Join the Southern California Traction Club?
Here's How!
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Joining a model railroad club is normally simple. You find out the next time the club is meeting and go to a meeting. You decide if you like what the club is doing and if you like the members and they like you, you usually join and most times this works. But suppose there is no club near you that is doing what you want to do. What then?

Enter the computer and internet age. The Southern California Traction Club (SCTC) is in the middle of the HO traction hobby with their input and testing of Bowser trolleys, recording trolley sounds and developing decoders for traction vehicles. There is a lot of good information floating around the SCTC clubhouse in the form of hints, how-to's, and solutions for common problems with overhead wire, DCC, and other common issues.

So the SCTC is providing a way to spread information with their new E-Membership. The SCTC embraces the latest in technology. At least two of the members, John McWhirter and George Huckaby have IPhones with Face time capability and the club will set times for one-on-one type conferences with E-Members about model traction issues.

What the club will ask you to do is to fill out the attached application and either snail mail or email it to the club.

Southern California Traction Club E-Membership
c/o Custom Traxx
P.O. Box 641175
West Los Angeles, CA 90064-1175
sctc@customtraxx.com

After it is processed, the club will ask for the E-Membership annual fee which will be $5.00. This application is important. You tell the club what you expect out of the arrangement, what you need and what you can provide. If all of these desires can be made to co-exist, and the club feels that this can be a mutually beneficial arrangement, the club gets an E-Member. The E-Member will be provided a copy of the club activity report via email that outlines the activities of the club and the times of the club work sessions. E-Member participation in work sessions may be limited to Sundays at first. But this could change later as E-Membership evolves.

What We All Need To Accept from
the Closing of Hobby Shops!
***

Trolleyville Editorial

We were all saddened and surprised to hear of the sudden closing of Franciscan Hobbies last January. Trolleyville had a brief email exchange with John Gunther as we had been doing business with them for years through Custom Traxx and their fabricated F-line PCC models, years before the Bowser RTR PCC cars. After some thought, we felt that we had some warning about this when another "since 1946" hobby shop, around 400 miles south of Franciscan Hobbies, Allied Model Trains, Culver City, California closed their doors in May 2007. This was the building built as a model train store and emulated the 1939 Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal (see below left). In this case, three individuals, including one of the former employees, bought the store and moved it across the street (see below right). When the long time owner of Allied Model Trains was asked about the sale, among many other things, he said "...It's just a dying hobby...We probably have another good 15 years..."

Franciscan Hobbies was also a landmark hobby shop. Their ad in Model Railroader simply said "Try Us". Below left is the view afforded from any Muni K LRV, or PCC along with, clockwise interior views of the model train department, the model paint selections, and the model car department.

On Thursday, January 5, 2014, Franciscan Hobbies posted their reason for closing. It was still there on July 4, 2014 so we thought that it should be shared here.

"...My friends, sadly the era of Franciscan Hobbies has come to an end. I have been given the responsibility as bearer of bad news, but I speak for Bill, John and the entire crew. The tight profit margins and reduced sales volume caused by the pricing policies of the distributors, suppliers and the internet have left us with little to no room for the needed profit margin to remain in business in the city of San Francisco. The blame game is useless because the fact is no one specific thing caused this. It was the proverbial death by a thousand paper cuts. In all honesty, our suppliers became our own worst enemy. While they sold to us, they sold the very same products on their own websites at below our cost. Of course the youth of today, as a whole, has little interest in a model airplane or a steam train, when they can play on a Ipad or a Xbox. This coupled with the vast amount of cheap phone merchandise available to the masses on the internet, has spelled the demise bog an "old school" establishment such as ourselves. I share these details with you not to blame, but to explain how a 68 year old business can be slowly squeezed out of business. It's sad to say, but is a small consolation that five hobby shops in the bay area closed this year alone. This indicates it wasn't something we were specifically doing wrong - its the hobby industry as a whole that's doomed in the traditional sense of a brick and mortar store..."

