Storage Boxes HO

[al camino]

I am fiddeling with storage cases for my passenger cars.

Should I invest the money to get my 7 car trains (this is my limit for "long" trains) well stored? One train in one box.

I checked and buying the cases at 1999 will cost just a little more including shipping and tax as if I buy some train cases here in Germany.

But the German boxes don't fit so well.

I need good storage to swap my rolling stock. An I don't like the voluminous original boxes (good for shipping but space consuming in hobby rooms).

I'll save a third of volume using 10 pcs 7 car storage boxes compared to TOMIX/KATO and even more with Tramway/Tenshodo original boxes.

 

What is your opinion.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10116210

 

Edited November 13, 2020 by al camino
added link to storage box as HS 1999

[roadstar_na6]

Alternative would be these?

[al camino]

These were the boxes I compared to.

Have a look: Feldherr Storage carton box

 

I met Feldherr on a fair last year and talked to him. Good material, Nice guy, but a little to (don't know the right english word and don't want to give a bad impression) lets say busy to sell me his stuff.

Anyway I'll probably will by quite some of the customizable zig-zag pattern foam trays.

But their storage cases do not really match to the Japanese 20m passenger cars.

 

Plus the total volume will be quite similar to the original boxes - if not more.

 

Con: no room saved, not having 7 cars per box.

Pro: a little cheaper than the japanese boxes.

Edited November 13, 2020 by al camino
typo and amended link to the Feldherr box I compared to

[cteno4]

The big boxes with the zig-zag foam inserts are nice for rapid loading and unloading. less chance if snagging a detail part while pulling them our or putting them in.
 

Just have to be careful not to knock over a whole box full! We had that happen with a large case of n scale cars in a big zig-zag box and what a mess...

 

jeff

[al camino]

The zigzag foam does it quite good - except for my US hood units. They would rest on the handrails.

But the hoods can be grabbed good in upright storage. You just have to ensure the hood are good attached to the chassis. At least one series of the Kato GE C44-9 is not --> mess (more or less a transfer from a locomotive to a kit with missing detail parts).

Edited November 14, 2020 by al camino
2* i that I had missed to type in

[Kamome]

The prices seem very reasonable. If any forum members have any or purchase any of these boxes, please post some pictures. I need a solution to move my HO stock without taking a lot of individual boxes in a large hold-all. These look very good and the selection in Japan seems very limited.

[al camino]

I did it. I orderd 11 boxes in japan. The shipment was twice as high as expected but now I have the perfect matching boxes to my rolling stock. The savings by Feldherr boxes are spoilt by the bad alignment to the JNR coaches. Now I am afraid of my wifes words when the huge parcel will arrive.

[al camino]

Shipment now is here in my living room.

I think an "unboxing the boxes" video is not what we all would like to see 😉

I come back after I took some pictures of the storage boxes empty and filled.

 

Edited December 3, 2020 by al camino
typos ...

[al camino]

This is how the storage box comes. Protected from dirt in a plastic bag.

 

Open the box and find a bag full of cushioning foam and cartons for what ever (got the clou later):

 

Loose content: You find a bottom and a top foam plus a cardboard of same size.

Additionally there are 2 each side and front/rear end cushion.

Plus there are 6 thin dividing foams (same  material as top and bottom) and a ~DIN-A5 self sticking tag (underneath the pile):

 

I noticed the front and rear end foams to be as wide as the box is.

The side and intermediate foam to have the correct shorter length (~20m).

But all are of identical height. Hmmm?

 

Content description on cover and how to use in box:

Link to good image at Hobby Search

You already noice some deviation in sizes of foam pieces.

Top foam shall be smaller than bottom.

Side and intermediate foam shall be full height to reach the box top cover.

Front/rear end foam shall have less height to free the coupler.

(I know a lot of Roco Close Coupler deformed by a foam pressing agaist for years in storage).

Top foam shall fit inside the full height cushion around the box.

 

O.K. lets start to fill the first box.

Empty box ready to receive valuable content:

 

The bottom cushion I covered with the carton to have the wheels standing on a "solid" ground.

I will glue the side cushions later to the carton to keep them in place while filling the box..

The front end foam is full height contrary to the description on cover (as already noted and more about below).

