Reducing

Finally getting around to serious scaling back part four. In the first episode it was scale back the retirement layout size and scope with going to a point to point and fewer structures. Then in part two I divested myself of all the excess structures that were simply taking up storage space and that I would never use. Most I sent away and gave away to good homes. Others I looked at, didn't like what I saw, and dropped them into circular file #13 not wishing those creations on anybody. That left me with older style structures and just a little excess to have some flexibility.

Round three took me into my considerable parts boxes and drawers. I emptied at least four multi compartmented boxes into circular file #13. Everything form old motors from obscure Mehano products to some old geared trucks that I could not remember what they came from and I will never use. I also emptied at least six drawers from my wood chests of just plain crap. I was becoming a hoarder and the hoarding police were lurking in the neighborhood. And no I would not even think of putting some of that old crap on that auction site with a ridiculous price tag. I don't frequent the site and never will and like a lot of crap found there this stuff belonged in the trash can or recycling bin.

Having given up the idea of having three different eras of stuff and settling on one era heavy on geared and rod small steam and some early diesels the passenger fleet is the next thing to be thinned. The point to point design will feature short older equipment, think open platform wood, and equally short trains. Thus a lot of the big 80 foot passenger cars will go to a new home. I'll probably keep a short consist of SP&S, GN and CB&Q probably no more than about 28 cars plus appropriate power. It will probably never run just being a small collection to possible pass on the Grandkids.

I will most likely box up lots of passenger cars to offer for sale here on TrainBoard. I have never subscribed to the idea of something that is twenty years old selling for todays prices or so called collectors prices. I went looking at prices for flex track this AM and that will set my car prices which will be way below what they cost new but enough to finance my purchases of flex. I'll let folks know when they becomes available and post a picture of each lot.

After that my next phase will be to start culling my freight fleet especially those big wood 60 foot express reefers of which I have an excess of. Future plans call for a small fleet of forty footers of which I have adequate numbers. I will probably keep a few of the big guys to include in the passenger sets.

Why am I doing this. Well primarily my health and age are factors in going with a smaller and electrically simple layout. My days of kit bashing locos are over due to eyes and other factors. Decaling with the small capacities and class marks are now impossible even with a Optivisor with an extra set of lenses. And Arthritis and the effects from the stroke that will be with me for the rest of my life are yet other factors. If for any of the aforementioned cause me to step away from N scale I will not have a lot of stuff to liquidate and should I check out and board the train out of here on platform 7 and 3/4ths I don't leave behind a big bunch of stuff for my family to deal with.

Keeping in the vein of divesting myself of stuff I recently transferred ownership of all my hunting weapons to my Son because I know that I won't be going into the woods and climbing trees again to ambush Bambi and kin. Heck I even shed some pounds on my waistline so maybe I can save some space by narrowing the layout aisles.

 

Sometimes reducing is adding, in a good way.

 

When you have so danged much stuff you can't even remember that you have it, or can't remember where it is tucked away, Then it is time for some changes.I would rather have less and concentrate on quality than quantity and be able to enjoy all that I end up keeping and so yes it is adding to the quality of my modeling in a way.

When I took on that ranch project and the stockyard project before that I found things that I did not even remember I had. And while not mentioned during the projects some of the very fine work was a source of frustration with some of the kits requiring a lot of effort to get things right. I don't have the patience I used to, also one of the effects of a stroke on emotions etc. Building those stock chutes was almost too much for me but I gritted my teeth and pushed through the process. I am maneuvering myself slowly into a less frustration free modeling. My days of railroad empire in the basement are over with six Alcos on a long freight and three more as helpers, and I certainly don't need a passenger fleet that can stock the biggest N scale coach yard ever built and still have enough running stock to have six passenger trains going too.

I am slowly maneuvering myself into a more manageable fleet of power and equipment with about thirty cars in the small port yard and eight on the car float and a few at sidings next to the few industries. Maybe one train headed uphill under triple headed power and another waiting in the siding to come down and both trains short consists. I like the older equipment back when the railroads had a variety of stuff and the flavor of narrow gauge while staying standard gauge.

