Well, there goes the extension.
There goes a lot of people’s extensions. I bet Aristo will play hell selling track for about a year. This is going to put the brakes on getting new people into the hobby until things get sorted out and prices become affordable again.
It could win the stupid move of the year award and put Aristo sitting next to the red box guys wondering what happened. Lewis looks ready for retirement any ways.
I’m glad I’ve already put in about 2/3 of my track. Soon as I heard the news this morning I put in an order for the remainder. Even at current prices that’s an unplanned $600 hit to this month’s budget, but better to spend it now than pay twice that later.
$92 for a circle of R1 ??? Thats $7.66 a section! Are they on crack? I wonder how that will shake down at street prices…
For me I will…
Buy USA or what LGB I can still find…
or used Aristo, USA, or LGB on ebay.
worse comes to worse bulk rail from Llagas or Sunset and hand lay the stuff!
I figure I’ll need at most, 1 box of R1s and one box of 12" straights… and they will NOT be new Aristo, plus I can scrap all my display and test track for layout use. Theres no way in Hades I’m paying that much for a new box of R1’s, not when theres so much on the used market…
My advice, if you must use AC code 332, better buy as much of your track right now, while the stocks on hand are still at the already purchased post-distributor price, before they have to restock to the new higher price levels, otherwise get USA or LGB track while supplies last…
I think the other companies will hold steady, at least for a while, this to me is poor planning on ACs part as they didnt negotiate their bulk prices very well. Because there are too many alternatives to AC I simply dont see it as trying to cash in on LGBs misfortune…not yet anyways.
UPDATE
I just did some price checking, LHS near me had LGB brass track for a whoping $6.99 a PIECE!!!, for 5 year old NIB R1 track that was only $4 bucks apiece last December!!! So I check online at Wholesaletrains, LGB was still just $3.99 a section for R1, Aristo is now already a very steep $5.48 apiece, and USA at a measly $2.85 apiece.
Guess what I went ahead and ordered 
USA is going to get alot of business in the next few months…
PS the stainless stuff AC for R1 diameters?..$7.38 a piece! OH WOW I’m glad I’m not getting into this hobby today!
Warren Mumpower said:Lest we forget history, $5/foot for track isn't all that outrageous. I recall LGB track going for $4/foot in the late 70s. That's one of the reasons dad went with aluminum rail (that, and he wanted 8' radius curves). Even with the aluminum rail, our cost per foot was still around $2.50/foot. Today, Llagas's 6' length of code 250 aluminum track goes for $3/foot.
When you reduce that down to the discount price it's still over $5 per ft...
True, it does cut into the track budget a bit, but perhaps the economics will ween us away from the mega-railroads that seem to get all the attention. I have nothing against large railroads, but they’re not for everyone. I’ve been there. My railroad in Rochester was 600’ of track. It was too large for me to maintain. Perhaps if the track was more expensive, I would have favored a smaller plan that would have been far more manageable. I think having costs that almost mandate an incremental approach to building a railroad may in the long run be beneficial for the hobby. Folks who are too overwhelmed by the thought of having 1000 feet of track may be far more inclined to start with something smaller instead, and we wouldn’t lose the folks who get halfway through a mega-project to discover it’s too labor intensive and leave the hobby.
It’s not the price of track that’s going to cause any harm to the hobby. It’s the cost of everything else that’s cutting into our budgets, making the cost increases in track seem less and less justifiable in our household budgets.
It’s still cheaper than boating or golf! [:)]
Later,
K
That’s the whole problem, Vic. It’s going to keep a lot of newbies away and stagnate the growth of the hobby worse than it is. This will translate into fewer new products in the long run.
Warren, I need two (2) right handed Aristo wide radius manual switches, but am not interested in paying over $50.00 per each. Can you hook me up?
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Guys,I’m glad I eat bread and not track for breakfast
If it were the bread increase, I’d have to start eating rice!
