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Storing Trains: On Track or In Boxes?


mick
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A few thoughts...

My decision to build an outdoor garden layout came about due to a lack of suitable space indoors for an OO gauge model railway. I had explored all the available spaces within the home and it was clear that without enduring a high level of discomfort up in the roof space that the garden was the only place left to me. It is a decision I have never once regretted.

Now, our impending house move leaves me with a much larger roof space available than in my existing home (although I have yet to pop my head through the hatch to take a look at the internal structure) and there's the possibility of making use of the seperate garage. I am, however, keen to continue my journey with an outdoor garden railway, safe in the knowledge that my own experiences to date and the work of the owners of all the layouts featured on this forum prove that an OO gauge garden railway can be 100% successful under all but the harshest of conditions.

Now my dilemma...

There are many things to consider before building a garden railway and although it might be clear where the tracks will be located, its how the models themselves are stored that concerns me most. In an ideal world there would be sufficient storage roads for all your locos and rolling stock to be available for use via the flick of a point switch at any given time. I really don't enjoy removing loco's, coaches and wagons from individual boxes at the beginning of a running session, only to have to return them to their boxes later in the day. Unfortunately, leaving stock unattended within the confines of an outbuilding raises the issue of security.

Before I can even begin to contemplate laying any track I really need to think about how I can store my trains without having to continually use the individual boxes that each item was sold in. If I need lengthy indoor storage roads then I'm going to need somewhere secure to house them. If stock is to be removed from the track after each running session then clearly something more convenient than those individual boxes is required.

I know that modular exhibition type layouts have to store the necessary rolling stock in boxes or trays for transportation purposes and that stock is on track only during periods when the layout is assembled, but a garden railway isn't always operated for extended periods at a time. Often there's a desire to have a short running session, perhaps just an hour or two, when it would be inconvenient to have to place a whole load of wagons and coaches on track for that duration and then have to remove them all again.

Does anyone have any suggestions for suitable means of storage, given that I would like to be able to have probably a dozen full length trains (12 coaches, 30-40 wagons) on track at any one time?

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Argh! wrote a response and the got the little blue wheel of death.

So yeah, as I was saying...

I have considered the same thing. I've had small portable layouts and moving trains on and off the layout is a huge pain. I would prefer to run them out of storage tracks, preferably sceniced storage so they are nicely displayed when not in use. Grumpy Grandad style. Under glass for dust protection too.

I like that he can sit near his indoor section and admire his trains. I always get a good feeling looking at trains even if they are just sitting there. Maybe you could build a long shelf inside the house.

For your garage/shed...

As to the safety issue that is easily remedied. Good locks and bright lights; thieves hate bright lights. Thieves are stupid. When I was broken into they took a cheap DVD player and were about to take a cassette player before they discovered a digital camera. They left a laptop and my Mac tower that was worth ten times the value of the DVD player. What PI**ed me off the most is that repairing my front door cost 300.00 dollars after they kicked it in. just salt the train storage room with cheap crap that they can sell on the street for drug money. Have a shelf with a DVD player. Find a used but nice looking broken digital camera and have it visible. Thieves are after things they can sell. Most thieves have no idea of the value of model trains. Also, having to grab arm loads of model trains is a hassle. Something like an electronic device is easy to grab.

Or... have the train storage tracks covered by a door of some kind.

I wouldn't bother making storage for all your trains. I've found that I tend to run the locos that run best. A six or eight car storage is plenty of space.

Then again, you Brits are the kings of storage cassettes. You could store the trains in cassettes.

So about my layout. I hadn't made plans for this. I know I will hate carrying trains in and out for play time. I am considering knocking a hole in my house so I can run the trains into the house when not in use. Or... option #2 is to run a 60 foot line to a shed in the back yard. I don't have the shed yet BTW.

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This issue was one of the reasons that I gave up with HFR v1 & v2 and large scale equipment. It just took too long getting the stock out onto the layout - being large scale, it had to be stored in either one of the kids bedrooms (where it got damaged - no malice on their part, all accidental) or in the loft.

