NEWS AND UPDATES
05/19/18

Busy Week!

After a week off this week was a bit hectic as I was trying to catch up from being off for a week. To complicate matters even more, I have been fighting off a cold all week as well. But, in the end all orders from the vacation week as well as this week have been shipped and I am back on track with the normal shipping schedule.

Next week along with the regular day to day options I will be continuing to reset the store and adding new product to the shelves.  New locomotives and rolling stock in HO have arrived and are already shelves along with new how to books!

Less And Less Product Available For Sale!

For those of you that have been following my emails you know that one of the hardest things that have been happening since 2011 is the lack of product available to sell to you all each day. This is not a BRH problem, it is a  manufacturer issue.

When I started BRH 13 years ago there where about 130,000 items in the product database with about 90,000 available to sell to you each day. Today we have about 125,000 items in the database with only 39.650 items available to sell to you. And those items have low inventory as well.

So, please do not blame us if something is not available. It is a manufacturing and wholesaler issue

Sales and More Sales

Don't forget about the ongoing online sales:

Pre Memorial Day Sale with over 3,500 discounted items. Sale ends 05/25/18


Deal Of The Day featuring Merten figures Items. Sale ends Monday 05/21/18 at 6am


WOW! What A Deal featuring all Con-Cor Rolling Stock. Sale ends Saturday 05/26/18 6am


Deal Of The Week featuring American Model Builders Structures. Sale ends Thursday 05/24/18 6am


Warehouse Sales. Great Deals from our suppliers warehouse. Sale ends 06/02/18 6am


Weekly Sale. New Items added this week!


Miniature World of Trains

As time permits, I have been working on reviving the MWOT in its own building that will eventually reach 45,000sf. I have a meeting tomorrow about a parcel of land to house the  initial 20,000sf of MWOT Phase I , retail and conference and party rooms. The project already has some volunteers signed up to help move the project along. You can sign up to help even if you do not live in the Greenville, SC area. Just click on OVERVIEW and then the Volunteer link to join the team!

I have some really cool features never before seen in model railroading the will be part of the new display.
So stayed 'tuned'.

Go to www.MiniatureWorldofTrains.com  for more information on the project.

Pre Orders Due Dates

May 31: Trainworx Preorders
May 31: Walthers Preorders
June 8: Bowser Preorders
June 12: Atlas Preorders

News About Walthers Code 83 and Shinohara Track

As we discussed several weeks ago and now we have some confirmation on this, Walthers is experiencing some challenges restocking their popular Walthers Code 83 HO scale track and also Shinohara Code 70 and
Code 100 track. We're working hard to improve the supply of these excellent products and hope to have more in stock soon. In the interim Walthers will be accepting back orders on Walthers Code 83 HO scale track and also Shinohara Code 70 and Code 100 track that we hope to fill soon on a first-come, first-served basis.

Lights and Action for Layouts from Miller Engineering

The latest Light Works USA(TM) arrivals from Miller Engineering are animated billboards designed to look like flashing neon thanks to electroluminescent lights. The new Circus Animated Billboard features moving chase lights on its border surrounding a blank white field. Two Ringling Bros(TM) overlays are supplied so customers have their choice of circus posters. Also in stock are new animated Ice Cream Cone billboards and a rotating double-
sided Big Boy restaurant O Scale sign. The billboards are available in two sizes, small for HO and N Scales and Large for HO and O Scales. Order now to add action and interest to your layouts!

Capture Spring Sales with New Kato HO & N Arrivals

You'll love Kato HO and N Scale Amtrak cars and locos, so these new arrivals will be popular and should be on your layout! In HO Scale the new Superliner II Transition Sleeper is an all-new model that brings a Superliner train must-have to the lineup of Kato Superliner cars. Like the prototype, this car has one high and one low diaphragm so it can be used in consists as a transition between Superliner cars and conventional cars. The cars have a painted
finish that matches other Kato cars. New N Scale EMD F40PH diesels with factory-installed DCC decoders are in stock. Decorated in Amtrak's phase III colors they're ideal for heading up 1980s to early 2000s consists. Check out these and other new Kato Amtrak models and order now before they're gone!

NEWS AND UPDATES
04/28/18

Another Great Month!