"...For me, and four generations now, Franciscan wasn't a store, it was a clubhouse, a bar without the boos', a man cave, an after school hangout, whatever you want to call it. It was a place to share not only your hobby, but where discussions on world events, the city, and life in general could be heard. Not only ar you customers, but many of you are our personal friends. We've talked to you though personal good and bads, marriages and divorces, births and deaths. As the only old school hobby shop left in the bay area we were able to hang on and outlast the rest because of our very loyal following..."

"...For me, this is deeply personal. At the age of 6 years old I first came into FHS. Seeing the airplanes on the ceiling ignited my passion for anything that flies. When ny parents first let me take the bus by myself, where's the first place I went on my first solo bus ride? Franciscan of course! Over the years I bought R/C planes, John showed me how to wire my Lindberg PT-109 and I built countless 1/48 plastic kits. I share this story because it's the norm, not the exception. Almost every one of our loyal customers have the same fond memories and stories to tell..."

".. The decision to close was the hardest thing we have ever done, but we will remember all of the people and families who kept Franciscan Hobbies alive for 68 years. We hope each and every one [of] you continue to do whichever hobby you are into, not only for the love of the hobby, but out of sheer desire not to let the timeless skills of patience and craftsmanship be lost by today's youth..."

"...Noah and the Franciscan Hobbies crew..."

Many of us have seen hobby shops close in other locations. We are printing the entire Franciscan message verbatim out of respect for those who worked at Franciscan for the past 68 years and the fun times we have had there over the past 20 years. The current state of the hobby as we know it started in the 1960s when model trains started to lose their dominance in general society as toys. Many of the old school hobbyists became separated from main society, new technology and younger people in general. The NMRA started handing out awards for people who could scratch build items starting wih the Master Model Railroader appelation. Then to top that, they even came up with the higher award of Grand Master Model Railroader, almost assuring that this would be an old men's club. Meanwhile computers were starting to change the way we did things. How many of these guys could not even program their own VCRs. When Digital Command Control was introduced, it was almost universally rejected by some of these same people. However, that rejection was not done in other countries. Someone told us that 25% of Germany's households have some sort of model railroad in them.

Noah states that "...In all honesty, our suppliers became our own worst enemy. While they sold to us, they sold the very same products on their own web sites at below our cost..." Distributors make money moving products by volume. They are not running museums. Their margin is 1/4 of a typical hobby shop so volume is their business. To be fair, we are aware that certain manufacturers starting dealing with only one distributor and in some occasions that distributor had minimum buying limits. Distributors well know the buying habits of model railroaders since they deal with volumes and lack of volumes. Their business experience taught them that shops that buy less than a certain amount were most likely to go out of business and leave them with large unpaid bills so they set these limits. This is a business decision by an entity trying to stay in business. After all, the hobby shop closing phenomenon is not a recent issue. Distributors have limited warehouse space and must move today's product out so that tomorrows can come in. Meanwhile most hobby shops tried to maintain their comfortable 1950's era business model where they were the center of the hobby. At that time, hobby shops were almost the single source of distribution for model railroad hobby supplies. In the 1970's some suppliers started to sell their model train products at Woolco stores. Then the 1980-1990 era Great American Train Show (GATS) started coming to the larger towns. Many hobby shops bad mouthed both of these events and refused to develop methods to compete. GATS could have been a was a place to go and unload all of that "dead" stock, advertise for your store and pick up new customers. They would only be in town for one weekend. It was not like they moved permanently across the street. When the internet came into vogue and the discount houses sprang up, we were aware of some "brilliant" hobby shop owners who stopped selling Model Railroader (MR) because they displayed ads from the so-called discount houses. I know of a modeler who has been buying his copy of MR at the local newsstand ever since. Another shop owner stated that if he could not get 40% profit on everything he sold, he might as well close his doors. In fact, hobby shops actually became the enemy of the distributors when they could no longer move items in sufficient numbers to meet the needs of distributors. The distributors merely found another way to move their products so that they could stay in business. The plain fact is that modelers did no longer need to go to a hobby shop to see and buy items, they could view them in the comfort of their own home via computers and smart phones and order the same items right there and have them delivered to their front door or Post Office box. The Walthers Flyer is a good example of this. This monthly pamphlet goes directly to customers that have ordered from them and is included with orders. It contains not only specials but announcements of new items. When the July Flyer arrived at the home of the one of the members of the Southern California Traction Club in late June, he noticed a new structure, a Philadelphia style row home, that he knew would be of interest to one of the members. The club ended up purchasing six of them. This member lives within walking distance from a major hobby shop. But the club got their order within four days. The hobby shop could have never matched that. The club just received their August flyer yesterday. Distributors have to move volumes of items quickly. New items are coming and these soon to be "old" items have to "get out of the way".

