stock_2007 Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 I live in the North/East sadly my local model shop has closed down which means I have to use a big well known modeling/toy shop in town. I went in today and as always was jumped on as soon as I was in the door "Can I help you sir" so I asked for a Bachmann 21 pin chip nothing to hard I thought, the sale's person gave me a odd look and left only to come back 5 mins later with a Hornby 8 pin chip. I explaned I needed a 21 pin chip, "No we don't do them sorry" I was told. I pointed out the shop was full of Bachmann loco's all of which took 21 pin chips. I smiling sales person then said, " We could be getting them in!!" I really liked my little local shop if he did not have it, he would order it for you. Now for something as simple as a 21 pin chip I have to go on line and order it. Sadly bigger is not better. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Modelzone in Newcastle by any chance? Where in the North East are you - you could try Durham Trains of Stanley if it's not too far for you... John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike at C&M Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 C&M Models, in Carlisle, will be more than glad to help you with your needs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stock_2007 Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 Modelzone in Sunderland but you were close. I've been thinking of c&m I'll maybe pop along to see them also a nice run out on the train Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
North Eastern Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Depending on where you live there is always Pooley's Puffers at the Team Valley Trading Estate http://www.pooleyspuffers.com/index.html , Town Foot Models at Hexham Station http://www.townfootmodels.co.uk/index.html and also Rolling Stock http://www.rollingstockmodelrail.com/ or Gladston's http://www.gladstons.com/shop/ in North Shields. Regards Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Killed off by the Internet in most cases. I'm lucky though as Trains4U is only 10 minutes away. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Sidelines Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 It is not just the Railway Model shop - whole town centres are closing down - Dumfries comes to mind. 'Local' has a different meaning in rural areas. First there is the cost of both time and fuel to get to the shop. Then how easy is it to get parked. Internet shopping can be very attractive. Life goes on - and it is all about change. Just some thoughts Ray Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasslands Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 It is not just the Railway Model shop - whole town centres are closing down - Dumfries comes to mind. 'Local' has a different meaning in rural areas. First there is the cost of both time and fuel to get to the shop. Then how easy is it to get parked. Internet shopping can be very attractive. Life goes on - and it is all about change. Just some thoughts Ray Having spent most of summer in the Dumfries area, I must agree. I never realised that Dumfries and Galloway are so remote. I didn't notice a model shop in Dumfries, so I drove to Carlisle to visit one, but it closes at the weekends (so no train fix for me). Newbury also does not have a model shop. Howes is not too far away, but can be an expensive drive, so I mostly internet shop. Tom Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike at C&M Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 so I drove to Carlisle to visit one, but it closes at the weekends C&M are open from Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm. Being essentially a one-man operation, there is only so much time that can be dedicated to opening the shop and handling all the required administration. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CLARENCE Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 I also live in the North East, just outside Berwick to be exact. I understand there's a model shop in Morpeth; never been, as it's an hour's drive away. Next nearest would be Newcastle or Edinburgh, and the idea of driving into the city puts me off, besides being a 150 mile round trip, petrol costs, etc.Now do almost all my buying online, apart from a recent visit to an Exhibition in North Shields ( also an expensive long distance from home.) If anyone knows of a model shop within easy reach of Berwick upon Tweed, I'd love to know of it! Regards, David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasslands Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 C&M are open from Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm. Being essentially a one-man operation, there is only so much time that can be dedicated to opening the shop and handling all the required administration. Must have been a Sunday. Hopefully next time i'm up that way I can have a rummage. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Sidelines Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 David - coincidently we spent nearly 25 years in Northumberland before moving to south west Scotland. I bought a lot of early Mainline locomotives from Morpeth Model shop when it was based in the Sanderson Arcade. More recently I have bought some items over the internet from a shop with same name which seems to occupy Staits old photographic shop. Back in the 1980s there was a very good Toy Shop in Alnwick - Johnson's in Narrowgate. I think the shop was owned by two old ladies but there was a very knowledgeable assistant who looked after a huge stock of Mainline and Airfix items. I think he left the shop to market Linka products and may also have been involved with Barter Books which is a huge second hand book shop occupying part of the old Alnwick Station Building. I hasten to add that I have no involvement with any of these organisations other than as an admirer of all things Northumberland Regards Ray Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold DaveF Posted October 13, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 13, 2012 The model shops in Morpeth and Alnwick both went a while back, I think earlier posters have mentioned the ones left in the Northumberland/Tyne and Wear areas (and County Durham and Carlisle). I find I can buy most things from model shops within a 45 minute drive from my home in Northumberland. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewartingram Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Can't vouch for the accuracy but I do use it sometimes http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ian Hargrave Posted October 13, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 13, 2012 Killed off by the Internet in most cases. I'm lucky though as Trains4U is only 10 minutes away. Ah--if only all model retailers were like this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jol Wilkinson Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Killed off by the Internet in most cases. Might it not be more accurate to say "killed off by customers who put mail order/internet discounts above the service and support available from a decent local shop"? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talltim Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 chicken Might it not be more accurate to say "killed off by customers who put mail order/internet discounts above the service and support available from a decent local shop"? Chicken and egg really. