Long boxes to ship engines

Lamp boxes from U-Haul and other storage facilities work well.  Shipped locos from NJ to CA and they survived intact.  You can cut them down and still leave good cushioning at the ends of the box.

Fred

I think the UPS Store will build a box for you - of course for a fee; saw a guy bring a bare computer server into a store and had them build a box around it with padding for shipping.

Some Lionel dealers build boxes - Trainworld, Model Trains&Stuff - around the Lionel shipper with padding before shipping the item to you.  Don't remember if they use UPS or FedEx.

UPS does have one long box I have used to ship Engines! It’s 48in, but can be cut down!  The only drawback is it cost over $10.00. FedX has no long Boxes! There are plenty on Amazon, but have to be purchased in Bundles!  Tough situation!

Fredstrains

Locally (Greensboro) we have an "overstocked box" warehouse which has a wide variety of un-assembled boxes. I used it often in years past for outer cartons of engines, railcars, etc.. I don't know if most cities have one?

As far as guaranteeing delivery...Tracking is important to me.

I like using the USPS for shipments I send and like it when anyone sends to me. I think their tracking system is much more thorough so you understand where the package is most of the time. However I was burned on this a few times recently. When sending a repair out to a store that was not open on Mondays, I marked the box saying "The store is closed on Mondays", they still tried to deliver, marked it in their system as delivered and then delivered it the following day!

On my end, one train was marked in their system as "delivered/at the door" yet, I looked out and there was not any delivery truck on my dead end street.  An hour later it was actually delivered. Had a similar experience more recently with T-shirts. They were marked as delivered on a Tuesday when it was fairly icy out. The local post office for 2 days did not pick up the phone (I did not feel like taking off from work to visit them)...then 2 days later on Thursday it was actually delivered.

I would call these exceptions and still say, if   the scanning is done correctly, I think the USPS is far superior as far as tracking goes. You can sign up for email and/or text alerts if you have the tracking number. Ideally, the tracking would tell you each instance of when the package arrived at and left each mail facility...again, but only if the workers stick to doing the scanning correctly. 

You can also request a signature, but that sometimes annoys people. 

Tom

If you have a sporting goods store in your area, ask if they have the boxes golf clubs and firearms are shipped in.  Those ought to be long enough for any engine. Cut to desired size, overlap and tape.  

USPS has Return Receipt. Outbound tracking will show as delivered and the signed receipt will have a new tracking number for its return to you.  UPS and FedEx have Signature Required by a Person Over 21 - when you track the package and it shows as delivered you may ask for a view of the signature.  Use as you so desire.John in Lansing, Ill