SeeYou190serious cases of empty aisles, which I do not understand. Aisles only get empty if stuff sells. If you do not replace it, nothing will sell. If you sell all your stuff, you need to get in more stuff. You cannot sell the same thing twice. This is something new.
You mentioned new owners, maybe its the way they run shops.
Both places used to have full aisles and lots of stuff to browse through, and the cash registers were always ringing away. Both have been in business for 40+ years. Both have new owners.
Many model train products have been made in limited runs for quite some time now so it's not that unusual for product to become hard to find, especially if you depend on brick and mortar shops.
Anyway, rather than be disappointed how shops are run, adapt to what gets you the goods. I gave up on depending on hobby shops after some very disappointing experiences myself around 12 years ago or so.
With the advent of the internet, I've found, sometimes with a little patience, I can almost always find what I need. There are a number of vendors I have on my short list and there is eBay and there are train shows. Problem solved.
This reminds me of the old Rolling Stones lyric:
"you can't always get what you want, but if you try, you get what you need ..."
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
riogrande5761 Yep. Caboose is not Caboose Hobbies, although they are trying to ride the coat tales and spin a yarn about having the history of the old store. I guess they can say what they want but fact is, it's a new store, new owner/manager, doing things his way. That's ok, but don't expect it to be Caboose Hobbies cause it ain't. I check it during the 1st year and it was mostly full-priced merchandise, so I stopped looking after a while. I even asked the guys there at Caboose and they said no manufactureres are making any D&RGW stuff. D&RGW rolling stock, like many other fallen flags, is run maybe every 3-6+ years, not yearly or even every couple years generally from what I've seen over the past 30+ years. For that reason, going to a hobby shop is going to be a major disappointment unless you happened to darken the door just after something was just released. There have been a few items run repeatedly by Athearn, namely the former MDC, upgraded RTR FMC 4700 covered hopper, which is has an announced 4th run now. First run was basically the MDC car factory assembled. The 2nd run was upgraded with wire grab irons and etched metal roof walk, and is much nicer, as was the 3rd run. DRGWCS is right, Rio Grande standard guage tends to sell well and sells out usually. I've been buying D&RGW rolling stock over the past 30+ years and found that to be true. The past run of Genesis GP40-2's sold out mega fast - I had to borrow a laptop while in England to order mind or lose out when they were released in Dec 2014. FWIW, Athearn is running more due out next spring. The next run will be all standard GP40-2's while the first run was split between the 2 standard and 2 late phase GP40-2's for Rio Grande. Bottom line - you'll have best luck going to fleabay as there is often lots of past run stuff availabl. But there is a ton of Rio Grande foobies too, so you may want to steer clear of all that nonsense if it matters to you. I took a quick spin through the first few pages of HO Rio Grande on eBay and immediately found some correct D&RGW models: - Athearns FMC 4700 hopper.- Kadee 2-bay cement hopper.- Kadee PS-1 50' box car- Walthers and ExactRail 4427 PS2-CD covered hopper- Arrowhead Committee Design 3-pay coal car (very nice)- Walthers Mainline 50' FGE box car- Intermountain ACF 2-bay hopper- Walther 53' gondola both kit/mainline and Gold RTR are close stand-in's- Stewart 3-bay coal cars 12 and 14 panel. You might find this list helpful if you are looking for models in HO for the D&RGW and avoid the outright foobies: http://atlasrescueforum.proboards.com/thread/5232/ho-guide-rio-grande-models
Yep. Caboose is not Caboose Hobbies, although they are trying to ride the coat tales and spin a yarn about having the history of the old store. I guess they can say what they want but fact is, it's a new store, new owner/manager, doing things his way. That's ok, but don't expect it to be Caboose Hobbies cause it ain't. I check it during the 1st year and it was mostly full-priced merchandise, so I stopped looking after a while.
I even asked the guys there at Caboose and they said no manufactureres are making any D&RGW stuff.
D&RGW rolling stock, like many other fallen flags, is run maybe every 3-6+ years, not yearly or even every couple years generally from what I've seen over the past 30+ years. For that reason, going to a hobby shop is going to be a major disappointment unless you happened to darken the door just after something was just released.
There have been a few items run repeatedly by Athearn, namely the former MDC, upgraded RTR FMC 4700 covered hopper, which is has an announced 4th run now. First run was basically the MDC car factory assembled. The 2nd run was upgraded with wire grab irons and etched metal roof walk, and is much nicer, as was the 3rd run.
DRGWCS is right, Rio Grande standard guage tends to sell well and sells out usually. I've been buying D&RGW rolling stock over the past 30+ years and found that to be true.
The past run of Genesis GP40-2's sold out mega fast - I had to borrow a laptop while in England to order mind or lose out when they were released in Dec 2014. FWIW, Athearn is running more due out next spring. The next run will be all standard GP40-2's while the first run was split between the 2 standard and 2 late phase GP40-2's for Rio Grande.
