Allied is closing....

[Puddington]

 This is truly sad.....

http://www.vanhornauctions.com/allied-model-trains.html

Been there a few times and loved the store and people.....

[Rich_S]

This is truly sad.....

http://www.vanhornauctions.com/allied-model-trains.html

Been there a few times and loved the store and people.....

Sounds like things went south for Allied Model Trains, the web page says Bankruptcy Court Ordered  Maybe I'm showing my age, but I remember when local hobby shops employed several employees and Friday evenings were always busy.   

[C855B]

A shame because it was definitely an institution, although my understanding it was a classic case of the original owner retiring and the new folks unable to keep it above water.

I worked just a few miles from Allied for several years, but it was in the opposite direction from home. I think I was there maybe once or twice back in the '70s.

[jnevis]

I typically stopped in to or from LAX on travel.  It definitely was NOT the same store it was when it was across the street.  It's to bad, the staff was pleasant, but really didn't have a lot of N.  The boxes of Precision Master/IMR cars I looked at in 09 were still there in 13, along with most of the structures and other parts.  They did rotate through some stuff but it still wasn't great.

[randgust]

The roughest part about the hobby shop business is the cost of inventory and the relatively low turnover rate.   You end up financing your inventory at above-market rates, discounting it to sell against online competition, and sitting on it for years.   Meanwhile, the cash flow isn't covering your loans.  You've got an outstanding store because people can find stuff they haven't seen for years, but the financial statements can be a disaster.

The ratio of inventory to annual sales at many such stores is way, way, above 1, sometimes 2 or 3.    When I looked at the photos that's what struck me is a whole lot of inventory there that was high-priced and unlikely to move anytime soon.  Nice stuff, but wow....

Sooner or later the bank tires of waiting, has a claim on the inventory, and is willing to foreclose to cash it out.   Oh, and on top of everything else, it's seasonal.   

On other major seasonal businesses or high-value inventory, the producers often help finance the inventory, but it doesn't happen here.  This isn't a new phenomenon, either.   My first employer was a train-only hobby shop, I was the bookkeeper, and he went bankrupt the year after I left.   He just could not grasp that paying 15% on a bank commercial inventory loan with an annual turnover of .5 and a net average markup of 10% on Lionel (40% of inventory dollars) was a recipe for disaster.  That was 1978.

[JMaurer1]

I've seen a thread about them closing previous to this. It was a very nice store, but (IMHO) it was just a PAIN to get to with traffic so I rarely ever went there (twice in my lifetime, but always wanted to go back). My impression was that as far as N scale went, they didn't have anyone who worked there that was really interested in it. They had tons of old, dead, European  stock...but it was poorly displayed (mostly behind the counter) and you couldn't look thru it. They only seemed to have a sprinkling of new stock and usually at full list (please correct me if I'm wrong...it's been awhile since I was last there). What they DID have was Lionel. TONS of it, everywhere. Both times I was there I was there for 45 mins+ and never asked if I needed help (despite leaning WAY over the counter to try and spot hidden treasures). I hate it whenever a train store dies...but this one was killed by neglect.

I would love to go to the auction, but living in No Cal now I can't justify going down for it (13% buyers premium?!!). Wish it was on line however.

Sad that a great store has to end, but not surprised. Whistle Stop in Pasadena (who is owned by the same people?) is on this same path...

[C855B]

... Whistle Stop in Pasadena (who is owned by the same people?) is on this same path...

Yes... the WS folks acquired it only but a handful of years ago, I guess hoping to keep it open, maybe to capture inventory... I dunno. Maybe they sucked all the modeling and HO inventory into Pasadena and left the Lionel to fend for itself.

You're absolutely right about the traffic, however. Even in the 1970s it was a major PITA to get to. Anything close to the San Diego and Santa Monica Freeway interchange was always a nightmare, even back then. Pico, Wilshire and Sepulveda were no relief, just as bad. Am I reliving unpleasant memories, or what?

[JMaurer1]

Whistle Stop doesn't seem to have ROOM for anymore (HO and HOn3) stuff.

Pico and Sepulveda, Pico and Sepulveda, Pico and Sepulveda.

Childhood Dr. Demento flashbacks...

[jimmo]

I remember when AMT was still in the big store. Don Wood ran the N-scale department (which was bigger than most hobby shops) and I could usually find anything I was looking for and then some. After the move and subsequent downsize, I had only gone back twice as it was nothing like the old store.

It doesn't surprise me that they are going under. It was sad to see it shrink from a great store to a so-so store. Not worth the trip from Ventura County.

[C855B]

...Pico and Sepulveda, Pico and Sepulveda, Pico and Sepulveda. ...

La Bre-AHH, TAAAAR pits!

[johnb]

La Bre-AHH, TAAAAR pits!

[C855B]

OK, you've done it now!

Seriously... speaking of Pico Blvd., and train stores... do any of you other Los Angelinos remember the name of the store on Pico and roughly in the same neighborhood as Allied that featured American Flyer and not Lionel? The "Engineer Bill Show" was an L.A. afternoon kids show in the '60s featuring a train layout, and this hobby shop was one of the main sponsors.

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EDIT: Added links about "Engineer Bill" and his show. Bill Stulla was a cousin of my first wife, and I met him at a couple of family gatherings without realizing who he was. It is fairly likely that Bill's show was what started my interest in trains.

[johnb]

Too young for that, old enough for Oingo Boingo

[3DTrains]

I worked for a short while for Allen Drucker's brother, Toby, when the latter ran a general hobby shop across the street from AMT in the late 1980s. The model shop got quite a bit of overflow from AMT (including Hollywood's A and B-list actors), which made things interesting at times. This also gave me the chance to visit the train store daily, but I rarely bought anything except books. The MRR items were full retail, so most of my stuff came from Mike Smith's "All Aboard" out in Torrance (long gone). I did buy quite a bit of Tomix and Faller structures at AMT, however, as these were hard to find anywhere else.

Sad to see it fold, but it never was the same after Allen sold the place. Having left the faux-depot and moving across the street it quickly lost its charm and luster.

Cheers!
Marc - Riverside

[jagged ben]

Sad.  Grandma took me to the big store when it was brand new.