Was going to buy some train storage cases but found out the foam that many of them use attacks the paint! Is there a foam that will not attack paint or is it in the nature of foam. Also how do you store cars etc. when you no longer have the boxes (I got a bunch recently but they had no boxes and are of the higher quality with lots of fragile parts.
The “foam attacks the paint” issue is a known problem and most tales of woe involve brass locomotives left in their makers carton for long periods of time. I don’t know how one can tell corrosive foam from non-corrosive. I have been using foam to pad the insides of boxes to keep the models from rattling around and damaging them selves. No problem with paint, yet. I don’t have brass, all my rolling stock is plain injection molded plastic with factory paint in most cases.
I normally keep models in the manufacturer’s box. For the case of models with no box, the Dollar Store sells tupperware, the smallest of which can hold two HO freight cars. I glue a thin foam partition down the center of the tupperware container to make two car sized pockets. There is a shoe box sized tupperware that holds passenger cars with some interior partitions.
The car case by Axian is one that local club members have thrown out as doing this and there are others, I am talking rolling stock.
Since I model in N gauge I picked up a Plano Tackle bag to store and transport some of my cars and loco’s to the club and shows. I was able to purchase some foam sheets to line the compartments. I don’t really know the the type of foam it is but it is charcoal in color, 1/4" thick, sponge like with open cells. I’ve been using it for about two years. The plastic cars have been stored in it and only come out of the case at shows and the club. So far there has been no degradation of the foam and it has not attacked the paint. My loco’s are stored in their original jewel cases in pouches on the tackle bag. The plastic compartments hold 32 cars.and the pouches hold 16 locos. I bought the foam from a packaging and shipping co.
I’m doing HO.
IIRC, most of the foam issues were with polyethylene type foam. I have A-Line/PPW train cases and the foam in them has not attacked any of my models over the past 3 years. The boxes and the carrying case are not cheap, but Walthers many times has them on sale.
Many of the other train cases have the modeler lay the cars down flat on their sides(against the foam). A friend has some of these types. The biggest problem is details get ripped off of cars due to shifting in the box. The A-Line/PPW boxes have the train cars sit on their wheels, and there is a smooth card stock divider separating the trains. There is a foam ‘bed’ that the train wheels sit on, and I have the extra small foam blocks to separate the cars/engines. I do not ‘store’ my trains in the boxes - it is only for transporting models to the club.
For ‘storage’ of freight cars that do not have boxes, I buy Accurail boxes that I buy direct from Accurail. They sell 3 packs of their regular boxes and extra long boxes for their TTX auto racks. Just go out to the Accurail web site and click on ‘parts’ - the boxes are about a $1 each. I print clear labels on my laser printer and attach them to the box. I used to buy Athearn ‘BB’ boxes, but they are no longer available(and the price skyrocketed just before the end of ‘BB’ sales…).
Jim
Take a look at the boxes from Spring Mills Depot. Large,well made,Ive been transprting and storing trains for years. With a polypropeline liner,the trains barely touch the foam.
I am in HO & use storage boxes designed to hold 5000 “baseball” cards
You can get 2 layers of rolling stock in them. I use folded paper towel as a cushioning agent under the bottom layer as well as between layers. each box will hold (20) 50 ft box cars
here is what I am talking about
http://www.bcwsupplies.com/products/Trading-Card-Boxes/Super-Monster-Storage-Box-5000-Ct.htm
I purchase mine locally from a sports memorablia shop…pay about $4-5 for them assembled
I use ultra small bubble pack to loosely wrap locos and rolling stock and fit them in any box available.
This is primarily for storing but I have used this method to transport as well.
This case solution is specialized to carry Blackstone and other brand 30’ HOn3 freight cars. I use the plastic boxes that Swifter mop refills come in. Then I use a combination of closed cell and that linked-bubble drawer mat stuff for padding.
The tall sized ones allow a double layer if the top layer is turned on its side.
