It is with a heavy heart that I report that an icon of model railroading is no more. I received the following letter (quoted verbatim) from Howard Mosely, owner of Bear Locomotive Co./Hobbytown of Boston:
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To Whom It May Concern:
The Hobbytown of Boston web site has been closed. We are currently conducting inventory in preparation for the sale of the business and personal retirement. Parts and kits are not available at this time. Machined drive train parts such as wheel sets, gears and geared shafts are out of stock and will not be available until production resumes under new ownership.
Our previous post office box has also been closed.
If, and when the company is sold, the new owner will announce when production and sales will resume.
Thank You for your past support
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We can only hope that a new owner for the business is found soon.
That is bad news. Even thou I am primarily a steam modeler, I have owned 5 hobbytowns and still have three of these. These are the most rugged and dependable mechanism on the market, and I would really hate to see them go.The Hobbytown chassis was the best chassis ever made for a diesel IMHO.
Well, let’s all wish Howard a great retirement! I’m sure it’s well deserved, and perhaps someone will pick up the line and carry on the good tradition.
This is sad news. Hopefully a company like Bowser or Yardbirds will pickup the molds and some of the stuff will still be available.
The driveshaft kits are a great design.
With the proliferation of today’s models, I have to wonder how much of a market there is for some of the chassis kits? PPW / A-Line still sells a great chassis also.
In some ways North West Shortline would seems like a logical candidate to acquire the old Hobbytown of Boston line, perhaps not the all metal shells but the chassis and drive trains.
I hope someone buys Hobbytown and restarts production. I bought one of their RSD-5 kits last year, and even though it’s not exactly quiet, it’s an excellent engine.
I’d probably want Bowser to have the line more than anyone else, because they seem to do very well at keeping things in production, and with the Cary diesel shells, they could bring out nearly a dozen new Hobbytown kits!
Don’t play taps just yet. They have been sold several times in the past The main problem is people don’t want these kinds of kits any more( far too much work to get a running chassis that is not better than the best current ones made). Second, the tooling is very old and not worth very much. As far as somebody picking it up, it has to be someone doing diecast which limits it to Bowser. NWSL has no use for the line. Not sure Bowser would have much use either as there is a very limited product line and sales have to be very small.
Here’s my photo tribute to Hobbytown of Boston. These units have Hobbytown drives, and some have the Hobbytown die cast shells as well.
The brass shells on the GN F9’s are Tenshodo. Those units have all wheels powered with just two motors. They have u-joints connecting A and B units. Motors are in the B units.
A Santa Fe PA1 has a plastic shell that was imported by Con Cor long ago, but its B unit has Athearn shell.
Most recent is the Athearn U boat shell on the Hobbytown drive. PRR units and the Katy PA1 have die cast shells. GN E7 was modified Hobbytown shell with snow plow pilot and angle number boards.
Hobbytown was great for model railroaders who like to tinker with mechanisms. I have several more in my box for locos to be rebuilt at a later date.
I like Howard. A good man. I wish him well in retirement and trust that someone will step up and don the mantle of Hobbytown of Boston. I guess I just have to wait until the replacement wheelsets are available again!!
A little while ago I purchased a used Hobbytown RS-3 from the LHS. After installing Kadee couplers I put the thing on the layout and was soon towing 38 cars around curves and up our 2% grades at no more than a third throttle. My only complaint, aside from looks, is that the thing sounds like a John Deere tractor out in the field. It sure can pull freight though!
For those too young to get the reference, Strombecker was a line of cardboard and paper and wood trains intended as display models or to be pulled on the floor with string. I think this is a BIT of an exaggeration to compare Hobbytown of Boston drive trains to push/pull toys … but makes of trains do die.
Frankly based on how many people posting on these forums seem to lament the short life span of their new generation P2K, Bachmann, Athearn, Broadway Limited etc trains it seems to me that in short order there is going to be a place for a line of aftermarket drive trains and chassis , since the very nice plastic and metal shells will likely live on long after the factory original drive trains will give out on these Chinese- made models. That’s just my opinion.
I already know guys who buy 2 P2K engines at a time – the road name they want and then the the cheapest version of the same engine for parts spares.
Would you mind telling me briefly what you did to modify an Atlas drive? Did you lengthen an Atlas frame or use Atlas parts on a Hobbytown frame? I shortened a plastic Hobbytown and mounted it on an Atlas chassis. I have 3 zamac RS3’s ready to repower but I don’t want to cut those.
On checking my photos, I realized that I misspoke, I modified the HobbyTown RS-3 to accommodate a the MDC/Proto RS-3 drive. I used the Atlas drive on my TigerValley RS-36, however they were both done similarilly. My reason for modifying the drives was to have multi-unit capability with my other Atlas, Proto and remotored Athearns in my DC days.
Anyway here’s a quick how to: After cutting holes in the frames to fit the trucks, (used a lot of cut-off discs!), I used a Micromark mini drill press with the x-y table to mill out notches for the bolsters which I cut out of the Atlas & Proto frames. These were JB Qwik’d in place. I also drilled a 3/32 hole thru each bolster edge and the frame and drove steel pins into with a hammer for permanence. The only difference between the two is that I used the motor mount section as well in the HobbyTown/Proto conversion and with the RS-36 I carved (ground) a cradle for the motor and mounted it with 3M double sided tape.
Thanks Jay for the info. Nice work! My reason for converting is the same as yours plus all wheel pickup. I have Kato motors and Atlas trucks so it should run smoother and be just about as powerful as it was originally. Thanks again.
Agreed, Larry. If you’re looking for serious pulling power, the Hobbytowns are “old tech” but I have yet to see any “new tech” that’s better.
I put two Hobbytown drives under Mantua die cast shark bodies (about a pound just for the body). This pair will stringline a train before you’ll stall them.
