RAILSHELF CATALOG  •  VALUE  •  PRESERVE

Now boarding — early access

Every engine. Every car. Every story.

RailShelf is the modern home for your model railroad collection. Snap a photo — we identify the piece, log the details, and track what it's worth.

Join the waitlist

Free while in early access · HO, N, O, G & more

How it works

From box to cataloged in under a minute

No spreadsheet columns to invent, no database to learn. The camera does the tedious part.

STEP 01

Photograph the piece

Shoot the car, the shell, or the box end — from your phone, tablet, or desktop.

STEP 02

We identify it

AI suggests the manufacturer, road name, product number, and scale. You confirm or correct — it learns your collection.

STEP 03

Know what it's worth

Market values from real sold listings, tracked over time. Condition and original box factored in.

The full consist

Built for collectors — and the people who inherit collections

Catalog

AI photo cataloging

Point, shoot, confirm. Bulk-friendly for the forty-boxes-in-the-basement situation.

Value

Live market values

Estimated values grounded in sold prices, not wishful listings. Watch your collection's worth over time.

Preserve

Estate & insurance reports

One-click PDF: itemized, photographed, valued. For the adjuster, the appraiser, or the family.

Migrate

Spreadsheet import

Forty years in Excel? Bring it over in one CSV upload — nothing retyped.

Everywhere

Phone, tablet, desktop, web

Native apps that sync. Check your roster from the swap meet before you buy a duplicate.

Operate

DCC & maintenance log

Decoder settings, CV notes, service history — the working side of the roster, not just the shelf side.

Inherited a collection?

Know what you have before anyone makes you an offer

Every week, someone posts the same question to a train forum: "I inherited my dad's trains — where do I even start?" RailShelf is the answer: photograph everything, get it identified and valued, and decide what to keep, sell, or pass on — with a documented record either way.

RailShelf started the week I brought home the first box of my late dad's HO collection. Decades of locomotives and rolling stock, carefully collected — and no list, no values, no idea where to begin. The tools I found felt older than the trains. So I'm building the one I needed. — Joe, founder (and a collector's kid)

Departing soon

Get your boarding pass

Join the waitlist and be first on the platform when early access opens.

Founding members lock in a lifetime discount when we launch.