So I think I have been able to adapt, and still adapting some, and for now stay in N scale. Scenery I can still do and rock carving doesn't required a precision touch, and if I can get my tree making skills up to par that doesn't require a delicate touch or perfect vision for those.

 

This AM I listed my first lot of 20 cars on the Swap Meet site here to test the waters. It is an assortment of cars that I put together for the combined GN Fast Mail/Western Star. I am not looking to make a small fortune out of these and have priced them to move, using the proceeds to buy track. Since I am absorbing the postage costs It is far simpler and cheaper for me to sell the excess stuff in lot rather than break them up as individual units. Hopefully by the end of the day I will have sorted through and got together lot #2. This is an opportunity for a person new to the hobby or working on a limited budget to add some cars to their roster. At some point later I will be listing some freight lots and then some motive power all at reduced pricing.

 

I just assembled and posted Lot#2 of passenger equipment to the Swap Meet site.

 

Lot #3 on my listing has upon request also been broken up and later today I will repost it as a revised and slightly smaller lot of mixed passenger cars. Also I posted at the Swap Meet site a group of the 34 ft. Overtons and some Bmann duckbill cars that haven't been made in awhile plus a few of the Bmann old time 34 ft. freight.

Overall the experience at the Swap Meet has been a pleasurable one with my getting rid of excess roster inventory and some folks getting a few things they needed.

I have reduced my passenger stuff down to two short old time consists and two small consists of the short 60 and 65 ft. steel type cars. I retained with the power lash-ups four abbreviated passenger trains of not over 8 cars each. I have a fall short consist of SP&S #1 and 2 with 2 Kato F-3s and 1 LL E-7, an 8 car late fall consist of GN with another Kato A-B-A set of power, another short CB&Q train with the E-5A and E-7a as power and finally a big sky blue short consist with two E-7s for power. A very much reduced passenger roster now with the old time cars being the ones that get run and the rest in storage if one of the Grandkids show an interest. If not in a couple of years I will get rid of most of the modern stuff also and just retain the few older passenger. I may even go back and look at some of my older era stuff and reduce it further after letting the dust settle awhile. Overall I am happy with my reduced roster and have freed up a lot of storage space.

I haven't decided yet whether to turn my attention to reducing motive power, both steam and diesel, or starting with the excesses in my freight fleet. Either way I have to stock up on some small boxes because I will do some stuff in lots again at reduced prices to move it out. Works out for me as a good way to finance some track and turnout purchases for the next layout.

 

I just reposted the revised Lot#3 on the Swap Meet site and added a couple of more cars that I decided were surplus to it. There will be a slight delay though in boxing it up due to the interest of my 18 pound and still growing tomcat in the small box.

 

With just one lot of passenger cars remaining I started culling out my freight equipment and so far have about 75 cars that are either duplicate numbers or too modern for my era or have the emblem of the dreaded Borg on the side. I have left a nice little fleet of older wood boxes and a small bunch of the billboard reefers. Discovered some 85 foot pig palace cars I had forgotten I had in the process and threw them in the batch. I have a huge number of 50 foot double door boxes so I will set down again tomorrow and bring those numbers down some. There were some cars that after looking at some of my much earlier painting and decaling attempts I simply stripped them of the MT trucks or couplers and filed them in the circular file #13. Most of them were some early Bmann stuff. I have yet to get into my log cars and I know that I can thin some more there. Then there is my storage drawer with two layers of log camp cars and structures. I lost my sanity again and really got carried away with building those and I think I have enough for almost four camps laying in that drawer. The motive power thinning will be the hardest especially getting down to what I really need for first generation and so that waits until last and I get a fresh supply of meds.

