RIP Classic Train & Motor Bus

 

We start the week with some sad new - my local model shop has closed down. After 25 years, the owner has retired. 

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To be fair, the shop never recovered from Covid. Tiny, they never engaged with online sales and so there wasn't much in the way of new stock much of the time. That said, they could get stuff in, and seemed to have a healthy number of locals who would drop in and buy ordered items from them. They also offered a service where you could put things away in a box, and pay for them as and when you could afford to. 

I always got the feel that the shop was a bit of a social service. Aside from the railway enthusiast hangers-on, various locals, I think living in the attached flat above, seemed to drop in and bother the owner, who was IMHO a bit too nice to them. 

That said, I managed to leave money there over the years. 

I bought my APT set from there. There was also the purchase of a Hornby operating accesory, the blog post for which I can't find, even after 20 minutes searching. I bought this the day they reopened from Covid closure. 

I'm sure there are other buys, on the rare occasion I bought big ticket items, I tried to do it at the shop. 

There were also a few occasions when I'd drop in there looking for an emergency project. Something from the second-hand pile to turn into a magazine project. 

Like all shops, sometimes it even surprised me with something random and good tucked in the back, including a tea pot that had, I was told, been around the West Midlands in a Class 37!

Sadly, I didn't know about the closure until someone mentioned it at the railway club. Pity, as I'd liked to have dropped in on the last day, for one more purchase, just for old times sake. And a final chat. There was a lot of chatting about trains, and I'll miss that. The scuffier end of Leamington is worse for the passing of this little shop.