Noah also says that "...Of course the youth of today, as a whole, has little interest in a model airplane or a steam train, when they can play on a Ipad or a Xbox..." We all saw Pac Man and the hold it had immediately on the younger set but some of us ran home and ran our trains around in circles. Some of us ignored the computer just like some of our parents tried to ignore or even suppress Rock and Roll. Eventually the younger set took over the entire recording industry and adult level shows like "Your Hit Parade" vanished. There are young persons interested in trains. But there are less of them than before and they want more than watching a train go around an oval track. In a lot of cases, that is all the hobby offered.

It is the acceptable level of "interactivity" that is the key here and that is relative to technology. At one time, being able to "remote control" a train by making it stop, start, vary the speed and back up (even by the use of a long cord) was enough to capture the minds of young people. Some of us remember when we had to "warm up" the tube television sets by turning them on fifteen minutes ahead of time to make sure that the thing would work? Now it is instant. We also remember when we had to go to a library to look up items or had an Encyclopedia Britannica in the home for reference? Now it is Google on your little phone. Cab control was not going to attract anyone to model railroading anymore, but computer involvement would have and it seems to have done so in places like Germany. We were looking at the NMRA list of companies that have been assigned numbers for use in CV 8 for decoders and the majority of them are not US companies. DCC (Digital Command Control) increases the level of interactivity and in this age of computer games, the level is important and must be pushed to the maximum. MTH had the idea with their HO scale DCC-operated automatic coupler, which is even more oversize than the already oversize Kadee coupler but so were the couplers on both Lionel and American Flyer trains 70 years ago.

Finally, there is the Ready-To-Run phase that dominates the hobby today. One used to go to a hobby shop to find out how to build, how to paint, how to (you name it) but that is gone for two reasons. No one is taught how to use a screwdriver anymore just a touch pad, joy stick or a mouse. Adults work longer hours than they did sixty years ago so they just do not have the amount of spare time that they did then. Gratification must be a lot faster today. To save time and by using the currently favorable offshore labor rates, we get great ready-to-run items.

We must pay attention and embrace technology because younger people have accepted it hook, line and sinker. I defy anyone to find a person under 25 in full control of his faculties that can not send an email, download a file or purchase items on eBay. These actions have become automatic as breathing. They will have no difficulties with Digital Command Control its successors, or running their model trains from a smart phone.. The hobby must now stress the use of technology that can invigorate the hobby. A lot of modelers rejected technology and unfortunately many of them controlled the model railroading hobby for too long and contributed to the situation that the model railroading hobby is in today. That is the reason why the "old school" hobby shops will close. The older hobbyists will miss them but the younger set won't. That is the issue.

Now don't shoot the messenger here but we are afraid that this trend will continue. Noah spelled it out for us if you read between the lines. There will be more hobby shop closings so say goodbye to your favorite shop BEFORE it closes. The model railroading hobby started out with modelers making their own models and it may go back to that. The hobby shop was just a facilitator needed due to the technological limitations of the era. It is only a matter of time before a 3D program will be on every modelers computer, tablet, smart phone or even wristwatch and it will be able to be connected to a 3D printer that will produce parts and even finished models, painted and lettered. Consider that possibility!

