My father worked for the railroads most of his life and was an avid collector of trains and memorabilia. He passed away 3.5 years ago and nobody in family has interest in his collection. 1.5 pickup loads moved to my house last night as my mother just wanted them out. Most in original boxes and some from stores that haven't been around in 20+ years. Can someone give me an idea on what to do with these? Donate to a local collector club? Train garage sale? Ebay (not very interested in messing around with shipping these all over)?

My family and I had to make recent trip to El Paso, TX for family reasons.  Before heading out there I used the forum  to reach out to Eric Hansmann.  We soon had a number emails going back and forth.  Eric models in the 1920s era and my interests in the Morenci Southern Railway are from 1899 to 1922. 1922 was the end of the line for the MS.

Over the last two years, my own modeling activity has consisted primarily of research. One of the most rewarding parts of that research has been meeting and speaking with people that actually worked on my lines during my era.

Hello,

I have just closed on my new house and have been surveying my new layout space, which is approximately 40' long by 17' wide, plus a nice (huge!) HVAC closet with more than enough room for a helix, a staging yard and workbench area. However, unlike in my last house, this space is already finished and has a carpeted floor. And while I do own the house and can strike a nail anywhere that suits my fancy, what I'm hoping to discover is a "kinder, gentler" way of building the layout such that it has a lower impact on the room.