I'd like to take a poll today: How do you organize and catalog your railroad research materials? Printed or digital. Photos or documents. Not leaving anything off the table with this.

Looking for input on physical organization, such as arrangement of books (subject, author, or... ?), storage for smaller items (photos, timetable, etc.), cataloging procedure (computer database, all in your head, or...?), and keeping track of digital media (photos, favorite or frequently accessed web pages, or other digital documents).

I'm contemplating a complete redesign of my library while it's still a manageable project and want to see what other are doing first.

When I started trying to sort things out around 1970, there were really just two choices, books/magazine articles, and photos. Now you have to add online resources, digital downloads, DVDs, the fact that photos are pretty much no longer printed, and so forth. So I did several things.

First, ephemera, magazine articles, photocopies, paper field notes. Once back issues of magazines grew into stacks, I began cutting out articles that I had interest in and discarding the husk of the magazine. These I three-hole punched and put into subject-area binders devoted to my greatest fields of interest. Photocopies and field notes went in there, too. At the peak of model magazines, the 1980s and 90s, these grew to be very thick -- I have a file on boxcars that's bursting the largest possible binder I could find. (Luckily my career involved computer documentation, and I could get lots of discarded binders from work.) However, with most of the specialty model mags out of the picture, these binders have grown much more slowly in recent years. Just as well, a lifetime of that stuff is simply unwieldy.

Books -- I have a study whose walls are pretty much lined with bookshelves. The books are arranged by subject area, mostly by railroad, SP on one shelf, UP on another, etc. However, the relative rise in price of books, along with the fact that new $80 books probably tell me more than I want or need to know on any subject, means that those purchases have leveled off.

Most of my "prototype info" purchases in recent years have been DVDs. These are on various shelves near the family TV/DVD player, organized like the books, by railroad subject area. I haven't done much with cataloging, since I can be pretty sure that if I want to look up something on the SP, I go to the SP bookshelf or DVD shelf area. It helps that DVDs are much, much more compact than books, but even there, at a rate of maybe one DVD purchase a month, they're starting to overflow. I also have VHS tapes, but since these eventually wear out anyhow, I've often gone ahead and purchased duplicates on DVD, especially when they're on sale.

Digital downloads and digital photos, as well as scans of prints I took in prior decades -- filed in Windows folders by subject area. Also now scanning field notes and filing them in the same places. I use Carbonite, a big, big, big bargain, have had to restore my files several times. Without it, I'd be lost in that area.

I assume that technology will allow more comprehensive cataloging of this sort of stuff in the future, although from my own perspective, I'm 65 and probably will acquire progressively less info. Having gradually acquired what I have, I'm familiar with it and don't feel lost with the different media as they now exist. However, I find that I use the paper stuff less and less, the digital and DVD much, much more as time has gone on.

Most informations are took from the web. My layout folders have a section for references that are divided between rolling stock, maps, structures and railway companies. In fact I copied the directory system we use for our architecture projects at my office. I find that this hobby and my job share many common points.

I don't have a lot of books. A shelf with 3 piles is enough for me: one is railroad-related books, one catalogs and another magazines (mostly MRR and RMC from the 60s and 70s).

Matt

I just stick the stuff on a shelf here or there. If I find what I'm looking for great, if not no big deal. After all it's only a hobby not a way of life!

The few books I have is kept in a large flat storage tote.I do stack them according to subject.

I have a few books that cover the Baldwin Locomotive Works. So they are all together on a shelf (see below). Any other railroad books are just put wherever they will fit on the same 2 shelves.

Any digital pictures I have are on my hard drive and backed up once on an external drive and also a USB flash drive. That way I should never lose them

Some hints, having learned too late and having to correct these errors......

