The indispensable LHS


MikeOwnby

MikeOwnby

Active Member
I just had a really great couple of hours talking to the proprietor and a few customers of my LHS. My "local" hobby shop is a good hour away and keeps rather eclectic hours, so it's not often I really get up there. But I make it a point to always buy my flex track at the very least from them, and I don't think I've ever walked out without finding at least one other item I didn't know I desperately needed. This time it was a BNSF locomotive.

We talked about traction tires and I actually need to get back to them on what I found that they didn't know about. Providing that once I get them they don't turn out to be crap. We talked about local history, oddball trains and locos that have existed especially during diesel's early days and the joys of owning such things. The differing opinions about sound in N-scale. Spotting and fixing a problem with a Micro-Trains car that didn't roll freely (yeah, I didn't know that was possible either!). Good grief, the first time I had an MTL coupler fail on me I wondered what drugs had been slipped into my food. But yes, even MTL has a production fart every now and then.

I wish I had more time to just hang out there or even to travel there more often. I love forums like these for the info and camaraderie they can generate, but there's nothing quite like walking into the store, perusing all the stuff you didn't know you needed, and just shooting the breeze sans keyboard with others who are as ridiculously addicted to this hobby as you are.

Long live the LHS.
 
Mike - I am in complete agreement regarding the LHS. I really miss the one that I patronized weekly for 22 years. The owner of the one-man shop (26 miles away) retired about 15 months ago and now the closest one is 50+ miles away. I don't go as often, maybe once a month, but it is still most enjoyable. In both cases, the owners and employees are also modelers and are very knowledgeable regarding the hobby.

Willie
 
Mike - Nice story. I sure wish that I had a LHS here. There is one shop in Billings, about 150 miles away, and they too have strange hours. When I am able to get in there, I unfortunately find out that they very seldom have what I need in stock, but it is nice to be able to see in person (instead of a photo on the internet) what is available. Years ago there was a really nice shop in Great Falls (180 miles away) that I would make the trip to fairly regularly, but unfortunately the owner retired and the business closed.

I ended up getting a dealership form Walthers and others in the early 80's and sold pretty much at just a few percent above wholesale. I wasn't in tit to make money, but to have a place for people to access to model railroad supplies. Of course, almost all orders were "special" orders but things worked out fairly well. Unfortunately when the recession hit in the late 80's many of the people who bought from me either didn't have the money to spend or were forced to move for work. I ended up letting the dealership go, but I did stock up on a lot of items that I needed for my own layout which carried me through the years.

I can see why there aren't many hobby shops up here dedicated to model railroading as we just don't have the population. My wife and I enjoy taking road tris and I will search out hobby shops along the route we may be taking and it is a real pleasure to visit. We have come across a few that are well stocked and have some very good sales people who konw the hobby well. It is a lot of fun chewing the rag with these people.

I am now to the point where I have all of the track down on my layout and probably 95% of the scenery in. At this point I don't want to tear it out and start over due to my age. Now I can enjoy operating the layout just the way it was designed. There are still a lot of details to add and some older parts of the layout to upgrade. This is probably most hobby shops don't stock whet I am looking for. Don;t need any more track or locomotives. I have no plans at all to upgrade from DC to DCC as I am a lone operator and have no need to operate more than one train at a time. (If I tried, I would probably have a wreck on my hands.)

Even though my needs are little, I still enjoy going into a LHS just to browse and shoot the bull.
 
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I also agree with you guys! However, I haven't had a model railroad hobby shop within 50 miles in a couple years and a real good one is 190 miles away that has irregular hours. Maybe the best Model Railroad hobby shop in the state is more than 200 miles away in the Twin Cities. Although I grew up down there, driving in heavily populated areas is not something I'm confident with anymore, so I tend to stay away from the cities.

I hate to say this; but, it's my opinion that at least I have to get used to shopping on line. I think store front businesses are going to go away in the not to distant future. It is difficult for them to compete with the ModelTrainStuff type of internet stores. For the times they are a changing! Like it; or, not (I don't) the younger generation is changing our world at a rate never seen before. All of a sudden, I am glad I am old!! The mindless horde is taking over!
 
I have one good shop across the street from my office. I don't shoot the breeze much, but they have a great selection of stuff. I also do shows, but make it a point to buy a fair percentage of big ticket items from the shop. They can't survive on Kadee coupler, paint, & superglue sales! once they got to know me as a regular they started giving me deals.
 
I'm pretty much like you Mark, ordering from internet retailers. I have a running list of what I need and quite a few of them will probably have to be ordered directly from Walthers because I am finding that even some of the internet retailers don't have what I need.

My layout progress was fairly dormant for a number of year due to no LHS and internet retailers weren't what they are today. Even though I enjoy browsing through a model railroad shop, today the majority of what I purchase is from internet retailers.
 
montanan said:
I'm pretty much like you Mark, ordering from internet retailers. I have a running list of what I need and quite a few of them will probably have to be ordered directly from Walthers because I am finding that even some of the internet retailers don't have what I need.

