I've heard this, that, and the other about how some people's nearest Local Hobby Shop (LHS), when they were children, was waaaaay off in the distance, and how sometimes that's still true.
Myself, there was always a 'permanent' stall in the back of the local indoor every-weekend flea market that catered to trains (mostly), cars, and trucks. And French's Hobby Store was just down the street. Having grown up, French's closed (after 50+ years), the local flea market guy is still there, and I've found two more stores within public transportation distance of me. So I consider myself lucky.
But now I've been wondering, just how lucky am I?
And the question I put to you is this: Where's your nearest hobby store at a physical location, either as a child, as an adult, or both?
As a kid the closest hobby shop with train stuff was about 3 miles away. The LHS my repair shop used to be in, which was only trains, was exactly 2 miles away. The only "train store" left in my area now is about 15 miles away. The next nearest is about 40 miles, give or take a mile.
These days I do almost all of my train shopping on line, or at one of the occasional train shows. 15 miles may not sound like much, but it involves driving through some of the heaviest traffic, highest accident rate, areas around here.
Len
When I was a kid, there was a hobby shop that was largely trains about 2 miles from the house. When I was old enough, I could bike there. Downtown DC once had three major hobby shops - one was trains exclusively, one was mostly trains but also boats and planes, the other was primarily Lionel. There was another train shop about 6 miles the other way. All of them ultimately were lost to various urban redevelopment projects. Today, aside from the Timonium train shows, the only really decent train stores are Kline's, 45 miles away north of Baltimore and Mainline Hobbies, sixty miles away.
One of the top rated, year after year, model trains only brick & mortar in USA is less than seven miles from me. More than ten with model trains are within 15 miles.
My LHS is two friends who have no actual store, they only do train shows. They are 10 miles away in Gulfport. They order anything I need at a hugantic discount.
It is way different than 55 years ago in south Louisiana when Houston was the nearest over 200 miles away. There was no internet, anything I knew about I saw in the magazines. Dreams floated in splendor around the AHC ads and the ads for the models of the gods, the brass steam engines by Pacific Fast Mail, Akane, Gem, and Olympia.
We visited family in Houston 3 or 4 times a year . I'd save my money and have maybe $30 if I was lucky. They'd drop me off at the G&G Model Shop and come back 3 or 4 hours later. I was in heaven. The owners were top grade , they let me look in all the kits. I'll never forget those days and those guys at G&G.
As a kid, when I lived in South St. Louis, Johnson's Train Shop was about five blocks away from me on Chippewa St. Chippewa was a major East-West street so we traveled West on Chippewa most of the time to get anywhere. When we we did, we passed Johnson's. They always had some kind of O27 or O layout in the window. Whether passing it while riding the bus or in a car or walking, it was always a thrill for me. I used to ride my bike up there sometimes just to look at the trains.
I had gotten an O27 set for Christmas about '59 or '60 so I liked drooling over the trains.
They used to sell used stuff, too. They had this little blue yard switcher on the shelf for $5.00. That might as well have been a million to me. I was determined that I would figure out a way to get it. I got 25 cents a week allowance. In '61 I think it was, I use to set pins at a bowling alley on weekends for a penny a frame and would make around $4.00 for the weekend. I saved whatever money I could and after a couple months, I was able to buy it. Such a thrill it was for me because I was only 11 and I bought something of my very own.
It looked like this one. I still have it but it sounds like a coffee grinder when running. It always was noisy.
Now, the nearest train store (if it's still there) is about 60 miles away.
(http://www.grahamstrains.com/store/files/d_7092.jpg)
Hm.... From the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, growing up in Brooklyn, NY, my "hobby shops" were Toys'R'Us and Kay-Bee Toys at Kings Plaza, Walt's Hobby Shop in Bay Ridge, Train World (at their old Avenue M location), and Hobby King on Avenue U. The latter was the only one to carry things like styrene and detail parts. I spent enough money on their stuff that today, 25+/- years later I'm still using up what I bought there!
Today I live in Missouri, there are at least a half-dozen stores within easy driving distance (up to 1 hour each way), ranging from the slim pickings of Hobby Lobby and Menards, to the Micro Engineering factory / office where you can actually show up at their door an buy directly from them. In between you have a mixed bag of shops, including possibly the last place on Earth where you can buy a Varney model off the shelf in new condition.
