# Hey Colorado people, Caboose hobbies is coming back!



## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

This makes me sooo happy.

I wonder where it will be?


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## CHOO-CHOO MIKE (Nov 5, 2015)

Great news !!!:smilie_daumenpos:


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

It's always great to hear about a new (or returning) brick and mortar hobby shop.....instead of yet another one going out of business because of the Internet....

:thumbsup:


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

God I hope they're moving further North. And that they have better parking. If they hadn't been so far away I would probably visit them every month.


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

Shdwdrgn said:


> God I hope they're moving further North. And that they have better parking. If they hadn't been so far away I would probably visit them every month.


Nooo! They were TOO far north already! lol

but yeah they reaaalllyyy need better parking. Back when i had my big dodge truck i always had to park on the street.


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

Old_Hobo said:


> It's always great to hear about a new (or returning) brick and mortar hobby shop.....instead of yet another one going out of business because of the Internet....
> 
> :thumbsup:


Yes! I hate shopping online. I like to touch things i'm about to buy. look at them from all angles and whatnot.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

santafealltheway said:


> Yes! I hate shopping online. I like to touch things i'm about to buy. look at them from all angles and whatnot.


Sadly their prices are not competitive with online stores, but I agree completely... Sometimes when you're trying to work out an idea you just need to *see* the parts to figure out how everything will go together. Or you might see something else that fits the bill perfectly. And best of all, while you're browsing around you might see something on the shelf that gives you all new ideas. I really surprises me that online retailers haven't picked up on this and built their websites to mimic the in-person browsing.


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

Theres a small banner at the top of their page that says "Now with lower pricing"..

Hopefully that will be true.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Good, that could mean they got a better deal on the new building. Despite the difficulty to get to it, someone told me the old area is considered 'prime' real estate, so they were probably paying way too much for it. I can't wait for them to open again, I have something I want to look at, and my local hobby shop up here barely has one shelf of HO trains.


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

Shdwdrgn said:


> Good, that could mean they got a better deal on the new building. Despite the difficulty to get to it, someone told me the old area is considered 'prime' real estate, so they were probably paying way too much for it. I can't wait for them to open again, I have something I want to look at, and my local hobby shop up here barely has one shelf of HO trains.


I can see that. I'd be willing to bet that building gets torn down and a new apartment complex goes up.

They've been putting up those appartments all over the dang place.. traffic on broadway is just getting worse and worse. *Sigh*

I remember ten years ago, it was a 10-15 minute drive to caboose... now it lucky to be 30-45.

i know the feeling... the place near my house has only carries model power HO stuff. Three loco's and about 10 different cars.

9$ a piece for flex track. wtf is that.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Shdwdrgn said:


> I really surprises me that online retailers haven't picked up on this and built their websites to mimic the in-person browsing


In my opinion, it can't be done. Nothing beats picking up an engine or boxcar or whatever, in person, and seeing it run in person on a test track......the mouse doesn't have as good a feel in your hand as the real thing.....

Plus, you can check to see if anything is broken and that it actually works....no need to re-package and mail it back, which is a huge pain...


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

santafealltheway said:


> 9$ a piece for flex track. wtf is that.


Walthers-Shinohara stuff. And at a discount off MSRP at that!


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

CTValleyRR said:


> Walthers-Shinohara stuff. And at a discount off MSRP at that!


That was the price for atlas flex. they dont even have shinohara or peco.

I wasnt about to spend 225$ on 25 pieces of flex.. when i can get it online for 100.14.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

And I agree with you guys about touching and seeing first. "Never" is a pretty strong word, but I don't think the virtual experience will ever totally replace the real one. All else being equal, I don't mind paying a little more for the ability to try before I buy.

Unfortunately, all else is not equal. Although I have 5 hobby shops that carry hobby stuff, I often have to order it online because none of them have what I want / need.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

santafealltheway said:


> That was the price for atlas flex. they dont even have shinohara or peco.
> 
> I wasnt about to spend 225$ on 25 pieces of flex.. when i can get it online for 100.14.


You're kidding! Stay away from that crook.

That sounds like the guy selling MRC DCC sets at the Amherst Train Show a few years back. All his prices were ostentatiously marked through with the words "Show Special" and a price about 40% off the "original". Looked like some great deals, until I walked around the corner to the MRC booth to see that none of his "Show Special" prices were less than MSRP, with several above it.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

CTValleyRR said:


> Unfortunately, all else is not equal. Although I have 5 hobby shops that carry hobby stuff, I often have to order it online because none of them have what I want / need.


True dat! Although, I do consider myself very fortunate....my local shop will order what I want if they don't have it.....they can't stock everything, but he can get it in.....


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Old_Hobo said:


> In my opinion, it can't be done. Nothing beats picking up an engine or boxcar or whatever, in person, and seeing it run in person on a test track......the mouse doesn't have as good a feel in your hand as the real thing.....
> 
> Plus, you can check to see if anything is broken and that it actually works....no need to re-package and mail it back, which is a huge pain...


That wasn't quite what I was referring to, I was actually talking about items sitting next to each other on the shelf. Consider, for example, you want to pick up some flex track (since that was just discussed). In a brick&mortar store you would find other brands of flex track on the same shelf, so you can see what options you have. Next to this you might find four-rail flex track used for bridges. On the other side you may cork roadbed, and if you move down the isle past the cork you might find a rack of materials for ballasting.

The point is that things are grouped together somewhat so that you can compare brands, but you might see other materials that are commonly sold together, which can be a big help if you're new to the hobby.