 

The Tenshodo Aodaisho colored Tsubame shall be the first 7 car train to be stored taking less volume.

 

Here we go:

 

Tight fit is good for transport or at least handling in toy room.

It seems not to be too tight by my experience.

 

Max image limit reached. To be continued.

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by al camino
I should know the name of the train Tsubame better -> typo

[al camino]

 

Tryng to closthe front flap of box showed up a detail that does not look like a plan.

 

Inserting the front end foam leads eeither to a cramped foam or (too) high pressure to the head end details of the outer coaches.

I tried but it did not feel well.

There is definately some foam cutting requested to make it fit (hear me: "&/§"$&/%$§" !).

 

Closing the box seems to be fine. At least until the box is not too old.

I know the adhesive behaviour aft years of storage.

But this is not really necessary as the box cover has a tight fit to the bottom and stays in place.

 

Next are my Kato grape colored series 33 and 42.

Worked perfect as expected.

Including the expected detail of front/rear end foam does not match.

Cursed may be the designer purchaser of box supplier who "improved" the product.

All foam of same height saves tenth of cents if not a full cent in production.

What the hell is the interest of a well functioning product for end customer.

The red lines tell the story.

I probably will reduce the height of both rear and front foam to give room for the coupler.

To fix the foam in position (against gravity) I shall glue them to the box as well as the side foams.

Or should the coaches be stored downunder? Wheels to the top? Feels a bit strange.

For now the head end foam has to rest beside the pile until I find time to cut and glue.

 

Mission accomplished:

 

Next task of testing.

My Twilight express is also a 7 car train, perfect to be stored as desired.

 

to be continued ...

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by al camino
had to shift one image from next entry due to total size limit

[al camino]

Stuffed into in proper coach sequence to have a good organization (German style) ...

 

.. just to notice these cars are a little different from standard 20m.

 

Had to give up German order:

 

Test result at the first glimpse.

 

Conclusion:

 

Now I have a good pile of empty boxes.

Shall I sell them on Ebay?

Here in Germany you don't even find filled boxes of Japanese railways on ebay.

Is there anyone here who is in need of empty boxes?

 

And I have a new duty to be solved.

I need to find a good storage for the remaining stuff.

Just dump it an empty box will not be useful as one will not find any parts again in time when needed for a specific coach.

 

And finally, the clue of these open cardboard boxes in plastic bag

These are void coaches in case you don't have 7 cars.

 

 

 

Bye-bye for now with a worm eyes view to the storage box.

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by al camino

[roadstar_na6]

The 24 Series Twilight Express coaches are 21m cars, that‘s why they don‘t fit as good as the 20m ones.

 

The foam is easily cut with a sharp kitchen knife, just don‘t let anyone see you 😉

 

Would these boxes also fit european H0 gauge passenger cars or maybe even a loco?

 

PS: My empty jewel cases from individual N scale cars that now reside in book cases are in a big box in the basement now 😄 outta sight, outta mind..

[al camino]

I'll check in short with some Roco and Märklin and tell here.

The outta sight outta mind thing is .. let me say .. occupied by lot of other outta sight .. well you know ..

Edited December 8, 2020 by al camino

[al camino]

Spent a glass of red wine and played with the new boxes.

With the EU Roco and ACME cars I doubt it will work as most of them are too long.

Also the steps and grabs (e.g. Centoporte) will be tortured and stay bent after a while squeezed in these storage boxes.

I have some Liliput Schürzenwagen and will try them when I found them ...

The Rheingold coaches have steps under the doors which I need to check if they will be touched tortured by the tight foam.

 

But I see light at the end of the tunnel for my KOKIs.

8 cars (!) fit into but you need to exchange one side foam.

The intermediate is too thin. Just used it for example.

I have to check for another piece foam.

Athearn should do it as they had soft foam for bottom and top in their good old blue boxes.

I need to cut holes into foam for the couplers because the container cannot take any longitudinal impact.

Edited December 10, 2020 by al camino
touched -> tortured

[al camino]

Found some Athearn Genesis foam of the right thickness.

Will cut them tomorrow without the expected tolerances due to the 🍷

 

Less nice is that I relized the series 14 are 21+meter, the KIHA58 is longer than 20meter and so on.

Lucky me that 1999 had no more boxes in stock when I ordered.