 

Todays' 2nd round of culling out cars got me down to a manageable 385 freight cars which is about 100 more than I will need to populate the next and last layout. Then I went to work on the logging cars and thinned them down to 50 cars with an assortment of 34 ft. flats with log bunks, some skeleton log cars, and 5 sets of disconnects. and a couple of work and car moving flats. That is just enough to give me a string of cars to be loaded at the camp, and some loaded ready to head to the mill and another short string at the mill being unloaded at the log dump. Thinned out my collection of log camp cars also and got it down to 17 camp cars of which part will make the camp, and the remaining will occupy a siding out behind the mill in storage. I have my old time open platform passenger down to about where I want it and next is to go back to my 1930-40s era consist with a critical eye toward operations to see what more I can cull there.

 

More thinking........

 

In 2005 after I retired, we moved from MN to IL. The home in MN we sold had an unfinished basement with sufficient space for my dream layout which I had already constructed and planned to detail and upgrade during my retirement.

We elected to move to IL closer to our only daughter. Unfortunately, the home we purchased in IL did not have the same amount of layout space as the one we left. I had moved all the bench work in anticipation of some remodeling of our new home, but that remodeling never happened. I gave most of the bench work away and did a layout in a extra bedroom. Thus I reluctantly started my reducing process in 2005.

Now nine years later, this is a project that I am considering again, i.e. my phase 2.

For me, a thinking-about-it phase is critical; the layout I built in 2005 has been dismantled in preparation for sale of this home and move to another home, i.e. one with layout space. I have already decided now that I have packed all the locomotives and rolling stock that a future layout will be dcc with no dc option. Having made that decision, I was ready to consider selling all the locomotives without decoders especially the diesels. (I hope that works because I have already spent some of that money having dcc decoders installed in the steam locomotives that did not have decoders.)

I had already packed the non-home road boxcars long before I started packing the whole layout. We knew nearly a year ago that we would be moving after our daughter and her husband relocated; that has happened recently.
I have an inventory of locomotives and all MTL cars..
More thinking........

As I approach age 75 I am still not ready to give up my dream layout, at least one slightly larger than the one I had the past 9 years.
I share some of John's thoughts and reflections; I have purchased details only to discover I already had 100 scale feet of wrought iron fence. I too have stuff that I should simply discard... I know I have far more structures that it is likely the "next" layout will have n-real estate for. It will mean some industries are "off line" beyond the boundaries of the layout.

I have already decided I do not like double mainline for my steam era layout, so the Kato double track will be put up for sale unless the LHS owner will negotiate or barter for a few items currently on order.

As I look back, I do not recall any time in my 74+ years that I did not have a passion about railroads, model or real. I will NOT stop dreaming.

 

My impulse to reduce was also not something that just came around a month ago. It has been brewing for a number of years now and just finally am I getting off my ample backside to actually do something about it. When I first retired a move was seriously contemplated so I started packing away some things then. Then I ended up putting in some more time working with another government agency for ten more years. Well a few years ago now I retired a 2nd time having been run hard, put away wet, molded and mildewed. Now the Missus is thinking about finally hanging it up and we both desire to be outta here. Knowing ahead of time that a basement may not be an option and with a number of health issues raising their ugly head planning has been confined to a small extra bedroom thus the 10X10 or 11X11 foot layout designs. Plus the health issues have made it very undesirable to have a large or a complicated layout. After a lot of thought I came up with a simple point to point layout with a narrow gauge flavor. Other than the port facility I will need few bldgs. and just enough industry to justify a railroad that connects to a car ferry. So a large group of structures became surplus and have long since been set off to a new home. I left just enough bldgs. to populate the layout with a few extra to have the flexibility to adjust things according to available space. So there are two less big Rubbermaid totes taking up space now.