Saw this today and thought of it when I read your post -
“[O]ne reason that people are upset by gas prices is that the price is in your face every time you drive by the gas station. But it may surprise [you] that this year the price of lettuce, broccoli and apples increased much more than the price of gas. You probably don’t know that because they don’t post big signs like gas stations do. And think about what it takes to bring us gasoline. First, oil has to be sucked out of the ground, sometimes from deep beneath an ocean or underneath ice, or from places where workers risk their lives. And just to get to the oil means the drill has to bend and dig sideways through as many as seven miles of earth. What they find has to be delivered through long pipelines or shipped in monstrously expensive ships, then converted into three different formulas of gasoline, trucked in trucks that cost more than $100,000 each, and then the gas stations have to spend a fortune on equipment to make sure drivers don’t blow themselves up while filling the tank. Even after all that, gasoline is still cheaper per ounce than the bottled water gas stations sell.†—John Stossel
Ric Golding said:Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Guys,I’m glad I eat bread and not track for breakfast
Saw this today and thought of it when I read your post -“[O]ne reason that people are upset by gas prices is that the price is in your face every time you drive by the gas station. But it may surprise [you] that this year the price of lettuce, broccoli and apples increased much more than the price of gas. You probably don’t know that because they don’t post big signs like gas stations do. And think about what it takes to bring us gasoline. First, oil has to be sucked out of the ground, sometimes from deep beneath an ocean or underneath ice, or from places where workers risk their lives. And just to get to the oil means the drill has to bend and dig sideways through as many as seven miles of earth. What they find has to be delivered through long pipelines or shipped in monstrously expensive ships, then converted into three different formulas of gasoline, trucked in trucks that cost more than $100,000 each, and then the gas stations have to spend a fortune on equipment to make sure drivers don’t blow themselves up while filling the tank. Even after all that, gasoline is still cheaper per ounce than the bottled water gas stations sell.†—John Stossel
Not to mention there hasn’t been a new refinery built or a well dug in this country for over thirty years, thanks to the NIMBY’s, tree-huggers and eco-terrorists …
Let me say first, that I am quite aware (and equally pissed) about what the price of fresh veggies has done in the stores (and other grocery items too). But a part of that is caused by the high price of gas which is a commody that will affect all of our economy. Also I don’t see the lettuce growers listed as making the worlds highest profits ever…as I’ve seen out of the oil companies. Greed is greed no matter how it’s cut and there’s a lot of that going around.
Oh, and I don’t drink that outrageously expensive filtered tap water either! That’s one of the biggest shams pulled on the American public in recent times.
I wonder how much Mr Stossel makes a year from oil company paychecks? 
I used to enjoy shopping at a Brooklyn train store, but no more. It seems since Aristo raised their price, the current stock in the store increased also the same day. I’ve seen the warehouse and it is stuffed with track. Something smells bad in Brooklyn.
Marc Bergmueller said:Not really. That's actually quite common, and goes both ways. Otherwise, you'd have to have a separate stock number for each product every time you order it from the manufacturer. It's far too much to keep track of that way. Sure, there's a "transition period" where the retailer makes more money on the older (cheaper) stock, but down the road when the price drops, he's likely to lose money on the more expensive stock he purchased right before the decrease. It's done in every avenue of retail. If the price of lumber increases, then the price on the floor of Home Depot goes up, regardless of when the stock sitting there was ordered. Same thing when it goes down. It all balances out in the end. I'd just like to see prices on anything start falling again...
... I've seen the warehouse and it is stuffed with track. Something smells bad in Brooklyn.
Later,
K
Warren Mumpower said:
Let me say first, that I am quite aware (and equally pissed) about what the price of fresh veggies has done in the stores (and other grocery items too). But a part of that is caused by the high price of gas which is a commody that will affect all of our economy. Also I don't see the lettuce growers listed as making the worlds highest profits ever...as I've seen out of the oil companies. Greed is greed no matter how it's cut and there's a lot of that going around.Oh, and I don’t drink that outrageously expensive filtered tap water either! That’s one of the biggest shams pulled on the American public in recent times.
I wonder how much Mr Stossel makes a year from oil company paychecks?
Actually the state and federal gov’t makes more off a gallon a gas than the oil companies do. Between $.20 to $.40 off each gallon in exise taxes while the oil companies make about $.10-$.20 off each gallon. Not to mention that each state gets about a penny a mile in IFTA taxes whether they sell diesel fuel to trucks or not.
