Say, has anybody noticed that W-I Trains has closed its store and website? How much more can this hobby stand? Anybody know what happened? Hans Weidig Gills Creek RR Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia
the web site is still there, but the only thing active is the email link. It appears that he closed in February after 19 month of operation. Did you mean to post this over ion the Model Railroader General Discussion Forum?
Lots of LHS, have been closing over the past several years - Really nothing new.
Jim
We’ve lost three hobby shops here in the Richmond Va area in the past few years, not due to lack of business, two retired and one’s moved to Charleston SC for the easier climate.
He may not like Richmonds winters, but wait "till he gets a load of Charlestons summers!
The closure of Wisconsin-Illinois Trains was mentioned on the Garden Railways Magazine forum as having taken place on February 10th. WI-IL Trains was a major G-scale dealer and heavy advertiser in Garden Railways Magazine.
Sad to say, hobby stores are going the way of “record” stores, done in by on-line shopping. It’s a huge loss – but what are you supposed to do? In both cases, customers chose convenience and (sometimes) price over the great intangibles of a place to browse, hang out and visit with like-minded folks.
…AND video stores, Fred. It seems that PC’s are slowly leaving the shelves, and that tablets with detachable keyboards are the new.
I have enjoyed my few forays into train hobby stores, but their overhead is high and I can’t afford their prices. As I am not alone in this, it’s increasingly hard for the smaller ones to make ends meet.
It’s not a dying hobby by any means, no more than I am dying at my age, but I am aging and so is the hobby. Trains haven’t enjoyed much of a cachet in recent years, and it’s not terribly cool to talk about the hobby part of it as it was even 40 years ago.
-Crandell
Not a dying hobby by any means, but it’s hard to tell just which way it’s going.
For example, if I go to a BIG train show there’s usually plenty of young families in attendance. Maybe they’re buying “Thomas” sets, maybe they’re buying something to go 'round the Christmas tree, but they ARE there.
On the other hand when I go to a local show it seems like I’m “The Kid” at the age of 60!
Like I say, I just can’t tell.