"While everyone is telling grumpy hobby shop stories..."
An Affair With Trains can't be doing too badly. It is all bricks and mortar with no internet sales and expanded and doubled its size a little over a year ago. They will honor Walther's catalogue discounts and will provide a 10% discount on any single item purchased for every 100$ in purchases. The guys who work there are also polite and helpful. The problem w/the hobby in general is that it can be expensive and I suspect that a lot of youngsters who are just starting out with limited disposable income simply can't afford to get into it. When you look at what Atlas, for example, charges for wire and what you can get at the Home Depot, which is where I buy my wiring, I start to wonder about profit margins and whether or not lower prices would be offset by higher demand and more stores staying in business.
Bear "It's all about having fun."
The Houston Roundhouse (my favorite train shop) is exactly 52 miles from my front door to theirs, and that's as far as I'll drive. Otherwise, I buy my train items off of eBay...
Tracklayer
I am fortunate living in central MA. This allows me to drive to any of the 5 other New England states : 25 minutes to CT, 30 minutes to RI, 55 min to VT, 45 min to NH, and 60 min to ME. If I drive I-90 west, I can be in NY in 1:30.
Now the Hobby Shops break down into three categories for me: LHS ( Local Hobby Shops ( within 30 minute drive ), NLHS Non-Local Hobby Shop ( anything over 30 minute drive, and HSHS Hi-Speed Hobby Shop ( the internet hobby shops via Cable ).
I have three (3) LHS: Henry's Hobbies in West Boylston, Ma , Tucker's Hobbies ( my favorite ) in Warren, Ma, and Shepaug RR in Leominster, Ma ( pronounced without the "o" ). Then there are five (5) NLHS that I visit, Maine Trains in Chelmsford, Ma, Tony's Trains in Essex Jct VT., Maine trains in Falmouth, ME, Lighthouse Hobbies in Townsend, Ma, and Hartmann's in Intervale, NH.
As for the HSHS, no need to list all those, you already know most of them, or will before your 99.
While everyone is telling grumpy hobby shop stories - I'll chime in:
I've had a few of those too, and no wonder that they close as the owner is unhappy and it stifles business that is aleady hard to get. There was a shop like that in Rochester NY that I visited - small and not a great deal of stock - but very close to where I lived. I lived in Rochester 2 years and the grumpy shop was closed before I moved away.
Where I live now, a shop is about 15 minutes away that is pretty decent in terms of stock and items. For a while I sold some of my surplus rolling stock at his shop on consignment. I usually bought items in store with the profits I made (my 80% cut of the sale). One day I brought a bag of items in that I wanted to sell and he told me he would no longer consign for me because I didn't buy enough stuff in his store and my purchases were down from previous years (no sympathy for guys who are laid off of their jobs I guess). He surmised I was buying trains over the internet or mail order and was upset with me apparently. Guess what, most everyone is doing that now - buying online. But he punished himself ultimately because I learned how to sell on Ebay. Two things resulted. 1) I made more money off the items I sold and he no longer got 20% take of the sales. 2) I rarely darken the door of his shop anymore but instead found some friendly dealers to email my orders to. I"ve got a job last few years that has been making me more than ever and my LHS isn't getting hardly any of my purchases, which are substantial these days.
So if people ask why shops are closing, often it has to do with the attitude and service being offered. Its true the market place has been changing to internet/etailing etc and that has cut into LHS sales too. For a shop to survive, they really have to be a hybrid operation in the present world, offering internet and mail order sales, as well as a brick and morter store. Or they have to have a retail store that makes them money by another product line and sell trains on the side.
I'm with the guys who travel to their computers to do business these days. With gas expensive, I don't make many trips to the local hobby shops anymore. There isn't much incentive with the nature of the help, the higher cost of items and stock etc. I do make the occasional trip to large train shows. We have a big local show every year - which is mostly junk but big with dealers too. And another show I go to about every other year which is 3.5 horus away.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
cacole wrote: Beyond them, the next is An Affair With Trains in Phoenix, a five or six hour drive one way, depending on the time of day and traffic conditions.