Ever notice how congress always makes a big stink about “wind-fall profits” and nothing ever comes of it. That would be like shooting the goose thats laying the golden egg. Plus I’ve never really heard a good definition of a “wind-fall profit”. Would it be the same as an employer that offers end of year bonuses to it’s employees? Or a larger than normal dividend off a companies stock? Or an inhreritance? Or selling your house for much more than you paid for it?
A lot of the lettuce growers are in South America burning down the rain forests to feed the growing demand for fresh fruits and veggies. I’ve hauled plenty of produce from the docks of Phila and Miami.
Here’s another guy getting a “Big Paycheck” from the oil companies:
“Those pushing for price controls on gasoline are not likely to go into facts about the consequences of price controls, much less go into the economics that explains why such bad consequences have repeatedly followed price controls… When the conditions that determined the old prices change, the new prices are likely to be very different. That is not rocket science… In the United States, liberals have made it virtually impossible [to increase supply], by banning drilling in all sorts of places and preventing any new refinery from being built anywhere in the country in the last 30 years. Prices are like messengers carrying the news of supply and demand. Like other messengers carrying bad news, they face the danger that some people think the answer is to kill the messenger, rather than taking steps to change the news. The strongest proponents of price controls are the strongest opponents of producing more oil. They say the magic words ‘alternative energy sources’ and we are supposed to swoon—and certainly not ask any rude questions like ‘At what cost?â€â€™ —Thomas Sowell
Well, guys, somebody had to be the first to do it here in Blairistan, and it may well have been me just now.
I went into my local dealer to get my 36 sections of five foot Aristocraft track, and was advised, as I got out my plastic, that due to the moon, Saturn and Jupiter being in conjunction, and Mars in the ascendant, prices had gone up by 80% with immediate effect, and would now cost me $48 each, rather than the $25 or so I had expected.
I walked out of the door without a word being spoge.
We both lose, me more than him because somebody eventually WILL buy it with its immediate 80% mark-up.
But it won’t be me.
And you wonder why I’m humourless?
tac [wktbahof]
Ottawa Valley
Terry,
Good to see free enterprise alive and well, and prospering to boot.!!!
Now perhaps others will consider supporting their own home grown products instead of relying on importing Chinese made “stuff” all the time, because it is cheaper.
On one hand, this is really a drag. On the other hand, I finally bought and stored something in LS that is going to increase in value I have two full boxes of 5Ft Stainless straights, a couple of SS #6 switches and 5 SS WR Switches NIB in stock waiting for the expansion to happen. The wife will be glad to know that if I kick she can get twice what I paid for it. Now, if I could only say that for all of the NIB Aristo Delton Classics I have sitting on the shelf. Would someone please start a rumor that the price of raw plastic is going to quadruple too 
JR
TonyWalsham said:
Terry,Good to see free enterprise alive and well, and prospering to boot.!!!
Now perhaps others will consider supporting their own home grown products instead of relying on importing Chinese made “stuff” all the time, because it is cheaper.
Tony,
You should have seen the replies to my “So what’s wrong with Peco” question on a Brit forum!!!
Of course in the same vein, we all know that “Aristo is crap” was a regular utterance, when it came to track, not so long ago. Get “the boys” out of the equation and the stuff looked a lot better (really??) 'til Lewis increases the price.
As I said, if they’d do that to my bread, man would I be ticked.
Since some one mentioned veggies, buy and eat local. We do it as often as possible! Or, heaven forbid, grow some of your own! More or less the same effort as bitching! You get to mutter at the clumps of earth! :lol: :lol:
Guys,
I don’t think RRStation has raised their prices yet.
Buy 'em out while you can!
I’m busy putting in a new pond and helping with a new track plan for a club member (not today, WAY too hot and humid, good day for office work). I got the email from Lewis yesterday, so I sent him over to Star Hobby in Annapolis to buy a bunch of track before the price went up. No price hikes yet but they did say the next order will have the price increases.
-Brian
I just ordered a box of track from my supplier in Toronto…he hasn’t raised the price. He said the price will raise as soon as the next shipment arrives.