Auscision Storage Boxes

Discussion in 'Reviews' started by Wolseley, May 23, 2020.

  1. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    This may be only of interest to Australian based forum members, as these items are bulky, due to their being sold assembled rather than in a flat pack form and, I would expect, be expensive to post overseas.

    http://www.auscisionmodels.com.au/Storage_box_page.htm

    They have been around since 2008, although I only became aware of them a few months ago. I was becoming dissatisfied with wrapping my models in tissue paper and storing them in drawers and shoe boxes with layers of bubble wrap between the tissue paper, so I decided to give these boxes a try. They are for H0 models but I reasoned that they should accomodate 00 models as well. As a rule they do, but I did find that the Hornby Dublo TPO is a bit too wide to fit. Other models so far have fitted in the boxes, although not with much room to spare sideways. I had to leave one compartment empty in the box where I put my Duchesses (or some of them at least - I have enough Duchesses to fill at least two of these boxes).

    One complaint I have heard about the boxes is that fine detail items can catch in the foam lining but, given that most of my stock is 3 rail Hornby Dublo, that won't be a problem for me. The only thing I am unsure about is the durability of the foam plastic but, judging from what I have seen in the past, that would take about 30 years or more to be a problem, so I'll let someone else look after that one.....

    Here are a couple of the boxes. The smaller one contains four tinplate Dublo BR (WR) bogie corridor coaches and two Tri-ang clerestories and the larger one has part of my collection of Duchesses:

    P1010678.JPG

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    Jim
     
  2. Kimbo

    Kimbo Staff Member Moderator

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    Nice looking storage system Jim, thanks for sharing.
     
  3. Echidna

    Echidna Full Member

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    Hello All,

    a number of friends of mine use these boxes to transport some of their models to the club room, and they are strong and nicely finished. As they also drive, movement from home to club is easy.

    In my case, however, I do not drive but travel by bus and train, in which case these boxes are too big for me to do so.

    As an alternative, I use pair of 8 litre oblong plastic boxes, two of which I can accomodate in a backpack, which solves the public transport problem.

    I agree with Wolseley that individual wrapping in tissue paper and bubble wrap is slower, however, I use cardboard floors and dividers to reduce damage and give me two levels of storage.

    However, if you just intend to store efficiently at home, or transport by car, then the Auscision card boxes are worth considering.

    There is also a couple who sell long, narrow train boxes at exhibitions in Victoria, I have forgotten their name for the moment, but they are also worth considering. ( They exhibit at AMRA Caulfield, but that is unlikely to happen this year. )

    Regards, Echidna
     
  4. Dr Tony

    Dr Tony Full Member

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    I bought one too, having built my own boxes as well, I wanted to see what others had come up with.
    I was very impressed by how they have done the foam. It is one piece for the entire box, and the channels where the wagons or locos sit have been "hollowed out" for want of a better word, all in one go. This results in a very neat system, quite strong, with a minimum amount of wasted space between rows. There would be a fair bit of waste foam lying around the factory floor I expect.
    The finer detail falling off that some report I think is mainly due to the fact that some of this detail is so fine it will fall off anyway while you are looking at the model, it doesn't stand much chance in anything other than packaging moulded for that specific wagon or loco.
    Cheers
    Tony
     
  5. SMR CHRIS

    SMR CHRIS Staff Member Moderator

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    These Auscision boxes are a favourite storage and transport option for me as well.
    I have a combination of Silver and Gold boxes, haven't got any of the blue loco boxes but I actually use for Gold and Silver for both Locos as well as stock. Generally I get a full trains worth of stock in each box.
    If you have a lot of stock they sell in bulk 10 packs and a couple of times a yeast they have sales with 20% off so a good saving and with free postage within Australia become a good deal. I’ve got 25 in total next time Auscision has a sale I’ll be getting some more.
    As with no permanent HO layout I run all my HO or OO on the club layout I Usually work through the boxes A different one or two for each open day at the club making it easy to have a good variety with running each time.
    As other above have said they are well made and very nice foam, only modifications I find useful is for UK OO stock Or US HO stock Due to its larger loading gauge a little extra with Is needed, To achieve this I trim the foam at the end of the box this allows the foam a little extra expansion area to accept the slightly larger UK OO Or US, HO stock as the foam is supplied profiled for Australian HO scale stock That has a smaller with than the UK OO or US HO
     
  6. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    It seems that the extra 0.5mm/foot of 00 over H0 makes a difference. These boxes are, of course, intended for H0 models and Hornby Dublo is, as the name suggests, 00 scale. What I have found is that the older stock generally fits in quite well, but the later "Super Detail" (or "SD6") stock is a rather tight fit. So far, everything except the TPOs has fitted in the boxes but, where some are a tight fit, things can be made a bit more comfortable by leaving one row empty, as in the photo above showing some of my Duchesses in a Silver Box. I did try putting a tenth Duchess in that box, but I needed about another 10mm or so more than I had to get the last one in. With all the Duchesses I have, I need three boxes just for them.

    I haven't tried putting any of my Trix models in yet, other than the Flying Scotsman, but they promise to fit into the boxes well, given that Trix's rather elastic scale rule (which constantly varied, even on the same model) was always somewhere between H0 and 00.
     

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