched to the A-Line system, which is similar to the Spring Mills boxes but the boxes are shorter and taller. The shorter length natually holds fewer cars but it’s MUCH easier to carry. Since they are taller, everythign sits on its wheels. I used a roll of thin foam padding to make a pocket for each car in the box, and after moving 6 locos and 32 cars to the show this week, everything is fine. Nothing shifted or was damaged in any way. I even had my iCar in there, which is tall (as high as a loaded double stack car), and somewhat more delicate than your average plastic car because of the big open wood construction to leave the space for the phone to fit in. It traveled well in this case.
It seems that the formula for everything is changing daily thanks to the EPA. probably some good
, some unnecessary. Really can’t tell how anything will react in a few years. I would suggest paper towels for padding & baseball card boxes for containers.
Bubble wrap is fine as long as it is not the Poly Vinyl Chloride version(remember old 35 mm slides pages with the slides being damaged?). Myself, I think the blue shop towels are better if this is for long term storage.
Myself, I keep all of the original boxes, and they are stored. Anything that is on the layout at home and needs to go to the ‘club’ rides in the A-Line tote boxes. They are the best ‘Damage Free’ transport system for model trains. They are pricey, but work so well. Walthers has them and the carrying bag on sale several times per year.
I guess I will use Paper Towels, but the ones we usually use are the HALF size type that if you want a whole one, when you tear it off you only get the half, but if you want the half, you usually get the whole thing.
Being thrifty (my wife calls me cheap), I used what I have lots of on hand; shredded paper. When the basket for our shredded gets full, I pull out the bag, and seal it with a twist-tie. I have about 8 bags of the stuff. Put about a 1" thick layer on the bottom of the box, then set the cars in with about an inch space between them, then fill the box with more paper.
I also found another good use for the shredded paper. When I cast rocks in Woodland Scenics’ rock molds, I have a wide, low box lid (the kind that comes on boxes of printer works great) that I fill about halfway with shredded paper. I can settle the mold into the paper, making sure it’s level, then pour in the plaster.