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted October 14, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 14, 2012 Might it not be more accurate to say "killed off by customers who put mail order/internet discounts above the service and support available from a decent local shop"? Not entirely so but that definitely hasn't helped. I think a big part of the decline is due to the way in which our lives and hobby interests have changed as a country and this has been hastened by the emergence of the large chain 'toy & hobby' retailers who began to put local and specialised shops in the shade causing them to lose their less specialised business. This has been exacerbated by the arrival of internet shopping but that has also worked to the advantage of some of the more specialised or more widely stocked 'local' retailers because they have broadened their market base through the internet, many of them simply could not survive from 'local' trade alone. And what does 'local' mean nowadays? - is it a shop you can walk to or one which isn't too far away to drive to? The town where I live lost its model shop earlier this year - mainly diecasts but some railway and very handy for some scenic stuff, paints etc and I occasionally bought wagons and coaches albeit they were at or very near to RRP. I now have to go to Hobbycraft or Modelzone in a nearby large town, it once boasted two shops with good modelling specialisation but both are long gone. But I still try to give 'local' shops my business - the difference is that one of them is about an hour's drive from my front door and the other is 5 counties and a 5 hour train ride away so Ideal with them by 'phone and post plus the occasional personal visit. So yes, definitely fewer local specialist shops but also the meaning of 'local' has changed and in effect become almost national thanks to the internet and mail order. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Model shops started to be killed off long before t'internet surfaced. Folk using bedrooms and garages as storerooms with no business rates to pay were advertising cut price models and undermining model shops both in magazine adverts and at model railway exhibitions. Exhibition managers welcomed them once they outnumbered bona fide traders, while traders who complained were bluntly told to like it or lump it. As Norman Wisenden and other model shop ownders told me, people buy cheap then expect a model shop to repair it for them and give advice. "I can buy it cheaper" was also regular retort from customers who expected model shops owners to work for now't! After I left Oldham in the mid 1960s I depended on mail order from W&H, Kings Cross Model Railways and latterly Alton model Railway Centre, but so seldom do I visit nearby towns 'cos of crap parking that I have only just found out we have a model shop in Colwyn Bay. It has a very good display and survives by trading additionally on Ebay and a well known internet agency. Long may it continue. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Jonboy Posted October 14, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 14, 2012 Newbury also does not have a model shop. Howes is not too far away, but can be an expensive drive, so I mostly internet shop. Tom I live in Didcot and have always considered Howes to far away for a dedicated trip... I miss our former local shop for the last minute Sunday afternoon pair of points, but always found I got reliable advice online in forums (either by asking or researching/absorbing), making the friendly shopkeeper redundant. The wallet definitly prefers the online "How much???" to the the in the flesh" this is a bargain..." Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 A model shop is not going to survive very long on the custom I can bring - A couple of wagon kits every so often that are going to keep me occupied for a few weeks at the very least. And the stuff I want is not going to be stockable - as who's going to want to wait for me to drop in every year or so. I'll go to specialist exhibitions or buy online. What's lacking is the volume - if there were twenty or thirty people like me then stocking stuff becomes more viable. What we're lacking is the volume, both in specialist requirements and in people coming into the hobby. We've been dealing with this last on this forum for a number of years, and unless we get some sort of increase in the number of people in the hobby then even the large box shifters are going to struggle in a few years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butler Henderson Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Lucky it would seem to others I have a model shop as well as a Modelzone nearby - trouble is the model shop is usually closed when I visit it or if open invariable does not have the item I am looking for. To avoid shop lifters most of the stock seems to be behind counter or in the back room so its very limited in browsing quality and as a result my spend is in Modelzone or by mail order (the postage costs being equivalent or less than a trip to any other model shops) and most times I order far more than 1 item to diminish the postal cost on each item. The added advantage of some, but by no means all, on line web sites is that you know they actually have the item compared to treking a far distance to a model shop only to find they do not have want you want. Modelzone is annoying in that nationally they provide a wide range of items but individual outlets are often very restricted in their stocks; have often wondered if they did an in store order and collect 2-5 days later service whether there sales would go up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy C Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 I think we have been lucky in our area, when Norman (see coaches' posting above) decided enough was enough the business was acquired by someone with no knowledge of the trade and quickly went to pot, but this happened just as Tim had opened Arcadia in Shaw. Its great a well stocked shop, Stock is open and on display in nice glass cabinets, an owner who actually knows his subject, a brew, no "Saddleworth Surcharge" as at Normans - in fact the prices match what you can get from the pile em high and sell em cheap merchants down the Scouse end of the M62 which makes it an even more pleasant purchasing experience. I'm only too aware of other shops closing - I understand Waltons in Altricham is still up for sale with seemingly no takers but here with Arcadia there does seem to be a formula for actually making a success out of a MR business. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
plarailfan Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Arcadia is an amazing shop. Tim goes to great lengths to stock exotic items, such as continental DCC sound loco's, LGB etc, as well as the usual range of British outline models. The shop has a good selection of unusual scenic items, such as the Noch figures in those delightful themed packs. There aren't that many UK retailers who will stock the products, available in Arcadia. Locally, only MG Sharp carries a very small range of similar models, as most of MGS stock, is US and Japanese outline - a different market again ! Tim has definitely studied the market and carved a niche, which along with his competitive prices AND being on 'tinternet, should ensure his business is viable for many years to come. As an occasional customer myself, I have been badly affected by the present state of the economy, but some of the other customers don't seem to have suffered quite so much and they are still able to spend some of their disposable income there. My point being, if no-one has any disposable income to spend, things can go downhill very quickly. I was at Pudsey toyfair a few months ago and people were turning their nose up at brand new Bachmann wagons on sale at slightly lower prices than the box shifters, which no doubt explans why so many West Yorkshire toyfairs have sunk without trace in recent years (Elland Road / Halifax / Slaithwaite / Morley) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbanbery Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 the internet, extortionate parking charges, rubbish public transport infastructure, the advent of the "shopping mall" out of town have all contributed to the decline of most shops. Only a few places seem to be able to make it work nowadays. its a shame, but 30 years of NeoLiberalism have precipitated this. Political Rant Over. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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