Alas, there is also one store that is selling off it's model train items and dropping the hobby from its offerings. I was in there on Monday, and talking with the owners it seems their decision was two-fold: internet sales dominate the hobby and they are in no position to compete. The second is a perceived graying of the hobby based on who they are selling to. Ultimately, however, I think it comes down to the sound decision of making ends meet. They are focusing on RC racers and static model kits because that is what moves off the shelves. Meeting the rent, paying the bills, and still having something left over to put black ink on the books, is the bottom line for them - or any business, for that matter.
Wow. Polk's...and a few others too, but I was never so hardcore that I had to delve much into specialty shops when KB and TRU had decent sections for hobbies, and my budget (or allowance) was so small. Well, I did press my face against the FAO Schwarz Marklin displays more than once. ;)
These days, I can't complain having Trainworld and Red Caboose in my city when others don't have such resources, but those are almost outposts in a desolate land. Not that Bachmann or other brands of classic model rail are as plentiful as was in TRU in their heyday, but the loss of TRU is a death knell to chain or average B&M shops having classic stuff like this. You just don't see hobbies like model trains (AC), model kits, or entry-level hobby-esque toys like kites, having the shelfspace they did back in the day. It bothers me that these are all very American in tradition, as well.
The phone, tablet, game console and PC have supplanted the tangible, and I don't think it's going to get better unless the grid goes down.
As a kid, I remember hobby shops seemed to be quite common.
When I first moved to Northern Virginia, there were a number of choices, including a store within walking distance of my house.
In the last 12 years, ALL the stores have gone under. I believe the closest physical store is a place called Star Hobby which is in Annapolis, a good 90 minutes from home. Think I've been there once.
There is a Hobbylobby in my city... which is great... if you want the one trainset they carry, some glue, or some very expensive trees. I shouldn't complain I guess. They do carry a small selection of brass/steel wire and a very few other sundries.
Train shows seem to be the only venue left where once can explore, and pick up tools, details, kits... etc.
Regards,
Jonathan
Nearest Menards is 75 miles away (1 hr 22 min) and is also the furthest East location last I knew. I have not seen stuff in there myself but hear it is mostly carried during the holiday season.
Nearest Hobby Lobby is 33 minutes away, they carry 2 Bachmann HO train sets and 1 N scale and as mentioned previous very slim pickings. Hobby Lobby had a decent selection of mostly Bachmann products when they first opened.
The Nearest Hobbytown USA is 85 miles away (1 hr 43 min), there used to be one about 30 minutes away just down the road from Hobby Lobby but it went out of business 3 or 4 years ago. It had a better selection than Hobby Lobby ever had. They had Bowser and Accurail kits in addition to a lot of Bachmann stuff and some Athearn Genesis locomotives among other things.
There is a local hobby shop that used to carry some model train stuff but stopped carrying it about 15-20 years ago, they now only carry mainly RC stuff but absolutely no trains except around Christmas they carry 1 Bachmann HO and 1 Lionel O train set but no other related products. It is only 25 minutes away but doesn't matter since it has no model railroad stuff 11 months out of 12.
Another local hobby shop that had the largest selection in the area closed down 3 or 4 years ago after the owner died and cited the lack of ability to compete with mail order/online businesses.
Another local hobby shop used to be mostly model railroad stuff, now is mostly RC cars, boats, planes and model kits. The model railroad section is not being restocked but it not being reduced in price either. The current inventory includes American Flyer S scale, Lionel O scale, maybe a bit of Williams O scale stuff. They also have N scale but sold all remaining locomotives aside from some old train sets. There is a decent amount of HO stuff but only a couple locomotives and a trolley. This place is about 35 minutes away. The owner of the shop is in his 80's and going to retire this year and close if a buyer isn't found. He also will not order anything for you so there is no point in going there for me.
There is another shop that I heard has a pretty good selection for O scale mostly, that I haven't been to that is about an hour away. As far as I know it does not have much HO though.
And then any shops that may be in the Cleveland or Pittsburgh area are an hour and 45 minutes away.
I am not sure what is left in the Akron-Canton area but those would be an hour and 20 minutes away roughly. I think quite a few of the shops in this area are now closed from what I hear.
From the mid 90's and back there was a large amount of hobby shops with a large model railroad selection. Starting in the late 90's is when shops began to change their inventory and close down in my general area.
Train America was the closest hobby shop to me as a kid, those in O scale may recognize this name as he did quite a bit of aftermarket sound and digital control (TMCC etc) install for Lionel/O scale. All factory Lionel repairs were completed at a location about 5 minutes from my house for quite some time. The owner of Train America moved to North Carolina for his Lionel job and closed his shop and now a Dunkin Donuts and a plaza sit on top of the hobby shop's former location.
