Railfan Technology > What to do with "all the stuff"

This may be a rather depressing or morbid thread. My wife recently asked me "what to do with all my stuff" when I'm gone. Just wondering what TO members are doing in "estate planning" for appropriate disposing of all the slides, negatives,pictures, digital images and printed books and magazines in their collections. We've all heard horror stories of wonderful slide collections, pictures and books that the family of a deceased railfan simply did not know what to do with all this stuff, most likely tossed out or left in a damp basement or garage.
I have a modest collection of slides and other memorabilia,slowly scanning and cataloging what I can, slowly making an inventory of "my stuff" and will make a list of suggestions for my family of how, who and where to distribute "my stuff".
Just wondering what other TO folks are doing in the way of this planning. Doug

Cheers Doug!

Here's my honest answer to that question, which is very frequently kicked around by my cronies in this later stage in our lives:

I made a list of what of the basement layout is worth a nickle (cars and locos), and that all goes to be sold at Caboose Hobbies in Denver on consignment. The rest, the basement layout itself, track, structures, whatever can't be given away, gets "sawzalled" and goes into a dumpster, as I'm sure, do most other layouts when the builder passes.

My slides, B/W negs and prints are another matter. Most guys I know that have extensive masses of such plan on donating them to a given library or museum. Having been involved with such a museum, I sure wouldn't follow that suggestion, based on what I saw happen to very good and impressive collections. I witnessed times when 99 out of 100 very good slides simply went into the trash can because there was no room to store the stuff. Not offered to anyone, simply trashed. I've heard that some libraries are the same way; if all the offered material is not totally documented, and if there is no money donated for ongoing maintenance of the donation, then don't bother.

So I really don't know what to do with the latter stuff. I suppose, in the worst case, my kids will get sick of tripping over it and it'll all go into the dumpster with the layout track and dusty trees......a pity.

Oho well, at that point I'll be too busy pushing up dasies to worry.

BTW, thanks for the BCR info a while back!

Rich Farewell

Doug,

Rich makes some good points about museums. However, since
museums tend to become specialized in terms of what they
collect/exhibit, which railroads, etc., it's good to work
with them ahead of time to see if you have something they
would like. If it's outside of the scope of their collection,
many times they can refer you elsewhere to where there would
be a better fit.

- Bruce

This was a discussion topic amongst friends in Dunsmuir. There are popular places to send the collection, also places that will use them as an accessible resource, also places where they are used for book or magazine material, all of which are not necessarily the same thing. We're also noticing that after a few years the staff at a museum or collection may change and their needs change. I've also seen where all the photos are posted on a website with no restrictions.

Once a decision is made, by way of a Will or even just announcing intentions to friends or family, it's good to keep in touch with the museum and change arrangements if needed. It is also possible to leave the task to friends or family but the strategy should be discussed, such as send one RR to a place, another RR to another place, etc.

The important idea is to not just leave the task to someone who simply doesn't know what to do with it all.

Consider working with the Center for Railroad Photography & Art to preserve significant photographs and collections:

http://www.railphoto-art.org/collections

The model train club that operates on the layout in City Park in New Orleans had various train and model magazines out for a $1 donation when I was there over Xmas. Also there are numerous train photos and slides for sale (and sold) on eBay. So I think a model train club would be worth calling to see if they'd like remains that museums don't want, to use for fundraising.

One benefit to living in the digital age is that when I go, all of my photos/videos will fit on a portable hard drive. Today that's about 3 terabytes. In another 60 years it may be a petabyte, but I'm sure it'll still be small enough to fit on a shelf or in a drawer.

Seems likely that a family member could easily tuck my website into one of their own since that annual expense is so small.

Just a thought...

Jason Rose
Spring, TX
Rio Grande Explorations