Hi All --- After having to go through my Dad and his wife’s stuff when they died, my wife and I have been on a campaign to get rid of anything that is not used regularly. My Dad was a product of the depression, and his wife a product of the European war (Danish), and they kept EVERYTHING. They filled a 2000 plus square foot attic, 10 feet high, with all kinds of things we would normally throw away – hundreds of margarine cups, for example. They were also VERY careful with their money, and had quite a lot when they died. Unfortunately for me, I had to give away millions as called for in the trust. Fortunately, we have enough without that.
I have also been slowly getting rid of train inventory which will never be used. A fair portion went at the Sacramento convention last year. There is a local train swap (covers all of the southwest, but held in Prescott) which will get a bunch more of the odds and ends in August. On another note, several of you said there were always methods to make more space on the railroad when I had to tell Bill Wade I didn’t have room for the coal mine-tipple he was proposing. Well, last night I was doing some track work in the NW corner of the room prior to getting some terrain started. I had managed to shove a bit of curved track out of line and the easiest way to check for the fix was to stand up on the table and look directly down on the area. Previously, I had removed a section of the narrow gauge subgrade and stacked it on another part of the subgrade the up hill. What caught my eye was a section that pointed to the middle of the trainroom --- A-HA! A place to put a peninsula! So, after all else is pretty much done, a new peninsula will be phase four of construction. I will be putting in a subgrade and turnout for that extension when I put everything back together. Keeping cool in the air conditioning -- Bill Winans ------------------------------ I'm wondering if one's age and experience has an impact. Depression era children may be more universal pack rats. Somehow I inherited that from my parents even though they were not. It may have had something to do with low cash flow. Now I try to actively shun hoarding junk I might need one day. One the other hand in S the here today might be gone tomorrow has lead me to jump at opportunities when rolling stock, motive power and other scale specific stuff comes up. Over 300 cars (or is it 400?) cars later it really takes up a lot of space. Ben Trousdale