If you would like your hobby shop to be among the ones that survive, here are a few suggestions that might work.

1. The shop should try and attract more diverse background people to come into the store. Get a great (not necessarily huge but well constructed) model railroad into the store and allow and even encourage customers to run a train on that layout (an exclusive loop would work here). Make sure the engine is DCC/sound equipped and encourage customers to operate it. Let them know all the things that this train will do that they could not do a few years ago. This is the major advantage that the local hobby shop has, they can give "hands-on" experiences to customers and they should be set up to do just that. One thing that is suggested is that the store engage a local model railroad club, before they become extinct also, to come in and build that super model railroad layout in the store. Make a business arrangement of some sort and advertise operation of the layout at certain times to get the people to come in. Use "loss leaders" such as an entry level but quality model train sets during the running times to get people hooked into the hobby again. If possible, try the "swap meet" approach on a Saturday afternoon. Have advertised activities in your store once each week to get people to come in. Go after the general public. They still like trains. Most items are now "ready-to-run" anyway, requiring little input from hobby shop staff.

2. The shop must begin to advertise not only in traditional model railroad and train venues but also in local newspapers and the social media such as Facebook. Statements like "See what a model train can do now that Dad's would not....". Have events that make people want to come into the store.

3. Whenever there is a major event such as National Train Day or a train show such as the Great Train Expo (now the Great Train Show) or the Worlds' Greatest Hobby on Tour in your area, ensure that the store has a presence here with business cards and bargains. Get rid of that old stock. Again, the store is NOT a museum. There is a cost to keeping items on the shelf that will not move.

4. Get a well constructed internet presence that is updated and appears to be updated regularly. It is so much easier to order on-line than to come to the store, find a place to park and sometimes pay to park. What happens after all that when the store does not have the item they want anyway? The store orders it. The buyer realizes that he probably has to make another trip to pick to the store to pick up the item, when and if the item is ordered and arrives. When he realizes that he could have done that in the first place from his own computer (and avoided sales tax, which is approaching 10% in some areas), a somewhat negative vision of the store is left in their mind. That is where the future is. Stores must get with today's technology or they may be finished and just may take those few customers they have left with them.

In short, to stay in business, stores must provide items or services that are not available on the internet, like being able to watch model trains run and even run them yourself. Some of the ideas stated in this article may work. Some may not. But if you do not try, you are dead anyway! "Loyal following" does not live forever. A reader just pointed out to us that you can get some model trains, structures and track on Micro Mark at some nice prices. The vultures are circling!

Dave Swanson created the World's Greatest Hobby on Tour Show and primarily advertised to the general public using a very well planned program. He achieved show attendances over 40,000 in many venues while the model-railroader-oriented shows attracted much less. So he proved that the public likes trains. That public attraction to prototype trains needs to be transferred to a love of model trains. That is the challenge.

Modeler's Showcase!
***

This is the section where we feature the work sent to us by modelers. This month we are featuring another modeler that has assembled, painted, lettered or extensively modified a kit to produce a very nice result. We are all aware of the ready-to-run trend in the hobby today so it is really great to see the results of those talented modelers still at work.

Richard Allman of Villanova, PA, member of the East Penn Traction Club supplied us with photos of his recently completed Lehigh Valley Transit 700 series interurban. Lehigh Valley Transit car 701, which operated on the Liberty Bell Limited route from Allentown, Pennsylvania to 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania was recently completed. The prototype was one of 12 cars, 700-711 built by Southern Car Company of High Point, North Carolina in 1916. The 700 series cars along with the 12 cars of the 800 series and home-built car 812 provided the Limited and Express service on the Liberty Bell Route until the 1939 modernization when the 13 ex-Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railway lightweight cars arrived and became the 1000 series. After car 1004 was destroyed in a fire at King Manor in 1940, LVT purchased Indiana Railroad car 55 which was rebuilt to Liberty Bell Limited parlor car 1030 and entered service in September, 1941, the last trolley to be purchased by LVT.

