A quick check on this blog reveals that I haven’t written anything in eleven months. That is far too long and kind of sad. After all, this was my flagship blog. I even transferred it from one platform to another.
The subject of today’s blog is the train shop. I visited George’s Trains today for the first time in over a year. And, well, things seem a bit off. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I knew something just wasn’t quite the same.
They’ve moved some products around. The N scale stuff that I was interested in had moved and there were far fewer pieces around. The HO scale stuff was still pretty abundant, but there did seem to be a bit less of it. They still had a huge selection of magazines and books for sale, but it just seemed like there was less.
I also noticed that the prices of stuff had really jumped. While the engines had always commanded a high price, the rolling stock seemed to be moving in that direction also. A lot of what I saw was double the price it was five years ago.
I walked around in a bit of dismay. Is this what the internet has done? Or is this just the reality of the hobby now? Are the aging train lovers not being replaced by a new generation?
Maybe I am one of the causes of the problem. I walked out of the store without buying anything. I also walked out without really considering buying anything.
