Sad to report that after 38 years, Happy Hobo Trains has closed its door. It was a heart breaking step for the owner. Two years ago the thought of that happening seemed so unlikely and far fetched.
I’m glad I had a chance to say thank you to Kevin Pytlak for the years of service. A rough economy combined with internet competition was a tough challenge for this brick & mortar store.
I do hope that he stays in the hobby and proceeds to move ahead with plans to perform custom model railroad paint and detailing work for modelers as his work in the past has been of Blue Ribbon quality.
Some of you will probably remember this thread I posted back in 09:
It is sad that your shop closed and I feel for the loss to you and other customers that used the Happy Hobo. There are so many others shops that are in the same financial condition on the edge that the hobby will never be the same. The LHS was the gateway for me to start buying trains forty years ago, actually more than forty, but who is counting. There were five decent shops in that town when I first started buying trains and all but one have been gone for many years now. The last one there went out of business out two years ago so it was around many years overall.
The only LHS in my area is Hobbytown USA MSRP. I have 2 model railroad hobby stores about 80 miles away in opposite directions. I went to one back in November and it didn’t appear things were going well for his business.
I still like to go see, feel, touch, smell things before I buy them, but sometimes the LHS doesn’t have what you want to see, touch and smell.
If Lantz’s hobby shop didn’t have the online wholesaletrains.com attached to it, I really would not have a “fairly” LHS to go to either. The one small one just down the road doesn’t really carry what I want/need and they can’t match wholesaletrains.com prices nearly closely enough, even with wholesaletrains.com shipping costs or gas cost to drive there and back…
However, they have said on the news that even places like Walmart and Target are starting to get a bigger share of their business from online sales over same-store-repeat-sales… I certainly think it would be a shame if store like them started closing because more people ordered online than actually went to the store to shop!!
I have friends who order practically everything {except groceries} online. They live far out in the country in the middle of nowhere. SO when they want/need something they just type it in to search online or go to their fav online sales spots and have it shipped right to their door. COnvenient. AS much as I don’t fully trust online ordering, and have only one CC I use for such and having it get compromised {good thing I only use that 1 card}, I am finding I can order just about whatever I want in the size I want online too.
I can see where online ordering can take over our hobby and LHS diminishing who don’t have that capability.
I still like to go see, feel, touch, smell things before I buy them, but sometimes the LHS doesn’t have what you want to see, touch and smell.
Indeed…I find this to be my biggest problem with my LHS.
I do understand and appreciate the problem… He can’t fill his show cases with new locomotives since he still has a lot of older locomotive releases that’s been in his show case for months.
Happily I have spent more money in my LHS over the past few months then ever before…
In fact my last order was for 2 Walthers Platinum boxcars and they now await my pick up one day this week…The cost between on line shop and the LHS was minimal after shipping…Of course if I add gas,wear and tear,lunch etc then of course the cars will cost more but,I will get out of the house, some railfanning in at Crestline and who knows?
The Tampa Bay area is large and there are plenty of modelers, many who have been buying online for a number of years now.
Looks like the last “brick & mortar” model train related store left in the bay area is H&R Trains in Pinellas Park. I heard a while back that it was for sale.
H&R may survive longer since in additional to “model trains” this business also deals in toy train (Thomas, Ertl), garden railroading equipment, and #1 scale. There is a “Little Engineer’s Club” for pre-school kids and twice a year there is a model train show on the store’s large patio area. It was here that I saw my first DCC demo years back.
This may be a little bit of a drive for some in the Tampa Bay area, but Dana’s Railroad Supply at 4042 Deltona Bl. in Spring Hill Florida is a good shop. Dana keeps a fair stock of a lot of useful items. Can’t say he’s gonna beat the online monsters on price, but he is a real “brick and mortar” shop. His phone’s 352-684-2484 and I can recommend him as a hobby dealer.
The LHS is already dead. What few shops remain will soon be gone. It is only a matter of time.
We had 3 great local hobby shops in the southwest suburbs of Chicago for many years, but all 3 LHS closed their doors within months of each other about 3 years ago. What I miss most about the LHS is not the ability to see or touch merchandise but, rather, the knowledge and advice of the owners and staff. I never could have succeeded in this hobby without their help and advice.
I cannot imagine how someone starts in the model railroading hobby today by simply shopping on the Internet. That’s why the hobby itself will shrink and die as the current generation passes away.
I am recently retired but as a young worker in the mid-60s, I worked in downtown Chicago. There were several hobby shops that catered to model railroaders. We would spend our lunch hours visiting the shops and browsing and shopping. You won’t find any hobby shops in downtown Chicago today.
That is AN EXCELLENT POINT! We hail the convenience and minimized expenses of discount web dealers, however, it is through the LHS that so many kids and teens became thrilled with the hobby.
I can still remember that day in 1976 when I first visited Chester Holley’s in Tampa and saw Athearn and Atlas HO units in a glass display case (during this time I had Tyco trains). I was already hooked on trains, but this experience put me over the edge. Hard for me to fathom that kids today are going to get the same type of experience with LHS’s disappearing.
Rich,I’m not so sure the hobby will die due to the lack of LHS for several reasons to include sticker shock we find at LHS.
This is a whole new era unlike anything we had in the past one can find a wife(that’s how my 66 year old neighbor found his woman) or buy a 60" TV on line.We can buy video games to whatever all at a better price then we can get at the local stores.I am told you can grocery shop on line and the store will deliver.We use text communications,bank on line,order flowers on line etc.
Modern hobby shops must make a on line appearance if they are to survive in the modern world and if they don’t their life expectancy is short…
Besides in this time craze world who has time to go to a old fashion hobby shop? Yes,I’m being sarcastic…
Here’s food for thought…
I can make a order by using Walthers or Horizon on line catalog and e-mail my list to my LHS…All I need to do is go pick it up when my items arrive and know my order is correct and 100% filled.
So,you see by my LHS having a on line presence I can shop and order what I need without making a extra trip or phoning in my order that may be miscopied…
Having also been a customer of Happy Hobo along with my friend AntonioFP45, it is a sad thing, as I remember the original incarnation of that store in previous locations going back to the 1980s, as well as Saturday morning get-togethers at the shop, where someone was thoughtful enough to bring donuts. I always left with a purchase, albeit small, but a purchase nonetheless. Gonna really miss that!
Much has been written of the decline of LHS’s, so adding to the same old commentary is not needed, except to point out that the need for “touch-and-shop” will only now be served by periodic flea markets in many places around the country- thankfully, there are many, many years of life in that venue.
Yeah, but Brakie, you are focusing on the cost of your purchases, and how long have you been in the hobby? You know what you are doing, and you know what you are looking for.
Imagine starting out today in the hobby of model railroading after seeing layouts in a magazine or watching a TV program about model railroading. Without a LHS, where do you start and how do you start? You’re telling me that you are going to get on a computer and call up the Walthers web site and start ordering stuff? I don’t think so.
For guys like you and me, we miss the LHS but we go on the Internet to order our supplies, and it is often a