Blue Ridge Hobbies News - Discount Model Trains

News And Site Updates

August 2010

Image file conversions still being performed. About 95% of the available images are now uploaded and functional.

Another Sales Record!
August2010 Sales up 48% over August 2009.

July 2010

Another strong sales month. While we did not make a new record, sales are still strong even
with the store being closed 3 days for the NMRA convention.

BRH featured in another article in Model Retailer Magazine July 2010 issue about stores
that make the move into new larger locations. Click here to view

June 2010

GoDaddy.com web server again takes BRH product database offline. Seems they do not have the employees that can keep the server up and functional. So BRH finally, after a long delay, removed the BRH site from the GoDaddy.com servers removing any responsibility that GoDaddy.com has. They seemed to want to argue and not perform customer service to correct their software and hardware issues, they would rather spend the money on NASCAR® then the customer base the used to have. Since the move, the new server at Datasystems.com in Charlotte has preformed perfectly and with better speed and proficiency.

We continue to update new thumbnail product image files daily.
Images not already working are being added each day.

May 2010

Sales again are up over the previous year by 1%!!
It has been a slow month both in the store and online.

New thumbnail product image format being added. Images not already
working are being added each day.

April 2010

Sales again are up over the previous year by 15%!!

All available product image files have been and should be operating.

March 2010

Sales again are up over the previous year by 10%!!

Website updates and additions continue.

February 2010

Sales again are up over the previous year by 20%!!

Website updates and additions continue.

January 2010

Sales are still strong through January.

Website updates and additions continue.

December 2009

Lower Level O Scale Layout nears completion

Holiday Sales up over last year. By December 11th sales beat all of December 2008!

Effective 01/10/09 BRH will no longer accept American Express

November 2009

November has started with a bang! Saturday Sales are up and the new
R/C Department is doing well. New additions to the store are Steiff Bears
and other related Steiff products. Profits from the Steiff sales are going
to the Greenville Humane Society.

Other new additions are Plastic Model Kits, Puzzles and Games related to model
railroading, Kits and Yo Yo's that customers have been asking for.

New store is all decked out for the holiday's.

Store HO Layout scenery has been completed

Santa Claus will be at BRH December 5th.

New marketing / advertising campaign for the Upstate South Carolina Market
"A Train Under The Christmas Tree" started November 13. BRH will also be back in
Model Railroader with another ad starting December 1.

October 2009

Another record sales month for BRH with sales up 28% over last year
in October. Also, BRH has surpassed the toal of 2008 YTD sales already this year

Grand Opening Prize Winners

1st Prize - E-Z Command(R) Dynamis(R) courtesy of Bachmann
Ron Goelz from Taylors SC

2nd Prize - Ho Train Set courtesy of Walthers
Chris Taylor from Greenville SC

3rd Prize - Athearn Shirt courtesy of Horizon Hobby / Athearn
Robert Struck from Taylors SC

4th Prize - Athearn Shirt courtesy of Horizon Hobby / Athearn
Trevor Buchanan from Piedmont SC

5th Prize - Athearn Shirt courtesy of Horizon Hobby / Athearn
Phil Schurch from Greenwood SC

6th Prize - Vehicle courtesy of Classic Metal Works
John Hopper from Greer SC

7th Prize - Vehicle courtesy of Classic Metal Works
Matt Wells from Taylors SC

8th Prize - Vehicle courtesy of Classic Metal Works
Keith Mosley from Fountain Inn SC

9th Prize - Vehicle courtesy of Classic Metal Works
Geoff Duncan from Greer SC

10th Prize - Walthers HO Reference Book courtesy of Walthers
Owen Knottek from Greer SC

September 2009

SALES RECORD AGAIN:
8 For 9! Another record month for BRH. Sales up 8% over September 2008

August 2009

SALES RECORD AGAIN:
7 For 7! Another record month for BRH. Sales up 22% over July 2008 and sales up
50% overall for the 1st half of 2009 over 2008!

We announce we are moving to a larger location across the street from our original location. Store size doubles, shipping department increase 5x to accommodate increasing internet sales.

Physical move to new location completed 2 weeks early.

Website updates can not be completed due to a problem with the internet connection.

July 2009

SALES RECORD AGAIN:
6 For 6! Another record month for BRH. Sales up 28% over June 2008 and sales up
52% overall for the 1st half of 2009 over 2008!

