I don't consider any of it

I don't consider any of it embarrassing, but yea, I have duplicates of many things.

While trying to decide what station to use, as I wanted to include lots of passenger and commuter trains, I collected more station kits than any one modeler needs.

I have everything from the 1 story "modern Amtrak" Walthers kit to a huge red brick monstrosity from, I think Kibri, or it might be Faller?

Than I ended up kit bashing a station anyway, (still not complete), and not using any of the kits I bought, or pieces from them, to keep the kits intact.

I'll probably end up putting some things on Ebay, or HOswap.

Mike.

Been there, done that.

For me it’s books. Sometimes I forget I already have that one. I think my record is four copies of the same book. I finally got hold of an app which keeps track of all my books. So now before I buy a book I check to see if I already have it. Don’t tell my wife. 

Another example which wasn’t my fault. I always get the Great Model Railroads and Model Railroad Planning special editions. Somehow, Kalmbach has sent me four, count ‘em, four copies of MRP this year. As much as I like them, I really don’t need four. 

Oh Yeah

Done that with a few freight car kits. Been guilty of it with MR mag when I have gone out and bought the same copy twice because an article really attracted my attention, but not so much of an impact that I remembered reading it a few weeks earlier.

The biggest issue is that as we get older the ole memory disk starts showing it's wear and tare. I have discovered the hard way that if there has been brain damage at some point in life it makes a bigger impact later on. If you've had a stroke even a minor one that affects memory buying duplicates can get really bad.

Jack

I have two

tool totes that migrate around the layout; they contain duplicates, for sure.  In the case of most of the tools in the tote, a third copy exists on the shelf in the storage area.  My basement is large, and it's really handy to not have to walk that far to get a tool.  Of course, every now and then, both totes end up in the storage room with the rest...

Generally, I have way too many of everything, because I've inherited two workshops from father, and father-in-law. Big duplicates, I kept the best one of; smaller stuff just seemed to stay.  A third inheritance, from a friend who's kids told me to grab what I wanted because his household contents were headed to the dump, has resulted in four copies of some tools.  A fifth copy of most common tools exists at our family summer retreat.  There's nothing worse than getting there, only to realize I can't do some work because I didn't bring xyz.  I won't actually admit there are more than five of some common tools...That's where the stupid buying kicks in.  "Gee, that's a good looking xyz, I could use that and get rid of the old one".  Never happens.

So there are some valid reasons for my collection; however, I suppose it could use a thinning.  But where to start...

Blair

Pencils.

I have some examples of tools where I couldn’t find it, eventually bought a replacement, then when I went to put away the replacement someplace I’d be able to find it next time there was the original.  Somehow the mindset when looking for a tool is different than the mindset standing there with tool in hand looking for a good place to put it away.

The worst thing though is pencils.  They keep getting left in the oddest places where for example you just set it down for a minute after marking the underside of the sub roadbed for something.  The ability of a shop and a model railroad to absorb pencils is astounding.  The only solution I’ve found is to keep buying them buy the boxful until you reach the saturation threshold where you can always find one within a minute or two of looking around.

I'm always looking for

my HO scale ruler. It's always lost. Problem is I have at least three. I see a fourth in my future.

 I don't even want to talk about the items that I really didn't need, thought it would be nice to have just in case I needed one and when receiving it put it in a drawer next to the one I had forgotten I had.

Pencils and pens.....don't get me started.

Ken......I have recently discovered that all my pencils have been having a convention outside the train room near my table saw and drill press. They are commonly in very odd places there too but in great number. 

@Rick, you're the lucky one here!

You Don't need to buy another.

(My solution was using CAD, but this works too..)

Take a good photo of a ruler or yardstick... scale the photo to 1:1 (by that I mean make an Accurate print of it), then print to scale.  If you need it longer, string a few together end to end.

After printing, glue to a suitable stick.

Peter

Duh! I actually have a photo of one that I use inside my computer program when putting buildings together........a strange, somewhat luddite combination of tools.

 Now, I just might try the logical solution that you have proposed. 

two of my missing in action rulers are transparent and I liked (notice the past tense) those for putting them directly on the computer screen for scaling items...........Lord, my methods are so "old school". 