Sales continued to be strong online as well as in the retail store! We have final numbers next week.

I have been moving things around in the retail store to make room for more merchandise! It has been a slow process since I have been very busy with the online side of the business.

Walthers City Of Los Angeles Name Train

There have been a lot of pre orders for this new name train. There is limited availability and is almost sold out!
So get your pre order in today by clicking on the City Of Los Angeles logo above!

Pre Orders

April 30: Wheels of Time Preorders
April 30: Bowser Preorders
April 30: Intermountain Preorders
April 30: Rapido Preorders
April 30: Trainworx Preorders
April 30: Walthers Preorders

New HO Freight Car Kits from Accurail Include Covered Hopper Three-Pack

Accurail introduces new schemes for its HO car kits each month. New arrivals include a three-pack of the super popular Pullman-Standard 4750 3-Bay Covered Hopper as well as individual cars. 
Other arrivals include steel and wooden boxcars in a variety of road names. All of these kits are great for a quick freight car project. Each kit features a finely decorated injection-molded body and under frame, free-rolling trucks and Accumate knuckle couplers. Get these car kits onto your  layout now!

Build This Summer with New Atlas and Trainman Arrivals

New HO and N Scale locomotives and cars have arrived just in time to boost summer layout additions. HO Arrivals include GE Dash 8-40C/Dash 8-40CW diesels, cylindrical hoppers, pulpwood flatcars and 53' containers, plus Trainman AAR 1937 40' Boxcar kits. New N Scale arrivals include pulpwood flatcars, new 40' containers and 
Trainman 5250 4-bay covered hoppers and 70-ton ore cars. These models are all in great demand and many road names and road numbers are in short supply or sold out, so order now!

New Oxford Diecast HO Vehicles Add Interest to Highways

Modelers and collectors love Oxford Diecast HO vehicles. Fully assembled and finished in authentic colors, they sell fast - perfect for customers looking for quick layout additions. Check out the new 1936 Buick Special Convertible and 1957 Chevrolet Nomad 2 Door Station Wagon and order now! 

Miniature World of Trains

There is still great interest for me to move forward with the Miniature World of Trains project and create the new larger version after the success of the BETA test in down Greenville, SC from 2013-2015.

We are still looking for investors to reach our $1.5 Million Dollar goal for PHASE I, our property search continues to narrow! As of this update there are 3 properties in the mix all with great potential and easy access for visitors from around the world to locate.

Property one has great railfan appeal that we will have to build a new 40,000sf customized building on,  property two is a great 60,000sf building that is almost move in ready for the project but at this point will be a lease and property three is centrally located on a main road that is in transition right now and has room for a new 30,000sf customized building.

We have submitted to a project overview to owners of property two and property one will submit a proposal to mid May. Property two is still a bit iffy at this point but shows great promise as well.

All this happened this week and there seems to be great interest at this point by all parties.

Anyone can volunteer to help with the project at the MWOT website via the Overview drop down menu.
You do not have to live in the Greenville, SC area to volunteer as there are many options to help build the display!

You can invest as well!

More information about the project can be found at: www.MiniatureWorldOfTrains.com

NEWS AND UPDATES
04/23/18

Revell Model Kits

Just another modeling bump in the road. Though this does not effect what most of us do, we thought we would pass this along.

Since it was announced earlier this year that Hobbico, the owner of Revell and Revell Germany, was in bankruptcy modelers have been concerned for the fate of one of the world's oldest plastic model companies. This week it was announced that a German holding group, Revell AG had purchased Revell and Revell Germany thereby securing the future of the company.

NEWS AND UPDATES
04/21/18

Shopping Cart Server Maintenance

The shopping cart will be offline periodically for 2 - 6 hours starting around midnight on 
Tuesday, April 24, 2018 (CST).