Beyond them, the next is An Affair With Trains in Phoenix, a five or six hour drive one way, depending on the time of day and traffic conditions.
I live less than 15 minutes from An Affair With Trains. I admit I buy track in bulk and locos on-line for the discounts but I usually get everything else at this place. There is also The Hobby Bench, a local chain, located 30 minutes away with a modest train section. There is an old timer at the HObby Bench who has probably forgotten more about trains than I will ever learn. In both cases, whenever I ask for advice I ALWAYS purchase something.
There might be a Hobby Bench in Tucson.
on30francisco wrote:I occasionally hop the Caltrain from San Francisco and go to The Train Shop in Santa Clara (around 40 miles). Although there's a LHS in SF, it is very skimpy on supplies and sells at MSRP. The Train Shop is a dedicated model railroad LHS that caters to all scales and sells from 10% to 20% off MSRP. When I go there I try to catch the express train as the local has too many stops. Other than that LHS, I usually buy online as I refuse to pay MSRP if I don't have to.
steamnut wrote:Sadly, the only decent hobby shop that could possibly be described as being in my area (northern Virginia) closed last month. This shop was 16 miles away and took about 30 minutes to get to. That is close to the maximum distance / time I will spend driving to any kind of shop. The closing was said to be due to lease issues and the owner hopes to reopen in a rural community (near his new home) 60 miles away, but I would never drive that far and I wonder how many of his other former customers will do so. Although there are at least three other hobby shops within 10 miles, they are all general-interest shops with pathetic model railroad offerings. So for the foreseeable future I have no bricks-and-mortar shop.
What was the name of the shop that closed and where was it located? Hopefully you are talking about one of the shops near Manassas area and not Grandad's Hobby Shop in Fairfax. However, I noticed Grandad's listing is now gone from list in MR.
Bill
Ten years ago we used to have a decent hobby shop. But then the owner got grumpy. One day when I entered the shop I was told gruffly that he didn't want anyone looking around at anything. I was to just come in, buy what I wanted and leave. I left immediately and did not go back. The place was closed within a year. Now the closest decent shop is 75 miles and the shop I usually go to is 120 miles in a different direction.
Rangerover wrote:I walk upstairs to my computer, 120 miles round trip by car to a store that is so overpriced, I only went there once. He actually got nasty when I asked about code 83. He had nothing of what I needed and NO code 83 anything.
Nasty huh?
I remember a store in the Carolines, I stopped off the interstate one bright day around lunch time. As soon as that door jingled it's entry bell... a grumble issued forth from behind the counter as if I was a most unwelcome influence on this person's well-ordered world.
Ive dealt with onery drivers early in the morning at a hour that no one should be up, but that particular grumble... wow.
I spun on the heel and went back onto the road. I didnt even have enough time to take in anything about the place. Just as well. Too bad too.. had 300 dollars worth of hobby projects that week ready to go in the pocket. Oh well.
That store is probably a 1100 mile run from my place should I want to go back. nah.
steamnut wrote:Sadly, the only decent hobby shop that could possibly be described as being in my area (northern Virginia) closed last month.
Was it Granddad's Hobby Shop on Port Royal Road in Springfield? If not, I recommend them; I did a lot of business there before we moved to Texas.
I also bought a lot from one in the shopping center at Pickett Road and Little River Turnpike in Fairfax.
Good luck.
I would drive three hours one-way if I had to, and I would do it about once every three months.
caellis wrote: About two years ago I visited Tucson ( about 2hr one way, I live in Mesa, AZ). I found the ACE hardware store in Tucson and purchased a couple hundred dollars worth of rolling stock, wheels and trucks.Went back to ACE this year and bought nothing!. Their HO stock was almost nonexistent. They didn't even have code 83 turnouts. I was prepared to spend about $300 dollars. They had even made the MRR shop larger, why I don't know. I had previously recommended the ACE store on this forum. Too bad for the folks in Tucson.So now my favorite LHS is Affair With Trains in Phoenix. It is still about a 45 minute ride one way. But their stock is good... at least for now, and they do give discounts.