Everyone knows it's an

Everyone knows it's an established law of nature that if you are looking for something and can't find it, you need only go buy a replacement and the original will magically appear!

I've been buying RE by the month but can't for the life of me find a link to the January issue. I'm almost sure I bought it though. Just yesterday, quite by accident I found a group of my music files on my PC. A couple of months ago, I couldn't find them and was convinced they were lost forever. I had simply tucked them in a renamed folder for safe keeping and forgotten. I constantly hide things from myself. I've always been absent minded but with age it's gotten ridiculous.

Not embarrassing

I keep three pencil size Xacto holders with different blades and two large holders, one for large blades and one on my saw blade.

What gets my goat is when I go looking for a tool or a part that I know I bought, can even find where I ordered it on Amazon, but can’t find it anywhere. Normally after three weeks of searching I’ll find it behind another tool or in a box of parts I am meaning to sort.

Screws seem to be my worst problem. When I take apart a locomotive or tender I put the removed screws and parts, like a drawbar, in these little screw top makeup containers I bought just for this purpose. Now I have three sitting on my workbench and I don’t which engines they go to because all the engines are put back together! LOL!

My current lost item is a copy of Tony Koester’s Ops book. I looked it over when it came in and laid it on my computer desk to dig back into when I had a little more time. Laid on my desk for months but when I reached for it a month or so back, it’s not there. I have turned the house upside down and I cannot find this book. Checked Amazon, yes I bought it on June 22, 2016. I live alone and have few visitors so I am pretty sure no one else took it.

Drives me to drink!

Neil, I am sure that happens

Neil, I am sure that happens to all of us. I had several HO scale standards gauges disappear. In my case I know someone has borrowed them and simply forgotten to return them. No malicious intent, just got it mixed up with their stuff or set it down someplace and I can't remember where they put it. I will mention there is the other side of the coin too. On occasion we run across a product that is very good and only buy one. A while back I bought a Yankee drill and some nice miniature drill bits I found in an electronics store. It was on sale for the same price as the exact same package of bits with out the drill. They had 4 of them on the shelf. I bought one, I should have bought them all. I used it to drill lots of holes in a great many kits and in fact finally wore it out. The replacements I found were not as good. I often use 3 different sizes of bits when building various rolling stock kits, sometimes more. Having three of the little drills ready to go is a massive time saver.

I also really like building the kits like tichy, proto 2000, red caboose, intermountain, gould, and others that are similar as the detail is very nice. They do need lots of holes drilled and the yankee drill is great for these.

I read a tip from someplace a long time ago regarding paint on tools. The guy with the tip suggested painting them yellow so they were easier to find. I believe I will do that so when they get put down they will show up on the surface they are on!

Yankee Drill?

Rob - Is this the same as a small bit holder that is twisted with one hand? You reminded me of a thread about how to avoid breaking small bits or was it just a better bit? Now I have to look. How many packages and boxes of bits do I have - jeez. Always missing just the one I need (is it the 76 or 80?). 

Ken and Michael hit the nail on the head as I have a couple commercial properties that need constant repair. Rather than an hour round trip drive home and back (and maybe an hour looking for a tool), I just go buy another! Now I have multiple battery powered drills, Dremels, and god knows how many screwdrivers. Pneumatic stuff too. 

Models of cool stuff I really don’t need seem to attract me like magnets. Maybe I’ll someday build a layout in Sn3 or HOn3 - even Nn3 but doubt it but I have kits and models of those as well. All my HO stuff is slowly being given away or sold. Lots of duplicates there too. Sad but happy they find new homes. 

 "All my HO stuff is slowly

Don't be too hasty, statistics show most folks go back to HO eventually if they don't die first :> ) .....DaveB 

4 out of 5 dentists surveyed go back to HO

Or something like that.  But speaking as someone who paused in HO scale for a few years back in the 80’s and is just now returning, I’m sure glad I didn’t waste the space and effort to store my old HO stuff, I wouldn’t want any of it now anyway - different focus.  My journey through the scales so far; Tinplate, N, HO, On2, O, N, HO - and I wouldn’t rule out another change in another 5 or 10 years.

There's a law somewhere...

the tool you dropped, and need, has rolled under the exact center of the car you are working on!