Atlas Announces Items To Be Discontinued

HO Scale Item #/Description 
150-717     Interlocking Tower Kit
150-718     Branch Line Station Kit
150-730     Barb’s Bungalow Garage Kit
150-752     Sub-Station Kit
150-761     Produce Market Kit
150-762     Contemporary Diner Kit
150-763     Drive-Through Bank Kit
150-764     Car Wash Kit
150-780     Transformer Kit

N Scale Item #/Description 
150-2880        Kate’s Colonial Garage Kit
150-22070     100-Ton Roller Bearing Trucks with Rapido Couplers

HO & N Scale Item #/Description     
150-313           Universal Power Pack

O Scale Item #/Description
151-1000080   80 Watt Power Pack
151-66900*     Pre-Assembled Signal Tower
151-66902*     Pre-Assembled Station Platform
151-6905         Icing Platform Kit 
*Available in kits #6900, #6902

Retail Store Restock and Reset

Believe it or not, we are getting ready for Christmas!

New items are arriving daily, along with a  lot of back orders and restocks.

We are adding another 28 feet of displays that will contain the return of N scale products to the retail store. This section will feature Kato, Peco and Atlas Code 80 track along with Walthers and Kato structures. Rolling stock will return in the fall along with Kato starter train sets.

Also, we are expanding the HO rolling stock section just a bit as well as new scenery items. The O scale section will remain about the same size and still feature Lionel. O scale usually only sales in the fall and just after Christmas so we will not be expanding this section.

Also, we are receiving new HO scale loco's for the display case since most of this area has been selling well via our Inventory Reduction Sale! Check it out! There are some great deals as well as the Loco Blowout. Just put Loco Blow in the description field on the main search engine to view what is on sale!

So for the next 60 days or so the store will be in a bit of a mess while this is going on, but our priority will be your online orders as well as helping the customers that are returning to our retail store.

Sales and More Sales

Don't forget about the ongoing online sales:

Tax Refund monthly with over 3,500 discounted items. Sale ends 04/30/18


Deal Of The Day featuring Peco Items. Sale ends Monday 04/23/18 at 6am


WOW! What A Deal featuring all Lunde City Structures. Sale ends Saturday 04/28/18 6am


Deal Of The Week featuring Faller products. Sale ends 04/26/18 6am


Warehouse Sales. Great Deals from our suppliers warehouse. Sale ends Wednesday 05/02/18 6am


Weekly Sale. New Items added this week!

NEWS AND UPDATES
04/18/18

More Credit Card Fraud

As you all know we have had a lot of fraud attempts attempted at Blue Ridge Hobbies via our internet sales system and that 2 years ago, we put procedures in place to avoid these attempts. Most fraud is stopped  but there continues to be issues out there. Not any with attempts at Blue Ridge Hobbies but with other retailers as well.

For Blue Ridge Hobbies, any fraud that is not recovered costs a lot of money. For example a $100 fraud takes about $2,000 in good sales to recover that $100. Our profit margins are very very low, so it takes a lot to recover from these thieves. 

We have recovered all of the funds from the recent fraud attempts directly from the perpetrators. But we had to threaten one with the police and every made a police report on that matter before he got us our money back!

We had another fraud attempt last week that we have stopped. So the games continue it seems.

Last year Broadway Limited put out a fraud alert about a group that had hit them repeatedly. Blue Ridge Hobbies go hit by that same group once, but they tried 15 other times. Recently Walthers put out a fraud alert and this week Lionel has done the same:

From Lionel:  "Good Morning, we wanted to send out another note on this, as the guy scamming dealers is still out there.  He continues to hit dealers in various areas from NC to MI. Please be careful of anyone that wants to send Fed Ex or any other carrier for same day pickup.

He is going by several names such as Jerry Wilson,  Robert Carson, Jerry West, JW and there are probably more.

He does not always go for the big ticket items.  He recently contacted a store looking for a large order of track. He also does not always ask for Lionel products.  Sometimes he asks for other manufacturers items.

If a call seems sketchy, tell the caller you do not have Fed Ex pickup or that you will need to call him back, and if it is a scam he will most likely hang up.

Please contact the police if you get a call from this guy.  Hopefully he will be caught soon!

LIONEL SALES TEAM"

One of my previous jobs was as a Collection Manager for Barclays Bank and one of my duties was credit card fraud. So I am well versed in how to handle these situations and who to contact within the Secret Service and the FBI and the USPS for interstate credit card fraud, wire fraud and postal fraud. When an attempt occurs, we do not play games!

So far we have not had to raise prices but that time may come soon if the attempts continue.

NEWS AND UPDATES
04/14/18

Very Profitable 2017!

