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Ambrose-led investment group acquiring Horizon Hobby
Oh, great! Even higher prices.
I believe David has hit the nail squarely on the head! Model Railroad costs are getting completely out of hand, my grandson would love to start in model railroading but the cost of locomotives and cars has gone through the roof not to mention the cost of track, structures and scenery supplies. He would have to charge $50 per hour mowing lawns just to be able to afford one of the SD90’s and a few cars every summer (summers here aren’t very long as it rains most of the year). When I was in junior high school I used to be able to buy Athearn cars and locomotives easily by mowing lawns AND it didn’t take me more than one lawn to be able to buy at least a few car kits (they were a $1.29 to a $1.98 per car then and loco’s were around $10 to $15 each). Now days a freight car costs over $20 and at times are approaching $40 (or more) for a single car. The manufacturers are basically pricing beginners out of the hobby unless they, the beginners, have a job that pays more than $20 an hour. I dare Model Railroader to run a series of articles about starting in the hobby for under $100 to $200 by buying items at flea markets and on eBay, I’ll bet they won’t do it because they might piss off their advertisers (kind of like how they lost Floquil as an advertiser after touting how to color a metal steam locomotive with stoveblack) and end up having to charge even more for a magazine that shows plenty of RTR but little about kit or scratchbuilding compared to years ago. I’m fortunate that I was able to build my railroad when everything was more affordable and retail prices hadn’t gotten out of hand, if I had to do it today I’d be changing hobbies to a more affordable one…like R/C cars or airplanes. All you need is a couple hundred dollars worth of equipment and you’re off and running, not like model railroading today where you have to sink over $500 to get started and then all you have is a small layout with a very few very expensive loco’s and cars.
The old Roundhouse line of modern boxcars should be brought back. These were kits with about 18 parts, nice paint jobs and great running. More importantly these could be produced affordable. While we are all impressed with the scratch built detail of today’s freight cars all I truly want are accurate paint schemes and thin stirrups.
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I am a member in two model railroad clubs here in Pennsylvania and have been in the hobby for over twenty years. I can remember starting out with the old Athearn Blue Box kits for about five dollars a piece. Upgrade the wheels and couplers for a couple of bucks and for under ten dollars or so you had a very dependable freight car. Now days you are looking around forty dollars or so for a car. It is no wonder that the hobby is dying young people can’t afford it anymore. And the hobby shops are dying also because they cannot afford to keep the inventory on the shelf. And to top that off they have to pre order the cars too and hope they have a buyer too. It has really become a rich man’s hobby…