The only place I can think of that's done anything remotely similar to this would be Amazon, who has a block under each product showing "items commonly sold together". It's a good start, but the presentation is questionable. Online hobby stores could benefit from this sort of thing, but nobody seems to do anything like this. I see some sites that vaguely group items together, but for most sites the best I can seem to do it sort by vendor.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

I see what you mean now. Yes, it would be nice to see all the manufactures per item, side-by-side, on a web-site....but I don't know how they would/could do that....


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Old_Hobo said:


> I see what you mean now. Yes, it would be nice to see all the manufactures per item, side-by-side, on a web-site....but I don't know how they would/could do that....


Technically speaking, it's not that hard. You can do it with tags or labels. The problem is, grouping similar items as you stack physical product on shelves doesn't require a lot more effort than just stocking them, whereas labelling hundreds of database records with meaningful tags is a daunting task that few e-tailers want to invest the effort to perform.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Setting up the website wouldn't be that difficult, but it would require someone to go through all the products and set up relationships between items... For example, different brands of flex track would have a 1:1 relationship with each other, four-rail flex track might be 1:2 as a similar product, cork roadbed and ballast material would be 1:3 with the track, essentially setting up how many steps away related products might be with each other. That part is time-consuming and requires some thought, but if you had good sales records you could get a starting point by using what products people purchase together. I would also use that information to continually update the relationships and create better product targeting.

Really it shouldn't be much different than deciding what items go next to each other on a physical shelf.


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

I hope they tell us where they will be re-locating to soon....

*Sigh*

Cant wait!


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## mjrfd99 (Jan 5, 2016)

santafealltheway said:


> That was the price for atlas flex. they dont even have shinohara or peco.
> 
> I wasnt about to spend 225$ on 25 pieces of flex.. when i can get it online for 100.14.


So true, online is so much cheaper. I still patronize the local shops and purchase things to keep them in business. We also pick up some good deals at shows and e-bay I miss the old school hobby shops where we would share ideas and stories for hours. Those guys taught and helped us with a lot when we went to HO from Lionel back in '78.


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

Caboose has officially moved!

They arent quite open yet, but I stopped by today and they were hard at work filling the floor with shelves.

The building is an old car quest auto parts store, located just off of Alameda & Kipling.

The building has been painted and the sign is up, not open just yet though.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Yep, looks like the sign is up.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

That building looks disappointingly small, but then I guess the old location didn't look like much from the outside either. Looks like they're about 5 miles straight West of the old location -- won't help me get down there any more often, but at least THEY HAVE A PARKING LOT!!! 

I hope they were able to buy this building outright instead of renting.


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> Yep, looks like the sign is up.
> 
> View attachment 267034


Thats an old picture.

That car quest sign is still there, but painted all black, the building says CABOOSE on the front.


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

Shdwdrgn said:


> That building looks disappointingly small, but then I guess the old location didn't look like much from the outside either. Looks like they're about 5 miles straight West of the old location -- won't help me get down there any more often, but at least THEY HAVE A PARKING LOT!!!
> 
> I hope they were able to buy this building outright instead of renting.


It seems kinda small in the picture but it's pretty big.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Just wanted to provide an update since I hadn't seen any more news on the store. I went down there last night, spent almost 20 minutes driving around because my GPS couldn't actually find them. For those who want to visit, the store is located on the service road on the South side of Kipling, and they are on the corner of Oak street. My GPS kept trying to direct me to a residential neighborhood several blocks away, but I finally found the address at 10800 Kipling and just started driving down the street until I found them.

So about the store itself... yes, it is smaller, but not in a bad way. It seems like they eliminated most of the 'toy' stuff the old store carried by the front door. There have also been cutbacks in the specialty items such as HOn3 (which is what I was looking for), and not nearly as much of the printed books. The good news is they DO still carry a selection of just about everything. In my case, they still have a good selection of HOn3 cars in kit and RTR form, and I picked up a bundle each of some ME flex track in code 70 and 55, plus some code 55 bare rail, so I walked away happy.

Looking through the rest of the store, they still carry quite a large selection of standard gauge items. The N and HO sections seem to take up about half the store, followed by O and the large scales with correspondingly less shelf space. There are still quite a lot of kits for various structures, plus individual pieces for building your own. It felt like the kit supplies and landscaping materials sections were still just as large as in the old store. I also noticed on the items I recognized that their prices do not seem to have changed any.

Overall, while it is disappointing that they have less space, I think they managed to focus well on still providing a good overall selection, without forgetting about us narrow-gauge folks. And once you actually find the store, I feel like it's a lot more accessible than the old location. Plus, as mentioned above, they have parking!!! Still very much worth the visit and if you don't live in Denver then the drive time is probably about the same.


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## CHOO-CHOO MIKE (Nov 5, 2015)

Service road on Kipling ???
They are located on Alameda. I-70 to Kipling exit head south. When you get to Alameda turn right, travel about a 2 blocks you can't miss it on the left.

There is no Lionel standard gauge at all in the store.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Erg you're right... the service road on Alameda. Kipling was where I turned to head back to I-25.

And when you say "you can't miss it"... trust me, yes I can, especially when trying to dodge rush-hour traffic at dusk. I actually came up Hwy 6 from Golden to get there and the GPS kept insisting I had passed it when I hadn't got there yet.


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## CHOO-CHOO MIKE (Nov 5, 2015)

They have plans to put a real caboose in the parking lot . Maybe that will help us all find it.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Haha that certainly would!


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## milehighxr (Dec 22, 2012)

Good to hear they're open again. Now I just need a few coins, and an excuse to go down there.


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