My layout progress was fairly dormant for a number of year due to no LHS and internet retailers weren't what they are today. Even though I enjoy browsing through a model railroad shop, today the majority of what I purchase is from internet retailers.
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I just bought some stuff from Walthers. They usually have the odds and ends that you can't find elsewhere.
 
Most of the internet retailers get stuff from Walthers. What I am looking for is also oddball items I need for detail work. Need some signs and other small items that I can only find in their catalog. Finally broke down and picked one up a few months ago. My old one was from 1998,
 
Chet, I was surprised to find that the Walthers HO Catalog now has stuff for Z and N, also. What do you think of that?
 
Espeefan said:
I have one good shop across the street from my office. I don't shoot the breeze much, but they have a great selection of stuff. I also do shows, but make it a point to buy a fair percentage of big ticket items from the shop. They can't survive on Kadee coupler, paint, & superglue sales! once they got to know me as a regular they started giving me deals.
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Amen to all of that. I find a lot of their stuff to be just a bit out of reach, but oddly enough there's also a lot of their stuff that is very reasonably priced. I just have to look and know what I'm looking at. I've ended up with a lot of Athearn tank cars, a few locomotives, all sorts of containers that were either completely unavailable elsewhere or that they'd actually put a decent price on.

And you know what? I'll gladly spend an extra five bucks on a locomotive over what I'd get at Klein or eBay, just to help keep that place open and be able to go there. Now, I will NOT spend an extra $30 for a locomotive, and I honestly don't understand the huge variation in price, but it is worth a few bucks to have the privilege of their knowledge and experience.
 
I live in the middle of several hobby shops. Unfortunately, none I would actually consider local, as the closest one is a half hour away. None really have what I refer to as a "barber shop atmosphere", where people hang out and discuss things. One is actually an old depot that the owner offers to sell me every time I go in there. Tempting as it is, I know that there is a huge output of cash and manpower required for very little return.

Anyhow, I always buy something when I go in a hobby shop. I try to buy used rolling stock, kits, paint, track and wood for craftsman projects. Generally, locomotives either aren't what I'm looking for or are overpriced. However, I have made a few locomotive purchases that were good, such as used and abused brass.

There are just some things it seems that make more sense to buy locally than online. Paint, hardware and wood are in that category for me.
 
ModelTrainStuff (M.B. Klien) can sell at a lower price because they sell more of an item and because they know they can sell more of an item, this allows them to buy more of the item from the manufacture at a lower price.

Another reason I don't drive the hour and a half it takes to get to my closest hobby shop is; I don't buy RTR stuff, as I want kits. The nearest Hobby shop only has 10-15 Accurail Kits, for near $20.00 each. The other hobby shop near my sons house doesn't carry any freight; or, passenger car kits at all. However, I still manage to find things to buy at both of these hobby shops when I irregularly manage to get to the towns they are in. If I want to buy rolling stock kits, my best bet is Ebay; or, the annual train show near my son's house. I realize I am different than most, not wanting Ready To Roll Rolling Stock. However a very large portion of the pleasure I get from this hobby, is the building aspect.
 
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Most new released and pre-order engine's in steam, diesels and electrics, as well as new released and pre-order passenger sets I generally order from Peat at BLW.
Also buy from Toy Train Heaven and MB Klein.
Also buy quite a bit off Ebay, mainly brass engines, Monon engines & freight cars and a few others.
Locally one of our biggest train shops I have dealt with for 30+ years has the largest selection of new and mostly used N from the 60's to present date. Also they have all other gauges in stock.
Many large rooms full of trains to choose from.
 
I have a LHS a mile from my house. I like to see what they have in stock. Lately they have bought a collection of old Varney and Tyco trains. They rarely have anything I need and at full sticker price, no discounts. They do throw in the middle age sales guy complaining about the lack of customers for free. The upstairs train video and bookstore closed several years ago. I rarely buy anything from them. They operate on the principle of maximum profit from each current sale. I feel like they know it will fail soon.


Captain of Industry
President of Lancaster Central RR
President of Lancaster & Western Maryland Railway
 
We have a good train store here in Lincoln, Randy's Roundhouse. He's a great guy, knows a lot about trains, and is always willing to help. Last year he did a DCC clinic at the local club's annual train show. He has good prices, and if he doesn't have something he'll order it for you. http://randysroundhouse.com/
 
Just a comment on what Mark said about the Walther's catalog having N and Z scale products along with their HO scale items.

I have purchased the Walther's Reference Books for years and usually skip a few years between purchasing the books. I always wondered what was the expense to produce the individual catalogs. It didn't surprise me at all to see the scales condensed into one book as a means to reduce costs, even with the $20 charge for the HO book.

I also like to look for products on-line at the internet Walther's site, but being old fashioned, still like to page through hard copies of catalogs, magazines and other material.

