Here's Mine copied from Excel:
Here are some of the data fields in my database, just for reference. Not saying this is right or all inclusive or you have to have these or anything, just that these are some of the ones I have included just to give you some ideas of what may or may not be important to you.
Equipment:
Roster name
Initial
Number
Eng Letter
Type
Class
Color
Note
Comment
Owner
Insp Date
Car card printed
Current value
Purchased value
Details
Make
Model num
Weight
Wheels
Couplers
Decoder
Address
Length
Material
Weathered
Truck type
Slogan
Engine rating
Consist num
Scale
Component
Qty
Component type
Original value
Date acquired
Part num
Description
Structure name
Structure type
Title
Author
Publisher
Date published
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Hi again!
My Excel car/loco inventory spreadsheets proved invaluable in ways I didn't mention in my earlier posting. About 5 years ago, I had about 600 freight cars and 70 passenger cars and 65 locos that I collected over the previous 5 years. And it suddenly hit me that my layout (HO 11x15, 2 level) could never use more than about 150 cars max, and most of my inventory was still in kit form. So, I decided to thin out the collection, and using the various sorts I was able to:
- determine what cars had a build date newer than 1959 (last year my layout represents), so I could Ebay them.
- determine what type of car I was overloaded on (i.e. too many ice reefers, hoppers, etc.) so I could Ebay them.
- determine duplicates (thanks to recording the car number) so I could Ebay them. This feature also has save me money several times when I see a kit I just have to have - and realize I already have it.
- determine if my roster of various ATSF diesels was disproportionate to the prototypes inventory, so I could Ebay them.
- determine which locos were not DCC friendly or exceptionally difficult to install decoders, so I could Ebay them.
- I had hoppers and boxcars from almost every postwar US railroad, and the inventory helped me identify those that didn't make sense to have on my Midwest/Texas layout.
ENJOY,
Mobilman44
I got rid of about 1/3 of the inventory, leaving a much more manageable roster.
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
With an inventory of 1100 freight cars and growing,I have been using Microsoft Excel for 6 years now,though with the "upgrading" of the computer to Microsoft Vista,I now have to highlight the whole inventory sheet to get everything in the exact alphabetical order.I have the inventory sheets show the car,number,car type,load,industry,owner( example is if the car says Kraft on the sides) and the manufacturer(Athearn).I print 2 copies of my inventory, so I have a "Master" list,and one that I take with me to train shows,and on that one, I write all the cars I bought on the back sheet, then update it when I can,before the next train show.FYI,there is no need to go through the entire list, and enter each car singley,and alphabetically,when you can type them all down on the very last entry of your list,and then using the "tools" icon to get all your cars in order automatically.
8500HPGASTURBINE You can't imagine the importance of keeping track of your inventory. I had 10's of thousands of $$ worth the stuff stolen and one reason I got it back was a good inventory. I ALSO marked the items or trains with a small ID mark of some sort. It can be something as small as getting a Paint Marker and placing a small dot some were on the bottom of an engine, an un built kit, ect. Some of you might remember when that happened to me. They stole $10,000 worth of un built FSM kits alone. Every kit had a small ID dot on it that traced it back to me. Do it, you will be glad you did. Mike
You can't imagine the importance of keeping track of your inventory. I had 10's of thousands of $$ worth the stuff stolen and one reason I got it back was a good inventory. I ALSO marked the items or trains with a small ID mark of some sort. It can be something as small as getting a Paint Marker and placing a small dot some were on the bottom of an engine, an un built kit, ect. Some of you might remember when that happened to me. They stole $10,000 worth of un built FSM kits alone. Every kit had a small ID dot on it that traced it back to me. Do it, you will be glad you did.
Mike
As an aside to that I might remind people to make sure a paper copy--or CD/DVD is kept of your inventory AWAY from your home--someplace secure. Like a safe deposit box or such---
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Randy,
Microsoft Excel will work fine, if you have windows. Mac also has a compatable version of excel, but you could use something that is already on there. Cards that you buy can be expensive, and easy to loose. With the computer, you could print it out and keep it with you, save it on your hard drive, and put it on a flash drive, external hard drive, etc. Hope you git it all straightened out.
Do you all inventory your tools? Paints, small parts, how much track? Do you keep track of costs (purchases) for benchwork and miscellaneous stuff?
Just curious.
YardOffice looks like an awesome program. I like the photo feature.
-Ron
As mentioned earlier, I use Excel because I know the product, I taught the product and I like the product. I have just over 1600 freight cars, 175 diesels, and it is easier to track them for service needs, plus other info. I maintain one spreadsheet for diesels, and two others, one for Santa Fe cars numbering around 700 and one for the foreign and mileage cars making up the rest of the difference. Original value and cost of additions is included.
I also maintain a file of fixed consists, making additions and deletions easy. This is all on a laptop that sits on my workbench in easy reach. The laptop also contains the dispatching info for operating sessions. It is backed up on a regular basis, and is also transferred to the desktop in my office on a regular basis.
My insurance agent is pleased as punch, and with the photos on my website of the layout has never questioned anything.
Bob
In both Excel and Word one can, in fact, import pix if they so need to from their own photo gallery. No real need to swallow more memory for another program, if it is already there--
One can even import much of the inventory into PowerPoint and have a complete show set up--You can import photographs from photo gallery into PowerPoint as well---
blownout cylinder 8500HPGASTURBINE You can't imagine the importance of keeping track of your inventory. I had 10's of thousands of $$ worth the stuff stolen and one reason I got it back was a good inventory. I ALSO marked the items or trains with a small ID mark of some sort. It can be something as small as getting a Paint Marker and placing a small dot some were on the bottom of an engine, an un built kit, ect. Some of you might remember when that happened to me. They stole $10,000 worth of un built FSM kits alone. Every kit had a small ID dot on it that traced it back to me. Do it, you will be glad you did. Mike As an aside to that I might remind people to make sure a paper copy--or CD/DVD is kept of your inventory AWAY from your home--someplace secure. Like a safe deposit box or such---