SeeYou190 metro trains was run by jack sal & jack from2014 till victory bought the store . i hope it goes well to , maybe our paths will cross there also happy modeling thomas81z jack the old part owner of metro trains will be running it I don't know Jack. I knew Sid and Curt. I have known Curt for 30+ years. It is crazy how many times our paths have crossed in one way or another. -Kevin
metro trains was run by jack sal & jack from2014 till victory bought the store .
i hope it goes well to , maybe our paths will cross there also
happy modeling
thomas81z jack the old part owner of metro trains will be running it
I don't know Jack. I knew Sid and Curt.
I have known Curt for 30+ years. It is crazy how many times our paths have crossed in one way or another.
-Kevin
thomas81zjack the old part owner of metro trains will be running it
Living the dream.
SeeYou190 thomas81z CALOOSA TRAINS & HOBBIES 1490 PINE ISLAND ROAD BLDG3 UNIT D ,mid march or so . i love that it will be soo close It sure could not be much closer to my house. I hope it is a friendly place. -Kevin
thomas81z CALOOSA TRAINS & HOBBIES 1490 PINE ISLAND ROAD BLDG3 UNIT D ,mid march or so . i love that it will be soo close
It sure could not be much closer to my house.
I hope it is a friendly place.
& it will be the old school hangout for us modelers .
Ringo58 My personal favorite, Hiawatha Hobbies in Waukesha WI said buisness was better than ever. They are open 7 days a week now mostly from 10-6.
My personal favorite, Hiawatha Hobbies in Waukesha WI said buisness was better than ever. They are open 7 days a week now mostly from 10-6.
Hiawatha had lots of the Athearn 2-packs of HO Fruehauf trailers when eveyone else was sold out, and Athearn was producing singles for the price of the 2-packs!
But the last time I visited their online site, it needed some improving. And their prices as not as good as MBK.
jjo Sad to hear....A victim of the times...Sigh
Sad to hear....A victim of the times...Sigh
No, not a victim of the times. According to the first post, the owner is retiring. So as is the case most often, victim of single owner syndrome. One owner retires and shop closes. Essentially this happened to even Caboose Hobbies. Yes, the lease ran out, but the owner was ready to retire so this probably just sped it up by a year or two.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
thomas81zCALOOSA TRAINS & HOBBIES 1490 PINE ISLAND ROAD BLDG3 UNIT D ,mid march or so . i love that it will be soo close
SeeYou190 Flintlock76 OH NO! I am so sorry to hear that! While I'm not a Fort Meyers resident my parents are retired in Estero, and while visiting I always made time to visit Metro Trains. Nice place, good guys, and I got some good stuff in there. Not to fear!!! Victory models has reopened in a new location close to Fort Myers Beach. Unfortunately, I live in North Cape Coral, so I can actually get to Gulf Coast Model Railroading in Sarasota quicker than I can get to Victory Models new location. Also, Victory Models is not next to the Beef Jerkey Outlet any longer. There are stories of a new hobby shop opening in North Cape Coral on Pine Island Road soon. -Kevin
Flintlock76 OH NO! I am so sorry to hear that! While I'm not a Fort Meyers resident my parents are retired in Estero, and while visiting I always made time to visit Metro Trains. Nice place, good guys, and I got some good stuff in there.
Not to fear!!!
Victory models has reopened in a new location close to Fort Myers Beach.
Unfortunately, I live in North Cape Coral, so I can actually get to Gulf Coast Model Railroading in Sarasota quicker than I can get to Victory Models new location.
Also, Victory Models is not next to the Beef Jerkey Outlet any longer.
There are stories of a new hobby shop opening in North Cape Coral on Pine Island Road soon.
yep kevin,its going to be CALOOSA TRAINS & HOBBIES 1490 PINE ISLAND ROAD BLDG3 UNIT D ,mid march or so . i love that it will be soo close
Flintlock76Thanks "SeeYou190!" That's very good news!
If you keep posting in the Model Railroader forums I will add you to the yearbook!
Ringo58 SeeYou190 richhotrain I'm surprised that there are any Local Hobby Shops left to close. How are the local hobby shops doing during the re-opening phases? Are most of them up to full operating hours? Social distancing was never a problem in most hobby shops I have been to. I have not been to a hobby shop in four months! -Kevin My personal favorite, Hiawatha Hobbies in Waukesha WI said buisness was better than ever. They are open 7 days a week now mostly from 10-6. The one literally across the street from me has had reduced hours. He said yesterday buisness is starting to pick back up.
