A nice feature on Charles Ro Supply Company just north of Boston.
Model train store in Massachusetts says it's the largest in America
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Brick and mortar model train stores have become something of an endangered species. It is nice to see one that seems to be thriving.
I miss the Caboose Hobbies store in Denver. They had a large inventory including brass models. People would fly in from all over to shop there…
Model railroading was once the high tech item to have and was very popular in the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's Passenger and railroad routes were everywhere, baby boomers grew up in the Golden era of railroads,. In the 1960's the railroads began retracting, air travel replaced train travel and the demand for model trains also went down. Then in the 1980's the internet, computers and smart phones came about and the interest in model railroading was being kept alive only by those that had model trains as a youngster. Today most hobbies are supported by the older age group and its a tiny fraction of what it once was. Hobby shops are now mostly a thing of the past and sadly, the young generation has little or no interest in them.
If memory serves (and it's getting rustier all the time), when I lived in Boston I used to visit the Charles Ro store on Tremont St. in Boston. I later lived in Malden, so I hope I would remember if the store had been in Malden then (this was in the 70s and 80s; my younger coworkers in this century used to say I must be talking about the 1870s and 80s, to which I would answer, "Why, as Honest Abe said to me …")
I think that is true of many hobbies. I dabble in ham radio and it seems to be mostly populated by baby boomers.
I wonder if the availability of high quality simulators at affordable prices has also made a difference. Why build a model RR when you can have the entire NEC or Maria's Pass on your PC, furthermore with many systems you have the ability to customize, add trains and scenarios, scenery etc. just like model RR.
jis
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And more importantly, your Cat cannot disrupt operations in a simulation, unless a simulated Cat is included
EchoSierra
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This one is also the retail arm of G gauge manufacturer USA Trains, so they don't have to turn a huge retail profit to stay in business as they are also a service center.
Devil's Advocate
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Brick and mortar has been under siege for decades but hobby stores traditionally associated with boys/men were some of the first to die off. You can find supplies online but the selection is shrinking, prices increasing, and brand new middle-range products few and far between. Feels like the 1980's were the model train heyday. One of the appealing aspects of visiting a country like Japan is that physical hobby stores still have a role to play in the current market.
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cirdan
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I feel there is a lot of specialist stuff out there. Thanks to modern manufacturing methods small batches are now more achievable than in the past, and small companies have been instrumental in driving this. I think in terms of raw choice there is probably more on the market now than ever before.
What we have lost a lot of is entry level stuff, and brick and mortar shops you can just walk into and look around to get ideas or to get advice from knowledgeable specialists. With all the different scales and gauges and manufacturers and coupler types and digital control systems and whatnot it can be quite daunting for a total beginner to know what can be combined with what, and what to do and what to avoid. Modelists of (ahem) mature years don't need to worry about such mysteries and know what it is that they want or at least know where to get ideas and advice. For juniors, picking up a starter box with an oval of track, a basic controller and some low cost rolling stock (or having it gifted to them) may often have been the start of a lifetime in the hobby. A lot of that opportunity and exposure is now missing.
As a kid I was drawn into the hobby by friends who were in it, and I spent hours in model shops looking at models that were mostly way beyond my price class. Nowadays I wish I could still have that sort of shop in my area.
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Are you sure you're not thinking of Eric Fuchs? I used to go there when much younger. The coolest thing I bought was two HO scale electric trolleybuses that were steered along the road by the overhead wires. They were made in Germany.
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One of our cats has an absolute fit and goes on attack mode when I put the train up under the Christmas tree. It gets to be quite the hissing contest—and the train gets derailed!And more importantly, your Cat cannot disrupt operations in a simulation, unless a simulated Cat is included
Cocojacoby, I think you're right about the store I visited being Eric Fuchs. I moved from Boston to Malden 44 years ago (and lived in Malden for only a few years), and although I recall the name Charles Ro, I don't recall the store. If I was there, my memory is lost in the mists of time.
Amtrakmaineac mentioned the expanse of train simulation vs. physical models. I used to model in N scale, and I was painfully aware that years of work could create a mainline that could be covered by a train in 5 minutes. When Train Simulator came out, that became my main hobby, and I have created about 6 routes for it, some historic, one modern, and one fictional.
