Acid Free Paper or this stuff?

Newspaper has been the go-to packing material for a hundred years or so. Then something happened (the ink changed?)  so the trains got full of ink and Newsprint fell from favor.

U-Haul stores have packing paper, which is newsprint with no printing on it. That's what I use.

@RoyBoy posted:

Newspaper has been the go-to packing material for a hundred years or so. Then something happened (the ink changed?)  so the trains got full of ink and Newsprint fell from favor.

U-Haul stores have packing paper, which is newsprint with no printing on it. That's what I use.

Do you find it rips from packing and unpacking the trains?

Also, do you know what that material is that I posted a photo of?  Lots of things come packed in it.

John

@Craftech posted:

Do you find it rips from packing and unpacking the trains? Yes. Easily.

Also, do you know what that material is that I posted a photo of?  Lots of things come packed in it. It looks like Styrofoam to me.

John

" It looks like Styrofoam to me."

We'll that's a no no.  I guess it comes in sheets as well as blocks.

John

Use news print paper and be safe from ink by first wrapping the train in white paper towels first.  Or a sheet of white tissue paper.

Charlie

Have you tried archival paper? It's 25% cotton so it might resist tearing better.

As a historian, who has dealt with lots of fragile artifacts\documents before, I would absolutely NOT recommend using newspaper: it's a cheap, high acid paper that aside from the problems people have mentioned with bad ink rubbing off on objects also will be leaking acids onto the surface of your objects.

Alot of how you plan to pack up an item depends on how long you plan on storing it. If it's only for a short period, I wouldn't worry too much about packing materials, so long as they aren't on the super reactive side and they do there job of protecting the item. If it's for a long term storage, then consider something more serious. The main thing liable to do damage is probably temperature & humidity fluctuations: most objects can be safely stored in between 35% and 60%  relative humidity, avoiding any sudden temperature fluctuations of course.

I use polyethylene bags. Lionel started putting its trains in these bags sometime in the '80s. The eighties are getting to be a long time ago. And I still do not see or hear about new old stock from this era sticking to the bag, so I am satisfied that its safe for long-term storage.

@nickaix posted:

I use polyethylene bags. Lionel started putting its trains in these bags sometime in the '80s. The eighties are getting to be a long time ago. And I still do not see or hear about new old stock from this era sticking to the bag, so I am satisfied that its safe for long-term storage.

Actually my newer ones came in plastic bags as well.

Did you buy the storage bags or collect them from things you bought?

John

@Craftech posted:

Actually my newer ones came in plastic bags as well.

Did you buy the storage bags or collect them from things you bought?

John

Mostly, I bought new ones. Not many places seem to sell fewer than a thousand at a time, -- one is www.clearbags.com. I went with 8x18", flat, 3mil. Once you put something in one, it turns out about 15" long. 3 mil is thicker than what Lionel uses--thick enough that I am able to pick the train out of its box by grabbing the bag (I run traditional stuff, so there are not delicate detail parts that might be broken during such an operation).

@nickaix posted:

Mostly, I bought new ones. Not many places seem to sell fewer than a thousand at a time, -- one is www.clearbags.com. I went with 8x18", flat, 3mil. Once you put something in one, it turns out about 15" long. 3 mil is thicker than what Lionel uses--thick enough that I am able to pick the train out of its box by grabbing the bag (I run traditional stuff, so there are not delicate detail parts that might be broken during such an operation).

Thanks Nick,

I just ordered some.

John