The shorter boxes can hold a single layer of cars.
I leave the car cards in the box with the 10-car stock train. The price is certainly right, nice see-thru top for easy ID, and they stack.
I don’t know how old your Axian cases were, rrebell, but their newer cases include a small slip of paper inside each one of them addressing the possible paint sticking issue. Their suggestion is to line the inside of the cases with either dry cleaning bags or tissue paper.
I use both the Axian and A-Line cases for transporting and storing my locomotives and rolling stock. I line the inside of each case with tissue paper and place another sheet over the top of the contents. This has worked out fine for me. It’s a very easy and inexpensive fix in comparison to just tossing out the entire case. The tissue paper I pick up in packs at Michael’s.
Tom
Just commenting on what the club did, guess they were p---- off at the ruined cars. The tissue paper seems like an easy fix but figured there must be a foam that is paint compatible!
The mention of wrapping in paper reminded of something I’ve seen with several brass locos I’ve purchased. They were wrapped in what looked like plain old Saran Wrap, then nestled in the foam. I presume that the Saran Wrap itself won’t become an issue.
Supposedly not according to what I’ve read. By the way, just got back from the store with a foam backed fabric, am going to try that, not thick enough but will try and laminate it to 1/2" stuff with spray glue.
Be careful that the spray glue is compatible with the foam. Should be but…worth experimenting first anyhow.
One thing I forgot to mention. An additional plus about the tissue paper is that it will absorb any oil/grease that may inadvertently leak out.
Tom
Just got an e-mail from some foam people, they recamend closed cell polythylene, any coments???
I wonder if this is the stuff that NCE throttles and other components come packed in. It’s dense and charcoal black, but I think it’s open cell?
I had the Spring Mills boxes and switched to the A-Line ones. Why? because the Spring Mills boxes sotre things on their sides and it was deforming the handrails on my locos. The A-Line boxes store your equipment on its wheels. Also they are shorter and easier to manage. Should I get to the point where I need semi-permanent storage, there’s a reprint of an old magazine article on the A-Line web site about building a cabinet to hold the storage boxes.
My club equipment used to fint in a single Sping Mills box, plus I had to carry a few other pieces in my tote with my throttle, power supplies, and toolkit. I bought a full set of 4 A-Line boxes and the carry bag for them, my stuff fits in 3 of them with nothing left out - including a pair of T-1’s with tenders. A bonus is not having to disconnect the tender as you do to put them back in the original boxes - the less use that multi-pin connector gets, the better.
At the cluib there are a lot of the Spring Mills boxes for club-owned equipment, they are great for things like Athearn BB and Accurail cars with mostly molded on detail - we have over 200 hoppers alone - plus they don;t get hand carried around, they fit in the lower shelf of the module racks (we don;t hand carry modules, either - they all ride on custom made racks with industrial casters (heavy rubber wheels) so we cna just roll a set off the trailer right to where they will be placed. They’re even organized by location, so when setting up we pre-stage the racks then go.
–Randy
My LHS had the Grand Central Gems loco storage case. The XL case, 295-B2, has four 19" storage slots that are “filled” with a cutout piece, so you can create appropriate length holes for each loco by removing part of the cutout. The locos go in vertically, resting on a foam layer below and there’s a foam layer that goes atop before closing. The LHS guy said some plastic film for wrapping each loco was missing but he gave me a white kitchen garbage bag to cut into lenghts. Aside from keeping the engine from direct contact with the foam (I don’t know if that would be an issue) it’s easy to remove an engine by lifting the oversize wrapping and easy to smoothly and gently drop one in its slot. At $25, I would not buy them for freight cars, but I’m ok with the price to protect 4-8 locos. I’ll likely buy another, though I did not look at other options.
http://www.grandcentralgems.com/salt-lake-city-engine-boxes.cfm
Paul
Didn’t know about them, they sure have expanded their line of products.