Neil... it's in part why I have 6(!) wire cutters,  One in the hobby tool chest, one with general tools, one setup to different gauge, one with soldering equipment (a box of its own.)....

Do it all the time

Always buying "supplies" only to find out I already have a stash I forgot about.

just three days ago

For the last time I have had the chance to go to the Dortmund Intermodelbauw show in Germany.

This is a very big toy fair where you can find everything you have dreamed about.

Since I move to Canada in a few months everything is already moonballed in a container, a layout and more than 33 big box of trains stuff.

I buy at the toy fair a small laser kit, the picture box show a nice model in the box.

In fact I have two models of this small factory buy years and years ago and for obscur reasons I never build them and forget them.

But I promiss you I was sure to never had buy it.

It's my girlfriend when I show her my market day at the toy fair, which tell me "you have already them, I have packaged them in a box of your train stuff; they are in the container !" 

4 out of 5

Isn’t 4 out of 5 dental hygienists...? 

This morning my wife asked me if she could order the bundle of On30 track I saved on Amazon. I almost said “please” but thought I’d better check my stash. Of course there is a box of 12 waiting to be used. Lately my track has been handlaid so didn’t use these last time. I may, though, to get things up and running - especially in the hidden tracks. 

BTW, the HO flex track works just fine for On30 staging! I just lay it on 3-1/2” centers. Some of my customized kits for the HO Hawai’i Consolidated will be kept but the engines will likely be sold.

My hope is that technology will bring  modelers better and better tools or materials. This might include decoders in freight cars that talk to the engine and engineer to provide load and destination info as well as affecting acceleration and momentum automatically. We consist sound cars so why not dream?

Opposite problem

Before I did a supply run to the hobby shop yesterday, I checked and I could've sworn I had a pack of .040x.080 styrene strips, but then when I sat down to use those same strips that evening I checked again and it skipped straight from .040x.060 to .040x.100 so I had to make another run today.

The scale thing for me has

The scale thing for me has been HO N HO and I can't imagine ever going smaller again but given the space and finances to change, On30 has a definite draw. Now where did I put the wireless mouse again?

All part of life.

Lost my NMRA gauge for months, got another one and within a week found the lost one.....right where I remembered putting down during that project.  That gauge and my scale ruler I 99% of the time put back to it's usual home.  It's that 1% that gets ya Everytime!    Now that I have a spare I use it exclusively for trackwork via a long threaded rod bent down at one end to stand up perpendicular to the track.  A nice handle, and ALMOST gaurantees I won't lose it.

With me though it's anything black.  Mini Magnite, pens, cheater glasses, key fob, kitchen utensils, screwdrivers...if it's black and gets put in a drawer or anywhere really, it's just GONE.  Over the past year or so, if I have a choice, I go with the gawdiest loudest color I can find, so that I can indeed, FIND it.

Rob - Is this the same as a

Sounds like you are describing a pin vise Neil, and I have a bunch of those as well. 

These are Yankee drills or screw drivers and as one pushes down on the handle the bit rotates. One of the young guys was buying one of those at a train show and my friend Paul was helping him with advice and he said Jared are you sure you will use one of those enough to be worth it? His reply was I have watched Rob use this too much not to have one. At the time I was teaching some of the new to the hobby guys how to build things. It is very rewarding to watch these guys build their first shake the box kit and have all of the things working properly. It is also nice to see them graduate to more complex tasks quickly and to enjoy the look of satisfaction when they complete a task.

Pin Vise vs Yankee Drill

I guess us Yanks were a clever bunch! Now that I see one I understand. My grandfather had a coupe of these and it seemed that he had a similar one as a simple screw driver as well. Now, of course, I want one and have a very good reason as well - all those grab irons!

Thanks Rob!

 "My grandfather had a coupe

I have a couple of  yankee screwdrivers left over from my boat building days. They are handy for things like installing hinges or other small hardware. However I wouldn't recommend them for tiny drills like used for grab irons as the pumping motion  would make it easy to get the bit out of column and break it. I find a pin vise spun between my fingers gives a good feel for drilling the really tiny holes, but I often just melt grab irons and stirrup steps  into plastic car sides using a small soldering iron. For slightly larger holes I usually use a small cordless drill ..DaveB