The Basic Inventory

The best thing to do is just go through the columns to explain my method.

CAR INT:

Car initial, this is the actual initials on the car, or outside of the box. If I have not decided yet then it may just be "???" Once I know what I am doing with the car I will update the inventory

CAR #

The number the cars has or will have, agin If I am undetermined I may place "???" or partial numbers if I know the series "187???" once I complete the car I will fill it in.

MODEL

Just a basic description of the car, so when I am looking for it I can more easily identify it.

AAR

The American Associations of Railroads have letter designated for every car type made. These are essentially the same as the "Model" column, but I am not 100% up to date on them so I use both. Better manufacturers will also place these marks on the cars. Look close near the weight data on the left hand side of the car.

MAKE

What manufacturer produced the car, this helps identify the item if they are still in the box or in case they would have to be replaced.

COST

I have yet to fill out this column on the sample, but placing a value in here seems easier to do as I go then when I need it. Also if I kicked the bucket the person getting rid of my stuff would have some numbers to go off of.

CLASS

I decided to sort my cars into three classes.

Class III: Think shake the box Athearn or Accurail. They are fine cars or cars that may be upgraded in the future. I also will cascade some of these cars down to my kids if they are interested in the hobby.

Class II: These are you kits or better RTR cars, they may have some inaccuracies or need some additional detail work, but it is optional. These adn Class III will make up the majority of what I run at Free-mo shows.

Class I: I consider these the show stoppers. This group will be reserved for the the top of the line items, such as my scratchbuilt items, brass, super detailed items. Items that would go with me to an RPM.

ASSEMBLED:

It is or its not. If it is assembled it means that it has been put together and been able to operate. This does not mean that it is running currently, just that it did make it out of the box once.

DETAIL:

We will come back to this one

BUILD NOTES:

These are things that I want to do to the car, but they are not deal breakers. Once thing I have wanted to do is convert all my coupler boxes to screw on. For my cars still in kit form these notes will be more extensive.

OP NOTES:

This is the primary purpose of why I have the car. These will change as I need to, if I ever get a permanent home layout some cars will move to that listo or if I join a club and leave cars there.

All the details...

The basic inventory would work fine as a semi 'living' document, but I wanted something that would require more input. I felt that if I had to interact with the document more, essentially more boxes to check off, I would get in the good habit of keeping it up to date. In order to add more boxes I have set it up to collapse the spreadsheet section under Details. This makes it not so colorful and hard to read, if I need that part I scroll over and expose the full section.

DETAIL:

This is the basic column to show if all Detailing is complete, if it is green it is complete, if red, something is missing.

A END

Every Freigt car has and 'A' end and 'B' end, this column covers the end of the car.

B END

This end usually has the hand brake and also designates which side right and left are.

LEFT

As viewed from the 'B' end this wouldd be the left side of the car

RIGHT

As viewed from the 'B' end this would be the right side of the car

UNDER

Denotes underside

ROOF

Denotes the roof or top fo the car is open top

COUPLERS

I have decided that for operating purposes I will only use #5 metal couplers. All plastic will be replaced. For my display I wil luse Sergent Couplers

PAINT

Denotes that it is Factory=FAC or what needs to be done to complete the paint

DECAL

Any decals that need to be completed or have been completed

WEATHERED

I use this to keep track id the weathering is complete, or what needs to be done to get it completed.

LOAD

This column shows if the car has or can carry a load. Those cars that need to have loads built will also be kept track of here.

When all the components are completed this will serve not only as a physical inventory, but also a tool I can use to motivate me to complete some projects. In the inventory I have completed and what needs to be completed  figure if I do not buy another project I should have enough to keep me busy for the next 15 years. That is based on completing a couple of projects every month. So far they run the gamete of a a little bit touch up to almost complete scratch built. 

Do you know this: Easy Model Railroad Inventory ?

It's a free SW by Robert Langer (really very nice of him by making it available for free). It not only helps to keep track of your stuff, but it's an operations management SW as well:

http://easy-model-railroad-inventory.rclsoftware.com/index.htm

it's not hard to use and it's heplful. Naturally I've to admit that I don't have it updated with last entries :-(. I've been dedicating more time my layout...

Hope it helps.

Rgds,

Antonio

that software is dead

Something about server dying and Jesus providing hardware guidance. Look in an old thread on this site..

