Page 41 - 38. MRH13-04-Apr2013

Storage tools
for rolling stock
As I've been unpack-
ing from my move
to Florida it became
important to have
a way to organize
and find my rolling
stock for two reasons: So I can sell certain items; and so I
can locate specific cars to run on our club layout. I started
by using an iPad app to organize the cars and put them on
shelves; however, I realized that I needed to remove these
shelves in order to build my layout.
What to do? I decided to using six-drawer plastic rolling
carts (4). Each drawer typically holds 12 cars and a cart
holds about 72 cars depending on their length. I tried to
organize similar cars in the same drawers, but this isn't nec-
essary since I can locate them quickly with the app or with a
printed spreadsheet.
I lined the bottom of the drawers with rubberized shelf liner
for $1.99 a roll to keep the cars from rolling. One roll of the
shelf liner does six drawers, or one cart. I cut cardboard
strips to go between the cars to protect them.
To find a car, I simply enter what I want to find, like "Tank
car" or "467113" or "metal wheels," and I'm presented with
a list of cars that match. Once I pick what I want, then it's
just a matter of going to "Rolling Cart 1", "Drawer C", posi-
tion "Back 3" to retrieve that car (the app picture is posted
on the blog).
The app is called Bento by FileMaker, Inc. and is available at
the iTunes App store. It comes with a number of database
TIPS
index contents