I Mean...Who Doesn't Love Model Trains?

Another day, another basement treasure. This time, I knew what was in this particular crate.

My dad's trains.

Of course, not everything he once owned were in the box. I remember a huge (it was huge to me...) custom-built wooden display complete with tunnels and buildings. It consisted of two equal sections, at least six feet by four feet each. It sat in our basement, never used, because the man who owned the display died.

I still wonder what happened to that thing. There are times when I think it would be cool to have it, but you'd have to dedicate an entire room just for the display and the trains for which it was built.

But, there is one crate that contains the model trains that my dad loved, one crate that stayed in my parent's basement until my mom passed away and we moved the crate to our basement where it's resided for the past twelve years.

Like the display, I always thought it would be fun to one day set up the train set, see if it still works. It would be a way of honoring my dad, enjoying the things he enjoyed. The set is old and if it works after all these decades would be a miracle. Then again, it most likely worked when it was boxed and put away, so why not now?

There's another option for the old set and the cars. I can sell them or donate them to a thrift store to bring joy to someone else--maybe even for generations to come. Now that the basement is getting de-cluttered, there's room for me to unpack the crate, set up a portion of the track and see if we can get the thing to work. I think my dad would approve.