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13,704 Posts
Good evening all,
Don't know why or what started me thinking about this today but it occured to me how drastically the model railway retail trade has changed in my lifetime.
When I was between the ages of 5 & 10 (which is about 1953 > 1963) even mail order was almost non-existant.In my area (Margate, Kent) there were a few shops that sold model railway stuff. Just to give you an idea of where they were & what they stocked ;
Birchington. Newsagents with basement toy/pram shop. 2/3 HD sets, couple of loco's, few coaches & wagons, a box of each of track, some airfix kits & some merit.
Westgate. Toy/pram shop - about the same as Birchington but all on the same floor.
Westbrook. Newsgents. A few HD bits & pieces & maybe some Airfix.
Margate. Top of the High Street. Toy/pram shop that sold Triang. Again 2/3 sets, locos, coaches & wagons & some track to extend. (My first trainset came from there - a Princess Elizabeth with roller contacts - I thought it was the ultimate at the time).
In addition there was a department store called "Bobbies" with branches in Margate & Cliftonville & I think they sold HD and Triang, but I never went into them - my parents thought it was too exclusive !
The thing is - if you wanted an item that was not on the shelf it had to be ordered - delivery could be anything up to four, yes four weeks ...... We were quite happy to wait too. The only reason you may have shopped around then was to see who had what you wanted in stock - the prices were all the same then (thanks to RPM).
There was no phoning & you went by bus, train, walked or cycled. In those days you were considered well off if you had a car or a telehone. If you had both you were wealthy !
I suspect that this may have been the case elsewhere round the country - how about your area ?
Now, if the item is not actually on it's way to you by the time you hang up the phone or "log off" it's taking too long.
How things have changed.
best regards & take care
Brian
Don't know why or what started me thinking about this today but it occured to me how drastically the model railway retail trade has changed in my lifetime.
When I was between the ages of 5 & 10 (which is about 1953 > 1963) even mail order was almost non-existant.In my area (Margate, Kent) there were a few shops that sold model railway stuff. Just to give you an idea of where they were & what they stocked ;
Birchington. Newsagents with basement toy/pram shop. 2/3 HD sets, couple of loco's, few coaches & wagons, a box of each of track, some airfix kits & some merit.
Westgate. Toy/pram shop - about the same as Birchington but all on the same floor.
Westbrook. Newsgents. A few HD bits & pieces & maybe some Airfix.
Margate. Top of the High Street. Toy/pram shop that sold Triang. Again 2/3 sets, locos, coaches & wagons & some track to extend. (My first trainset came from there - a Princess Elizabeth with roller contacts - I thought it was the ultimate at the time).
In addition there was a department store called "Bobbies" with branches in Margate & Cliftonville & I think they sold HD and Triang, but I never went into them - my parents thought it was too exclusive !
The thing is - if you wanted an item that was not on the shelf it had to be ordered - delivery could be anything up to four, yes four weeks ...... We were quite happy to wait too. The only reason you may have shopped around then was to see who had what you wanted in stock - the prices were all the same then (thanks to RPM).
There was no phoning & you went by bus, train, walked or cycled. In those days you were considered well off if you had a car or a telehone. If you had both you were wealthy !
I suspect that this may have been the case elsewhere round the country - how about your area ?
Now, if the item is not actually on it's way to you by the time you hang up the phone or "log off" it's taking too long.
How things have changed.
best regards & take care
Brian