It provides a listing/form that includes Model, RoadName,Number, Color, Scale, Era, Category, Type, Coupler DCC?, Manufacturer, Catalog Number, Date purchased, and Value. There is also a place for a photograph.
The program is easy to use and best of all its free. Here is the link, just scroll down the page to RRTrains2000.
For me, it’s mainly to keep a record of what all I have should the unthinkable happen and I have to replace anything.
Several years ago, I purchased a model railroad database program called Train Track. It worked great, but I could only install it on either my PC or my laptop. I chose my laptop since I could take it down to the basement with me. Last year, I had to upgrade my PC and later my laptop since they were unable to go past Windows XP. I got a new PC and laptop running Windows 10. I went to contact the place I’d gotten Train Track from before, but they’re apparently no longer around. I was going to keep my old laptop for just the database, but video going out on the laptop forced me to get screenshots of the rolling stock records before retiring the laptop.
When I’d purchased the new laptop, I’d also purchased the full version of Office 2016 through my company’s home use program where we could get one copy of it for only $10. With it came Access 2016. I’d never used Access before, but after watching tutorial videos for Access on YouTube, it really isn’t difficult to use. I’ve been able to recreate the original database with little effort, even customizing it to include maintenance/service records for my locomotive fleet. By learning Access, I’ve also found other uses for it with my inventory of books, DVDs, CDs, etc. around home, which I already had on Excel spreadsheets but have since converted.
Having started to inventory my small fleet, I found Excel works fine. Excel provides what I need to then convert the list to car cards and way bills. These tools help me to create more operations than simply keeping track of the cars.
The questions to ask are why you need an inventory system? How much time you plan on spending in updating it? Want something free or with a cost? Should you want something quick, flexible, and free, go with Excel.
This is an old thread that has been brought back to life so l will throw in my approach. Like many, I used Excell for many years and it worked well for me. But then I started implementing JMRI OperationsPro. Since OpsPro also has a car inventory feature included and it is a required element to run OpsPro, I decided I did not want to maintain two seperate inventories. I am still in transition but when I am done, my OpsPro inventory list will be my only list. I can still export my OpsPro list to an Excell sheet any time I want if I want an Excel version to look at. The only flaw in this approach is that the OpsPro file does not allow as many fields to play with as I do in Excel.
I have used JMRI and Easy Model Railroad Inventory (EMRI). EMRI is also freeware available on the internet. I have been frustrated with both, so I have gone back to using Excel and am happy as a clam.
I use excel mainly because I get the entire office suite for home use at next to nothing through the Microsoft Home User Program. I think it was like $10 so you should see if your employer participates.
Apple is soon going to a 64 bit format so all older programs and most legacy programs will no longer work if you upgrade to latest IOS this Fall. I would, therefore, be very suspect of using older program.
Excel should continue to work well, even though no photos.
An option for photos might be a group of albums in the IOS photo app.
I’m guessing that’s only an issue if you’re constrained by using a Mac.
I’ve been using 64-bit versions of Windows for many years now, and the (not always “older”) 32-bit versions of programs continue to Always Just Work.
To get back on topic, my inventory tool of choice is a database using OpenOffice’s “Base”. It’s similar to Access, except IMHO it’s much easier and more intuitive. (And that’s from the perspective of having retired from a 40-year IT career!)
It’s very easy to suck out some specific set of data using a query, and format into a readable report if you so desire. You want a report showing all your 50-foot box cars, broken down by manufacturer and sorted by road number within road name? No problem, use Base’s in-built report wizard!
Oh, and OO runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac so everyone’s covered. IIRC, they also have an Android reader, although I just create a PDF when I need something on my phone.
I second (or third) the use of Easy Model Railroad Inventory. It allows you to inventory cars, engines, structures, electronics, parts, etc. You can export to a spreadsheet and create about any type of report you want. It also allows a photo to be added to each entry.
There is an operations segment as well but I have not used this yet.
It does take time to put all of this information together, but i think it’s helpful for insurance purchases, travel to train shops & shows, etc.
If you plan to get into operations with the use of car cards and waybills as a freight car forwarding system, check out Shenware’s software. It is dirt cheap and provides both an inventory system (with really scary reports!) as well as car card functionality.
Can someone tell me what button to push to download the latest version?..sorry I’m just computer iliterate. Every button I pushed said the particular ‘latest version’ was not available?..neither the latest, nor previous version? confused. What are all the other buttons?..some other crap they want to download to my computer?
When you open OO to it’s initial screen, on the left-hand side at the bottom of the “Create:” list is “Base Database”.
However, if you’ve never used it before, and/or if you’re not familar with relational database concepts, you may want to peruse a tutorial or three. Just Google “OpenOffice base tutorial” (without the quotes) and you’ll get lots of hits…
I’m using Open Office 4. When I open the intial page I do NOT see “create” and I do NOT see “base database” ?
I do see a “database”. Is this what we are talking about?
I really do wish that these computer folks would stop interchanging words, and actually utilize the exact quoted terminolgy. Its confusing sometimes when are looking for the QUOTED references.
While I am on a rant, I also get confused when someone offers a site for a ‘download’ of a particular program, whatever. I go to that reference page and see 2-5 ‘download boxes’ . What do I chose that is NOT going to load numerous crap onto my computer. Do we all have to be computer nerds to sort these things out?