Anyone been to the "New" Caboose Hobbies?

Don't believe that they have a new "store". I thought it was now an "On Line Store".

   The new Caboose is a small fraction of the old. You will find very little O scale or O gauge. No detail parts. No Arttista figures. They do have a great selection of scenery items. There is no repair department.   I do hope this store gets better in the future.  It's all we have in Denver.

Custom railway supply in Colorado Springs is leagues above   Caboose hobbies.

father.dragon posted:

Custom railway supply in Colorado Springs is leagues above   Caboose hobbies.

Posted recently on TrainOrders.com, that they have closed also.

 Custom Railway Supply is now having a 25% off Retirement sale going on now.

For O scale (or gauge too), and lots of other stuff as well, it resembles the original in name only.  I was pretty underwhelmed.  They did carry over the decals, but there is precious little O scale specific content in the store.  

I found the old store on the work trip. Loved it. I could spend hours going through their wall of O scale brass parts. Always looked forward to visiting there. Don

Doesn't sound good. The reason I asked because I noticed Custom Railway Supply was closed/closing, and Sunbird Train Mart is gone as well. Are there any stores left on the Colorado front range?

The 'other' train store in Denver, BST Hobbies has also closed it's doors this week. Hard to make it in a retail train store any more.

I am peeved that American manufacturers won't update the online database as stores close. Please write to the marketing group by snail-mail and encourage then to "keep-up" with changes in the economy. 

The 0-gauge collecting group is taking a big hit with high prices and lack of retail choices. Too bad. 

This is life; NOTHING lasts forever.

The loss of brick and mortar stores with O gauge in major metro areas has been quite dramatic just in the past 10 years or so. Fewer people in O gauge trains, maybe, but as we all have heard, brick and mortar retail is suffering everywhere with the onslaught of internet buying. It's sad to see all these train stores disappearing everywhere.

It's a real problem for those of us who want to look before we buy. (But then, who doesn't prefer to do that?) Items seen in person frequently appear very different from the images portrayed in catalogs. More than that, just seeing things in person is a whole different experience - items just look different when you can actually look at them. Over recent years, I have lost a lot of money ordering things and then getting rid of them because they weren't what I wanted/expected when seen in person. 

There are now no significant stores carrying current O gauge trains anywhere where I live (other than mostly starter sets), and that's Dallas-Ft. Worth, a metro area of 6.5 million! Sounds like the Front Range in Colorado has entered the same reality.

Roger Peet posted:

I am peeved that American manufacturers won't update the online database as stores close.

The NMRA magazine listed Caboose as open as well, long after it'd closed (the first time).

p51 posted:

Roger Peet posted:

I am peeved that American manufacturers won't update the online database as stores close.

The NMRA magazine listed Caboose as open as well, long after it'd closed (the first time).

It's actually Caboose Hobbies responsibility to notify advertisers and discontinue adverts. 

Unless otherwise notified, publications will run adverts for as long as they were paid to do so.

Another thing happening to local train stores is the folks coming in to just look at things, get free information and then going home to find a cheaper item online. I am fortunate to have a LHS in my area, but they are a small shop, have to purchase from a distributor, and don't get the big discounts like the larger dealers do. This means they have to charge more because of the middleman, another layer of profit. They discount almost everything a little and a bit more on pre-orders, but still things usually cost more than the big dealers sell for online. I buy from my LHS as much as I can, hopefully to help them stay open so I will have a place to go and look at trains.

It's been said several times but yes this is very sad.  An honest, educationally sound, creative, and fun hobby such as ours has been affected so severely. The younger generation simply isn't interested in this hobby, like we were. Once they get past the "around the tree" set there is no desire to get into real modeling. That goes for most "hands on" hobbies. Video games and modern technology has taken over. With prices, lack of interest, and the fact there are few "corner train stores" left our hobby is at best "breaking even". 

I was born in the seventies and when I saw Lionel move out of this country, even as a young boy I felt very uncertain about the future of this hobby. I'm sure most of you guys could name other manufacturers such as Weaver that closed their doors or moved out of the great USA.

I just hope they stay around until I am 6 feet under because I certainly would not know what to do without this hobby. BRR I'm sorry if I totally came off topic but as you can see, like most on here, I am passionate about model railroading, and your post hit a nerve.