Now, all my stock is starting to live in some very nice "stock trays". (The best I have found are produced by JBs Modelworld, but K R Multicase are ok too - I have both) Now these take up room, but are of a size that can be easily stashed away and are also stackable. Yes, it does take time to get it all out when I want to run, but whereever possible I try to share the work with my son - either he cleans the track while I am getting the stock out, or mostly, vice versa. Its nice that it keeps him interested too, but I digress. It also helps that I have only a relatively small amount of stock and however much I have, I can only really put out 4 full trains at a time - at most, the equivalent of 36 coaches. For me it was a bit of a fait accompli - my shed is too small and already oversubscribed! and the conservatory isnt any where near the railway, so I am not looking to do that.

Mick, I think your only answer is cassettes, it sounds like using stock trays will be too time consuming.

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traingeekboy said:

...I would prefer to run them out of storage tracks, preferably sceniced storage so they are nicely displayed when not in use. Grumpy Grandad style. Under glass for dust protection too.

I like that he can sit near his indoor section and admire his trains. I always get a good feeling looking at trains even if they are just sitting there. Maybe you could build a long shelf inside the house...

I'm very familiar with the'GrumpyGrandad' style (excellent videos) but I'm not sure it would work for me. The trains I want to run are longer than would comfortably fit within a glass topped case. A standard rake of 36 MGR wagons would work out at approx 15 feet total length and one of my reasons for venturing outdoors was to be able to run scale length trains so I don't want to compromise on the number of wagons. I'm not sure that Pam would be that keen on a long shelf inside the house :cry:

HamptonFieldRailway said:

...Mick, I think your only answer is cassettes, it sounds like using stock trays will be too time consuming.

Cassettes would certainly solve the problem of placing stock on track but given the example above, at 15 feet or more in length they're going to be a bit unwieldy. Perhaps two smaller cassettes could be joined together so that only an intermediate wagon would need to be coupled/uncoupled?

I don't think anything can be as good as having full length storage roads but has anyone worked out the value of even just half a dozen complete trains? Yes it would be difficult for an intruder to take the whole lot but there's every possibility that many would be damaged during his/her failed attempt. Maybe I'm just going to have to take my chances once I've done everything I can to possibly deter unwanted visitors with the addition of lighting, alarms, bigger dog etc..

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What about a yard in a box outdoors that serves as hidden storage. You could build very long box essentially. It could have lids that are lockable. It could be disguised as something useless that two tracks deviate from the mainlines to.

ok, never mind. But the lockable box concept in the garage maybe. It could go under a workbench and not be highly visible to intruders. The wall of a garage is around 15 feet long, or less I suppose depending on how old it is. I think having a place where things are not visible makes them less likely to get robbed.

Oops was rereading my post from above. I said six or eight car... Meant six or eight road/line storage.

But this is a serious consideration for any outdoor layout.

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traingeekboy said:

But the lockable box concept in the garage maybe. It could go under a workbench and not be highly visible to intruders. The wall of a garage is around 15 feet long, or less I suppose depending on how old it is. I think having a place where things are not visible makes them less likely to get robbed.

A good thought. You can run a single or double track out of the garage through the wall behind some tools into the garden, and have a workbench that is actually a fiddle yard, i.e. the fiddle yard below bench level and removable worktop - to the naked eye it will look like a standard garage workbench..........

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I'm barely running and I am already running into the running into and out of the house with trains in fists issue. Then you add the eventual gotta put trains away in a hurry and you get a disorganized mess of trains.

Hmmmm, I already mentioned to Sara that I may be cutting a hole in my house.

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  • 1 month later...

IanRs Kirkfield and Warmthorpe thread describes his own very ingenious method of storing his collection of rolling stock and loco's so that they are always to hand and accessible. Using a combination of Peco loco lifts and a number of Really Useful Boxes it is well worth taking a look

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