Many hobbyists who have been at it for more than a few years have amassed several thousand dollars worth of equipment, accessories, etc.
Assuming you don’t have any family that really cares about your hobby or layout, where would you want your layout to go? Would it just go to an estate sale or train buyer, and the proceeds go to your heirs, or is there some worthwhile beneficiary?
Made special arrangements with the big guy upstairs, He likes trains too and wants me to bring em with me. OK, I know, can’t do that, but my son and daughter are both very interested in trains at this point, and I hope to foster the interest as long as I can. When I am gone, I hope that my kids will have fond memories of running trains with Dad and will pass along the trains and the memories to their kids. If it comes to having a legacy to leave to some museum/charitable organization, it seems that often these collections are themselves, sold at auction. In the end, I guess if the kids don’t want them, I hope to at least have the kids knowledgeable enough to handle them and pass them along in a way that would honor me.
Well my wife is into here Teddy Bears and my son isn’t terribly excited by toy trains nor is my daughter. So I’ve done the only thing I can do - keep on living. [#wstupid]
BK (before kids) - Wife, and she will do with them as she sees fit
AK (after kids) - Hopefully I will have a son or daughter who appreciates them and will give them a good home, if not they will go to the wife and she will do with them as she sees fit.
If I had it my way I would be burried under the roundhouse… [:)]
Just Kidding… it would get a bit smelly in the house after a few days… ewww
As long as my loved ones don’t go to a certain LHS, where the owner has been known to make his bread & butter by buying ridiculously low from widows, then quoting Greenburg prices on resale, I will rest in peace…[xx(]
I’ve put together a reasonably complete inventory along with purchase price and a guesstimate at current value. The inventory sheet also has the names and addresses of several auction houses. I’ve told my family that if I go first they are welcome to keep what they want and sell the rest. Afterall it is my hobby and it is I who gives the collection meaning. Once I’m gone it will just be a bunch of stuff so I think it is better for the heirs to get what money they can out of the trains and use that money for something they enjoy.
Well, when I’m gone my train(s) will go into storage until the resurrection when I’ll get to play with them again. [:D] Maybe I’ll let my kids play with them in the mean time.
Unless something changes radically, my boys will get them. Or maybe I’ll last long enough that their kids will get them. I don’t know, but I suspect my wife will want the same thing for her trains; I suppose that will depend on which of us two lasts longer.
OTOH, I’m sure that the Good Lord only plays with trains that come out of Orange-and-Blue boxes . . .