June 2009

SOFTWARE UPDATES:
We are now working on getting the image files all working for available images.
New additions to the website are Ricko (ID 636) and TCS Train Control Systems (ID TCS).

More new additions as of 06/22/09: Roco / Fleishmann and Hornby / Rivarossi

SALES RECORD AGAIN:
May 2009 sales again beat May 2008 sales up 22%

May 2009

SOFTWARE UPDATES:
All new software additions and changes are now functioning properly

SALES RECORD AGAIN:
May 2009 sales again beat May 2008 sales up 22%

April 2009

SOFTWARE UPDATES:
Problems continued with software after 03/27 problem and the store main server would not boot up. It was replaced on 04/07/09 and now seems to be functioning.

FEDEX NEW PRIMARY SHIPPER:
Fedex is now the official shipper for BRH

March 2009

Blue Ridge Hobbies® LIONEL PRODUCTS UPDATE:
Starting with new releases for 2009, the entire Lionel line of O Scale models will be available at Blue Ridge Hobbies. The lowest discount will be available to both online and in store customers. Over 500 new items are planned this year. Production of these new 2009 items will be based on advance orders. Details are being finalized and updates will be posted at BlueRdigeHobbies.com ® as well as the E-Depot News(tm)

Blue Ridge Hobbies® SOFTWARE UPDATES:
As we grow we have need to update of operational procedures both online and in the store.

As time permits we have been updating order processing and procedures in the shipping department at BRH. Some glitches have occurred in shipping of product, but all situations have been resolved as of this moment.

Fedex and Quickbooks POS have been designing some new systems and they are being Beta tested here at BRH! Some issues have occurred during the nightly update of the product database, so if you experience so, just check back in about 2 hours to order product.

New manufacturers are being uploaded to our website and we will announce them as the databases are completed.

RETAIL STORE REMODEL:
We have started our retail store remodel to add about 320sf of display space and to enlarge our shipping department.
The construction will take place during non operational hours and some hours on Fridays.

COMPUTER PROBLEMS:
During the moving of some electrical wiring, our computer system went down and from 1:30 on 03/27/09 we are having numerous computer problems with our store software. After 10 hours the system was functional again. However problems continue with the system.

February 2009

Blue Ridge Hobbies® announces sales up 65% over February 2008!

Blue Ridge Hobbies® was at the New York Fair this month and we have seen new
products at the show that we will be adding to our product database as time permits.

January 2009

Blue Ridge Hobbies® announces sales up 11% over December 2007
and and yearly sales up 73% over 2007.

Coming Soon!
Walthers will be handling the distribution of LGB products in USA and also we will be adding the LGB Database to our offerings, TCS Digital, Hornby USA (Hornby, Rivarossi and Arnold), Tower 55 and Overland Models will be added as well
during the first quarter of 2009

December 2008

Blue Ridge Hobbies® announces sales up 94% over November 2007 and up 11% over the previous high sales month in October 2008.

November 2008

Blue Ridge Hobbies® announces new sales program for both
Online and In Store. Deal Of The Week" will feature discounts
on specific products or groups of products

Blue Ridge Hobbies® announces new email provider Constant Contact.

October 2008

Our best sales month ever! Up 24% over our previous best
in August 2008 and up 7% over September 2008

Blue Ridge Hobbies® announces new lower rates on
shipping with UPS effective 10/06/08

September 2008

Blue Ridge Hobbies® announces that we will be at Great Train Expo
in Concord (Charlotte, NC)
Saturday and Sunday October 4th and 5th.

New Store Display for HO DCC/DC double track mainline on second level
and O scale 3 Rail on main level now operating. Scenery construction begins.

Walthers visited BRH for its quarterly meeting of the USCMRG.

August 2008

O Scale products from MTH, Atlas, Weaver, K-line and Lionel added to store inventory. All at BRH low low in store prices!

New Store Display for HO and O scale trains begins construction.

July 2008

Blue Ridge Hobbies® announces that we will be at Autumn Rails in Flat Rock NC
Friday and Saturday October 3rd and 4th.

Stop by the show and learn more about our retail store and low low prices!

June 2008

Blue Ridge Hobbies® changes website software to Microsoft Expression.

Blue Ridge Hobbies® now has a registered trademark
with the State Of South Carolina

BRH announces that Walthers representative Steve Beyer will be at BRH September 3rd for the 3rd quarter meeting of the SCMRG (Upstate South Carolina Model Railroaders Group)

June 11th featured the quarterly meeting of the USCMRG (Upstate South Carolina Model Railroaders Group) with featured speaker Dave Lotz from Digitrax.