SeeYou190 richhotrain I'm surprised that there are any Local Hobby Shops left to close. How are the local hobby shops doing during the re-opening phases? Are most of them up to full operating hours? Social distancing was never a problem in most hobby shops I have been to. I have not been to a hobby shop in four months! -Kevin
richhotrain I'm surprised that there are any Local Hobby Shops left to close.
How are the local hobby shops doing during the re-opening phases? Are most of them up to full operating hours? Social distancing was never a problem in most hobby shops I have been to.
I have not been to a hobby shop in four months!
The one literally across the street from me has had reduced hours. He said yesterday buisness is starting to pick back up.
That's good to hear! My LHS, Tiny Tim's Trains And Toys in Ashland VA is doing quite well too. I guess it all depends, doesn't it?
Thanks "SeeYou190!" That's very good news!
Ringo58My personal favorite, Hiawatha Hobbies in Waukesha WI said buisness was better than ever. They are open 7 days a week now mostly from 10-6.
That is great news to hear.
Flintlock76OH NO! I am so sorry to hear that! While I'm not a Fort Meyers resident my parents are retired in Estero, and while visiting I always made time to visit Metro Trains. Nice place, good guys, and I got some good stuff in there.
SeeYou190We lost Victory Models And Trains (formerly Metro Trains) in Fort Myers this week.
OH NO! I am so sorry to hear that! While I'm not a Fort Meyers resident my parents are retired in Estero, and while visiting I always made time to visit Metro Trains. Nice place, good guys, and I got some good stuff in there.
I haven't been down there since 2019 because of the damn COVID and only found out about this when out of curiosity I looked up Metro Trains this morning, a "what's goin' on?" thing.
Oddly, the Victory Models website is still active.
This is truly sad. Is anyone likely to "pick up the torch" in that area?
Looks like alot of stores are going byebye, not just hobbie stores.
We lost Victory Models And Trains (formerly Metro Trains) in Fort Myers this week. They never opened up after the shut down was over. Now the store is completely emptied out.
Even the beautiful 40 foot long three scale layout is gone.
This has saddened me deeply. The store was not very old, it was neat as could be and very well stocked.
They carried EVERY line of paint from Scalecoat II to AK-Interactive.
Very sad indeed.
rrinker However they did it, whoever convinced them to get online way back in the early days, was a genius - other shops keep closing up, but MB Klein soldiers on, bigger than ever.
Yes, but when they were in Baltimore you could browse the shelves.
Somewhere along the way in Cockeysville they reduced the amount of items on the shelf and you had to either look up what you wanted on one of their computer terminals or, if you were smart, have written the item numbers before you arrived. Then you gave these numbers to the sales individual who went into the back and brought the items out.
Then they reduced the size of the store, or rather the customer area.
Now they are mail order only.
I used to enjoy stopping there on the way back from Timonium.
Yeah, MB Klein is still in business, they just moved out of downtown Baltimore out to Cockeysville, out opast the fairgrounds at Timonium. They were an early adopter of internet sales and they are one of few internet retailers even this far down the road that have an genuinely accurate real time inventory system. Even powerhouses like Amazon don't do it as well at they do.
However they did it, whoever convinced them to get online way back in the early days, was a genius - other shops keep closing up, but MB Klein soldiers on, bigger than ever.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Dorassoc1 Too bad about Willis Hobby. Although I lived on Long Island for many years my purchaes there were not enough to keep the store going. I bet a lot of other modelers could say the same. I don't think it's any one thing killing the retail local hobby shop. The clientele in my local shop are all contemporaries of mine (I've been in the hobby since the middle of the last century) and the consensus is that it is a rich, old man's hobby - except in December. The shop I frequent here in New Jersey is on its final approach to oblivion. Its marketing plan was last updated in 1970 - before the internet and before mail-order really took hold. The store is cluttered and there's probably only one employee who knows the location of all those tiny parts you really need. I'm going to miss them when they're gone. Who else is going to install the replacement decoder? It's cost-effective to purchase big-ticket items on line, and we think we're geting a bargain - until we get to the shipping charges. It's the small accessories that I need that guy in the next town for. But, on the other hand, what is this local guy doing to aggressively market his business on-line? He's selling a 'commodity item' meaning the price can be shopped around. He should be going after the service aspect, instead of standing there like a deer caught in the headlights. I think i know his thinking: too late to change, I'm a year or two from retirement, the customers need me. (Well, the customers that need you, need you, but how many of them are left? Years ago there was a hobby shop not far from where I now live that may have had what I wanted if I wanted to risk lung cancer. It was as though the store was hermetically sealed. He had his old cronies, all contributing to the air quality - until he went out of business. I think of the shops that were old reliables - large, well stocked - from my youth in New York City and one in downtown Brooklyn and two close to me in New Jersey (Neal, south of Rt 80), and MB Klein (retail) in Maryland - all gone. These were all single owner shops, but there seems to be no longer a market for someone buying a hobby shop. Raise your hand if you think owning a neighborhood model railroad shop would be a viable business. I'm talking 'business'. You can't run a money making business as a hobby. Thanks for reading this