Amtrakmaineac mentioned the expanse of train simulation vs. physical models. I used to model in N scale, and I was painfully aware that years of work could create a mainline that could be covered by a train in 5 minutes. When Train Simulator came out, that became my main hobby, and I have created about 6 routes for it, some historic, one modern, and one fictional.
Devil's Advocate
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I think the high water mark for model railroading was the late 90’s early 2000’s. During that time Chinese technology and low costs made finely detailed models available to the masses and the advent of DCC made operations more prototypical, affordable, and a lot more fun. And, baby boomers were starting to retire with lots of modeling time on their hands (speaking from experience).
The new Walthers 1000 page catalog was the high point of my modeling year (which streamliner were they going to introduce?). Also the small modeling companies offered lots of variety. And yes, @railiner, Caboose Hobbies was worthy of a long road trip.
The new Walthers 1000 page catalog was the high point of my modeling year (which streamliner were they going to introduce?). Also the small modeling companies offered lots of variety. And yes, @railiner, Caboose Hobbies was worthy of a long road trip.
I tend to disagree. In the mid 1950's the Lionel Train Corp was the largest toy manufacturer in the world. I don't believe that has since been duplicated by any model train company. Times have changed.
I think that is true for tinplate (Lionel and American Flyer) whereas for HO it was still the era of Athearn diesels with rubber band drives and Mantua diecast steam locos. As we progressed into the 70s and 80s better more scale and detailed equipment came out plus DCC which was especially a boon to operate on club layouts where you wanted to operate multiple trains.
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I was surprised how semi-expensive old books and other printed matter are at Dale's Train Station in Norfolk, VA. Higher prices than I'm used to for old books in general. I'd link to Dale's, but it's a Facebook link. You can search if interested.
I see about a dozen shops on Google maps in VA and WV.
Relevant to the LD seating discussion topic, model train people would be the first to ferret out schematics, I'd wager.
I see about a dozen shops on Google maps in VA and WV.
Relevant to the LD seating discussion topic, model train people would be the first to ferret out schematics, I'd wager.
Yeah, this has become my model train go-to the last several years:
https://www.transportfever2.com/
It's a lot of fun and satisfies the itch.
https://www.transportfever2.com/
It's a lot of fun and satisfies the itch.
Good explanation. As a kid, nothing was more fun than exploring under the Christmas tree to see which presents looked like it was a Lionel car - sometines you could tell by their orange box color showing through the wrapping. . But my brother and I still laugh (not at the time) about our parents giving away our extensive Lionel collection after we left for college. An NYC 4-6-4 and the UP F3 locomotive set were our favorites. But then my parents gave me us an HO trains set and I was fascinated by the detail (as well as getting more trains in a smaller space) . Been HO ever since until our recent move.
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cirdan
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wow, great pictures.
cirdan
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I think this is generally a problem with old books and even old magazines.
And old train models for that matter, and railroad-related collector's items.
If you want to sell them you can be happy to find anybody who wants them and may end up having to give them away for free or selling them for pennies.
But if you want something particular, you may look for it for a very long time and then end up paying a small fortune.
The cost of opportunity I suppose.
I've been lucky as far as O and S gauge trains go. I live a 15 minute drive from Nicholas Smith Trains, one of the biggest in the US. I'm an hour drive to the Strasburg RR, and less than 2 hours to York, the largest train show in the world. I have layouts for both my Lionel and American Flyer trains. If you live near Media, PA you can stop and see them.
Sauve850
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That's so cool! I miss my O gauge model train room I had in my last house. I recently set up a nice size layout in my townhouse living room and my 5 year granddaughter was so excited. She was working the Z4000 transformer in no time!
I remember Nicholas Smith from when we lived in Swarthmore, a cool place to go to although I was modeling HO and they were more O/S.
There was a hobby shop down in Delaware, I forget the name, it was in the back of a store selling non-train stuff but it had an amazing collection of brass engines for sale amongst other things. Plus being in Delaware there was no sales tax