Zitnik Trains, 5½ miles due East.
In Pinellas Park.
Visit Zitnik 1-2imes per month.
H&R Trains, about 9 +/- miles or so, same road, same direction, further east, in St Pete.
Haven't been there for about 6 months.
There is another shop up on Ulmerton Rd. in Largo, between Starkey and Belcher, which seems to be still in business.
10 +/- miles north of me.
The three times I've passed it, it has not been open.
But I think that's just timing, think they have been there 2-3 years.
There is a little store here on Staten Island called EZ Catch or something like that selling trains and fish tackle. However for better selection if I don't mind paying the toll on the Verrazano Bridge I can drive to Trainworld or Trainland.
It's like a broken record.
LHS is closing because the aging owner wants to retire and can't sell the shop.
LHS is surviving because they've gone RC and dumped trains.
LHS that continues to do well with trains is likely in the northeast or the west coast. Probably because population density can support it.
At one time there was a mail order place called something like railway postoffice. They got mad at MR and dropped their ads and went to MRC. Are they still around?
The LHS I can't figure out is Hawkins Rail in Indiana somewhere. Every month they run an ad in the magazines saying to come see their 130 car grain train running on their layout. The ad revels in a pre computer Stone Age ethos : no website, they say they don't have a catalog but to send them a SASE (you young people know what that is?) and they'll send you a list of what they have. Reading it is being back in 1963 all over again. But they seem to stay in business. Anyone ever actually been there or ordered anything from them?
If by MRC you mean Railroad Model Craftsman, then no, they don't have anything much like a mail-order thing.
And Trainman, I'm 25, so I don't know if you consider that a young'un, but I do know what a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope is... Even though I've never used one.
Quote from: bbmiroku on June 07, 2018, 03:22:46 PMAnd Trainman, I'm 25, so I don't know if you consider that a young'un, but I do know what a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope is... Even though I've never used one.
Ah, but do you know what an IRC is?
That's the line in the sand. ;)
I didn't comment on MRC, someone else did. IRC, don't think I ever heard of that other than a building code I worked with once.
No challenge intended at all. It's been so long since I saw any reference to an SASE, or an SAE, I thought it incredible that someone still asks for it. That goes back to the days of postal zones and pre area-code alphabetic telephone exchanges. And .... the RPO! Now THERES one EVERYONE ought to know!
Railroad Post Office (Car)
The B&O Museum has an old RPO car with a little movie playing in it about the guys who did it.
No idea what an IRC is... Wait... Internet Relay Chat! Daggum it's been forever since I've heard that one.
The MRC/RMC was for RAM.
I'm still wondering if anyone ever has been to Hawkins Rail. Sounds like my kind of place.
Quote from: bbmiroku on June 07, 2018, 05:21:58 PM
No idea what an IRC is... Wait... Internet Relay Chat! Daggum it's been forever since I've heard that one.
Admit it. You Googled that. :)
No, although I
have used that chat software in the past, in the context of self-addressed envelopes, I had meant this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_reply_coupon
They used to look like
this (http://postalnews.com/postalnewsblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Coupon-reponse.jpg) when I last used them, but looked like
these (http://www.arrl.org/images/view/News/USA_IRC.jpg) when last available.
The point of them being, that, sometimes, to get catalogs from sellers overseas (for Hornby, Marklin, etc) you had to include these with an SAE to get them, as an SASE wouldn't work without using their stamps. This accomplished that.
I plead the Fifth. :P
I've used them before, things like Mibbit or Discord, but just called them 'chat rooms'.
But I've never seen or heard of IRCoupons.
Is IRC the same thing as IM? (remember that?). Back when there was MS DOS?
One time it took a long time to get my lunch at a place where I knew the waiter, who could laugh. I told him "if I don't get my BLT ASAP it's gonna be a BFD!" 😮😱😜😂😂😂😂😂
Quote from: bbmiroku on June 07, 2018, 10:00:20 PM
I've used them before, things like Mibbit or Discord, but just called them 'chat rooms'.
IRC still exists. It inspired/evolved/forked into something called Direct Connect (DC) as well. Both types of networks allow files to be shared if you use a client app instead of embedded pages in web browsers (like mibbit).
Well, this topic has gone on an informative little siding.
Thats why we love this forum.
Back to it..... anyone else ever see the pre-digital age ads for that Indiana LHS and wonder how they keep going? Specializing in trains only. With no internet presence. Both totally counter intuitive to today's world.
