Adamskii

Train storage systems? How do you store or display your spares?

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Hi Folks,

just put up some shelves to have somewhere to put the overflow of trains that just don't fit on the layout. Simple shelves with routed tracks (to save a few $$) creates much needed room on the boys layout and shunting yard.

I was wondering how everyone else stores or displays their spare trains? The ones that are not on your layout but ready to go at a moments notice so to speak. Do you quarantine special collectors trains in non running displays ?

Looking forward to some ideas as I am sure over time the collection will continue to outgrow the layout and the need for storage will get more serious.

Regard Adam,

http://11120542_10205977757593736_7453758588098930896_o.jpg

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Heh, I'd love to keep my trains on display, but without an enclosed cabinet they just gather dust really fast. Instead, I ended up just keeping them in drawers lined with towels so they don't slip around and destroy themselves :sadnew:

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this is good idea, I have the same for my old HO trains, even with glass doors, but nothing for lego trains, and I think I will do the same :)

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I don't have a permanent layout at home. My trains spend most of their time between events wrapped in cling film, stored in crates.

In the next house I'm hoping to build a shelf around the Lego room for trains.

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I should elaborate a little bit - I have a limited "footprint" from which to build/design/house our train collection. And above all else it must be accessible / playable for my 4.5 year old lad. This is why the table is only 60cm off the ground. We have already filled one spare bedroom with a Lego city, and it threatens to spill out into the other living areas in the house.. So my last bastion of space is the outside games room, a 6 meter by 7 meter shed that also houses the bar, pool table, various other collectibles and furniture. Some how I have shoehorned a 210 x 120 cm boarded layout and squeezed in a smaller 600 x 1800 board as a shunting yard. But this is all I can spare so keeping in mind the accessibility requirement for play all that is left without increasing the footprint of the train set, is the walls!

I was curious to know if anyone had drawers lined with trains? I think my train / carriage count is only around 45 units, but what happens when you get up in the hundreds?

Adam

Edited by Adamskii

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I should elaborate a little bit ... but what happens when you get up in the hundreds?

Adam

Hundreds... wow, I wish it...

Edited by bjorkan

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I built a cube out of technics parts and Flex track to store 16 (4 x 4 configuration) of my spare cars. I've since out grown it and most of my trains are stored in containers ready to be taken to the next show.

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Is a 4 year old not a little young for trains?

Hello davidmull, I sure hope no one asks, is 41 too old ? MY lad has been playing with the Lego trains for at least 1.5 years and has a very good appreciation of their fragility. He Is capable of lifting the trains on and off, and re railing derailed cars, and can re rail triple wheel bogey diesels with blind sliders. He can switch points to send the trains in the direction he wants and is able to park rolling stock in sidings for engine changes.

However for all he can do, there is alot he does not do. He does not run anything with power functions - he prefers to push and sometimes the force applied is all wrong - trains pull not push. He also likes to mix n match vehicles oddly, SOmetimes he likes to use the cranes but can get a bit tangled with the lifting as they are poorly engineered. I think he is more than capable of playing with them, does not smash them and does not disassemble them. He is also not all that great at reassembling fiddly breakages.

I have designed the layout with him in mind, and me too - we want some interesting opportunity to do different things, play some stories out, and leave as much scope for him to create as possible. Even with all that set up at his disposal (out of my wildest dreams when I was his age) he takes the spare track of which there is quite a bit, and builds his own loops on the ground. He is slowly learning to close a circuit and is beginning to show signs of appreciating track geometry (not stressing track to close the loop).

So is 4 too young ? maybe. Every kid is different - this one has grown up with it and with full 100% access to even my prized MOC's and now he thinks nothing of them and leaves them pretty much alone (probably because they break so easy!) and is much more interested in building his own fire engine trains or police trains - amazing how kids gravitate to those themes and how The Lego Group pander so willingly with their town releases. Put one of his cousins who has had no exposure to this type of set up in the room and it is just armageddon !

Hope that gives an insight to my situation.

Regard

Adam

PS here is a pic of him on an older layout over a year ago..(age 3.5)

layout.jpg"]http://layout.jpg[/url]

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I use the narrow, black picture shelves from Ikea. Track fits perfectly on them but the track is hidden behind the lip of the shelf, I like that.

What I want to see is that Ghan engine. Any link to pictures of that? I want one.

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I use self built shelves, so they have exactly the lenght and height they need for my trains. The trains actually spend most of their live there because I don't really have a layout. The only time they are running in my house is when I do some test runs before an exhibiton or after I changed something on the train.

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I use the narrow, black picture shelves from Ikea. Track fits perfectly on them but the track is hidden behind the lip of the shelf, I like that.

What I want to see is that Ghan engine. Any link to pictures of that? I want one.

Hello wondermonkey, here is a video I made of it. ALso I did a post on Euro bricks with details.

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=89420

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I cover mine with clear thin sheets of plastic. I learned that from my friend's grandma who covered her furniture with plastic and didn't allow us to sit on them.

