Thinking outside the Box(es)

Boxes, boxes, everywhere! Amazon boxes might be the most common—used to deliver items from Amazon, and then many of us reuse them for sending things to friends or selling on eBay to clear out things we once "had to have." But the boxes I really want to talk about are those that hold all our model trains. When I started model railroading, boxes were mostly the standard Athearn blue boxes (or yellow for those who go way back). The only "fancy" boxes came from brass manufacturers.

As models grew more detailed and traveled longer distances, protecting them became crucial. Life-Like, with their Proto 2000 line, introduced some clever packaging. They separated the body shell from the chassis to protect delicate details from rough handling. However, these boxes took up much more room—often as much as two or three older Athearn boxes! Today, most manufacturers pack their locomotives in boxes similar to the old brass models, but instead of simple plastic wrapping, they use a series of plastic sleeves and shells. This trend spread to passenger cars, with molded plastic shells inside cardboard boxes, and then to freight cars, and even some Ready-To-Run (RTR) structures in clamshell packaging.

All this led me to wonder: what should I do with all these boxes? I faced a dilemma—should I keep boxes to store models when they’re not on the layout? Should I toss them, or maybe use them for craft projects? The older Athearn boxes are handy for storage or as project boxes, a place to keep parts for in-progress builds. The newer boxes, though, aren’t as versatile, and storing them empty eats up space. Some might say, "Keep them for resale value!" And that’s true—models with their boxes do resell better. But I don’t resell much, especially finished models.

My friend Brian J. came by to help with my layout and pointed out my rather messy basement. With his encouragement, I finally made a decision:

Here’s what I’m keeping:

- Locomotive boxes, except for Proto 2000 and yellow Atlas boxes. Those can be hard to work with, and Atlas models can be tricky to remove from their molded Styrofoam.

- Brass boxes. I don’t own much brass, and it feels wrong to toss those.

- Boxes for unstarted models. These are for projects not yet ready for the layout or models that need modifications or weathering.

The rest are going. I make an effort to recycle plastic and cardboard, and I save any instructions, spare parts, or decals. This decision fits me well since my wife and I don’t plan to move, and I’m not looking to sell off the collection. I know this wouldn’t work for everyone—collectors or those who move frequently might cringe! But for me, it’s been freeing to clear out all those empty boxes.