We are doing wills now, and I need to figure out what happens to all my rail stuff when I go to the great roundhouse in the sky. I don’t want my wife (or my kids) to be saddled with these problems.
I know that all my New York City specific subway stuff, like photos and slides, builder’s plates, uniform buttons (from the IRT)and destination signs will go to the New York Transit Museum. That’s obvious.
But what about all the rest of my stuff. Where should it go? I might want to sell some items on eBay, but I’m more inclined to do donations and get a tax deduction. Among my collection of stuff
Slides and digital photos. US, European, and Asian mainline properties. Also Union of South Africa (if I remember correctly)
Photos of London Underground Paris Metro, Tokyo subway and suburban rail.
Photos of streetcars in East Berlin in the late 1960s.
Uniform badges. Some generic, some from the NYC RR, the New Haven, and the Staten Island Rapid Transit.
Builder’s plates, like a Budd plate for New York Central System. On the back, I wrote NYC RR 66.
Employee timetables. Includes some very old NYCRR timetables (from 1910s), PRR, NYCRR, PC, Conrail, LIRR. I collected these when I lived in NY, plus some misc SP. Some new, some used with pages pasted in.
Passenger timetables from ACL, SCL, NYC, PRR, LIRR, SP, Caltrain, Amtrak. Probably other roads. Both foldout and individual stations (for commuters). Probably some Chicago-area stuff.
Official guides, various ages.
Non-US passenger timetables. Indicateur Chaix, French, from 1966, French and other European systems. Some British Rail. Cook’s Continental Timetables.
Japanese rail system. In Japanese.
French RR sign (in French) warning about electrified tracks.
Before you bequeath anything, make sure the beneficiary wants it. Also, much railroad “stuff” is limited interest. You have to find the right collector or it’s basically worthless.
I have about 100 books, probably 40 Official Guides, USRA Plans, Car & Locomotive Cyclopedia, about 20 old freight schedules, boxes of ETT and Public TT, Station records (tower movements) and a bundle of dispatch sheets. Plus boxes of paper records, maps, etc.
The Barriger Library in St. Louis has literally tons of stuff they havent processed (i saw the boxes). I hate to pass up on “paper” as once it is gone, it is GONE forever, but i am coming to the realization something needs to be done with this stuff.
Interested in any other suggestions or disposal recommendations.
Many of us have “collected stuff” down through the years. :Stuff that has variously, peaked our personal interests. Everything from models to real railroad ‘collectibles’; and then faced the decsion," What to do with it?".
Hopefully, it will be a meaningful disposition; to friends, to a display, where others could also see, and enjoy it.
Then there are the ‘other’ choices for disposals…
YOUR CHOICE, someone else’s, not so much… Good Luck !