As you all know from our News and Updates from the past, BRH has had steady increases in sales over the last couple of years despite the lack of product availability. Well it turns our the our net income was up a whopping 66% over 2016! So, that is great news!

New Search Engine And Shopping Cart

I have been developing our new search engine that is much much faster and easier to use as well as a new shopping cart. BETA testing will begin soon and I will be asking our Track Crew Members to help test the new system for a couple of weeks! One that is great about this is that it is our search engine and shopping cart that we created and customized and can change as needed to make it better!

Retail Store Restock and Reset

Christmas time is coming and new product is coming  in with just 8 months to go before the holiday. So we are resetting the store as time permits and we are adding new products as well as enlarging (just a bit) our O Scale section and re adding N scale back into the store. This will include track from Peco, Kato and Atlas with structures from Walthers and Woodland Scenics as well.

What's Up With Grand Central Gems and others!

Communication from the manufacturers and wholesalers remains and issue.
We still have not heard a peep from Grand Central Gems.

Just to clarify, we will not be updating images any longer for MTH-Railking  and may drop that line of products as we move forward. This manufacturer is a non seller for us mostly because they do not have very much product to sell.

On another, more positive note, we are getting great communication from Kathy and Gary at Bowser / Stewart Hobbies and excellent response time from Doug at Bachmann who responded to my email within 30 minutes!

New Shipping Schedules

I have had to adjust our shipping schedules just a bit due to increased volume with the shipping carriers routes. USPS now is arriving at BRH between noon and 1pm (used to be around 10:30am) and Fedex Freight now arrives at from 10:30 to 11:30am (used to be 9 to 9:30am) and the regular Fedex Ground route driver arrives between 1pm and 3pm (on Thursday he arrived at 4:30pm!).

So, with this,  order will take a bit longer to ship to you all by about a day. This is because we have to check in the deliveries, sort for shipping, repack and ship and then have the respective shipping carriers return  to pickup the orders for shipment to you. 

We have been on the new schedule for about two weeks and it seems to be working fine, but we are also seeing increased retail store traffic as well. Right now it is still myself with some help from John on Wednesday mornings.

Please check the store policy page for the updated shipping schedule.

New Walthers Name Train

Look for the next WalthersProto Name Train announcement on April 17th. As with all Name Trains, this one will be in high demand, so be ready to place your orders quickly to avoid missing out!

Upcoming Preorder Deadlines

April 18: Atlas Preorders
April 27: Atlas Preorders
April 30: Wheels of Time Preorders
April 30: Bowser Preorders
April 30: Intermountain Preorders
April 30: Rapido Preorders
April 30: Trainworx Preorders
April 30: Walthers Preorders

Bowser HO & N Arrivals

You will love the newest arrivals from Bowser! HO new products include Alco C636 diesels, ready-to-run PRR N8 Cabooses, X32 Boxcars and 100-Ton 3-Bay Hoppers. New N Scale models include new schemes and road numbers on the popular Airslide Covered Hoppers. These new releases are moving fast and some road names
and road numbers are already sold out. Don't miss out - order now!

New Book from White River is a Great Northern Modeler Must-Have

The Great Northern by noted rail historian Richard Yaremko covers GN's fascinating history with a concentration on the transition era. Loaded with plenty of photos and fascinating text this must- have book for GN fans and modelers is selling fast. Order now to before it is sold out!

Five New Titles from Morning Sun Books Now Shipping

Books are great for modelers looking for photographic reference  aterial and for railfans who want to learn about railroading "back in the day" These books sell sell out fast and some are already in short supply, so get yours now!

Order All-New Atlas Trainman N Scale 60' Heavyweight Passenger Cars Now

Newly tooled N Scale 60' heavyweight passenger cars and sets are rolling through fast! Based on prototypes constructed for several railroads these all-new models feature interiors in the passenger-hauling cars, fine decoration, free-rolling trucks and AccuMate knuckle couplers. These detailed cars are perfect for
those of you who operate on sharp curves or who have small steam-era layouts. Make sure to order extra combines, RPOs and baggage cars since many railroads also ran these on secondary passenger runs.
They're in stock now but are already in short supply, so get them running on your layouts now!