Lionmaster Challenger Box - Styrofoam is stuck !

Some of the boxes do get tight sometimes.  I've had situations where the glue started to fail on the seam along the side of the box. In those cases, I went ahead and peeled the seam back all the way. I then ran a replacement bead of wood glue along the seam and re-glued it, making sure there was enough space to allow the styrofoam insert to slide in and out.

I might try that procedure in your case. Peel back the seam along the side, take out the styrofoam insert, and then re-glue the seam. Moving the seam line out a little when you re-glue it will allow a little more room inside the box. As it drys, you can slide the styrofoam insert in and make sure there's enough space so it slides in and out properly.

Another major problem with styrofoam is if left, in time, in contact with the painted or plastic parts of your cars or engines, is it will stick to these surfaces and be very difficult or impossible to remove from your item. 

I never store any item in contact with styrofoam and if storing in stryofoam I wrap the item in a paper towel or better yet an old white T shirt.

Charlie

Eddie

Questions about trains are not silly.

This is one reason I keep building shelves and cabinets around here. lol 

I don't like leaving them in a box. I've had issues with Styrofoam myself.

Now, I don't discard boxes but I do try not to store trains in them. Especially the more expensive engines and rolling stock.

I'm lucky to have the space to do that but I do  understand many do not.

That Big Boy and Challenger you have are special. I think you should build a display case. lol

Larry

Keep the boxes for resale. Use laid off sicks oscale hauler to store them. Build shelves to display them in the train room. Thats what I am doing. Good luck in removing the styrofoam. 

"Lots of rain here on the Gulf Coast"

Yeah, like this morning. I kept mowing the lawn, as the rain cools you off, but then the lightning showed up and so I bowed out for a while. 

I've occasionally had a "tight box", but not many, and I think that Mobile is as humid as Biloxi...it's just production variation, and the answer is:

Talcum powder - but you need to sprinkle a bit in before you slip the styrofoam back in - as a preventative.