I thought I read that Caboose was going to relocate and reopen. Maybe not, huh?
I have been to Walthers and Trainworld. As retail stores neither is hugh but as warehouses that could be different. Also I have not been to Trainland yet.
All three of course, but more importantly a willingness for someone to take over the business, assuming it’s a strong business, when the original owners retire or pass away. (Sorry to be grim here.)
Read the Model Railroad Shop story for an example of a place that was lucky enough to have someone waiting in the wings, and who understood the business, to step in when the time came.
The late, great Hiway Hobby House in Ramsey NJ where I spent a lot of time years ago went out of existance when the owner retired and none of his adult children were interested in carrying on. We lost two hobby shops here in the Richmond VA area due to retirements. I’m sure other posters cross-country have their own examples.
By the end of the thread with that same name, they decided not to relocate.
in canada it’ credit valley and georges trains probably the largest in canada
As others have noted the Walthers showroom – what you the customer see – is nothing special in terms of size, although it is neater and less cluttered than most shops. Much of it is taken up with display layouts and some historical display cases. There are walk up terminals connected to their website which also have paper catalogs and the latest sales flyers. You order your stuff and the staff goes back to the Warehouse to get it for you, unless of course it happened to be stuff you found on the shelves in the display room. They will give tours of the warehouse but do NOT permit videography. At least not any longer. But some people did get videos of the big back room and here they are. Judge for yourselves whether this makes Walthers the biggest
The first video shows what is really a fairly tiny portion of the warehouse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erbwJ5DWVeA
This video ranges a bit further and also shows the showroom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NbVIpkM-dc
Dave Nelson
For those who might not have noticed, the above video was done by Tim Warris of FastTracks fame.