Ever Ship A Diesel Engine Without The Styrofoam Box?

Don't put it into a sea of Styrofoam popcorn.

The heavy loco will sink in the popcorn and bounce off the bottom of the box in transit. That's the way the UPS stores always do it, and it always leads to broken locos.

Best to pack it with crumpled up balls of newspaper because they will not flow.

I did a very generous wrap of bubble and then repeated the wrap.  Then I got a box that was close tp the wrap size and finished off with paper.

Norm

I shipped one before and wrapped the engine in bubble wrap and lined the shipping container with some pieces of foam I had to take up any slack in the box. Arrived at its destination in perfect order.  Good luck.

Uncle Fester....

The key is to make sure nothing moves around when the package is bounced around in shipping.

1. Find a sturdy box that will give you about 2-3 inches of clearance around the locomotive on each end, top and bottom and on each side.
2. Find some strips of styrofoam and cut them to size to place between the locomotive body and the hand rails.
3. Wrap Locomotive in a few layers of bubble wrap. Wrap the ends over and secure everything with tape.
4. Wad up several sheets of newspaper to about twice your clearance and pack it around the wrapped locomotive on all sides (If you have some discarded foam rubber, use that instead).
5. Secure the wadded newspaper to the bubble wrap. You can use masking tape for this as it's just to hold everything in place.
6. Stuff it into the box. The whole assembly shouldn't move around. If so, apply more padding.
7. Secure the box with good packing tape. When I ship, I double seal everything.

Hope this helps.

What Matt said and then double box that in peanuts.

Nope, never did, which is why I keep all my locomotive boxes.

But if I ever did, I would, after using foam scraps to protect the handrails, etc., wrap the locomotive in several layers of gift-wrapping tissue before wrapping it in bubble wrap.  Bubble wrap in direct contact with painted surfaces can lead to trouble.  I would then make sure that I packaged everything very firmly and securely in an appropiate-size box with all the necessary interior packing materials.

It's just a whole lot easier to keep the original boxes, if at all possible.  In all my years of selling trains, I've never had a customer report that he or she received a damaged locomotive, so I must be doing something right.

If you don't have gift wrapping paper use doggie piddle pads.

 No, but I've received several engines that were broken because of missing pkg. The shippers will stand the box on end. So make sure your pkg can take it!!!

At least O gauge engines are a little tougher than some other scales.

You can cut up cheap foamcore board and place it behind the hand rails to keep them safe. Then like Allen said tissue and bubble wrap.

I've gotten a number of locos shipped to me this way with them making the trip well.

Yes Many  times never had a issue.

Put it in a shoe box with paper bags from a super market. Tape the box, then put it in a larger box with more paper bags. Tape it well.

I just shipped a engine without a box. It was a small scale die cast engine and I wrapped the engine and tender separately with bubble wrap. Wrap it with several layers or as many as you think.  I wrapped the engine and tender like a football and packed in a box that is similar in size.  No problems arriving safely.