~ When naming folders (and pictures) Describe them in as much detail as possible. That way when you want to find something you can use the windows "Search" utility

I have a lot of pics that begin BLW or PRR or Gauge and when I search, I get about 400 results If I had thought it through, I would have used more descriptions

~~ Sort the pictures in different folders use a decent description and the date BLW 10-09-08 ..........ALWAYS use the same format for date. It does not matter what order the Year and Month are in, but BE CONSISTENT!!!!!!!!!!!

~~~ Use railroad names when possible on folders and files and pictures. Penna or Reading or Santa Fe 04-06-09

Now, you can have as many levels of folders as you want.... I have a folder names "PICS"
In that folder are about 300 folders from "Family Pics" to BLW Pics to Car Pics to Plane Pics... get the idea??????

In those folders are smaller folders Ex:. Family Pics has folders named by year and type --- 09 B-days 09 X-mas etc......

Now - the way I learned this is I recently backed up the last batch of pictures (I try to remember every few months) and when I accessed the "PICS" folder on the external drive, it says Files: 20567

I have over 20000 pictures!! No darn wonder it takes the computer a bit of time to search and then it returns hundreds of results!

So, be as precise as you can in the file names - it'll help!!!!

Now, as far as the internet, I just use Google.. It very seldom fails to find what I'm looking for. And the Image search is fantastic for finding historical train pics

My Bookshelf

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The books are still very well manageable. Most information is on the iMac well organized in hierarchical folders.

So nobody here keeps a database of any kind for insurance, to avoid duplicate purchases, or easier research?

railohio Wrote:So nobody here keeps a database of any kind for insurance, to avoid duplicate purchases, or easier research?

All insurance can do is provide some monetary compensation for all that is lost.

Avoiding duplicate purchases....I haven't made any of those, accidentally. Only a couple deliberately.

Easier research - - - - What !!?, and spoil the fun !!! The "hunt" after all, is part of the fun ! Why do you think they call it .........Re-Search ?? ......Because every time you need it, you have to Re-----search----- it ! :o

My earliest MR is from 1953 ( with the exception of the November 1943 issue which I purchased several years ago ), my earliest RMC is from 1958. I have every issue of MR, from 1961-2007 when I lost interest in the magazine's content.
I have every issue of RMC from 1972 to present ( still subscribe to that ). There are some Model Trains ( does anyone remember "M.T.Hopper" ) and some Railroad Modeler that I picked up at the news stand, or hobby shop because there was an interesting article in the particular issue.
So, yes, there are times when I do have to Re-----Search.

Sumpter250 Wrote:Easier research - - - - What !!?, and spoil the fun !!! The "hunt" after all, is part of the fun ! Why do you think they call it .........Re-Search ?? ......Because every time you need it, you have to Re-----search----- it ! :o

and then there's the inevitable.....
While I'm Re-Searching for "that"... I always stumble upon "this" one item that I was looking for previously and did not find... Therefore, now I know where it is a bit too late of course...

But re-searching always helps us remember where everything is - or at least is suppose to be. I started categorizing everything in the computer, rolling stock, engines paperwork etc.. Then years ago the hard drive crashed. I have never started it all up again and no - the program was lost too, so I never went online to download it again

ngauger Wrote:Then years ago the hard drive crashed. I have never started it all up again and no - the program was lost too, so I never went online to download it again

Repeat after me: Multiple redundant backups. Multiple redundant backups. Multiple redundant backups...

railohio Wrote:

ngauger Wrote:Then years ago the hard drive crashed. I have never started it all up again and no - the program was lost too, so I never went online to download it again

Repeat after me: Multiple redundant backups. Multiple redundant backups. Multiple redundant backups...

That was "The Crash" that taught me to get off my duff and MAKE the backups!!! Now I always have 3 of everything important

railohio Wrote:So nobody here keeps a database of any kind for insurance, to avoid duplicate purchases, or easier research?

I definitely have databases for easier reasearch, and also one for my model railroad locomotive roster. My research ones mostly consist of combined train schedules, and prototype consist information. I also have large highly organized folders of prototype photos I snatch of the internet, and where possible I include dates, times, and locations to assist in creating the overall mental picture of what i'm researching.


I'm looking to create a database of magazines and articles I own so that I can quickly retrieve this information (I don't even know exactly what back issues I have, only that I have nearly half a closet full of various magazines). Rather than having to dig them out individually and scan through them, I can check to see If I own the magazine at all, and maybe find and share articles that other people are looking for.

