Anyone looking for out-of-production HO kits?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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I paid a visit to a hobby shop in New Jersey this Monday and made an interesting discovery. The shop is Ridgefield Hobbies in Ridgefield NJ, and while I’m an O gauger I was cruising the premises to see what else he might have in there.

'Round the back there was a 10 by 8 foot wall full of old Athern, Roundhouse, and Varney HO kits, a real time capsule. I don’t do HO but I thought you folks just might be interested in these out-of-production treasures.

Again, the name of the place is Ridgefield Hobby. The website is www.ridgefieldhobby.com. Nice folks in there too, give them a shout or pay a visit if you’re in the area.

PS: I would e-mail any questions to them rather than phone call, there’s usually only two people working the shop and I doubt they’d have the time to walk in the back for “Do you have?” inquirys. They WILL e-mail you back for certain.

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You should consider giving a little more information when you name your posts.

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Sorry about the garbling on the post title, it ain’t my fault, I corrected it twice!

But that’s OK, I’ll try it again.

How’s that?

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Heck, anyone looking for out of production kits can just go to some train shows and you’ll find more than you can fit in your car and take home. Even small train shows can have tons of that stuff.

I just went to a very small show in Winchester Virginia held in the Moose Lodge and the tables were literally packed with out of production kits of rolling stock, buildings, all kinds of things from the the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. The big Timonium train show in Baltimore MD held about every 3 months has lots too.

It appears than many people bought kits over the years and didn’t have time or motivation to build many of them and they’ve gone onto the secondary market and there are lots of them. So anyone lamenting the lack of new kit production, well, thats probably one of the major reasons why; there are a lot of kits out there at shows. There is not shortage from what I’m seeing.

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Unfortunatly, not everyone resides in area’s where “Train Shows” are previlant.

Some area’s of Our Nation, you would have to travel well over 100 miles or more to attend such.

Not everyone has reliable transportation, that would sustain long distant trips.

Some folks do not like to travel long distances, due to finances, physical health, cost of gasoline, food and lodging.

We do not have Amtrak Routes, commuter routes and bus routes all over the country.

Many do not care to fly, whether private or commercial.

A large number of persons do not care or trust to do "E-Bay for trade.

Lots of towns no longer have hobby shops, as in past.

Just some thoughts, to digest…

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Unfortinatly my area only has a few now and mostly far away, was a time when we had 6 or more local a year.

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I agree there are lots of kits floating around. But I have noticed that the numbers are starting to go down. In particular, you don’t see very many locomotive kits.

I go to several train shows a year from small local to Greenburg to Great Scale at Timonium. All of them have stuff from the past - some kits, some built kits, etc.

Last show at Timonium I picked up a couple of O scale Atlas F9’s from the 70’s as well as a stock car and WDT switcher.

Enjoy

Paul

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I travel 90 miles to get to Timonium; especially if it is only once a year, it is definitely worth a couple hour (give or take) drive to go to a decent train show to pick over and stock up on important items. Definitely.

That is unfortunate, but my guess is most can manage to drive and those who cannot, will have to rely on mail order or giving a list to a friend who can keep an eye out at the train show for them.

As far as traveling costs go, I’m on a tight budget too so for me it’s only gas and admission - I can’t tolerate food, hotel and all that expense either. I used to travel occasionally to Springfield MA show when I lived in Syracuse NY. That was 3 1/2 hours each way and to avoid the extra cost, I did it all in one day, out to the show, all day there and then back that evening.

There is an old saying, where there is a will, there is a way. If you can’t come up with enough gas for a several hour trip to a show once a year, how can you afford the hobby? Oh, and btw, the savings you can get on stuff at shows can easily offset the modest cost for fuel and admission!

IMO, it’s worth it and you CAN go to train shows on a cheap budget and open your world up to a wide selection of many out of production items. For the very few who can’t, alternatives are there online or through friends.

[quote]
Many do not care to fly, whether private or commercial.

A large number of persons do not care or trust to do "E-

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Well if you can’t get to a train show or a swap meet then you don’t go. There are hobby shops that do sell online and if they have older kits, they are in theory available. But it is not of course the same as browsing and seeing one you did not even know existed (the Athearn Blue Box line can be looked up in old Walthers catalogs, but things from the Bev-Bel and Kar-Line custom versions of Athearn are harder to research so am more often surprised at what they made that I was unaware of).

I’d say genuine Varney kits, presumably the metal kits, are not so regularly found even at swap meets so if this shop has a good selection of Varney there might be things of interest there. Their lithographed metal cars were good looking in their day. I have bought some of their metal flat car kits just to get some different road names on the layout.

Dave Nelson

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Firelock76:

Thanks for taking the time to post the information!

