For the last few years I have been struggling with what to do with some of my trains, or, all of my trains for that matter. Besides my individual pieces I have 20 or so boxed sets, some are still in the original boxes, some have the trains on display and the contents are separate. The reason for this is that I do not have enough shelf space to display my collection. My train collection is entirely early period Lionel O gauge (1915-1925). I also have a paper collection of original catalogs and ads covering the same period although I do have Lionel Paper back to 1900. Do those of you out there that have boxed sets, keep them in their original boxes? Should I box everything back up with the track, directions, rheostats, and so forth? I'm 70, feel 30, but you never know, you know? Every train I have is inventoried, make no mistake about that. Granted, when I'm gone, I'm sure everything will be sold outside of a memento that each of my 6 children will want (maybe). Neither my wife nor any of my children have an interest in my stuff. What I have is "Dad's collection". Should I really be concerned about what happens after I'm gone or should I be thinking, "don't worry about it", and leave "loose ends"? Or,
, should I be thinking about selling my collection at auction at some point, should I get to it, before I get to the point I don't remember what I've got??? I may have 15-20 or more lucid years, but who knows???
Any thoughts out there? How are your trains stored? What are your plans? Just something we all have to confront at some point.
Mike