"Something about server dying

   LOL, never had that problem with my 49 cent composition book and pencil method :> )  Don't have to boot it up either, it's sitting right in the desk drawer ready to go......DaveB 

EMRI

Easy Model Railroad Inventory may be dead but it would still work on a local hard drive. As of today the website works and I downloaded the latest version

http://easy-model-railroad-inventory.rclsoftware.com/download/download.htm

Google docs has similar

Google docs has similar spread sheets to excel, its free, "Online" so if your computer crashes you are not hosed, and can be exported to excel format if need be. 

Non supported software...

I thought about using that software or shopping around for other inventory software, but since that software is not being maintained I though it best to head in a different direction. I use Excel for work and I am pretty well versed in it, I thought I would just use what I had instead of trying to start with a new program. Another thing I want to do in the future is to be able to run some reports to track my inventory, which I know how to do in Excel. The final determining factor was that some of the information was already had in Excel and was able to just move it from one sheet to another.

I have already saved what I have to a jump drive and uploaded it to the cloud. I figure that with all three methods covered I should have a pretty good chance of recovering.

Another happy Google Docs

Another happy Google Docs user here.

Google Sheets is similar to MS Excel minus some features, and as Stottman said it can be downloaded and exported to Excel if need be.

The best part is it's free and "cloud" based. I can work on Google Docs anywhere I get web access. The info is not saved on my PC but in Google's Data Centers. I've had PC hard drives crash before and while a raid NAS can make a good home back up device, I'll let Google spend the money on that.

I also have the Google Drive app on my phone, so it's handy to check out my Freight Car roster spreadsheet at train shows or hobby shops.

Nice spreadsheet. Been

Nice spreadsheet. Been thinking about doing this myself for a while. I would add a photo of the car or locomotive to it.

Now to open another can of worms...what about all the structures, track, decoders, dcc system, electronics, etc we all have. I have seen people catalog rolling stock but not the rest of the stuff. 

Other Stuff

Once you "roll your own" as far as inventories go, then recording the other stuff is just a matter of how much patience and thoroughness you have.

I use the inventory of cars to drive an Access app that generates car cards (home made app),  About the only reason I have found for taking an inventory of the rest of the stuff is for insurance purposes.  The exception would be anything you "collect".  For example I collect railroad books, rule books and timetables.  I really ought to inventory my rule books so I don't end up cruising E-Bay and end up with two copies of the 1945 RDG rules (oops already have done that).

The limit is just how anal retentive/OCD you are.  You could inventory your spikes and ties too.  It just depends on what your needs are.  The nice thing is if you roll your own databases/spreadsheets/inventories, you can do as much or as little as you want.

Full disclosure, when I scrapped out an old section of my previous layout, I pulled all the spikes out of the ties on the handlaid track.  I weighed a new bag of spikes and then filled up several little plastic bags with the same weight of recycled spikes.  That did several things, I ended up with bags of spikes to reuse, I could tell visitors an idea of what went into the layout ("A yard that size uses about 5000 itty bitty spikes") and I could show my wife how much I saved (5 bags of spikes at about $10 a bag = "I saved $50 honey!")

Eating an Elephant...

I do plan to inventory my structures and vehicles as a project planning tool but I am taking it one bite at a time.  As for all the other small bits and pieces I may make a more general list for the purpose of insurance reasons. I also think that I will add photos of my completed projects at some point.

Cannot see it?

All I see are empty squares whereI suppose your spreadsheet is to be displayed.

Uploaded to MRH

Joe

I uploaded them direct to MRH so it might be on your end. Click on the box and see if your browser prompts you to allow to see the image. 

Anyone else having a problem?

Column Filters

Now that I can see it (no idea why or what) I use a similar spreadsheet to maintain an inventory.  I have  location, type and excess columns as well.  With the use of column filters I can sort and select items as desired.  The location column has been of great value when I'm looking for something a year or two later.  At swap meet time, I select the excess stuff and round it up.

Lots of uses for a spreadsheet like this.  Thanks for sharing it, Greg.

Not dead

Easy Model Railroad Inventory is currently still available for download. URL will not be renewed in August. After that everyone who wants to may share the install program. It may be shared right now. 

I have offered the program to a couple of organizations. If one wants to host it I will let you know. 

I use EMRI...

I hope someone will host it. I like it and I'm not interested re-inventing the wheel.