Picked up a box of used “Model Railroader” Mags at a train show last fall mostly early 90’s to early 2000’s. I’ve been reading thru them in chronological order. The first thing you notice is the number of pages in the old mags, seems almost double the number nowadays. A lot of the advertisers especially small train stores and more than a few mfg’s. have now disappeared. Gone out of business I assume. I know the web gets a lot of business that mags did back then but we’ve lost a lot of Mom and Pop stores. Another thing is the loss of International Hobby Corp & Rivarossi and how many different models they offered back then and the affordable prices. IHC had a lot of accessories and Rivarossi seemed to do a generic version of about every passenger car you could imagine, GG-1’s for $60 to $80 etc. A lot of these models still bring fair prices on auction sites today. It can’t be easy to publish a Train hobby mag. these days with the pool of advertisers drying up day by day. IHC always had at least 3 pages of ads. While looking thru the Train mags offered in the local “Books a Million’” store the other day noticed only one other man looking at Train mags, I’m 72 and he looked to be at least as old or older than me. Just makes me wonder what kind of future the Hobby has? Feeling like a old Dinosaur today. Bill Oberst
I would not want to worry that much about our hobby. It has been said to be dead for many years now, yet it is still alive and kicking.
Manufacturers come and go and this is what happened to IHC and Rivarossi. Mehano, IHC primary source has focused their recent production on European upmarket products and Rivarossi is now a brand of the UK based Hornby group, also primarily geared towards the European market. But do the really leave a gap? Though being state of the art models in the 1960´s and 70´s, their products were rather crude according to today´s standards. Upgraded models would be in the price range of those we see from Bachmann Spectrum, BLI and others, companies, which have “inherited” the market position IHC and Rivarossi once had.
No gap left If you care to ask me.
I agree that publishers of magazines suffer, but not from the demise of businesses , but from the change to different media. MR has lost about have of its pages in the last 30 years, but only a few pages of content.
Cheer up, mate, the future is as bright as we want it to be.
Nostalgia can be a bit misleading. I was looking in my automobile and auto insurance file yesterday as I paid a bi-annual premium. My first car, a brand new 1977 Buick Regal, cost about $5400. It sure did not seem cheap at the time. Even “funnier” (in a painful way) was my auto insurance premiums back then!
IHC and Rivarossi are both instructive examples for what a tough market we can be. IHS showed that low prices are no guarantee of sales in such volume as to cover costs. I can’t say that I miss their rolling stock all that much but they did have some very useful structure kits. IHC had low prices, a large and varied line, robust advertising, and most decent sized hobby shops carried their stuff. If that can’t make a go of it what can? What more could they have done?
Rivarossi, back when AHM was their primary importer, was also known for prices that, even at the time, were surprisingly low. When they first introduced that Y6b 2-8-8-2 around 1965, the $35 price tag was shockingly low even then. But they were determined for years to sell nice looking American equipment to Americans that had wheel flanges and wheel standards that were European “semi-scale” at best, with most wheels, most harmfully on the steam locomotives, being grossly undersized to acommodate the flanges.
NMRA standards meant nothing to them and in a sense, you could make the case that AHM and Rivarossi delayed the era of Code 83 and smaller rail for the broader market because people needed to stay with Code 100 just to run the trains. On the other hand learning to replace AHM wheel sets with more accurate wheels (and as a consequence also having to change the bolster height, body mount the couplers and so on) were good introductions to modeling skills for the beginners who went with AHM.
Over time they upgraded to better motors, better flanges (but often NOT increasing the s
I thought IHC went under because it’s owner. Is this accurate information? …papasmurf
SORRY for goofed up post! I thought the owner of IHC died and company went under because of this. …papasmurf
IHC went out of business because the owner entered a nursing home and had made no arrangements to pass the reins to anyone else.
I believe he has subsequently passed away, but his death was not why IHC went out of business.
AHM and IHC were both owned by the same man. Rivarossi was one of several manufacturers imported by Associated Hobby Manufacturers (AHM). Rivarossi seperated from AHM (for whatever reason), then went bankrupt. AHM floundered, came back as IHC,selling primarily MEHANO models. Mehano went bankrupt. then the IHC owner went into a nursing home, and died. Remaining IHC stock (whatever was left) went to someone in Texas .
The fact is that IHC when belly up mainly because its main locomotive supplier, Mehano, failed (although it subsequently re-organized and is back in business with European prototypes). Lacking any further potential for its products, IHC was already just selling out the remaining stock when its owner’s health began to fail and thereafter he passed on. There was relatively little remaining of the company’s stock at that point and without a supplier, it could hardly be said to be a good investment for anyone else to pick up. Late last year the name and the small remaining stock was bought up by someone down Texas way, who is currently selling out the final items.
CNJ831
[edited by selector]
I would say the Golden Oldie Days from the late 40’s / early 50’s reached their peak in the early 90’s. Lots of model railroading magazines with lots of pages, lots of low cost kit companies, etc. Hobby shops were more plentiful and new ones were started
Since then the hobby has changed. Many of the low cost companies have gone under or changed to RTR. Several magazines have folded. Magazine ads are smaller and may have a small picture, but then direct you to a web site for details. Lots of information both model and prototype is now found on the web.
Hobby shops have declined, many have closed, few new ones have opened, many have shifted emphasis to Internet orders even closing their retail store. There has been great rise in online ordering.
RTR has increased dramatically probably due to the cheap labor in China. Locomotive kits are almost gone and rolling stock kits are fading. Higher level of detail is the norm and a number of companies make small run highly detailed specific cars, both kits and RTR.
Laser kits are becoming the norm for new structures.
DCC is growing.
Sometime in the future, I think hobbyists will look at these days as the Transition Era of the hobby.
Enjoy
Paul
I went on the IHC site yesterday, and it looks like they are trying to continue the brand in some form or another. The site is completely redone, and they are offering products by Walthers, Bachmann and some others. They still have a lot of IHC stuff listed, but no indication if it is in stock or not.
I have sent them an e-mail inquiring about the status of a couple of items. When I did this 6 months ago the e-mail bounced back as undeliverable; it went through this time.
(Ref IHC,Riv ) I’m always amazed at the amount of good info that’s available from you guys. Bill Oberst
Rivarossi is now being made by Hornby in the UK. Might still see some of it come back.
Bob