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I have the advantage of finishing my own basement which is loaded with trains...Lego, HO, G Scale, and Z scale. I was fortunate enough to have forethought 18 years ago as I was laying the room out to think of growth and the need for storage. So I included 4 faux windows in the walls that I can store trains of the Lego, and HO size. The I built shelves for the G scale trains, and added a ceiling height shelf for 'show' trains. I hope this helps. And see the pic.

Here is a pic of the G room with shelves...I too saw cut grooves for 'track' to save money.

post-135923-0-44811000-1428443229_thumb.jpg

post-135923-0-64580600-1428443437_thumb.jpg

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Is a 4 year old not a little young for trains?

You must not have kids :laugh:

They love trains.

I got sick of buying Thomas craptastic battery powered plastic garbage(exchanged it for much more fun Lego battery powered plastic garbage lol). Got the boy a Lego passenger train for his 3rd Christmas, so he was a little older than 3 1/2. Got the cargo train for his 4th birthday. He gets to build stuff, I get to build stuff and its cool to see a 4 yr old(now 5) build something and put the PF stuff in it and make it work.

Teaches them good stuff, of course he's under the car with me to while I'm working when he comes outside :classic:

Its a nice setup that you have.

Should find some case or make some case with removable shelves you cut "track" into so you can remove them and literally "run" the train right onto your tracks

Engineer03 you have more pictures that open up large of your stuff? Looks pretty cool.

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I have a shelf displaying a ballasted double mainline segment, six 32 x 32 baseplates long, and two baseplates wide so that I can display trees on one side of the track. This allows me to display up to four 1:38 scale train cars, with two per track. The rest of my trains are stored in plastic containers. I'm a bit nervous to post pictures of anything until it's all finished though.

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I've been considering getting a suitcase and putting foam lining and separating walls in it for when start making my own trains. Think of it as being similar to an instrument case. I'm in a phase of my life where i'm not settled and I think it could be a good way to keep the rails and engines together. For now I just keep them on the back of my desk because they don't take up a huge amount of space.

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I only have official kits, no MOCs, so they're all packed up individually in shoeboxes and stored in cupboards in my office. Even then, they need a LOT of space, so I need to find a better way of storing them.

I'd love to put them on display, but I've seen what 20 years of sunlight exposure does to lego (especially Light Gray and Blue bricks), so they'll probably stay locked away rather than on open shelves.

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I do have over 100 pieces of rolling stock and most live in copy paper boxes or plastic tubs. Some of the more delicate ones get wrapped in a bag so that whatever pieces fall off can be quickly found and stuck back on without much problems. At some point you get so many boxes that you can use them in place of table legs (grin).

I do tend to keep a few trains out on the layout at any given moment, but they often get swapped out. Like several other folks, my kids have been playing with my trains since before they were 5. They still like to push by hand, so I just keep the most delicate models in the box when they are playing.

I'd love to put them on display, but I've seen what 20 years of sunlight exposure does to lego (especially Light Gray and Blue bricks), so they'll probably stay locked away rather than on open shelves.

Lately the trains go into boxes simply because I don't have room, but indeed, protecting the lego from sunlight is part of m logic for boxing the trains.

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My first train set was the 7715 push-along train, and I can definitely remember preferring to move the trains by hand back then! Crazy.

I can see sunlight being a big issue if your trains are directly in the line of fire everyday, but if you display them far away enough from windows I imagine it can't be that bad?

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I needed to put some trains away. I modified cardboard box to hold trains. I glued down 1.5" strips to keep the trains spaced apart so stuff like hand rails don't get knocked off.

box.jpg

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I've been keeping keeping my spare trains/track in the boxes that came with 4558/4559 and storing those underneath my table.

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My interesting ones are on display. I use the adjustable shelving that you see a lot (the vertical strips in the walls where you can put brackets and shelves at any level). I do not have the space to use small shelves like that, though, so I use much larger shelves; right now only two are used for trains, and the there's five trains displayed - one shelf is three deep, one is two. The trains farther back are on risers (I found my kid's old duplo useful for that). I have a MOC bridge I build that also has a couple of trains sitting on it.

Other than that, my trains are boxed away, with Christmas trains separate.

Some crappy phone shots:

19651617383_c912728618_n.jpg

My first bridge; it's been assembled for at least 10 years, but I want to redo it. BNSF + 2 small MOT locos and caboose (it's a double wide bridge).

20246320596_dde0f29510_n.jpg

Top to bottom - Toy Story, Lone Ranger Constitution, first gen Hogwarts Express, Sante Fe Super Chief, Emerald Night.

It does make them hard to see, but as you can see I'm really pressed for space.

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I needed to put some trains away. I modified cardboard box to hold trains. I glued down 1.5" strips to keep the trains spaced apart so stuff like hand rails don't get knocked off.

box.jpg

Brilliant solution with the cardboard guides!

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