About two years ago I visited Tucson ( about 2hr one way, I live in Mesa, AZ). I found the ACE hardware store in Tucson and purchased a couple hundred dollars worth of rolling stock, wheels and trucks.
Went back to ACE this year and bought nothing!. Their HO stock was almost nonexistent. They didn't even have code 83 turnouts. I was prepared to spend about $300 dollars. They had even made the MRR shop larger, why I don't know. I had previously recommended the ACE store on this forum. Too bad for the folks in Tucson.
So now my favorite LHS is Affair With Trains in Phoenix. It is still about a 45 minute ride one way. But their stock is good... at least for now, and they do give discounts.
I seem to remember there was another hobby shop that specialized in model railroading that was located in the east Valley. I used to live in Peoria until 1999, but I still see their ads in MR.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
I guess after reading posts from people who take hours to travel hundreds of miles to hobby shops, I don't have much to complain about. I live in a fairly large city (about 700,000) and there's 4 hobby shops that I know of which have model RR stock. One is right downtown, about a 15 min. drive for me. They have good stock in all scales and also scenery, track and structures as well as scratchbuilding material and a good selection of tools and paint. The staff is excellent and I do almost all of my shopping there. There's another one on the other side of the city which I don't frequent much because it's a 40 min. plus drive and their stock is not as extensive. I used to have one about 5 mins. away but I didn't shop there much because they had almost no N scale and they catered to the race car crowd, but they had a good selection of paint. They've moved to about 25 mins. away and they don't have any better stock. The fourth one I don't patronize. I feel like the Invisible Man when I'm in there. Nothing short of a shotgun blast would get the attention of an employee. Their N scale stock isn't much either. I do buy some stuff on line too. None of the LHS's seem to stock much in the way of detail parts or oddball things, and I can understand why.
..... Bob
Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here. (Captain Kirk)
I reject your reality and substitute my own. (Adam Savage)
Resistance is not futile--it is voltage divided by current.
Funny thing, I went over to the local Hobby Lobby, yesterday, to pick up some stuff for the wife, and thought I would see just what they had the way of model railroad equipment ( I was not expecting much ).
I was very suprised.
They had more starter sets, of the same quality than the closest MR hobby shop had, plus a larger selection of model paints, and scenary material, and of all things a larger stock of Woodland Scenics supplies.
While the over all selection of RR engines and cars was low compared to the MR hobby shop, they did have a number of cars and engines that appeared to be of mid range quality and while most of it was HO scale, they also had a reasionable amount of N scale stock avalable ( in a glass cabnet of course ).
The best news, is that they are only 5 minutes from my house, and their prices are equal and perhaps a little better than the local model train shop.
I suspect that while I will probably go the the train shop for specific things, Hobby Lobby will get more of my business than the train shop will, for what supplies they do have. I realy do need to talk to the manager, and see if they will special order other model train stuff for me.
I usually go to Caboose Hobbies about three times a year. My business travels go to Denver that many times a year so the eleven hundred miles is not out of the way when you have extra time to get back to the airport.
Their on line service has been very good and I order many items from them. Don usually takes care of my questions about the model and sends it to me. They give a decent discount on most items now and they have a brass sale at least once a year. It is not really not my LHS, but as close as I want one.
