Out of space, new storage idea!!

Great use of space as long as you don't need easy access to the underside of the layout

Nice shelf! I have enough space on the railroad at the moment. But the boxes are a killer for me. There's just not a great way to store boxes. Honestly, I'm considering throwing away the boxes once I start weathering the cars. I just feel like you're supposed to hang on to boxes.

I think I'd find a way to get those shelves closer together.  The 2x4s seem over kill for rolling stock.  You could probably get a couple more shelves if you could us angle rather than the 2x4s.  I've done the same in the past.  It's a good way to keep things available without having chaos.

Another option is to cut them in half and put drawer sliders so they can be pulled out to the front for access.  Either way it looks like a good solution to a problem we all have.

I just had the roof on our house done. I went up in the attic to cover everything before the rip to contain the mess. I spent more time moving bags of train boxes around than anything else. Time to purge everything but the locomotive boxes.

I like the storage under the layout. Looks good.

Excellent storage space.

I know this may get me thrown off the forum but maybe consider selling off excess stock.   There really is such a thing as too much.  I reached my "Too much" point last year and did very well selling off.  Now all my trains are on the layout.  A  few special engines are on display. (they are for sale)

As far as boxes go,  Having an open basement ceiling I have all the bays filed with boxes.   There is an orange section, a purple section, a yellow section, an emerald section, a yellow section, a black section, a silver section and a blue section.  Large boxes of passenger cars and G scale are on shelves under the layout.

I fastened wooden lath strips to the bottom of the rafters and simply slide in the boxes.

That's an idea right there @Tom Tee. Just might be my back up plan. I kind of assume I'll destroy any collector value to the cars once I weather them so I figure the boxes don't need to be kept.

@jjames9641 posted:

I think I need a intervention!! I am lucky to have a nice size area for my layout & collection but after more than 40 years of collecting (and gotta have this!!) find myself in a situation where I am running out of space. So, my son and I came up with this idea of more storage underneath a section of the layout.  We built these storage shelves yesterday 18" wide x 8' long with a total of 12 storage tracks between both shelves and they quickly filled up. We need to continue to "find" so more unused real estate. Curious how many more of my fellow collectors/operators find themselves in the same situation? At the end of the day it is still IMO one of the best hobby's out there. Like I said above, my son helped me with this project he is now 30 years old and he was always by the side as a little boy when we were building this layout. Great father/son time spent, I miss those years!!! Happy Railroading, everyone.

Look at my latest reply in my build thread, I have the same issue!  https://ogrforum.com/...8#157688391364297768

I need lots more storage space!  Those tracks you have look like a good idea, I may have to find a bunch of cheap track...

We floored the attic to store all the train boxes, our daughter's toys (she asked us to keep),  and tax records. Had we not done this, our house would be a mess.

My storage is in , mostly , plastic bins the type designed for under bed use. There are many sizes all similar,18x32 inch on avg. The bins fit under the layout on plywood and 2x4  shelving. They can be stacked 3 high if the cars inside are positioned carefully. I place bating from sewing stores underneath and felt on top of cars. Bubble wrap on the ends to protect the couplers. Works pretty well but now I find I need to re organize. Example 027 cabooses,  scale tankers ect . Engines are in original boxes and are located close to their consist. Mostly.

My plan, which I will over think and procrastinate as much as possible, is to thin the herd and as mentioned here get ride of rolling stock boxes.  

Drawbacks are getting under the layout and the darn cars seem to jump out of their bins while Im gone.

Im thinking storage locker for boxes not needed now but worried about the moisture.  

Hope this helps.

Right now a lot of my stuff is in plastic bins under the layout, but in order to sort it out, I have to get it out.  I'm in the same boat as a lot of people, all those years of acquiring stuff and not selling enough...

The foam inserts and clamshells take up way too much space.  For rolling stock, I've kept a few in case I need to ship something, and I've kept the ones for locomotives - other than that, they're gone (or going).  Boxes for most postwar items can be easily flattened, and I'm not worried about "collector value" on anything that was produced in the past 50+ years.

Rolling stock boxes are going big time around here.  I'm keeping engine boxes and passenger car set boxes for now.

Suggestion for anyone considering expunging their rolling stock boxes: consider listing them in the buy/sell before trashing them, as some of us have rolling stock acquired without boxes and are still at the point where storing them in compatible boxes is viable and easier than parking them in a makeshift apparatus.

Example: off the top of my head I'm looking for boxes for:

Menards:

-- 3 Menards boxcars, two triple-dome tankers

Weaver:

--two 50' boxcars, a 40' tank car

MTH:

--2 RailKing (Rugged Rails) single-dome tankers, 3 RailKing or Premier ore cars, a Premier 50' boxcar and a RailKing offset cupola steel caboose

---PCJ

(Edit: made some modifications as of 11/21)

That's a good point @RailRide. I might have some of those boxes too. Are Menards boxes roadname specific or anything?

Thanks guys for the comments!!

Tom Tee, I agree with you stuff needs to be thinned out. I have probably sold off 200 pc's in the last few years, it just takes so much time to get the stuff ready for selling whether it is here on the For Sale forum or E bay.  Very easy to get yourself in a corner with too much and no space!

@jjames9641 posted:

I think I need a intervention!! I am lucky to have a nice size area for my layout & collection but after more than 40 years of collecting (and gotta have this!!) find myself in a situation where I am running out of space. So, my son and I came up with this idea of more storage underneath a section of the layout.  We built these storage shelves yesterday 18" wide x 8' long with a total of 12 storage tracks between both shelves and they quickly filled up. We need to continue to "find" so more unused real estate. Curious how many more of my fellow collectors/operators find themselves in the same situation? At the end of the day it is still IMO one of the best hobby's out there. Like I said above, my son helped me with this project he is now 30 years old and he was always by the side as a little boy when we were building this layout. Great father/son time spent, I miss those years!!! Happy Railroading, everyone.

No intervention necessary. I’ll like your idea a lot, and plan to do the same thing under my layout,…..excess is only an ideology ……and denial is the first step towards acceptance. Anything else is for quitters,….🤪🤪🤪

Pat

My only son had a computer lab in the basement next my train room.

After he left for San Francisco; his lab became my train storage space.

There's a better father-son arrangement.

@BillYo414 posted:

That's a good point @RailRide. I might have some of those boxes too. Are Menards boxes roadname specific or anything?

The cardboard boxes with interior plastic clamshells Menards uses now are the same across all boxcars. Only the stickers are different, and I have the digital skills to create reproductions for my cars as if they were produced with the present packaging rather than the early-style plastic dome containers they came in.

(addendum, forgot to include their triple-dome tankers...looking for a couple of those too.)

---PCJ

I have a pile of Menard's boxcar boxes, just gathering them to get recycled.  Who wants them?

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I have a pile of Menard's boxcar boxes, just gathering them to get recycled.  Who wants them?

I'll slide you an email for a few.

---PCJ

I have a Menard's shipping box with eight freight car boxes in it, just made for sending somewhere.