Who Keeps the Empty Boxes for Your Rolling Stock


Greg@mnrr

Greg@mnrr

Section Hand
Members:

I been organizing my layout room over the last two days, I found that I have a lot of empty rolling stock boxes just taking up space. I want to keep the boxes for my locomotives, but don't feel I need to keep the rolling stock boxes.

I use cardboard storage containers to hold cars not being used on the layout.

What do the rest of the members do?

Thanks.

Greg
 
That's what I use,years ago got my hands on a bunch of key board boxs when the university where I worked bought new computers,bit of foam padding and I was able to pitch all those individual boxs.
It's nice I guess to hang on to them if your thinking of selling your rolling stock but their a pain in the butt to store year
after year.
Engines now that's a horse of a different color. !!!
 
I forgot to add to my earlier post that during my layout room clean up I found rolling stock RTR and kits that I forgot I even had in my storage areas. Some of the kits are of by gone eras that wouldn't fit my very open ended car collection that I run on my layout. I even found a new Train Miniatures kit in a plastic box. I remember purchasing this kit, along with others, at the 1982 Trainfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This was just after my return to the hobby after several years of being idle.

Now my question is what to do with the old RTR and kits? I brought a lot of the kits, that I found today, that I purchased years ago to construct during my retirement. Well, I been in retirement going on three years and just today rediscovered these kits. The price tag on these items is something else. Quality kits, for their time for under $10.00! Blue box kits for less than $5.00!!! I finally opened a Milwaukee Road A and B unit loco set and found that I need to install the horns and other details.

Well enough traveling back through time.

Today, I ran a new Athearn SOO GP 38-2 with sound. Great sound and running, but the beacon light is dim. Anyone else have this problem with the new Athearn loco's beacon?

Time for a break from the hobby until tomorrow.

Thanks.

Greg
 
I keep all my boxes. I store them in the attic, and have separate storage under my layout for the trains due to the fact I can't store that much on the layout. Although i am not selling my own trains now, I always think of the value down the road and it goes up if you have a box with it.
 
Greg, my Genesis DDA40X heritage #6936 also has quite a dim beacon flasher, one of the other club members has the same loco and another with a different road #. His 6936 is the same as mine beacon-wise, but his other road# is brighter. Another member also has a non 6936 and his is brighter. We theorised at the time that maybe that was prototypical and because the heritage loco was still in use today, it had been deliberately dimmed. Since your post here, now I'm not so sure.

To the original question, I keep all the boxes for locos and rolling stock, but I store the boxes and literature that came with them and keep the equipment in the internal packaging. Have sworn I will make carrier trays for them, but with the high/fragile detail (stirrups/handrails being the most fragile on most) of modern production models, haven't come up with a really satisfactory method of guaranteeing no movement within the usual channels (even foam padded) that most use.
 
I have very few of the boxes that the rolling stock came in. Most of it is well over 20 years old and the boxes are long gone. I do have a couple the some Kadee cars came in that I recently bought, but they will be gone when the next train room clean out comes. With the exception of a few brass locomotives that are not used on the layout, all of the locomotive boxes are also history. As of NOW, I have room for all of my rolling stock to stay on the layout with the use of hidden staging tracks, but the engine facilities are starting to get a little crowded. I guess I could solve that problem by putting two or three locomotives on the trains in hidden staging.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I keep all my boxes. I don't have enough room on the layout for everything so keep them organized in the closet, by road name. I put a piece of masking tape on the end of the box with some codes I use so it is easy to keep things straight.

Another thing I do is purge my stuff every few months. I get rid of stuff I am realizing doesn't fit and don't use. Either I give it away or sell it on ebay. Makes it a lot easier to keep everything else straight.
 
this how i keep my rolling stock 13268_638945472874259_5773436480924204242_n.jpg
 
I keep all my boxes on the chance I ever decide to/need to sell. My current inventory includes a lot of stuff I have for our club NTRAK setups. If I ever go to just me and my home layout, I would have a lot of excess stuff and would likely "thin the herd" .
 