The car results from a 700 series interurban kit provided by John Kennedy of KND Enterprises (www.pknd.com). John produces high quality, well engineered resin kits of many local prototype electric vehicles, including the as-delivered version with the center entrance, the 701 with the enclosed center entrance, and the straight side chair car (car 706 is in his queue to build!). As always, John was insistent on accuracy and did his homework in crafting the kit. The detail parts were accurate and his directions most lucid. Any mistakes were his alone. One detail he added was the roof mats at the ends, for which he used HO scale 1x2 inch styrene strips. The decals are from Custom Traxx, P.O. Box 641175, West Los Angeles, CA 90064 (www.customtraxx.com). George’s decal set, CN-1030, had the three digit numerals specifically for the 700 cars which was a huge time saver from applying individual numerals and trying to line them up. The drive is the Bowser 125115 mechanism with 33 inch scale wheels. The prototype had 34 inch wheels, but hey-close enough! The Bowser drive is user friendly, smooth running, reliable and if necessary, easy to repair. The couplers are Tomlinson style from his stash of parts. The shell was painted with a Floquil platinum mist roof, Pollyscale Aged White, and Pollyscale Signal Red trim. He initially tried Floquil Aged White, but it was off: too greenish a cast for his eye. The latest aggravation to hobbyists is the discontinuation of Pollyscale and Floquil paints, infuriating since Testor’s aggressively sought to acquire both brands, then discontinued them! The trolley poles are from Joel Lovitch whose 4 spring poles are prototypically accurate and track nicely on the overhead. The model involved what seemed like miles of one inch and two inch scale red striping, his least favorite modeling activity. George Huckaby had counseled him to do it two or three inch strips, which makes it somewhat more bearable than a root canal without anesthesia or insurance. Rich had seriously considered omitting the one inch stripe on the letter board below the LIBERTY BELL LIMITED lettering. Subsequently he observed that Gordon Haugen got that stripe on his 704 straight side model, which made me feel totally inadequate. Accordingly, under duress, Rich applied the stripe, which tried his patience to a major degree, especially the short pieces between the doors and the car ends! He felt that the LVT paint shop crew from 1947 clearly had it in for him. He admits that the pilots, especially under the front, are not in the exactly correct position. Affixing the front pilot to the front end of truck and expecting it to swing without impedance was a technical impossibility, at least for him at this time. Further, it would make removing the bottom plate from the geared end of the Bowser truck difficult if not impossible. Finding the three 4-6 scale inch round reflectors for the rear of the car above the anti-climbers was one of the toughest tasks to accomplish, but thankfully John Kennedy came through. The poles still need to be painted Platinum Mist. Richard has a home layout located in the basement of his home.

In the next photograph, LVT 701 is on an incline with Boston Type 4 in the background on trackage around the lake and Keystone Junction in the foreground. The 701 will reach the crest of the incline, then descend and cross over the diverting track from Keystone Junction and enter the trackage around the lake where the Type 4 now is. The Type 4 will proceed from the lake to that crossover and each Keystone Junction.

The next scene shows the LVT 701 at Keystone Junction on the Pennsylvania side of the layout with Boston PCC 3187 entering the switch to the side of the road route toward Bay State Junction on the New England side of the layout.

Car 701 is shown on the incline over Keystone Junction with Philadelphia Suburban Trans'n Co (PSTCo) car 26 on the side-of-the-road trackage enroute to Bay State Junction. Car 26 is a model of ex-PRT/PTC Hog Island car 4045. Car 4045 along with two others, 4024 and 4106, was sold in 1942 to the PSTCo. where they originally became 20, 21 and 22. They were renumbered by PSTCo to 25, 26 and 27 when the Saint Louis Cars, series 11 - 24, arrived in 1949.

LVT 701 with Toronto CLRV car 4108 in the background. 702 is on double track around the lake on the Pennsylvania side of the layout. TTC 4108 is on a siding, having descended the overpass on the up and over.