Does Anyone Else Detest These Things??

What if you are flooded with an inch of water?

The bags might offer a layer of protection.

Andrew

I keep them.  You cited some reasons why as did @falconservice.  On the flip side for water protection, if the unit does somehow get some water in it somehow, putting them back in the bag would probably not be good.

I would keep them, if for no other reason than an extra layer of protection. Especially from water.

Actually bought a box of plastic bags to protect the train boxes that weren't received covered, particularly those from other eras when this wasn't a manufacturer/distributor/retailer practice.

I totally missed the point of the bags! 🤷‍♂️  I thought they were there to pull the box out of the shipping box much easier.  Kind of like when they started putting sliced bread in bags instead of wrappers with seals on each end.  That made putting buckle up boots on and off so much easier. 👍🏻

@Rod Stewart posted:

The plastic bags I am talking about. I guess they are a good idea for the 4000 mile ocean trek, what with all the engine vibration and such. They probably save loss of box markings that would happen with direct box to box contact. But they are a real nuisance when you are looking for a particular engine or car. And they likely prevent wear and tear if you move your engines and stuff around a lot. But they are very annoying.

So I am slowly but surely getting rid of them, about half done so far. Good riddance. So do you keep them, or toss them?

Im missing the point here. What's troublesome about plastic bags in the boxes?

I detest them.   More plastic waste.  

@Mark Boyce posted:

I totally missed the point of the bags! 🤷‍♂️  I thought they were there to pull the box out of the shipping box much easier.  Kind of like when they started putting sliced bread in bags instead of wrappers with seals on each end.  That made putting buckle up boots on and off so much easier. 👍🏻

This ^^^^^ whats not to like?
I keep them.

Pete

I don't keep the brown box or plastic for rolling stock unless I consider it collectable.

I do wonder how this sort of shipping was done prior to plastic. They used straw if A Christmas Story is telling the truth haha

I keep the plastic as an extra layer of protection.  Not so funny story; when my son was younger and still doing teenage things, he had friends over and they were consuming some sort of liquid.  Someone spilled a drink on the floor and it wound up seeping through the gap between the wall and the floor.  Guess what was under it in the basement?  My Legacy controller!  The stuff in plastic was fine, the Legacy controller was damaged.

I don't keep shippers unless it's for an engine or collectable rolling stock.

I don't like plastic or even worse those non-biodegradable packing peanuts, more crap in landfills.  Hopefully by the time my son or grandson gets my collection and they want to get rid of the plastic bags, they won't wind up there.

Tony

@Tony_V posted:

I keep the plastic as an extra layer of protection.  Not so funny story; when my son was younger and still doing teenage things, he had friends over and they were consuming some sort of liquid.  Someone spilled a drink on the floor and it wound up seeping through the gap between the wall and the floor.  Guess what was under it in the basement?  My Legacy controller!  The stuff in plastic was fine, the Legacy controller was damaged.

“Some sort of liquid”, gee I wonder what that might have been haha? Love it.

I get the whole part several have mentioned about water protection. To that end most of the stuff under the layout here is raised off the floor on a wood platform about an inch high for flood protection. The boxes which are directly on floor I am careful to keep only empties on the lowest level.

The other troublesome thing about the plastic sleeves is the added difficulty when pushing the styrofoam insert back into the engine box. The plastic seems to like to hang up on the foam corners, box flaps, etc, etc. Anyway they are outa here as far as I am concerned!

Rod

For the many of us with humid basements, plastic bags offer an additional measure of protection from same.

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

For the many of us with humid basements, plastic bags offer an additional measure of protection from same.

Mark, I get that. basement humidity around here is never more than about 45%, so not much of a problem. Have never found any kind of corrosion or zinc pest thankfully. I think for the plastic to afford protection against high humidity you would have to keep the bags pretty well folded up on the ends when in storage, and you would need to replenish the little bags of dessicant pellets fairly often. Do you do that?

@BillYo414 posted:

I don't keep the brown box or plastic for rolling stock unless I consider it collectable.

I do wonder how this sort of shipping was done prior to plastic. They used straw if A Christmas Story is telling the truth haha

Actually its called excelsior.  Somewhat useful in making model trees.

Lou N

@Lou N thanks! I always thought it looked a little thin and curly for straw. Then Christmas passes and I don't think about it for eleven and a half months.

@Rod Stewart posted:

Mark, I get that. basement humidity around here is never more than about 45%, so not much of a problem. Have never found any kind of corrosion or zinc pest thankfully. I think for the plastic to afford protection against high humidity you would have to keep the bags pretty well folded up on the ends when in storage, and you would need to replenish the little bags of dessicant pellets fairly often. Do you do that?

Rod - Yes, and sometimes, when I have fresh ones available. Also run a dehumidifier at 40% directly into my sump.

The plastic does make it easier to remove boxes from shipping containers, and likely protects the box from whatever abrasions might occur from rubbing on cardboard, so it seems to serve some purpose. As far as keeping the plastic, there are probably two schools of thought, one being those who have basements (at least those without finished basements) and the other being those who don't. Since in this part of the country basements are a rarity and moisture issues are minimal, the plastic bags as well as the outer shipping boxes, if any, are just more clutter. Empty boxes already take up an enormous amount of space without adding to it, so the plastic and shipping boxes hit the recyling containers after opening. I'm not sure I would keep them even if I had a basement. Some air circulation can be a good thing, as long as humidity is under control.

The most useless use of plastic is MTH using little plastic bags to hold their warranty cards. This is plastic waste at its worse and has to add a little expense as well.

@breezinup posted:

...The most useless use of plastic is MTH using little plastic bags to hold their warranty cards. This is plastic waste at its worse and has to add a little expense as well.

Amen to that.  Has anyone ever mailed one of those back to MTH?  IMO, "registering" for a warranty on trains isn't worth the cost of the stamp.  And with the "new" MTH, the warranty is pretty worthless anyway.

Those plastic bags rip as soon as you take the inner box out of the shipping box.  Toss 'em.

@BillYo414 posted:

I don't keep the brown box or plastic for rolling stock unless I consider it collectable.

I do wonder how this sort of shipping was done prior to plastic. They used straw if A Christmas Story is telling the truth haha

I keep the shipper if I have it simply because I may want to sell in the future and will be looking for a shipping box!

I keep the shipping boxes for the same reason.  I have always been glad I saved the plastic bags too, because as I mentioned above I think they make it so much easier to remove the box from the shipper.  It’s just me I guess, having read all the other replies!  😄

@Mark Boyce posted:

I keep the shipping boxes for the same reason.  I have always been glad I saved the plastic bags too, because as I mentioned above I think they make it so much easier to remove the box from the shipper.  It’s just me I guess, having read all the other replies!  😄

Besides that, if you're keeping the product box and Styrofoam, the shipper doesn't take much extra space anyway!

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Besides that, if you're keeping the product box and Styrofoam, the shipper doesn't take much extra space anyway!

Absolutely!