Bottom line - you'll have best luck going to fleabay as there is often lots of past run stuff availabl. But there is a ton of Rio Grande foobies too, so you may want to steer clear of all that nonsense if it matters to you.
I took a quick spin through the first few pages of HO Rio Grande on eBay and immediately found some correct D&RGW models:
- Athearns FMC 4700 hopper.- Kadee 2-bay cement hopper.- Kadee PS-1 50' box car- Walthers and ExactRail 4427 PS2-CD covered hopper- Arrowhead Committee Design 3-pay coal car (very nice)- Walthers Mainline 50' FGE box car- Intermountain ACF 2-bay hopper- Walther 53' gondola both kit/mainline and Gold RTR are close stand-in's- Stewart 3-bay coal cars 12 and 14 panel.
You might find this list helpful if you are looking for models in HO for the D&RGW and avoid the outright foobies:
http://atlasrescueforum.proboards.com/thread/5232/ho-guide-rio-grande-models
I don't have any idea how complete that list is, but based on that you can't model the D&RGW accurately in the 1950's?
Guess the "foobies" will have to do for some stuff on my layout...........
Sheldon
Can't speak about Caboose, but we have two legacy legendary hobby shops here in Florida that are looking similar.
.
H&R Trains in Pinellas Park and Colonial Photo & Hobby in Orlando.
Both are having serious cases of empty aisles, which I do not understand. Aisles only get empty if stuff sells. If you do not replace it, nothing will sell.
If you sell all your stuff, you need to get in more stuff. You cannot sell the same thing twice.
This is something new. Both places used to have full aisles and lots of stuff to browse through, and the cash registers were always ringing away. Both have been in business for 40+ years. Both have new owners.
Now they are no fun at all.
Zitnik's (St. Petersburg), Metro Hobbies (Fort Myers), Ready to Roll (Miami), Discount Trains (Fort Lauderdale), Gulf Coast Model Railroading (Sarasota), etc, all seem to have no problems keeping the shelves full.
It is sad to see two iconic legacy stores in this condition.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
You’d THINK you could find the distant road stuff whee the local stuff is out of stock - well, I found no Reading at Caboose in July, and one CNJ car. They did have a bunch of Peco track, but I wasn’t going to buy a bunch of track to haul back on the plane. And pretty much stuff in the scenery area. Surprised to hear no ballast now.
—Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
As a Rio Grande modeler- you grab it when you see it. I am really the odd man out now- I live in Southern/ Norfolk and Western territory. While it sounds like Caboose has stocking problems- there is not a whole lot of Rio Grande stuff out there right now. There are the new Scale Trains tunnel motors is the only current release I can think of right now in an engine. Accurail only has four items I think in Rio Grande that are in stock. I think limited run has hurt roadnames like Rio Grande a little harder- they sell out. There always seems to be something UP Santa Fe, BN, and NS or Norfolk Western. Steam is even harder- The only thing out there right now is Bachmanns innacurate prairie. It sounds like there is a bit of a stocking issue with them on a lot of stuff right now too. Only made it into the original once back in 1986 and loved it. Even then I didn't buy as much as I thought I would- and that was before limited run.
Well I have never been to the hobby shop in question but it sounds to me like the store is trying to shift it’s focus away from selling trains, at least offline.
Regarding the lack of D&RGW stuff, I find that railroads from a region were a hobby shop is located often sell out there quickly, with other railroads selling a bit slower. This means that you will have less luck finding Rio Grande in Colorado than if you went to a hobby shop further away from Rio Grande territory, were you may find model availible that were long ago sold out were they are more popular.
Regards, Isaac
I model my railroad and you model yours! I model my way and you model yours!
For what it’s worth, my first visit to the old Caboose Hobbies was in 1991, the last in 2009. I felt that the amount of stock decreased dramatically between those visits. However, they were selling a lot online so that could explain it. There was still a ton of stuff, though.
I found the same thing searching their empty website. Not quite the same store from old! Very sad!
oldline1
Michael,
You do know it's under new management, yes? That may have something to do with it...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I went to Caboose today, haven't been there in 3 years. I was all excited to buy some stuff. First of all they did not have a single D&RGW locomotive, and there was about 3 D&RGW box cars. Man what the heck happened to all the D&RGW equipment. I even asked the guys there at Caboose and they said no manufactureres are making any D&RGW stuff. This has to be one of the most popular roads out there, so why doesn't anybody make it any more?
So I'm bowsing all the isles, and they are mostly empty. They had a decent amount of locomotives. But thats about it. No ballast, no glue, no paint, very little Peco track. I did buy a few things but I wanted more and they just didn't have it. So now I gotta buy online.
I went to Hobbytown and bought paint, glue, they even had Peco switches.
Kinda depressing. I used to go crazy buying stuff at Caboose.
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989