I am and I suspect a majority of you are too. By that I mean someone who won’t throw anything away for fear it might be useful. We hang on to every surplus kit part, scrap piece of styrene, wood, junk rolling stock, etc. just in case. And there is good reason for it. You can hang on to a piece of junk for 10-15 years just sitting in a drawer somewhere, but within a week from the time you finally decide to chuck it, you will find something that piece of junk would have been perfect for. This all became crystal clear to me last weekend when I was trying to organize my little plastic drawers and discovered one drawer full of nothing but horn hook couplers. Did you say throw them out? Are you crazy?
Yes! If I throw it away I will need it next week…Cox 47
Last time I threw something out the world came to an end…don’t want that to happen again…unless anyone is up for buying like 100 000 hornhooks and a bunch of half broken kadees and lesser knuckles? (JK)
If I think I can use it on my layout, or if it a trash picked computer thing, I hang on to it.
If it’s an artsy fartsy holiday peice of crap that hasn’t been unpacked for 5 years, TO THE DUMP WITH IT!
I’ve done a lot of closet cleaning in the last two months.[:-^]
True story.
My first house didn’t have a shower in the bathroom. To put one in, I had to install a new shower faucet. I put the old faucet in the box and stored it.
When I moved from my first house about a year later, I kept the first house and rented it out. The old faucet was moved to my new house and stored on a shelf in the basement.
Ten (10!) years later, I decided to clean out the basement. Found the old faucet. Said to myself, "You’ve kept this for 10 years!! You idiot, THROW IT OUT!! So I did.
Two weeks later, the tenant called with a problem in the bathroom. When I went to fix the problem, I found I needed a shower faucet and the tenant said, “Why don’t you eliminate the shower? We don’t need it!”
So I bought a new shower faucet…GRRRRRRRRR!!!
Darrell, quiet…for now
wow this is the same for me
day after its gone I find the parts that it needed
HATE THAT
Are you kidding? Of course we never toss anything out. Why, it might be usable in another application. The last time I through something out I needed a week later or someone I knew really needed one he couldn’t get one anywhere. So, never, never through anything away. Just put it in a box and misplace it like everything else I don’t through away and really need later and CAN’T FIND!!![:(!]
Dave
I just threw out a bag full of old kits and parts from the 70’s. I figured I would never of used them. I have some old Athearn dummies that need some love, and I might pitch them, because I can’t really sell them. The wife is really cracking down so I have to keep the layout clean.
I have every thing for model railroading, that I ever bought or was given. Even though I changed scales twice I still have all my HO and O scale stuff (I’m in S now). After all you never know…[:D]
Enjoy
Paul
If I think I might need it I keep it but if it sits around for longer then a year I throw it out.
Guilty! [:D]
Gordon
I keep everything from styrofoam scraps to those little plastic holders in Proto 2000 locomotive boxes. Hey, they might make a good flat car or gondola load later on!
I have storage trays stacked about 4 feet high with all kinds of loco & freight cars Parts, form 10 different manufactures. I keep these on hand for repairs on my stuff and other peoples. Have boxes and boxes of engine shells, frames, freight car boddies, buildings, scenery stuff, and track, and god knows what else. I keep it organized really good which helps. But throw it away? No way! If I don’t need it any more, I sell it on ebay as a parts pile, and some other pack rat besides me hords it then for awhile, some piles of parts fetch $ 25 to $40 depending on parts and manufacture, others only bring $5 sometimes, but they do sell. Another mans jusk could be someone elses treasure!
not only do i keep everything , i buy more !
i just bought a box of ‘junk HO engine parts’ . well there are parts in there from 4 engines , including most of the parts for a tyco 4-4-0 and an mdc 2-6-0 , both of which i’ll attempt to put together . there were even 4 motors , and after i removed all the track spikes from the magnets !!! 3 of them actually work [:)]
Yep, I have a pile of parts that used to be a Bachmann Plus F7 (bodyshell repaint went wrong, and the truck sideframes/baseplates are broken) - that’s awaiting another one with a good bodyshell and truck frames but broken mechanical parts. I also have spare parts for computers dating back a good 10 years!
The only thing I don’t keep are the horn hook couplers. Everything else has a place, usually someplace where I can’t find it when I want it.
I am the worst pack rat of all of you.
I buy junk to pack rat away.
James
Considering I’ve never really had any RR related item that wasn’t in good condition I can’t really say. My dad, on the other hand is the total opposite of a pack rat. When he screws up a kit (maybe a minor detail breaks off) he’ll just pitch it. I’m always mad at him 'cause hey, even if it isn’t good enough for my dad, it could be a free model for me [;)].
I resemble that remark!
Now where did I put that…
Horn and Hook?
All gone. Been throwing them out for 30 years.