Im not sure what I want to do with my engines after I just took them off the track. I bought a opened cabinet from target with 5 deep shelves. It stands about 6’5" and about 41/2 feet wide. I drape it with a bed sheet all the time. I have also thrown in some of those crystal packets that come with some engines to, I think to keep them dry. Is this ok, or should I put them back in the box? Or is there another way to store them? Let me know On average an engine can sit inactive from anywhere from 2 weeks to a month or greater. I"ll never know how long it will sit. Thanks Joe C. Pittsburgh
Mine either sit in the yard, or on a shelf in the train room. I guessing you are worried about dust? Only engine’s I keep in there boxes is my PCM Big Boy, and engines that need repair.
Cuda ken
What Cuda said. I have around 300 diesels, all are located on the layout in various places, as only about 80 -90 units are in service at a given time, in various DCC consists. I have a three deck layout, and the railroad has two major diesel locations at terminals. At those terminals, a large number of diesels, not currently in service, are stored on engine tracks. The rest are on shelves at the various terminal locations, out of sight, but ready to be used at any time. I use a laptop to keep track of them and where they are.
Only those that are out of service with repairs pending are kept around the workbench area.
Bob
Well yes, but what if he has 100 engines and a 4 X 8? From his description he has more engines than space on the railroad to put them.
I got into this situation many years ago and stumbled into what I still beleive is a perfect solution.
I bought a gun cabinet at a yard sale on day just because it was cheap, then it sat in the garage for some time before the idea hit me one day to remove the the gun cradles and replace them with glass shelves.
It has now been relegated to the workshop for the “project” engines as I bought 2 nice matching ones for display. Again, removed the gun cradles and had glass shelves cut to fit.
They look beautiful and hold an immense amount of engines, you can even install a light in them if you wish to show them off.
With the glass doors I get “NO” dust and since almost all gun cabinets come with locks I don’t have to worry about prying fingers either, from children or adults!!
Mark
All my engines are on the layout, my display is the layout. The less the models are handeled the less chance there is of breaking something, so once they’re put on the layout, that’s where they stay, (I have about 40 locos).
in a somewhat related manner, I read somewhere on these forums where a modeler recommended storing locomotives in the same position they would have if on the track. The theory being that the lubrication will settle in a more normal position…and unfortunately I just confirmed this. I had a Bachmann Climax, with stripped gears, in its original box laying on one side for over a year. After the gears were fixed it was placed on a test track where it promptly emitted enough smoke that I thought the motor burned up. But it is now running fine and I think the improper storage resulted in the pooling of lubrication which started smoking when it was placed on the test track. At least that is my theory… But I love the idea of a gun cabinet and will start looking for one right away. Wayne
I have only 5 engines and I keep them on the layout but I have two Pikestuff engine houses, 1 two bay and 1 one bay I park 3 of my engines in and the two stay out parked in the yard. I dust mine off every couples weeks or so with a big soft makeup brush and the seems to do the trick for me. And the brush is good for dusting my buildings as well
I usually have around forty loco’s on the layout at one time. The rest or either in a display cabinet or in one of those 5 drawer plastic towers you can buy at Walmart. I’ve got 6 of those things filled with loco’s and scenic material, etc.
In my case, a display rack in the bedroom.
JOe,
I have a very very small HO layout, but keep my engines on it too,as they other guys have said. I have an extra “fake tracks” {not wired/connected to anything} on the other side of my station that holds such things. Extra RR cars and such are stored in plastic shoeboxes under the layout since I can’t keep them all on the layout.
But as for your method of storage, you sound like you have a handle on it. YOur shelf is good sized and has the sheet for dirt protection.
As to your question about how long they can sit, dust is probably the least of your worries. Moisuture can do far more damage at rusting and siezing parts than dust that settled on top it. ALso, If you don’t have them well lubed, that could be a problem when you want to run them next time. Rotate your engines periodicallya nd keep em covered and they should last you a long time.
I’m in the position of “NO layout”, but I always planned to use those plastic Rubbermaid drawer sets for unused equipment. The above posts about lubrication and touching models as little as possible hold much truth in them, but some things cannot be helped. the drawer cubes can be stacked as needed and are an ideal size of HO equipment. I would recomend lining them with foam though. Plus, a liberal taping to seal and they could theoretically be used fro transport, though I’d be leery.
I keep the 2 engines in the engine house, where else would you keep them?
I needed to store about a hundred engines upright and dust-free with easy access to the main line. I got a standard 70 inch two-door metal office cabinet and had 12 shelves made for it that are mounted on 120 pound-rated full-extension ball bearing slides. The shelves are track-grooved diagonally to allow for HO articulateds and greater ease of picking up/depositing. Works great.
