From Fort Wayne to Colorado: Moving a Model Collection

I’ve been pretty quiet on the Forum over the past couple of months, and there’s a good reason. We’ve been moving our lives, and a very large model collection, from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Thornton, Colorado.

Most of those two months were spent getting our Fort Wayne home ready to sell. When you’re dealing with a 100-year-old house, there is always something that needs attention. We painted inside and out, cleaned everything imaginable, landscaped the yard and worked our way through a long list of finishing touches. That included reinstalling doors that had been refinished and putting all the original hardware back where it belonged.

And then there was the packing.

Every model had to be carefully prepared for the trip to Colorado. I also made the difficult but practical decision to give all my handbuilt display cases to Jack Sakowicz. There was simply no reasonable way to haul them halfway across the country, and I decided the move was a good opportunity to start fresh with new displays in the new house.

To move the collection, I rented a 16-foot POD and used it to empty most of my 10-by-20-foot storage unit. We came remarkably close to fitting everything inside, but “close” doesn’t count when you still have more of model collection sitting back at home. I ended up renting a 16-foot Penske box truck for everything that remained.

As you can see from these photos, we’ve done a lot of unloading since arriving in Colorado. For now, the collection has become a series of carefully organized—or at least somewhat organized—piles in the garage and basement. Getting everything out of boxes, sorted and displayed is going to be a project measured in months, not weekends.

Before we left Fort Wayne for good, we spent the July Fourth weekend in Elkhart making one final delivery to the RV/MH Hall of Fame Museum. The museum had secured another display case, which gave me the opportunity to feature many of the 1:18-scale camper models. That also opened space in the other cases, so naturally I added a few more boxes of models to the displays. Well, perhaps “a few” is understating it.

When we finally pulled away from Fort Wayne, I honestly believed I had left all my camper models behind at the museum.

I was wrong.

As we’ve unpacked, I’ve discovered at least three more boxes of campers. Those will now become part of the displays in our Colorado home.

My next major project is deciding what I want to keep and what I will eventually sell. I’m currently envisioning separate displays for several key parts of the collection:

• My original Matchbox Models of Yesteryear collection, beginning with the earliest releases and continuing through the period just before Mattel acquired the brand
• Hearses and ambulances
• Show cars and prototypes (and other oddities)
• Station wagons

I’m also beginning the search for new display cabinets. I want something that is easy to access, well-lit and capable of properly showcasing the models rather than simply storing them. Recommendations for cabinet makers or display systems would be greatly appreciated!

There is a tremendous amount of work ahead, but it should also be a lot of fun. I’ve already told @karl that once I’m ready to start putting models into cases, I’ll invite him (and Margie) out to Colorado to join in the process.

After spending two months packing, hauling and stacking boxes, it will be good to finally get back to the part of collecting I enjoy most... seeing the models again.