The future layout will not be DCC, I don't need the problems and expense of messing with that. I have enough headaches dealing with my wife's and my computers so I will stay DC thank you. That said the nature of the layout, single track main and some grades that require double or even triple heading of power means that I will be not running more than about three locos at a time in a simple block. The car requirements for that layout will be small with some rolling stock like the logging cars in captive service. For the interchange rolling stock again I don't need a huge fleet. The car float if I don't cut it down holds 8 cars. A batch ready to reload the car float some more cars to stage in the small yard and at the few dockside or at the 3 industries to ship wood or mine product and not counting the Log cars which only shuttle between the camp and mill, I have ample switching opportunity without being overwhelming for a one person layout. Trains are short and the passenger needs can be handled by a few cars thus my passenger cars can and have been greatly reduced. The only 70 and 80 foot passenger stuff Is going to be a couple of collections which again have already been culled and will be kept short along with their selected power and since I have long ago decided to model the fall era with reduced consists reflecting that era. The few locos I do keep will almost all be first generation just for the passenger sets and then a few to run some freight. There is some steam that will be used for the future layout all small and mostly geared as stated before. Just enough to have a switcher at the port and the sawmill and one more to transfer cuts of log cars from the camp to the sawmill. Add in about 3 locos to handle road duties and two more for passenger duties and my motive power requirements will be small.

As far as the rest of my loco fleet I will keep some as a collection to pass on the Grandkids. Or if the space becomes available maybe a simple return loop separate layout with another car float to simply run some trains that can drop off cars for transfer to the float operation to the water locked Island layout. Here think of the point to point layout on one side and few feet of modeled open water, a small port and car float dock as part of a small return loop 2nd layout opposite the main layout. Again a simple single switcher would serve that part. That simple return loop that would be sceniced would also serve as the test track for continuous running of the locos that were serviced. I have just enough cars to implement something like that as far as freight goes.

Having in the last year gone through all of my power and lubing, adjusting, and test running to work in the fresh lube makes me wonder how much time that folks with these huge power collections tie up with that. I know my collection took me somewhat over three days to do. To get to the motor bearings meant that every one had to have the shell removed which can be somewhat time consuming and occasionally tedious, dealing with handrails that sometimes have to be disengaged on some. No I would rather get away from that on a large scale and be happy with just enough power to satisfy my consist needs.

So far I have got rid of the two big totes boxes previously mentioned, four multi compartmented storage boxes of parts that were basically junk I'll never use, one small upright wood chest with drawers, that I have emptied, and at last count one foam storage car box, and four drawers for freight car storage. And for some silly reason I have never been happier. And Monday on my way to my pharmacy to get some new meds to keep some of my ailments under control, I will also stop at the post office to ship out some of those boxes of excess that are cluttering my floor to new homes.

 

This is a thought provoking thread. I'm not quite where John and Roger P. are yet, but in the first stages of the "thinking about it" stage.
I currently have a larger basement than I'll ever fill with a railroad. I'm using just over a third of it. I have one last piece of bechwork to build for the return loop staging yard at one end. (the other is built)
I have been thinning the collection of rolling stock for a number of years; still too much. One issue I have is that besides the existing layout, I have three other layouts in my mind for the future. Not that I'll be building all of them, but possibly two of them. One I refer to as my "diaper" layout. Small switching plan based on my hometown. Whether or not I build one of the other two is dependant on our move after I retire next year. I have stashed enough structures for the layouts. Sice the themes are quite different, most structures from one layout won't work for the others. More thought is required.
The plan for a long time has been to retire closer to Denver to be closer to family and grandchildren. Recently, they found out they are relocating to another state and we are re-thinking where to go. The layout was built on "dominoes" (2'x8') which I could move the 60 miles or so relatively easily. To be near any of our kids now will require a move of at least 650 miles (Omaha, Dallas or Boise).
The wheels are turning as we mull over the possibilites.

 

You are heading down somewhat the same road as I am. Retirement and relocating plus a few other factors. Space requirements and something of a size that I can handle without it becoming a chore to maintain as I age. I have pretty much locked into what I want in terrain, structures, and operation. Space ends up permitting maybe the 2nd small run through layout that is across the water from the first point to point. But the prime layout has been thought through over and over again. How many cars are needed to stock the small yard and the car float. How many again for the small business along the port docks. The once more how many do I need to have at the sawmill for lumber loading, the quarry for stone loading, and the mine for ore loading. Narrow gauge flavor and some 8 inch radius curves and short radius turnout means smaller cars and smaller locos. And here is the power for the point to point layout minus two Shays and my 0-6-0 wood burners not shown. And this is probably more power than I will need.