Hal
My active locomotives (and MU cars) are on rails, either on the layout, in cassettes or on the detached ‘end of the branchline’ module. The cassettes (which usually contain complete trains) are stored on shelves bracketed to the one wall in the layout room that doesn’t have track against it.
Inactive locomotives fall into three groups:
-
U.S. prototype - seldom run. Stored in their original boxes, upright.
-
Unfit for service, awaiting repairs. In plastic file boxes in my workshop if not on the RIP track.
-
Unbuilt kits, still in their original boxes, in other plastic file boxes.
Locomotives requiring repairs or periodic inspection travel from the layout to the workshop in a special short cassette used only for that purpose.
The one thing I don’t have is any kind of display case.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I have 49 engines - two in an antique countertop glass display cabinet, about 4-5 on the layout, and the rest on shelves in the closet of the train room. The closet and layout locos are rotated on no particular schedule.
In the plans is a glass display case for the few that my wife will want to keep after I shuffle off this mortal coil (hopefully, she’ll have a nice long wait! [:D] ). I like that gun case idea, though…!
Joe, those little packets are indeed for absorbing moisture in the box the locos came in, but they would be totally ineffective in an open shelf unit like yours. Besides, they’re probably saturated by the time you have had them laying around for a few hours. If you want to use them in a small sealed space (like a packing box), you can recharge them by baking them in an oven at about 200 degrees for an hour or so. That will bake the moisture out. For a volume the size of your shelf unit, even if it were sealed, you’d need a pound or so of the stuff, spread out in shallow pans on each shelf. Not really worth the effort. And your wife/mom would not be happy with your having to recharge the stuff in her oven every couple of weeks… Better off to store the locos properly lubricated, and rotate them off and on the layout periodically.
Oh, and sheets have their own issues - like lint… Try plastic drop-cloths instead: cheap, and they don’t get dirty.
Hi Joe, I am new at this but plan on storing my ‘Active Engines’ inside a mountain. Three or four, maybe more will be stored on the right of this pic, deep inside the mountain. I agree with the above post, ‘Once on the tracks’ it stays there.
Keith
oh yeah, the old power dilemma. we had it on the real thing and now we have it on the model. i remember the “good old days” when we would have to bust the call on trains because the engine house couldn’t come up with power to run them. and, when the westbound business ran heavy, things got so lopsided we were running cab light power moves back to indianapolis with as many as 12 or 15 engines, (not all of them online/some isolated in tow) and deadheading crews home on the Greyhound bus.
as for the model railroad, i try to keep all or most of my favorites on the layout. there will usually be 3 or 4 sets of road power on trains in the staging area and the engine house tracks will hold another couple dozen units. i model the IC in the late transition era so the road pool is mostly a sea of black and white high nose geeps. (the unpowered dummies have a high mount bell so i can pick them out of the herd) two industrial areas have an assigned yard engine that hides out on any available clear track while yard and transfer engines at the main yard have assigned stub ended storage tracks and a runaround track near the yard office when they are not working.
i am running straight dc so the engine storage and service tracks are divided into short blocks with a spst. switch controlling power to each block.
THE WOMAN gave me a couple of little soft brushes she picked up at a beauty supply store. the kind used to put on makeup powder and such. dust is not a great problem but i use one of those brushes now and then to flick it off the tops of engines and cars. sort of like a miniature feather duster.
i still have more engines than i can really use so in order to get the odd balls into the act now and then, the giant “hand of God” whisks one off the storage shelves above the work bench and onto the layout. later, the valkyries take it back to valhalla.
grizlump
My engines wait for repair, sit in the engine facility or are in duty. The most engines are with trains in staging yard.
Wolfgang
I only have a few engines that are not on the layout right now. Once I get the scenery more complete on Phase 2, and start being a bit more rigorous about which era I’m running on any given day, I’ll have either the diesels or the steamers put away. The same goes for the rolling stock, freight and passenger. It’s either 1930s or 1960s. Even the automobiles get swapped out.
I’ve been collecting those boxes that computer keyboards come in. At work, every computer goes through a “lease refresh” every couple of years, so there are always a bunch of these lying around. I find that they are a great size for both engines and rolling stock. One of these days, I may start putting cardboard baffles in them to protect the contents, but they just sit under the layout anyway, and I handle them carefully, so nothing gets damaged while it’s sitting in the box.
On the layout, I’ve got a 3-stall roundhouse with a couple of “open air” tracks, plus a 2-stall engine house. I’ve got another siding that the Hudson lives on, since it won’t fit in the Atlas roundhouse. The new South Ferry subway station is really a 2-track staging yard for the subway trains.