For those of you who transport trains, what do you transport them in?


C

CbrandonB

Member
Hi all,

I am going to have to start efficiently and safely transporting my trains to and from the club. I'm thinking about building something that could hold up to 18 passenger trains or locos of any size (including my Big Boys and DDA40X), but I wanted to check with everyone first... what do you use?

Thanks,

Brandon
 
I use Grand Central Gems' XL Locomotive storage box for locomotives, and Axian Technologies' car storage box for cars. The car storage box will hold four of the articulated passenger cars.
 
I usually don't have a need to transport any model railroad equipment except when I visit model railroad friends in Missouri. I have a brass 2-8-8-4 Z-5 yellowstone custom painted for the Northern Pacific that one of my friends in Missouri equipped with DCC and Tsunami sound so I can run it on large club and home layouts. It is carried in it's factory box.
 
CbrandonB said:
I am going to have to start efficiently and safely transporting my trains to and from the club. I'm thinking about building something that could hold up to 18 passenger trains or locos of any size (including my Big Boys and DDA40X), but I wanted to check with everyone first... what do you use?
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It is not efficient at all, but I use original boxes.
 
Transport up to 18 passenger trains? Geeze that would probably weigh well over 100lbs. You would probably need a hand cart to move it. Just the size would require material heavier than card board which would make the weight of this closer to 200lbs or more. I would suggest a map type drawer system as the individule drawers are very low profile.
 
Thanks, guys! I am a bit surprised by some of the $25 price tags on what is a basic box and $2 worth of foam... lol... Perhaps I shouldn't be, but I did find these guys: http://www.springmillsdepot.com/boxes.htm

$10 per box, plus $2 for 5 foam dividers. Definitely worth a shot, I think. They're carrier is a bit more expensive than I'd like, so I'll skip that for now, but I'm thinking about ordering two or three of these to get me started. I suspect they'll work very well for the 10 minute drive from my house to the club. :)

Thanks, guys!!!

Brandon
 
D&J RailRoad said:
Transport up to 18 passenger trains? Geeze that would probably weigh well over 100lbs. You would probably need a hand cart to move it. Just the size would require material heavier than card board which would make the weight of this closer to 200lbs or more. I would suggest a map type drawer system as the individule drawers are very low profile.
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Not quite sure what design you're thinking I'm using, but it wouldn't be anywhere near 200lbs. 3/8" and 1/4" ply would work fine and would certainly be heavier than cardboard, but not 200lbs or even close. I'd say maybe 30 to 40 lbs loaded up with cars and locos. :)

Brandon
 
CbrandonB said:
Not quite sure what design you're thinking I'm using, but it wouldn't be anywhere near 200lbs. 3/8" and 1/4" ply would work fine and would certainly be heavier than cardboard, but not 200lbs or even close. I'd say maybe 30 to 40 lbs loaded up with cars and locos. :)

Brandon
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18 passenger trains, at 8 cars per train, plus locomotives, is very heavy stuff. Figure a minimum of 7 pounds per train, times 18, plus however much the carrying cases weigh. Looks like about 126 pounds, +.
 
bnsf971 said:
18 passenger trains, at 8 cars per train, plus locomotives, is very heavy stuff. Figure a minimum of 7 pounds per train, times 18, plus however much the carrying cases weigh. Looks like about 126 pounds, +.
Click to expand...

Ha! I see now. Cars, not trains. :) My bad.

Brandon
 
I have the Spring Mills depot boxes and tote. Expensive but worth it. My entire Super Chief with locomotives fits in one box, my COLA without locos fits in another, and a heavyweight train fits in a third. The Daylight requires two boxes, as does the Lark. I like having the consist in proper order in the box. Makes for fast easy set up!
 
Thanks for the reply, Alan. I really appreciate your input! That is great to know on the capacity. I was also thinking about having each box be a train ready to roll and in order. Although these aren't cheap, they are certainly cheaper and hold more than the other solutions I've seen. The other solutions start at $25 per box for a smaller box. Kind of nuts.

I'm debating on whether I want to get the bag or not... I think it would be nice, but maybe not completely necessary. I need so many other things right now it's hard to justify. :)

Brandon
 
I haven't used the tote yet. It was a Christmas present! I have taken just a box or two back & forth to the club. I have a fair amount of brass cars so a tote full of boxes could get pretty heavy!
 
Ahhh... Gotcha! Just using one or two at a time is what I'm planning on doing, also.

Did you get the foam strips that go between the trains?

Brandon

Brandon
 
I postponed getting "The Bag" from Spring Mills. But after I discovered what a PITA it was trying to carry three loaded 4ft boxes and a toolbox across a large parking lot, I finally understood! Luckily the guy who runs SMD belongs to the same club, so he was able to bring one in and sell it to me right there.
 
Thanks for the reply! You bring up a good point. I am still leaning toward waiting to see if I need one and then ordering one if I do, but I may bite the bullet and grab one on the first order. We'll see. :)

Brandon
 
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