Model Train Catalogue - Stock list software

[TonyW]

Has anyone used this software? www.modeltraincatalogue.com

 

It looks as if I will be forced to pack up all of my railway and move back to England in the near future so I looking for a way to record all of my stock with photos and and values for the insurance.

 

I did download a demo about three years ago and with the limited functions available on the demo it looked interesting and easy to use but its on my old PC which has died.

 

Have tried to download the new demo but Windows keeps blocking it.  I could use Excel but I find it a pain in the axxx, any info would be most welcome.

 

Tony

[MarkSG]

I've never seen this before, so I obviously haven't used it. But, and apologies for going off topic in the very first response, is this software the sort of thing that has any significant demand?

 

I have to admit that it's never occurred to me before to use a database to log all my stock, but I can see that it would be useful if you've got a lot of stock, and particularly for people who take their stock to exhibitions, to have a well formatted stocklist for insurance purposes.

 

The reason I ask, is that it seems to me that if there is a demand for this sort of thing, then an online version might be even more useful. Rather than being tied to a particular PC, a stocklist that you can log in to via a browser from any Internet device (with, of course, the ability to export to a local spreadsheet when desired) would be more user-friendly. And the reason I ask that (and apologies for the self-interest here), it's occurred to me that this sounds like it might be a fun project to work on. But only if enough people are going to use it for it to worth making the effort.

[MarkSG]

Going back on topic, I've just downloaded Model Train Catalogue to have a look at it. It does trigger the "unknown software" warning on Windows, but if you override that and install it anyway it's perfectly OK - there's nothing dodgy about it.

 

What it is, though, is just a custom front-end to a FoxPro database. FoxPro used to be a Microsoft product, it's now been discontinued by them but the source code has been made available as open source so that developers can continue to use it. I have a feeling, though, that anything built around FoxPro now is likely to be nearing end of life, as even the open source version is essentially frozen and there's a non-zero probability that it will stop working on future versions of Windows at some point.

[stovepipe]

There was a thread a while ago about this, and there are a few alternative packages out there. On my brief look at them I decided they were all flawed in some way, so I kept to my Excel spreadsheet.

 

I know Woodland Scenics do one 'Model Inventory' as an app for Android and maybe Apple too, but I didn't want my stock details on their server, which might just disappear one day. A browser-based solution would be much better, so it can be accessed when out and about, and from wherever.

[jonny777]

I did have a database containing all my model railway stock - primarily for insurance purposes; but it seemed to vanish during a hard drive crash some years ago and I could find no backup or similarly titled file anywhere. So the idea lost its appeal at the time. 

 

 

However, I wonder if there is a Mac OS version?

[TonyW]

7 minutes ago, MarkSG said:

Going back on topic, I've just downloaded Model Train Catalogue to have a look at it. It does trigger the "unknown software" warning on Windows, but if you override that and install it anyway it's perfectly OK - there's nothing dodgy about it.

 

What it is, though, is just a custom front-end to a FoxPro database. FoxPro used to be a Microsoft product, it's now been discontinued by them but the source code has been made available as open source so that developers can continue to use it. I have a feeling, though, that anything built around FoxPro now is likely to be nearing end of life, as even the open source version is essentially frozen and there's a non-zero probability that it will stop working on future versions of Windows at some point.

Good point on not being compatible with future a Windows update, Many years ago I used a software called 'Track Those Trains' that stopped working when Windows 8 came out!

 

Thanks for the replies, on reflection Excel may be the safest route, I wil need to hone my skills a bit better, there is a lot of stock to catalogue and I don't want to be doing it again in a few years.

 

Tony 

[sncf231e]

I use Access for my train collection database. It is just a bit friendlier then Excel.

Regards

Fred

Edited May 7, 2021 by sncf231e

[spamcan61]

48 minutes ago, stovepipe said:

There was a thread a while ago about this, and there are a few alternative packages out there. On my brief look at them I decided they were all flawed in some way, so I kept to my Excel spreadsheet.

 

Probably this one guv:-