Greg@mnrr said:
What do the rest of the members do?
Click to expand...
Keep all original packaging.

I recently returned some hopper cars purchased off e-bay because the seller neglected to mention they didn't have their original boxes. Sometimes the boxes become more valuable than the cars inside. Think of the old Athearn yellow boxes and clear front boxes.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Iron Horseman said:
Keep all original packaging.

I recently returned some hopper cars purchased off e-bay because the seller neglected to mention they didn't have their original boxes. Sometimes the boxes become more valuable than the cars inside. Think of the old Athearn yellow boxes and clear front boxes.
Click to expand...

Exactly! I am a Lionel fan and you can really see the difference is resale value if you still have ALL of the original packaging.


I found this thread while looking for something else, but this is worth bringing up again.
 
Thank You for the good info!

I just bought some new stuff and was wondering about this very issue!

I planned on keeping them on the layout and not in the boxes, and I have NO plans on ever selling anything, but now I will not just 'toss' the boxes, I'll keep em!

BEST forum on the interweb!
 
New guy if a new buying spree brings in more then you can fit on the layout you have the perfect way of storing your stuff that does not fit.

I look for strong boxes to put the empties into then cover the outer box with packing tape almost like lamination.

I live in a duplex and last year or the year before we had a crazy amount of rain in a few hours. My neighbors basement flooded and some water got into my basement. The "laminated" boxes protected the precious stuff inside from getting wet, thank God! The outer boxes were ruined but the contents did not even get wet.

You could also buy plastic storage containers, but I prefer boxes because the seem more efficient in the use of overall storage space. That allows me to buy more stuff to store! I think I may need help.
 
I keep the packaging until I establish that all is well with engine/rolling stock. I then throw out the boxes etc as I don't see myself selling anything.

The only exception to that is my small "Under the Tree" N Scale. I have kept the packing for those trains as they go up after each christmas and the boxes make storage easier and protects the cars/engine.

I have enough clutter without adding to it all with empty boxes :)
 
Bruette said:
I am a Lionel fan and you can really see the difference is resale value if you still have ALL of the original packaging.
Click to expand...
It isn't just if you plan on ever selling anything. Many including myself do not plan on selling stuff, but I am thinking about an estate and the poor sots that have to sort through a zillion dollars of toy trains. Original packaging helps someone who comes behind you know exactly what is what. Is that a Varney, English, or Pennline? I guess today would be more like, "Is that a Exactrail, Intermountain, or Fox Valley?" If it is in its original box there is no question. Even if the items aren't necessarily IN their box, just having a box for an xyz lets them know there is one of those amid all that stuff out there somewhere on the layout.

Original boxes combined with a spreadsheet of items will help someone someday settle the estate.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bruette said:
New guy if a new buying spree brings in more then you can fit on the layout you have the perfect way of storing your stuff that does not fit.

I look for strong boxes to put the empties into then cover the outer box with packing tape almost like lamination.

I live in a duplex and last year or the year before we had a crazy amount of rain in a few hours. My neighbors basement flooded and some water got into my basement. The "laminated" boxes protected the precious stuff inside from getting wet, thank God! The outer boxes were ruined but the contents did not even get wet.

You could also buy plastic storage containers, but I prefer boxes because the seem more efficient in the use of overall storage space. That allows me to buy more stuff to store! I think I may need help.
Click to expand...

The 12 locos and 85 cars I have will not fill the table I'm making, the stock will stay on the layout, the boxes will go on the shelf.

I'm back on the fixed income, new additions to the fleet will come slowly, but I have more than enough to keep me busy for a while!
 
new guy said:
The 12 locos and 85 cars I have will not fill the table I'm making, the stock will stay on the layout, the boxes will go on the shelf.
Click to expand...

Well done! I hope when my wife and I move I can say the same. For now I have more under my layouts then I have on them.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top