Cheers
That's kind of relative... I'd go farther for a better selection. I'm about an hour from Toledo and there are a couple of shops there that have 2-3 display units dedicated to trains. In the other direction is Columbus, about two hours away, where there is a pretty nice shop that is "trains only." Going there is kind of a treat. But if it were the other way around, I wouldn't be very likely to go to Columbus.
dlm
emdgp92 wrote: Robby P. wrote:I am sure there are some BIG one's in Pttsburgh, but I don't know my way around there since I have only lived in PA a year, and my whole life in NC before the move. That's what I have for LHS....Let's see, we have A.B. Charles in Dormont (big red barn, near the pool), Esther's Hobby in Millvale (just off Route 28), Iron Horse in Upper St. Clair/Scott Twp (Painters Run Rd, just off Bower Hill Rd), and Toby Tyler's in Pleasant Hills (Lebanon Church Rd., not far from Route 51 cloverleaf). I tend to head over to A.B. Charles quite a bit, even though they're across town from me. You name it, they probably have it somewhere. Iron Horse and Toby's are mostly O scale. Since I'm not into O or Lionel, I don't go there as much. Esther's is nearly all N scale. I drop in there from time to time after work. There's also The Silver Mine near Washington, PA on Route 19. I haven't been in there for months :)
Robby P. wrote:I am sure there are some BIG one's in Pttsburgh, but I don't know my way around there since I have only lived in PA a year, and my whole life in NC before the move. That's what I have for LHS....
Let's see, we have A.B. Charles in Dormont (big red barn, near the pool), Esther's Hobby in Millvale (just off Route 28), Iron Horse in Upper St. Clair/Scott Twp (Painters Run Rd, just off Bower Hill Rd), and Toby Tyler's in Pleasant Hills (Lebanon Church Rd., not far from Route 51 cloverleaf). I tend to head over to A.B. Charles quite a bit, even though they're across town from me. You name it, they probably have it somewhere. Iron Horse and Toby's are mostly O scale. Since I'm not into O or Lionel, I don't go there as much. Esther's is nearly all N scale. I drop in there from time to time after work.
There's also The Silver Mine near Washington, PA on Route 19. I haven't been in there for months :)
Well I can fall over the hill and be at A.B. Charles and they have quite a selection including a large selection of brass. They have been in business for a long time and I did business for many years with Bud Charles who sadly has gone to the great trainyard in the sky. He will be missed but his son is doing a good job of keeping the business going. They have really done well since moving into their new location. I've been to Iron Horse a few times but if I don't go to A.B. Charles I usually go to Cranberry Hobby Depot in Cranberry when I am up visiting my Mom.
Tom
http://home.comcast.net/~bandofan
Modeling the Pittsburgh Division of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from Glenwood Yard to New Castle Yard following the old P&W Mainline.
Visit my website at: http://www.baltimoreandohiorr.com
My LHS is only about a 10-minute drive, and the roads are pleasant enough that I even make the trip on a bicycle every now and then. (Yeah, those Tour de France guys would be better off tucking a Peco Code 100 turnout in their pocket than whatever else it is they've got there.)
When I travel, I try to check the area for shops, too. I guess I don't travel to the right places - about the most I've ever bought is some autos at Wal-Mart. I have found some generic hobby shop stuff on occasion, though.
During my quest for hexagonal cobblestones, I found myself in a Wargaming shop nearby, The Three Trolls. (No, I didn't feed them.) I didn't find cobblestones, but I noticed a large stock of Woodland Scenics stuff, more than at my LHS. There's a segment of the Wargaming community that builds scenery, just like we do, and there must be enough of them to support WS at this shop.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I have to admit I'm spoiled, compared to many of the other people replying to this thread. There is a small HS about a 15-minute drive from my house, he has some train stuff (including scratchbuilding materials which I use alot) but he mostly sells military models. But a 30-minute drive northward lands me at MB Klein's new Cockysville store; a 30 minute drive south brings me to Peach Creek Shops. Both are excellent, well-stocked train-oriented businesses offering 20-25% off MSRP.
However, for DCC equipment, I order online from Tony's
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
There are 2 hobby shops in Bel Air MD, but charge full retail so I go there only if I am in a major pinch otherwise I head down to MB Klein now in Cockeysville MD since they moved out of their Gay Street location in downtown Baltimore.
For those who have not been to their new store. It is about the same size as the old store but has a greater shipping area. Parking is harder since they don't have the large public lot under the JFX anymore. If there are several people in the shop you have to park on the road.