# Inventory



## dablaze (Apr 17, 2012)

Spent most of today doing a bit of an inventory of my trains. Tested which engines were Dc, dcc or dcc with sound. Made a list of everything in about 8 Rubbermaid boxes. Mentally exhausting.

Anyone got any good suggestions for how to keep an inventory of what you have? Be interesting to hear.

Craig


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## rkenney (Aug 10, 2013)

Yard Office - shareware

http://www.musicmixradio.com/yardoffice/


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Or just make a spreadsheet with excel.......seems simple enough......


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

I use Yard Office, pretty nice and free.
If you donate for the full version even better. 

Magic


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## dablaze (Apr 17, 2012)

I would like to use yard office and would use the pay version to get upgraded print options. My company is totally Mac and we all have Macs, IPads and iPhones, I have my DCC programming software on my old Mac. Maybe I need to get a PC to dedicate to trains...

I do realize excel would do it...I was just hoping for something a little more "fun" My fictional railroad, the "KIP" does not employ book keepers or accountants (I live with one, that's enough) lol.

Craig


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## feldon30 (Dec 30, 2012)

You can put Boot Camp on your < 5 year old Mac and boot into Windows. You just have to have some spare hard drive space or add another hard drive for that purposee. You could also run Parallels or VMWare or other program which lets you run "Windows in a window".


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

You don't need to be an accountant to use Excel....I'm a mapping guy, and I can get around it pretty good....

But then again, if Yard Office is all set up and ready for input, then that might be the way for some/most....


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## rkenney (Aug 10, 2013)

There's no doubt Excel would work just fine. I use it to keep my books. I don't need a dedicated program for that, I know what numbers I want to track and I'm not a big outfit.

When I started thinking about what I wanted for a model inventory all kinds of ideas came up which require more skill than I have with excel.

Yard office has a list of actual road names and recording marks for different roads, and lets you import/create your own. It also displays your photo of the actual model with each record and you can keep a record of model service history or future needs.

All this moves it away from the realm of spreadsheet and into database category. The Microsoft product for that is Access and if I had the time I might learn to use it.

For now you can't beat Yard Office.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Now I know I have a small layout. I use a tool called a "brain" and an app called "memory" to track all my stuff. But I only have a dozen locos and about three dozen pieces of rolling stock.

I do use colored dot stickers to identify freight and passenger car issues: a red dot on the top means a wheel or truck problem, yellow is a coupler, blue anything else. When I fix the problem, I remove the sticker, and it can go back in service.


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

I have a large collection with a simple system. On the layout it is running well. Main display shelf is ready for track but not commonly used. Second display shelf is sitting long lime and should work but look at first, may need tlc from sitting. Then there is the minor repair box, the major repair box, the one step for parts box, Project drawers (two cabinets) of to-do projects. I simply move stuff from place to place. I have a good Idea of everything I have. If I am at a show and accidentally get a duplicate it is no big deal, real roads have several duplicate cars.


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## johnfl68 (Feb 1, 2015)

If you don't want to pay for Excel, there is always "Sheets" in Google Docs.

Or you can use "Calc" in LibreOffice which is free for Windows, Mac, and Linux; which is a functional equivalent to Microsoft Office.

http://www.libreoffice.org/

John


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I have collected over 20 years and I have a large amount of model train items. I guess you could call 30 medium size cardboard boxes and 5 large plastic totes a large collection.
Its costing me rent at a storage unit. Something that helped me was to number the boxes
and on the inventory put what box each item is in. I can find any piece very quickly.


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## CrazySpence (Jan 15, 2015)

Dablaze, I saw you mention Mac. You can use switchlist for Mac, it's mainly for operating trains and generating switchlists but it lets you add things like "workbench, staging" etc as locations and lets you keep an inventory and location of your rolling stock

Here's a picture of the inventory screen from a blog post I wrote recently: http://www.philtopia.com/wp-uploads//2015/01/cars.png

And here's the softwares website: http://www.vasonabranch.com/railroad/switchlist.html


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## dablaze (Apr 17, 2012)

Spence, that looks like a cool program, I belong to the Burlington club and we are thinking of starting operations soon and that looks like a program to consider.

I am currently using the box to bench to shelf system (plus an A-line style case for what comes to the club.) This works well for the current stuff. What I am dealing with is combining my collection with my fathers and keeping track of where things are. My father collected for 60 years without ever losing interest, so he left me with about 15 Rubbermaid boxes of engines alone. Every couple of months I go searching for something I remember and it's like Christmas because there's a ton of stuff I don't remember having. (This may be an age issue, lol)

I am playing with an Ipad app called Procollect that seems to be a generic version of what most have suggested. I think it would do the trick, but it would be nice to have something preconfigured for trains.

As for excel, I don't have any issues using Excel, I use it at work all the time though so I wanted to do something different at home.

My home Imac was in for updating a couple of years back and was found to be "un updatable" the techs told me that they think it might have been Imac #75 due to the serial number. Decoder Pro works fine on it and I think it has An old copy of parallels as well, so might go that route so I can run Yard office eventually.

Thanks all, went from knowing nothing to having everything I need to make a plan!

Craig


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## Lttuna1613 (Jan 30, 2015)

There is a program for mac called xmove (get it thru appple app store). The person who wrote it is German, but has english documentation. I started using and it has some predefined fiels but alot of it you can add or change.


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## CrazySpence (Jan 15, 2015)

Burlington eh, I work in Burlington, but my club is in Fenwick http://gnmre.ca

They use some ancient old dos software to do the switchlists and inventory


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## rkenney (Aug 10, 2013)

Cycleops just posted this link in another thread. Looks like it will fill your needs.

http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/page/modelInventory


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## MtRR75 (Nov 27, 2013)

rkenney

There seems to be an error in your web link. This looks like what you were trying to get to.

http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/page/modelInventory


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## rkenney (Aug 10, 2013)

MtRR75 said:


> rkenney
> 
> There seems to be an error in your web link. This looks like what you were trying to get to.
> 
> http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/page/modelInventory


Right you are! The little smilie got added to the link somehow. Thanks


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## dablaze (Apr 17, 2012)

Downloaded that one, thanks! It's exactly what I was looking for!

Spence, I live in Hamilton but run my business out of Oakville. I spend time at the Burlington club and lately the Guelph club (great layout that has been growing since the seventies)

Craig


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## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

I started to inventory my rolling stock years ago but then lost interest in it as it really didn't serve any purpose. Now I just keep a roster of my locomotives on my cell phone storage so I can check road numbers if I see something at a show that I would like to buy.


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## Chris129 (Nov 19, 2014)

Hi, I use Excel, its great. Accepts all my pictures and I can do anything I want with it.


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