I have thinned out my first generation power to a collection of about 20 units that consist of some ABA lash-ups and a couple of RS units. LL FA-1s along with Kato F-7s comprise most of the collection that I will keep and could be used if I build a small return loop 2nd layout. If not that collection and what larger steam I retain will go to my kids or their kids, and if they are not interested then I will sell it off to finance some more track or stuff for the primary layout. Either way I am carefully thinking this one out and striving to get just what I want and how I want it. This is the last modeling hurrah and age and health are not going to give me another chance after this so it better be right.

 

Well yesterday I started shipping out the lots of passenger equipment to literally the four corners of the U.S. so some stuff should start arriving by the weekend. I have tracking on everything and will be able to advise when to expect delivery.

Next area of reduction is my considerable collection of books and I am considering just donating some to the local public library for fund raising after looking at what the resale values are. When some if not all my George Abdill series of early railroading book can be found for cheaper than I could ship them it just makes no sense to incur the cost of trying to sell and recoup shipping costs when they can be had for as little as a few dollars. Some of my color pictorials do command a better used price upon some research and those may be worth my listing at Swap Meet later.

My steam collection had thinned itself much earlier mainly due to the old cracked and split gear or frame zemactitus affliction. So there I am down to about 14 locomotives that are more modern features with only the 2 much older Trix 4-6-2s being kept as part of the collection since I have tweaked them into fairly good runners.

I obtained a small batch of shipping boxes about the right size to ship some locos in while at the post office so I am about ready to begin thinning excess motive power. My excess freight cars I am thinking about grouping them by type and small batches as selling and shipping individual cars can be cost prohibited.

One thing I did find out at the post office is there are price differences even when using the same flat rate supposedly shipping for everything. The price increase is based on the zone where it is being shipped and the closer the location to where I am shipping from is the cheapest.

 

Sorted through my books yesterday and culled out a nice stack, part to go the local library to help raise some funds at a book sale and another stack to be put up for sale. Then I turned my attentions to my collection of remaining steamers. As of last count I have exactly 29 steam locos left out of what had once numbered around 60 or more. At least 20 of those are modern mechanisms and have been tweaked a bit to enhance performance some. But yesterday the handwriting on the wall was basically confirmed that my days of messing with steamers and their complexity of small parts is over. It was all I could handle yesterday and more trying to re assemble one of the 2-8-0s after doing some service that was needed. The effect of arthritis, the lingering effects of the stroke that I will have for the rest of my life, and just plain old eyesight issues due to age are putting to rest the steam. Especially anything that I have to almost completely disassemble because of all the detail parts just to get to the motor and gears to lube. I also had a balky MiniTrix 4-6-2 that needed lube and it was a breeze as compared to the Connie. Just loosen a single screw lift the shell off and everything was looking at me. Put the shell back on and align the shell and tighten the screw back.

So the last steam has crossed my doorstep with only the exception that if Atlas every does do a three truck Shay I will get in line for one of them. At least 4 of the steamers have questionable running issues a so later on maybe this month I will set up the test track and see what sorts out as to whether they get scrapped or not. One of them is one of the newer light mountains that is having issues in reverse. I know the problem is the motor torqueing up away from the main gear for whatever reason so I may attempt a repair, then again once I look at how much needs to be disassembled it may just end up being scrapped as I don't need the irritation. My mainstay steam earmarked for the new layout is mostly smaller and simple rod engines that are easy to service, and the Class A Climax are no more than friction fit shells sitting on a Bmann 70 tonner chassis that is both easy to get to and easy to replace.

My diesels as compared to the steam are a snap to work on even as far as to taking a split frame apart to lube the motor and I am currently converting back two BN RS-3s to their former SP&S selves. When I return them back to the diesel box they will replace a four unit set of FA-1s further reducing my diesel roster. I will then have the option to split another four unit set into two AB combinations with a single RS-3 as a three unit set. The four unit set that I will cull out will get added to the storage box of diesels that I will eventually put up for sale. So the dust continues to be stirred up as I refine and reduce my collection.

