Well, sort of. I mentioned a few days ago that the Railway Modeller Magazines were getting the chop. That process is now finished and the remains are in the paper-recycling bin at Sainsburys. What I have kept is a modest pile of interesting bits.
Traditionally these would stay as a pile, or piles, for months. They would expand horizontally like a weed to cover every available surface until I tired of dog-eared paper lying around and binned the lot. This will not be the way in 2007 ! No, I am busy working for the future. Laying down the foundations for a fine library that will allow the inquisitive mind to lay his hands on the perfect piece of information at a moments notice.
Actually I have been watching quite a bit of Inspector Morse while doing this so I might be confusing myself with a great detective and owner of an incisive mind. I’ll just carry on muddling along while struggling with the Guardian (you can tell I read it coz of my speling) Quick Crossword.
Whatever, now I have my piles of torn out pages I do need to sort them somehow. There is much pleasure to be found casually browsing for an article when time isn’t precious but none at all when you know that it’s somewhere in the information swamp.
My salvation will be the box file. I already have some very tatty ones holding plans and papers. They were rescued from a past job each announces that it contains TB test results or other delightful forms from the Ministry of Agriculture. After twelve years it’s time to get rid of them and tidy up. With each file costing £1.79 I say, “Blow the expense” and have invested in enough to take and file everything neatly, or at least in a set of matching boxes.
Currently I have four files:
- Locomotives
- Rolling Stock
- Buildings
- Interesting articles
which are sat on the worktop as I throw paper in their directions. For any smartarse wondering about the last box, the is a file called “Uninteresting articles”, it’s large, blue and metal and as I said earlier, stands in Sainsburys car park. I’ve done that already thank you.
Categorisation is a bit weak. The Locomotives and Rolling Stock are basically plans so easy enough. Buildings can include other things nailed to the ground such as fences and buffer stops. Ideally there is a drawing in each of these but not always. Everything else goes in the Articles box.
The RM isn’t always helpful to people like me. Sometimes there are several interesting pieces in a single magazine. That means I have to staple together several articles in a bundle. Then I have to make a best guess at which the most interesting one will be in the future and throw the wad into the correct box. As I was pretty generous will removing articles, keeping things that might not be interesting now but could be in the future such as modern image (for today) grain wagon plans, this dilemma happens quite a lot. The information swamp won’t be totally drained.
If I were a librarian then an index would be written and nothing would ever be lost. I’m too lazy for this and doubt I’d get it right anyway so I guess it’s wellies on and splosh into the quagmire once in a while.
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