FWIW, the title of the thread was perfectly clear to me, and although there are still similar kits available at the train shows, the supply is dwindling.

Unfortunately for me, New Jersey is just a little too far to travel to look through old stock (I think it would be about eight hours one way!) but your efforts are appreciated, at least by me.

All the best.

Dave

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You’re very welcome Mr. Critter!

Again, check Ridgefield Hobbys website, you can e-mail them by using the “Talk To Us” feature, or use the e-mail address shown on the very bottom of the webpage. They’re very nice folks and will respond to any e-mail questions you have, maybe not right away, but they will respond.

I’m sure they’ll also welcome a chance to sell off the old stock, by mail order or otherwise.

Wayne

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Hi Wayne:

Unfortunately the value, or rather the lack thereof, of the Canadian dollar as well as the shipping costs means that anything coming from the US is no longer a bargain. Makes the average BB kit cost about $30.00 Cdn. My purchases from south of the border are on hold.

None the less, what you did by posting was a good thing despite the nay sayers. No offense to the nay sayers - they are entitled to their opinions.

Dave

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Dave I appreciate your sentiments. I’m always willing to help fellow hobbyists and especially to help anyone running a “brick-and-mortar” hobby shop.

Mark my words people, once the “brick-and-mortars” go, and don’t say it’ll never happen, they’ll be gone for good and no power on earth will be able to bring them back. Personally I don’t want to see the extinction of the local hobby shop, maybe I’m a dinosaur doomed to die out with the old ways, but that’s the way I am and I won’t make excuses for it.

Wayne

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Unfortunatly, not everyone resides in area’s where “Train Shows” are previlant.

Some area’s of Our Nation, you would have to travel well over 100 miles or more to attend such.

That may be true for a relatively small number of people, but I’m quite sure that if someone were to to a statistical analysis of where most model railroaders live, it would be within 50 miles of the center of a large urban area.

If I want to go to the train show in Roseville, CA (every November), it’s 200 miles each way. If I want to go badly enough, I find a way. The one in Pleasanton is a little closer, only 96 miles, so it’s closer and has the advantage of being in the same month as the Roseville show. You want to go to a train show, you figure out a way to do it.

Not everyone has reliable transportation, that would sustain long distant trips.

If a person can’t afford reliable transportation, how can that person afford a hobby that isn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination? I don’t know about you, but if the choice is between a locomotive and a brake job, I’m going to spring for the brake job and not whine about it.

Some folks do not like to travel long distances, due to finances, physical health, cost of gasoline, food and lodging.

Cost of gasoline? On an inflation adjusted basis, gas where I live is cheaper than it was 50 years ago and I live in Central Coast California, which is more expensive than other parts of the country. The car I drive now gets nearly double the mileage of the car I had in 1966. That means that the actual per mile gasoline cost is almost half of what it was (again, adjusting for inflation). Cost of gas is a pretty poor excuse.

As far as food goes, you don’t have to eat at a restaurant. You can actually go to a magical place called a super market and get

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I’m always looking for out of production kits. a couple of days ago from in Illinois sent me an athearn GM&O 40’ flatcar with boat. My friend is also sending me 10 or 12 more flatcars with boatload.

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Run Eight,I chuckled at your list of excuse simply because those are well worn excuses for those that don’t want to go or buy anything in the first place. The biggest one is “I don’t have time”.

I make a 200 mile round trip just to attend the Berea train show… My son usually drives me there since it would wear me out in my current health. The second show is at Dalton roughly a 150 mile round trip again my son drives.

I don’t need lodging at either show nor beyond my normal 2 hot dogs or cheeseburger,slice of apple,cherry or pumpkin pie and coffee I require no large restaurant meal.

Gas? My old 95 Buick LaSabre gets excellent millage around 26 mpg on the highway not bad for a 21 year old car.

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I’m going to have to agree with Andre and Larry above. For a trip to a train show which is 100 miles away, the arguments thrown out against it are basically a “red herring”. It’s true, gas is as a very low price and you don’t need a hotel or expensive food at restaurants. It does sound like “I can’t be bothered but am throwing out some lame reasons that are really not legitimate” when in the end, you aren’t doing yourself any favors.

I’m old fashioned and am no stranger to doing things on the cheap for trips. If you are going 100 miles away, or even farther, you can drive out and back the same day. So no hotel expenses. You can also pack a sandwich and drinks and chips or something which you already spent the money on cause I don’t think you are going to skip lunch at home so just bring that with you - a bag lunch. Gas is pretty cheap these days so a round trip isn’t going to be terribly expensive just for gas unless you got a super gas guzzler. If gas is an issue, then don’t drive a gas hog. I’ve had to buy used cars for the past 15 years being on a budget but I guy a used car thats easy on gas. So enough with the excu