 

Several days have past since I last went through my motive power collection giving me some time to set and think then I went at it again and stirred up some more dust in the workroom. I am now down to 9 sets of first generation power and 3 single units. I have always counted the power that I run as a single unit having bought it that way for the purpose of running multiple units thus an ABA set is one unit to me. I also run my RS and GP units as at least a two unit set if not more. So the freight diesel collection has thinned and I reduced the passenger diesels by 2 more units.

Then in my grim reaper costume I turned to the last of the steam collection. When I finished I had exactly 17 steamers left that are for the most part newer and top quality mechanisms. I had previously laid waste to a bunch of old crappy tenders that had limited pick up if any at all. I further reduced the tender collection to all but a few spares and the excess good tenders I will group with the excess steam that I will offer for sale at some point soon.

Since the old eyes won't handle the fine lettering of the decals even with an Optivisor and extra lenses, I thinned out a lot of decal sets that were ancient that I won't be using anymore. A batch of books went to the library as a donation to raise funds and another batch I will see if there is enough interest in to offer up on Swap Meet. The rest that are mainly GN, SP&S, and logging I will keep for reading pleasure and as a modeling guide.

A ten drawer storage chest with close to 14 X 14 inch space in each drawer now holds all of my cars and engines from the passenger and freight cars that I am keeping, to a drawer of logging camp cars and log cars, and another one with just M. of W. equipment that I will most likely thin out also.

One of the things I have been grappling with is setting a price on what I decide to sell. Keeping it low enough to sell and absorb the higher costs of shipping and make a small amount to turn back into defraying costs of buying turnouts and flex track. I doubt that I will realize any profit and it really isn't my intention. Fortunately over the last several years I have saved a number of small boxes and foam peanuts. Bubble wrap can be had in a bigger roll and cheaper at Walmart, and even some small boxes are cheaper there. The local post office has some free boxes that are various sizes and already marked for shipping with insurance and tracking numbers so I can tell if something has gotten to its destination. I have found that it is best to stay away from both Fedex and UPS for boxes and stuff because they both charge almost double or better than what I can get the same thing for elsewhere, either free or much cheaper.

Sometimes though I have the opinion that it is just simpler and cheaper, plus less hassle and time consuming to consign stuff I don't want to circular file #13. And I have done that with a few items deciding it just wasn't worth the effort and not wishing my headaches on anybody else. I will be danged if I will put something I consider as junk up on that auction site, or anywhere else, like I see a lot of. The horror stories have to abound from folks who bought something only to realize they just wasted their money on a P.I.S.

 

Well round four of the reduction in size concluded last night with the sale of all the excess freight cars I had culled from my collection because of duplicate numbers, not fitting my era, or modeling interests. A number of cars simply went into circular file #13 because of broken stirrups or just in my opinion a lousy paint or decal job. Of course time had to set aside to take the usable couplers and trucks off those cars hitting the trash bin. I probably won't have to ever buy trucks or couplers again. And after this last foray into selling things I have a greater appreciation of what the retailer who does this for a living goes through. Of course part of the work I have gone through is my own doing for insisting that I would accompany all items with a photo so folks could see what they are getting warts and all. I also insist on tracking my shipments to assure arrival before I even think about depositing a check or funds. Gives me a greater peace of mind to know that things arrive and I do appreciate feedback letting me know that things arrived in one piece regardless of the 500 pound soccer playing gorilla in sorting and handling. Still sorting through my library and debating whether it is worth trying to sell some books or simply donating them to be used at the book sale at the local library as I have done with some low value books already. Cost of mailing some of those books may be such that I have to charge more than I consider them worth just to cover postage and get a little return to put towards track and turnout buying. So finally a little clear space has started to appear in an crowded workshop.

 

Sat back last night and decided on which books I would offer up on Swap Meet and listed some this AM. I checked the titles on the WWW and was shocked at some of the used prices I saw for some that were way above what I had originally paid for them brand new. I had to go back and check some to see if they had gold leaf pages and platinum lettering. I was absolutely shocked to see several used books listed at over $100 and at least one at $500.