I'm also looking to make a database on precisely which parts and small tools I have, so that I know what I have and what I don't, and also so that if I'm ever trying to McGuyver something together, I can simply check the database, rather than rummage for hours through all my parts boxes. This is especially the case with screws. I have crap tons of small screws from all over, and I have no idea what they are. There is no way I could know in a glance what I have, so I need to reccord it.

For a REALLY pie-in-the-sky Database, I would want to create an online database of "Old Hobby shop Stock".

See if this scenario seems familiar to you:

You walk into a hobby shop. This is the same hobby shop your grandpa went to when he was 4 years old. You're not entirely sure if the owner is a wizard, because you're pretty sure its the same guy running the place for the past 70 years. He never got into this new-fangled computer business. In fact, he threw his computer out years ago, since he figured the internet was a waste of money and time.

He has huge, endless boxes and shelves of Detail parts and odd-ball kits that he can't sell. Maybe they are rare, hard-to-find old stock, just sitting there for decades, or maybe some jerk ordered 20 of them in 10 years ago, and for some reason never bought them or picked them up. Maybe he has something that just doesn't belong (an NJ Transit ALP44 won't probably sell well in Montana or Arizona. Likewise, no one here in New Jersey is going to buy that Via Rail SW1500)

When you ask the guy if he has that part that YOU want, he of course, never has it. He'll tell you "We don't have X, we have everything other than X, and nobody will buy it". So maybe you go home dissappointed that he doesn't have X. You try the internet, only to find out that NOBODY online has X.


What you don't know, is that in some godforsaken hobby shop lost in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, has about five or six of them sitting on the shelf with a similarly internet-challenged hobby shop owner. In that hobby shop, there is a guy looking for "Something other than X," to which that guy will reply "We only have X, and nobody wants it!"


This to me, is complete and total madness! Why not have a way of searching distant hobby shops? I know it is impractical to actually get an entire hobby shop's inventory, but at the very least, it would be great if we, in the back of our minds, kept a mental note of what everyone else might be looking for (I usually do), and so if I spot it, I can send a PM, ask if you want the part, and then I can go pick it up the next time I'm down that way.

That way, rather than sitting there checking Ebay every week for some rare kit, we could "expand" our reach through each other, and maybe find that part that the Hobby shop owner thought he couldn't sell.

But yeah, thats enough from me now!

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:This to me, is complete and total madness! Why not have a way of searching distant hobby shops? I know it is impractical to actually get an entire hobby shop's inventory, but at the very least, it would be great if we, in the back of our minds, kept a mental note of what everyone else might be looking for (I usually do), and so if I spot it, I can send a PM, ask if you want the part, and then I can go pick it up the next time I'm down that way.

That way, rather than sitting there checking Ebay every week for some rare kit, we could "expand" our reach through each other, and maybe find that part that the Hobby shop owner thought he couldn't sell.

But yeah, thats enough from me now!

This would be a good use for the Equipment and Supply sources Thread: <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=51">viewforum.php?f=51</a><!-- l -->

If you guys think it would help and we get a few members involved, this could turn out to be a great resource for those hard to find parts..... Of course, then there's the matter of shipping the parts, unless they can be ordered directly from the hobby store and shipped to the buyer(s)...

If someone wants to spend the time and effort to "build a database", I suppose I would be willing to try to use it. In the mean time, If I need a part for something, I can build it. If it is something I cannot build, there are people I can ask about where I can find this thing. If that fails, I will attempt to build it, or find a reasonable facsimile.
Years back, when I was maintaining Microfiche printers, duplicators, readers, and reader/printers, I started a list of all my rolling stock, and was able to update it, and print it to fiche, as a test program for the printer I had just completed repairs on.
I spent more time updating that list than I did building models.
Every time I flipped the coin, it came up "building models is more fun", I never saw it land "building databases is fun".
I stopped flipping that coin.
I am having more fun, building models - - - - - - - - - and re------searching !

:o :o a n d... by the way....., yes, I reached "old fossil status" a couple of years ago, and I'm sure my comments here reflect that.

To the ambitious one who would build that database? If that makes you happy, go for it ! I will be happy to use it.
As Ngauger put it: "and then there's the inevitable.....While I'm Re-Searching for "that"... I always stumble upon "this" one item that I was looking for previously and did not find... Therefore, now I know where it is"
and next time, and there will most likely be a next time, I'll remember what I learned, and go right to where I can find it.