With the demise of Aristo and Crest I am curious what other services people are missing and wish someone would take up?
I know myself I am missing Shiloh signals.
Sierra sound boards would be nice.
nice thing about being new is you don’t know what your missing
You will, when you stumble across a something you like, only to find out you can’t get more of them.
I miss Ridge Road Station, they had a great online presence.
Dan, yes, they are missed. I also miss St Aubins. When I was brand new to the hobby, I called St Aubins to order a locomotive, and the guy there talked to me for almost an hour, giving me advice and suggestions. He didn’t know me at all, but he was willing to take the time to help out a total newbie. So St Aubins was always the first place I looked for what I wanted. I didn’t always buy there, but if their price was close to what I found elsewhere, I would buy from them.
I miss KB toys, they usually had a nice selection of die cast cars and trucks. Toys R Us just doesn’t have the same selection.
I also miss the local hobby shops that I used to hang out at.
I also miss Delton. They were gone before I got into the hobby, but they had some nice stuff. I would like to get more of the few pieces I have from them.
Does anyone miss Lionel? No they arent gone, but they are gone from large scale.
Speaking for more than just G Scale - I miss the simple shake the box kits in HO. I was more interested in running that in having the nth degree of detail. The other thing I miss about the loss of local hobby shops was the meeting of others in the hobby - no matter what scale and just enjoying the comradely.
Drive-in Theaters…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
From a purely nostalgic pov: records stores & video rental stores
Steve, yes. The Athern blue box kits were a staple of many railroads. Bowser and another company still make kits. I forget who at the moment, maybe it was Intermountain? But without a hobby shop, were does one go to see them?
If we are going beyond the hobby, I have a list of restaurants I miss, TV shows that didn’t last past the second season, and products that I either can’t find anymore, or I have to go on expeditions to find and purchase them.
Vic Smith said:
From a purely nostalgic pov: records stores & video rental stores
We still have them around here. But then Pittsburgh isn’t what one would call trendy.
the shoe-shine boys in the streets…
for the layout, the old 1:29 and 1:32 figures from Timpo and Elastolin (swoppets)
Shoe shine boy. That would require that I wear shoes that actually need shined. Sneakers don’t tend to shine up real well.
David Maynard said:
Dan, yes, they are missed. I also miss St Aubins. When I was brand new to the hobby, I called St Aubins to order a locomotive, and the guy there talked to me for almost an hour, giving me advice and suggestions. He didn’t know me at all, but he was willing to take the time to help out a total newbie. So St Aubins was always the first place I looked for what I wanted. I didn’t always buy there, but if their price was close to what I found elsewhere, I would buy from them.
I miss KB toys, they usually had a nice selection of die cast cars and trucks. Toys R Us just doesn’t have the same selection.
I also miss the local hobby shops that I used to hang out at.
I also miss Delton. They were gone before I got into the hobby, but they had some nice stuff. I would like to get more of the few pieces I have from them.
Does anyone miss Lionel? No they arent gone, but they are gone from large scale.
Same here … We did a lot of business with St Aubins. Through were the day on the ph and getting deals by adding item together. We saved a lot of money on our start up in the Hobby. It was hard to keep up with all of the new stuff coming out too.
There also so many other that are missed to. Guess like you, David.
I will add I miss San-Val, I cut my large scale teeth there
It’s pretty clear the op was not asking about non-train related things. I miss another manufacturer of 1:29 products, or just more new locos and products. Greg
Joseph Lupinski said:
With the demise of Aristo and Crest I am curious what other services people are missing and wish someone would take up?
I know myself I am missing Shiloh signals.
In the East Bay Area we have Just-Trains a brick and mortar shop. The last I know of in the East San Fransisco Bay Area.
Missing? Consider everybody’s local hobby shop - in some instances it was an actual train store.
Here, in the Los Angeles area, there were six shops that carried trains as of seven years ago all within a 15 - 45 minute drive. Now, there are only two side-by-side stores which feature only trains 9 miles away. They know they are a destination - with some people driving 100 miles and reporting doing so. I think that’s it as far as any stores. The chain Hobby People is gone from any location I know of. The hobby stores now publicly referenced are reported as Michaels and Hobby Lobby. I think hobbies are now called crafts.
Yep, do miss the HO scale Athearn blue box kits and the MDC/Roundhouse brand’s similar. Accurail might be that other company thought of but name not remembered.
I started getting 45mm gauge large scale products in 2008 or 2009 which likely means there is a lot of prior large scale that I’m clueless about and don’t know to miss.
Was involved in the retail hobby business in mid 1980s and again in early 2000s, and yes, the face to face interaction was, I think a good concept is, fulfilling.
Ken Brunt said:
Drive-in Theaters…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
We still have one up by me.