Just read where Davis Trains in Ohio is closing shop, is this true?

Classic Toy Trains Forum
21

“they are but another store that fell victim to the retail and warranty system set in place by the big train importers.”

From what I’ve read this may not be correct, and that Davis Trains is rather closing for reasons related to the family’s desires/issues, not due to it being unprofitable. Unless someone has information from the principals (not a store clerk) I don’t think we should assume which of these possibilities is correct. The largest and oldest R/C hobby shop in my area closed some years ago, and it was because of the owner’s illness and death. Another one popped up shortly thereafter and is going great guns in a different location in our city.

22

Neil,
I was commenting in general, not making a specific reason for Davis’ Trains closure- as I said earlier I never had the pleasure of doing business with them. But I’m sure the many people who did buy trains from them will miss them greatly, as I’ve never heard anything but good things about Davis Trains.

The matter of the hundreds of defective K-Line SD-70’s Davis Trains was to repair for Lionel is of course a whole other story- or is it? I don’t know the whole story there, but I wouldn’t to be the store owner responsible for that job. I could see the cost of even attempting to repair all of those engines would cost any business a great deal of money, certainly enough to shut a small business down.

Geno

23

Something else we have to consider…while the Mom and Pop stores were handy and could give you a place to have a cup of coffee and learn some stuff, they were usually selling their trains at FULL RETAIL and sometimes higher. That might keep a lot of prospective new train modellers OUT of the loop, because they couldn’t afford to buy a train. The big companies offer great discounts and that means many folks who otherwise couldn’t afford to buy a set are now able to. No way I am gonna badmouth the big train sellers. [angel]

Dep

24

“could see the cost of even attempting to repair all of those engines would cost any business a great deal of money, certainly enough to shut a small business down.”

I’d venture to say Lionel or Sanda Kan, or both, was going to pay them well to do these repairs, unlike the usual warranty situation. Remember that the only firm legally on the hook for these locos is K-Line (RIP), not Lionel or Sanda Kan. The locos are basically a gift from Lionel. The consumer has no contractual arrangement with anyone other than K-Line, which essentially doesn’t exist as a legal entity any longer.

Sorry I misunderstood your point about Davis and why they are closing down. There’s a lot of wildly misinformed stuff being said about events these days in the hobby :). Yours wasn’t one of them. My apologies.

25

Deputy,

Yes, eventually someone will fill the void. And that someone will also start dictating to the manufacture as to what THEY want to sell. How much margin THEY want to make. How THEY want an item made, and so on and so on, just as Wally World does every buisness day.

You seem to have forgotten, or never known, that the local bricks and mortar buisness helps YOU survive. Here in Washington state, the Mom and Pops pay double for their electrical rates and natural gas, so Joe homeowner pays less. They pay higher property taxes, so Joe homeowner pays less. They pay personal property tax on their display cases, paper in their printers and inventory, so Joe homeowner pays less. The local Mom and Pop, (whom you might even be employed), also pays wages to your neighbors. The loss of the Mom and Pop, in any sector, will soon cost YOU more.

Who’s to blame? The manufacture who are blind to their own future. And us, looking to save a buck.

Rod L.

26

This language is unacceptable in the above post

27

whats the deal with this?

28

And now it is being reported that Dixie Union Station on the north side of Cincinnati has recently enlarged their store and expanded their offerings of MTH and Lionel. Mason, Ohio, where Dixie Union is located is near KINGS ISLAND amusement park.

Neil, we now know who is stepping in to fill possibly some of the need. [:D]

29

another large train shop is closing its door soon

Allied Model Trains in culvert city, ca

By Roger Vincent
Los Angeles Times

CULVER CITY, Calif. - All aboard! Allied Model Trains is leaving the station.

This week, one of the nation’s largest model train stores is closing its longtime home in Culver City - a half-block-long replica of Los Angeles’ Union Station. And fading along with it, says owner Allen Drucker, is the model train industry.

“It’s just a dying hobby,” said Drucker, 58. “I always told myself I didn’t want to be the old man running the train store.”

After 32 years at the miniature railroad hub, Drucker is selling to new owners, who will move the business to a smaller Art Deco-style building he owns across the street. He’ll rent the Union Station look-alike to a camera shop.

With real estate values rising and competition from the Internet barking at his heels, he decided it was time to sell his business - a favorite stop for local boys and girls and train buffs for generations. Among them were celebrities including Frank Sinatra, who had a building shaped like a train station at his desert estate.

“He had a huge Lionel layout and all along the walls were shelves full of trains,” said Drucker, who visited Sinatra’s home several times. “He had a real Santa Fe caboose too, as his workout room.”

Sinatra’s collection was acquired by Canadian business mogul Jim Pattison, along with Sinatra’s desert home. The crooner was one of several celebrity train collectors who shopped at Allied. Among Drucker’s other customers, he said, are musicians Rod Stewart and Bruce Springsteen, and actor Donald Sutherland.

Model railroading dates to the early 20th century, when Lionel introduced its first electric-powered train. The business enjoyed a golden age during the 1920s, when heavy metal locomotives and car

30

Unless you are in an area saturated with trainheads, it has never been easy to operate a model train shop. Model trains are a niche market and you need to deal on a national level with a large inventory in order to make it. It’s been that way since the beginnings. In their so called glory years, Lionel took a lot of heat from LHS’s for giving discounts to large accounts like Sears. I have old issues of Model Railroader and RMC from the 40’s and 50’s. Both contain ads from large discount mail order dealers. Lionel offered service station specials to LHS’s to try and help them survive but the laws of economics and free enterprise didn’t help matters much. It’s really no different today than it was 50 years ago.

A closing train store doesn’t mean the hobby is dying. It just means the proprietor is retiring or taking on a better paying buisiness. For every train shop that closes, a new train shop opens. The industry does make a lot of effort to promote the hobby with train shows, hobby ambasadors, etc…But most folks get excited about trains for a half a day and the excitement dies off. How many people get excited about riding a city bus? Not many. Kind of the same thing with model trains. The promotions do extract 1 would be trainhead out of 50 people maybe and that is a good thing.

O gauge layouts take up a lot of space and consume a lot of cash. The kind of space and cash people don’t have until their kids are grown up and on their own and their homes are paid off. This is why the hobby is dominated by the 50 plus crowd. There is nothing wrong with that. There are people with cash and space turning 50 every day. Young adults will continue to build smaller, affordable HO and N layouts and many will switch to O gauge when they are empty nested.

Some might say the O gauge hobby needs affordable trains that fit a small space to compete with HO. We have that but the trains are chunky and clunky compared to HO. Peopl

31

Confirmation Update: Went to Davis Trains in Milford, Ohio today. They were having a 15%sale, all sales final, no returns, no repairs. Two clerks confirmed Davis was going out of business and was selling down stock. I bought some last supplies at bargain prices. Sad to see them go. My grandson and I have great memories of shopping there, especially during the holidays, over the past three years.