Too bad about Willis Hobby. Although I lived on Long Island for many years my purchaes there were not enough to keep the store going. I bet a lot of other modelers could say the same. I don't think it's any one thing killing the retail local hobby shop. The clientele in my local shop are all contemporaries of mine (I've been in the hobby since the middle of the last century) and the consensus is that it is a rich, old man's hobby - except in December. The shop I frequent here in New Jersey is on its final approach to oblivion. Its marketing plan was last updated in 1970 - before the internet and before mail-order really took hold. The store is cluttered and there's probably only one employee who knows the location of all those tiny parts you really need. I'm going to miss them when they're gone. Who else is going to install the replacement decoder? It's cost-effective to purchase big-ticket items on line, and we think we're geting a bargain - until we get to the shipping charges. It's the small accessories that I need that guy in the next town for. But, on the other hand, what is this local guy doing to aggressively market his business on-line? He's selling a 'commodity item' meaning the price can be shopped around. He should be going after the service aspect, instead of standing there like a deer caught in the headlights. I think i know his thinking: too late to change, I'm a year or two from retirement, the customers need me. (Well, the customers that need you, need you, but how many of them are left?
Years ago there was a hobby shop not far from where I now live that may have had what I wanted if I wanted to risk lung cancer. It was as though the store was hermetically sealed. He had his old cronies, all contributing to the air quality - until he went out of business. I think of the shops that were old reliables - large, well stocked - from my youth in New York City and one in downtown Brooklyn and two close to me in New Jersey (Neal, south of Rt 80), and MB Klein (retail) in Maryland - all gone. These were all single owner shops, but there seems to be no longer a market for someone buying a hobby shop. Raise your hand if you think owning a neighborhood model railroad shop would be a viable business. I'm talking 'business'. You can't run a money making business as a hobby.
Thanks for reading this
The few independent train shops still in business here in NJ remain closed , if you call and pay ahead and they bring out your order, simlar to odering take out food, and you have to ware a mask. Bayway Terminal
SeeYou190Social distancing was never a problem in most hobby shops I have been to.
Kevin, If C19 was a issue any time between the 50- mid 90s social distancing would be needed at some hobby shops on Saturday morning. Back then you had two choices shop at a LHS or by mail order. Being at a LHS Saturday mornings in most areas was a must since many shop owners would display the new stock Saturday morning since Friday was payday for the majority of the modelers especially the blue collar workers..
One shop I went to would have the newest locomotives on display in a displace case or perhaps if there was one new locomotive it might be on a test track or running loops on the shops display layout.. The demo locomotive would be sold used at a later date or more then likely the owner kept it in his collection.
I started shopping on line IIRC in 2003.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Most that I've been observing aren't in the adapt or die situation. Mostly shops close because they are single owner and that owner ages out.
If those two shops in Portland are single owner, chances are the same thing will happen. It's just a matter of time.
So grateful to have two good ones here in Portland dedicated solely to trains. Not often do I find I'm the only customer in either of the stores. Often there's a healthy fistful of them. Nothing like convenience. And if you can wait on an item, you can at least get it without the shippng cost.
Wonder how they've tweaked their business models to stay afloat - and remain as local competitors.
John
riogrande5761 chutton01 And now here we are - was the first 'Matrix' movie correct and 1999 or so was indeed the peak of our civilization? Could be true.
chutton01 And now here we are - was the first 'Matrix' movie correct and 1999 or so was indeed the peak of our civilization?
Could be true.
chutton01And now here we are - was the first 'Matrix' movie correct and 1999 or so was indeed the peak of our civilization?
SeeYou190How are the local hobby shops doing during the re-opening phases? Are most of them up to full operating hours? Social distancing was never a problem in most hobby shops I have been to.
SeeYou190 richhotrain I'm surprised that there are any Local Hobby Shops left to close. How are the local hobby shops doing during the re-opening phases? Are most of them up to full operating hours? Social distancing was never a problem in most hobby shops I have been to. I have not been to a hobby shop in four months!
Alton Junction
richhotrainI'm surprised that there are any Local Hobby Shops left to close.
I'm surprised that there are any Local Hobby Shops left to close. OK, a bit of an exaggeration, but nor far from the truth.
Rich