Like Chet, I still like to visit local hobby shops and talk with the owners, sales people and customers. One now departed hobby shop comes to mind is Russ' Hobby Shop, on Center Street, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This shop was geared more towards the experienced modeler and carried mostly craftsman like kits, supplies and brass locomotives. I don't recall seeing any "Plastic" kits or RTR or any kind. BTW, Russ didn't accept credit cards as Russ once told me, "If you don't have cash for my products, then you shouldn't be spending the money". Russ was always willing to put items on hold for his customers to pick up at a later date.

Russ has been closed for at least 25 years.

I still have several kits from Russ still remaining to be built. The best is a wood LaBelle Russell type snow plow.

Thanks.

Greg
 
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I buy them every few years. I remember when Horizon Hobby bought Athearn and MDC Roundhouse and pulled all these items out of the Walther's Catalog. I thought this was very stupid on Horizon's part as seeing these two manufactures products in the catalog had to have helped Athearn and Roundhouse's sales, before they where bought out. There used to be far more detail parts in the catalog then there is now! This, to me at least, demonstrated that the hobby was moving away from building models and super detailing them, to Ready to Run stuff. I think I have bought the catalog on average probably about every five years. I kept one from 1989, just so I could compare the changes and prices. The old Walther's catalog was sort of like the old Sears Christmas catalog I poured over when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s. I don't use it near as much now, as I used too.

Back when I was starting out with Radio Controlled Model Airplanes, back in the late 1960s, early 1970s, there was hobby shop called Rings Hobby on Minnehaha Ave. close to Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis. This was an old fashioned hobby shop with so much inventory that the isles where very tight to get through. It was so much fun to visit this place. It is long gone now! However Carr's Hobbies in Duluth, Minnesota is a similar place with tons of inventory. In a couple weeks I will be going there and I am looking forward to it. Might be able to find a Branchline, red caboose; or, LLP2K kit there!!
 
Russ didn't accept credit cards as Russ once told me, "If you don't have cash for my products, then you shouldn't be spending the money".
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Sort'a went out with the demise of Post Office savings books didn't it or thrift as a promoted virtue.
 
The indispensable LHS
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I had to smile a topic title calling the LHS indispensable. I have lived 20-30 minutes from various LHS's over the past 25 years but most of them either didn't have stock I needed and most of them priced items that were hard on my tiny train budget. Therefore, I found those LHS's to be quite dispensable.

There actually is an LHS within 30 minutes of where I live now, but they have very little HO stuff - it is primarily a large scale train shop. I don't see the point in asking them to order stuff for me when I could do the same thing myself online and it would be delivered to my door within, 4 days give or take.

In a way, calling an LHS indespenable is like calling Sears or JC Penny's indispensable, but with on-line shopping stealing an ever larger percentage of business, the brick and mortar store share is shrinking so rapidly that stores of all stripes are closing around us country-wide. Market reports recently predict Sears will file for bankruptcy within the next 1 to 2 years. JC Penny's and K-mart have closed all their retail stores near where I live and I used to shop at them all and, in-a-way, consider them indispensable.

NP2626 said:
ModelTrainStuff (M.B. Klien) can sell at a lower price because they sell more of an item and because they know they can sell more of an item, this allows them to buy more of the item from the manufacture at a lower price.

Another reason I don't drive the hour and a half it takes to get to my closest hobby shop is; I don't buy RTR stuff, as I want kits. The nearest Hobby shop only has 10-15 Accurail Kits, for near $20.00 each. The other hobby shop near my sons house doesn't carry any freight; or, passenger car kits at all. However, I still manage to find things to buy at both of these hobby shops when I irregularly manage to get to the towns they are in. If I want to buy rolling stock kits, my best bet is Ebay; or, the annual train show near my son's house. I realize I am different than most, not wanting Ready To Roll Rolling Stock. However a very large portion of the pleasure I get from this hobby, is the building aspect.
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You are different than most judging that kits are a niche genre these days, but the good news is Ebay and train show usually have a good selection of kits. I've been building kits myself over the past few months but I've had those stored up for 12-15 years and have finally decided to bite the bullet and get them running. I've had to re-develop some dormant skills but my dexterity isn't as good as it used to be and building these kit's has taken nearly double the normal time because I have to repair these very fine brittle grab iron, stirrups or ladder parts I keep breaking while handling them. Building kits is somewhat satisfying but dang time consuming and my layout has taken a full back seat for more than 3 months while I have been working on the kits. Being not retired, I can see why RTR is so popular because it's hard to find the time to do it all.

Anyhow, back on-topic. For all practical purposes, MBK is my LHS but it's a 90 minute drive and the only time I visit there in-person is when I head to the Timonium Train show, which is just a couple miles away. Bottom line is, whether we like it or not, the LHS has become dispensable and because of this, many do not have one local to them. With online buying taking over, the times, they are a-changing.
 
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