Edited December 10, 2020 by al camino
added the 20+ meter part.

[marknewton]

Here in Australia there's a local manufacturer of storage boxes - Auscision. They make two styles, one has 10 slots, the other has 12. They're designed for Australian HO models, so the slots are slightly too narrow for Japanese 1/80th models. I've modified mine by cutting the foam inserts apart and gluing them into the box with a slight gap between the halves. Once that's done they're great for both storing and transporting models to the club or shows. 
 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited December 12, 2020 by marknewton

[al camino]

My other not original box storage is kinda vintage.

The room below my display case funrniture bears 50-65 year old wooden "drawers".

These wooden boxes were used in production at Märklin until the early 90ies.

The number 132 for example had been one of the locomotive assembly departments.

These boxes were designed to be stacked.

Look at the metal pins (3 parts per pin + 2 screws) which also were made within the company.

I removed the front pins to use the boxes as drawer.

These boxes were built in companie's own carpenter's shops.

The early ones had wooden dividers for the 10 sections.

Later in the 70ies plastic tray inserts.

These boxes usually can take 10 cars or locos and have enough headroom for electric locos.

As you can see ther is a lot of "air" in storage.

With some shorter freight cars you can place 20 cars.

But most cars are a little too long.

Some bulkhead flatcars can be stored in a different way.

The contemporary EU and US passenger coaches with >27cm length can only be stored lengthwise with 6 cars (I have these trays too).

But then you have additional air for storage.

 

Also a transport is not very handy.

The boxes weight quite a lot and carrying around is no fun unless you don't leave the floor and have a trolly.

And the vintage boxes have lots of splinters - not good for modeller's fingers.

 

 

 

[jasona2z]

On 11/14/2020 at 5:30 AM, al camino said:

These were the boxes I compared to.

Have a look: Feldherr Storage carton box

 

I met Feldherr on a fair last year and talked to him. Good material, Nice guy, but a little to (don't know the right english word and don't want to give a bad impression) lets say busy to sell me his stuff.

Anyway I'll probably will by quite some of the customizable zig-zag pattern foam trays.

But their storage cases do not really match to the Japanese 20m passenger cars.

 

Plus the total volume will be quite similar to the original boxes - if not more.

 

Con: no room saved, not having 7 cars per box.

Pro: a little cheaper than the japanese boxes.

 

Well, I clicked the link to the Feldherr stuff, as i'm currently looking for a way to house my new fleet of HOe trains, and ended up purchasing a 'Euro container for model railways, locomotives and vehicles - 7 bars for H0 gauge - standing'. I've got 22 cars to try and fit, if they all arrive from around the world.

 

I also have some troublesome N scale vehicles (Snow plows, EH200's and a few others) that i've been looking for a storage solution to - I ended up choosing a 'Storage Box FSLB040 for model railways, locomotives and vehicles for N gauge - lying'. The DHL shipping to Australia was not the cheapest though. 😬 Probably wishful thinking to suggest it might be here in the next week though.

 

I'll post some photos when they do. 

 

 

[shadowtiger25]

On 12/12/2020 at 12:31 AM, marknewton said:

Here in Australia there's a local manufacturer of storage boxes - Auscision. They make two styles, one has 10 slots, the other has 12. They're designed for Australian HO models, so the slots are slightly too narrow for Japanese 1/80th models. I've modified mine by cutting the foam inserts apart and gluing them into the box with a slight gap between the halves. Once that's done they're great for both storing and transporting models to the club or shows. 
 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Might have to look in to this since Spring Mills Depo has stopped making their boxes. Do you have a link to them for any of us in the US?

[upwpfan]

On 12/27/2020 at 7:52 PM, shadowtiger25 said:

Might have to look in to this since Spring Mills Depo has stopped making their boxes. Do you have a link to them for any of us in the US?

Have you considered PPW/A Line's storage system?  

https://ppw-aline.com/collections/a-line-hobby-tote-system-ho-n-scales

 I know that many US modelers use Joe's product. 

[cteno4]

One of our club members has this for his n scale trains to make it faster to set out and take in trains at the shows. One big caveat is if a box falls to the floor it’s a big time disaster with a lot of cars in there and they can fly out easier than from n scale cases. One half full it the floor at one of our shows and it was carnage…

 

jeff