Though I have 3 shops within about 5 miles. two seem to cater mostly to older train set type stuff. The third puts emphasis on N scale.
The best shop in Pittsburgh, A B Charles, went downhill fast when Bud Charles died about ten years ago,. The son had no interest in trains, concentrating on other things. After a couple of moves under his ownership it is now gone completely.
The nearest shop that has a wide selection of HO is over 25 miles away, in Cranberry.
For me, a shop that just sells locomotives, cars, track and building kits is useless. I need a supply of parts for my various projects. Rail and spikes for handlaid track. Wheelsets and gears for rebuilding locomotives. What I've found is that this stuff is available, but most hobby shops won't special order it. Or if they do, somehow they never actually get it. When I find a shop that actually will stock or special order what I need, most if not all of my business goes there.
Read between the lines Jeffery. Craft style model railroading is on life support and nearly gone. The days of going across town and having a wide supply of scratchbuiling supplies are gone. The railroad has long stopped being an important presence in daily lives and interest in models has accordingly diminished. Toy trains persist to a degree in the public's mind, to wit the dozens of tinplate like loop running "Model railroad museums" that are crammed with little scenes and cute vignettes rather than being a serious realistic depiction of railroading. We have one nearby. I never go.
There's an LHS in Baton Rouge I sometimes go to while there on business. They are typical, dominated by RC with a minuscule yet evermore shrinking train area. Occasionally they get a few things from estates, often artifacts from another time. I got 4 wood craftsman kits that are basically a boxful of unfinished sticks that you still need to stain, drill, and trim before assembly . Two cranes are by Alexander Scsle models who may still be in business. A country store is by long gone Dyna Models and a transformer platform between two poles is by another ghost from the past, K&L House of Wood. It may take the rest of my life to finish these but they will look great.
And if it does take the rest of your life, your eyesight may be gone enough that it will look great anyway. :P
My eyesight is gone already 😂😂.
Yesterday I saw a sad scene I've seen beforehand, a train-only LHS in declining health that won't be reversed. There were a number of empty shelves that won't be restocked. Locomotives aren't being restocked in any numbers. I talked to the owner who said the model railroad customer base was steadily declining and that the only business he could count on any more was Lionel winter Christmas tree train sets.
Looking at his stock though, he appeared to be trying to serve too large and generalized a market... without going into too much detail about unsalable and poorly chosen quirky detail items and distant road name items of no local interest. His biggest thrust seemed to be disposition of deceased modelers "estate " items, meaning a Matterhorn of broken and poorly painted cars and structures with glue fingerprints all over them. I did get a few of these with possibilities if disassembled, modified , and repainted in less garish and gaudy toy train colors.
The owners are older and I can tell either won't want to or be able to go much longer.
When this places closes a familiar sad drama will repeat itself, basically other hobby shops in better shape cannibalizing the remaining inventory for pennies on the dollar, only to either close down a couple of years later themselves or go all RC.
I had a long talk about this with my friend who runs an operation that only does train shows and a limited internet business with no actual store. He says that after 15 years, they are just beginning to see a stable flow.
As I read these tales, the song that's playing in the background of my mind is "Another One Bites the Dust".
There's one here in town that's half trains and half military models. No RC. That means an adult Model building mindset in the store. Trainwise it's not so bad with structures kits, RTR plastic cars, basic track, and best of all, a pretty good stock of scratch building stuff like sheet basswood and styrene, styrene shapes, stuff for galvanized tin roofs sand such. And there is a very good supply of paint too albeit military oriented. You can find what you need there pretty much, although you can't browse a hundred kits like you could in the Golden Days of Yore.
In my large city there is really only one local hobby shop left. And it is in an area where rent I would think is affordable for them versus say a NEW strip mall or large mall with department stores attached. They also cater to all hobbies pretty much or they would never stay in business, RC, Plastic Models, G, HO, N, and paint supplies , glue's, you name it pretty much. Why it's a gold mine for plastic model hobbyist I would think as well as model railroad hobbyist with open boxes, loose items, as well as brand new. Do they have the inventory of a internet retailer of course not, but you can find some gem's in that place. Bought a Model Power N Scale already built and not in a box for $1.00. Of course someone getting out of the hobby sold them their stuff, but I don't care. I saved about $20.00 on the house I bought, and am very happy. That's is also what you can not do online. Buy open stuff, etc...
Hope this place never goes out of business!
https://youtu.be/Ubsyu1u8VQA
I made 3 video's in the store one day after asking for permission! It's crazy full! No sound in some of the video's! Or very low sound!
Pretty good looking stock of stuff.