A Topic Revisited- Beyond Staging Storage

Back in September of 2009, I talked about the idea of storage for rail cars and locomotives once they reach the staging yard.  As I plan to operate the railroad, cars will be routed off the modelled portion of the railroad to points all over the country.  All over the country is represented by the staging yard.  But if you understand the concept as I have explained it, the thought that should come to your mind is, "Cars that go to the staging yard need to be off the railroad for a period of time... otherwise if they reappear during the next Ops session... well that just isn't realistic!"  Yes, you are correct and I agree completely.  For example, a tank car that is shipped out empty from Standard Oil in Walnut, Illinois going to a refinery in Houston, Texas will not reappear on the layout for several days/weeks... or it may not reappear for months!  It may go to a completely different location after being loaded.  This is why Beyond Staging Storage is a necessity!

I have thought about different ways to store a car that is off the railroad traveling the fruited plain.  I don't know if I have come up with the best solution, but it is the solution that I am using for now, a series of plastic drawer units.   

The drawer units are located conveniently adjacent to the staging yard.  In the picture below you can see them to the right sitting on top of the filing cabinet.  This location seems to work well, allowing me to easily change out cars between operating sessions. 

The drawers are the perfect height for the typical HO scale railroad car.  Each car card is also stored with the car.  The drawer units are reasonably priced and readily available at Walmart or a similar store.

The drawer units are lined with a non-skid liner that keeps the cars from rolling and adds some protection for the cars when opening and closing the drawers.

The liner can be purchased at Walmart or a similar store for a few dollars.  One roll has been enough for several drawers and as you can see there is plenty to spare.

I will continue to use this system and evaluate it as I go.  I will post future updates on how it is performing.

Happy Railroading,

Scott

Progress Update

Now that all of the trackwork is complete, I have been in the process of cleaning and reorganizing the train room. Shifting gears from laying track to now getting into the wiring and scenery aspect of the hobby. I am also going to be starting the process of filling out the Car Cards and Waybills for the car forwarding system I will be using to operate the Dragonfly Sub.

Part of the cleaning process involved opening up boxes of railroad cars that have not seen light for a couple of years! I have concluded that I have a lot of rail cars, considerably more than can be keep on the layout. I will need to build or develop a way to store the cars off the railroad. I call it beyond staging storage.

When a car completes the waybill cycle and ends up at the staging yard, my plan is to pull that car and store it for a couple of sessions. This will add variety to the car movements and prevent the same car from making the same moves each time the railroad is operated. The question is then, what do I use to store the cars, while they are beyond staging? The storage has to be easy to use, allow the cars to be visible, and protect them all at the same time. I have thought about buying some small clear plastic drawer sets and mounting those under the staging yard, but that seems to be a costly option.

I would be interested in hearing what others have done to solve this problem?

Comments/Suggestions?

Thanks!
Scott