Hi all,
I currently have two garbage bags standing on the floor of my garage, being held up purely by the model-railroading waste within them. I’m aware that model railroading produces a lot of waste - kit boxes, scraps of wood, broken $3 digital clocks (don’t ask), used paving tape, etc. Am I the only one who produces this much waste, or is this a common factor for us model railroaders?
Cheers,
tbdanny
No Danny, you are not alone. There are many modelers who share your predicament with broken $3 digital clocks, used paving tape, ground foam, and the like. You simply need to contact the National Model Railroader’s Waste Disposal Facility for assistance in the proper waste management techniques. Most of us here already receive assistance on a regular basis. In fact, I think there may be something about it in the FAQ. But just in case you missed it, here is the web address: http://www.ebay.com.
I hope this helps!
John
Actually I admire you for actually getting that stuff into a trash bag for actual disposal versus finding a spot on the otherwise way overcrowded shelf with other stuff you might be able to salvage. I mean really you might be able to find some useful electronics in that clock and they can sit next to the 237 pieces (and I do mean small pieces) of extruded foam and wood[;)]
Ricky
What?!?! You throw stuff away? If you toss your kit boxes, where do you keep all the sprue scraps you save? And the empty latex caulk containers? They’re great for, uh, well I’m sure they’ll be great for something, someday.
Actually I dump my layout trash can in the basement into a trash bag every Friday morning and put it at the curb for the green truck to pick up. I do sort out recycleables and put them in the bin. But I do not keep trash in the basement. Fire hazard, unsightly, in the way…etc.
Bob
I regret this, Bob, but you are on the verge of being drummed out ! A model railroader throwing something AWAY - whatever are you thinking ? You’ll never make the “Hall of Fame” at this rate !!
Dennis
You may have something there!
I have so many boxes of sprue, little electronic parts and bits and pieces of the various kits I’ve built over the years that it it becoming increasingly difficult to find anything I am really looking for. Add to that, detailing parts, couplers, spare decoders, speakers, resistors, LEDs, wire, light bulbs in an infinite number of sizes, plus spare figures and vehicles etc. Now I know why I’m running out of storage space.
On top of that, while I am looking for something specific, I often get sidetracked by the ‘interesting’ things I find during the search.
Reorganization doesn’t seem to help, I just end up with more categories of potentially useful things.
May be I’ll get a trash can and try emptying it every Friday morning like Bob. Do you think it will help?
Hello, my name is Tom and I’m a pack rat. (all together now) “Hello, Tom!”
The day after you throw it away, you’ll find a use for it!
-George
Sounds like you need one of these
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/326-450370
and maybe one of these
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/361-900
Only real scrap I have are aluminum can’s! [:-^]
Cuda Ken
I am the “Attila The Hun” of recyclers. My sister has to run around and check her bathroom waste baskets when she knows I am coming over. I call her an environmental terrorist when I spot an empty toilet roll in the garbage in stead of the recycled paper tub.
I have a garbage tub in the train room and when it is full it gets taken out and everything gets sorted into the appropriate curbside can. It takes us three weeks to fill one garbage can with real garbage. That’s a family of four.[:)]
Brent
Weird, I suppose, but many years ago I had my (first) wife save all the tubes that come with Tampons; when I first ask her to do this she looked at me a little askance–my youngest daughter called me a prevert when I ask her–but they make some handy smoke stacks, flat car loads, etc. One place where I used several was constructing some of those multi-tube culverts such as manufacturers or waste treatment plants use to flush sludge into waterways. Don’t blanche; I do post “NO SWIMMING” and “NO FISHING” signs in the area.
I use a 42 gallon pertrol barrel; when mine gets full I call the NRC and they pick mine up and haul it off to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. When they ask what’s in it I tell them that the contents are too dangerous to even talk about! Piece-of-Cake! After all what am I if not a taxpayer?
Send them to Maine, I can get a nickle each deposit on them [2c][2c][dinner]
Wot? [%-)] I thought those bags were for storing possibly useful stuff in… No-one ever suggested they should be dumped. [:O]
I had my (first) wife save all the tubes that come with Tampons. Hum, wonder why she is listed as first wife? Fighting over finger nail polish remover is bad, won’t go the next step R T Poteet.
If I could get a nickel each I could afford a new BLI Q 2.
Cuda Ken, looking for a full can again.
I have a large trash can with wheels down in the basement. When it is full, I take it around to the garage and fill the garbage can that will be hauled awy on Friday mornings.
That’s the contents of my scrap box.
If it doesn’t smell after 3 days - I keep it. You just never know…
Enjoy
Paul
How do you generate two bags of trash at one time? Tear down your benchwork and throw away the unuseable pieces? (If I were to disassemble my benchwork to reconfigure my layout, the total unuseable component wouldn’t fill a waste basket. Let’s hear it for steel!)
What happens to my model railroading waste depends on where I happen to be working. I just finished preparing two RIX switch machines for installation - nine solder joints per each - at the worktop in my home office. The little clipped off wire ends went into the same trash can which accepted the instruction slips - I’ve installed several RIX machines, so I think I know how it’s done. The one trash bag (grocery size) in the railroad room gets occasional slivers of foam, bits of cardstock, damaged plastic tie strip - and is mostly full of caps from distilled water and soft drink bottles (my local recycling center wants the bottles uncapped.)
OTOH, my junk box useful materials storage is full of cut rail ends (Big enough to make parts for hand-laid specialwork,) assorted motors from a myriad of sources, about fifty different sizes of light bulbs… I have made occasional attempts to thin out the collection, usually yielding perhaps an envelope full of rejects.
So, what goes into my curbside trash container? Mostly trimmings from my wife’s garden and assorted junk mail. We have to put it out about once every two weeks.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - frugally)