BRH announces new store DCC/DC layout featuring HO, N and O Scale.
Layout will be 6x12 feet and will include additional display space.

May 2008

Dateline: 05/12/08 - Some of our retail store customers are aware
that our office expansion is nearing completion. We are in the final
10% of construction with the carpet going in tomorrow.

The office expansion was do to the overwhelming increase in business since
we started the website in 2005. With continuing monthly sales increase and
the additional staff and volunteers we have, BRH just needed more
room to serve you better!

Thank you for your support over the last 3 years!

Also, special thanks go out to Rick Schnieder for helping in the store over the last month.
Without your help, we would have not been able to finish the restock of the retail store!

BRH featured in Model Railroad News

April 2008

Large Inventory Expansion Completed

New Store Layout Announced to be built during summer 2008

March 2008

BRH office expansion begins 03/24/08.

Next meeting of the USCMRG announced for June 11th at 7pm.
Digitrax's Dave Lotz scheduled to give a talk on Digitrax products.

Upstate South Carolina Model Railroaders Group (USCMRG) meeting held to with
almost capacity crowd in attendence.

MTH and Hornby/Rivarossi approve BRH as dealer.

February 2008

Effective 02/10/08
New Scale Search Engine Now Available

Effective 02/07/08
Upstate South Carolina Model Railroaders Meeting Announced
March 14th 7pm at Blue Ridge Hobbies® Retail Store

January 2008

Effective 01/28/08
Global Website Search Engine back online!

Effective 01/24/08
New Lower On These Manufacturers:
Bowser, Railroad Press, Hundman Publishing, Withers Publishing, NMRA, Accurail, A-Line, American Limited Models, Atlas, AmericanModelBuilders, Bar Mills Scale Model Works, BLMA, Brawa,
Busch, Krause Publications, Chooch, ConCor Structures, Mascot, Donegan Optical Company, Delux Innovactions, Custom Finishing, Durango Press, Evans Designs, Evergreen Scale Models, Faller, GHQ, Tichy Train Group, Grandt Line Products Inc, Greenberg Publishing Co, Gold Medal Models, Heljan, Herpa Models, Heki/Mini Forest, JAM Solutions Inc, JV Models, Innovative Promotions, Jordan Products, JL Innovative Design, Kato USA, Keystone Locomotive Works, Kalmbach, Kibri, Mini Highways, Merten, Micron Art, Micro Trains Line, Model Power, Monroe Models, MRC, Motorbooks International, Mountaineer Precision Products, Ngineering, MNP Inc, Northeastern Scale Models, NCE Corporation, NJ International, Norscot Group, Inc., Noch Gmbh & Co, Neal's N-Gauging Trains, NuComp Miniatures, Oregon Rail Supply, Pikestuff, Pana Vise, Peerless Industries, Plastruct Inc, Preiser Kg, Rapido Trains Inc, RK Publishing. Ram Track, R Robb Ltd. , Rix Products, SAT, Showcase Miniatures, Sea Port Model Works, Smalltown USA, The N Scale Architect, Trident Miniatures, Atlas Trainman, Vollmer Gmbh, Weekend Chief Publishing, Tamiya Paints.

BRH is now an

effective 01/18/08

BRH is now a

Golden Spike Dealer. We have committed to stock the complete line of Starter Sets, Unitrack Sets, and Unitrack in the scale(s). This includes all track items, as well as most structures and accessories effective 01/18/08
All product is available online. Retail store has a limited supply. Call for store availability

December 2007

BRH has negotiated new lower shipping rates for 2008!
Not higher rates like our competition.

November 2007:

11/10/07
Weekly Sale is Back!

11/12/07
2007 Holiday Store and Phone Hours Announced:
(all times eastern)

October 2007:

New store sneek peek starts 10/04/07.

Grand Opening of our new retail store 10/19/07.

August 2007:

08/11/07
Blue Ridge Hobbies® announced today the addition of our new
retail location in Greenville SC at 2327 N Pleasantburg Dr Greenville SC 29617.
The small store is centrally located just 7 miles from the I85-I385 Interchange.

The location was chosen for its proximity to Atlanta, Charlotte, Asheville and Columbia
with about a 1 1/2 hour drive time from each of these cities central downtown areas.
Also, we are located next to the CSX and NS Mainlines through Greenville.

The store at Grand Opening store inventory will feature better quality model trains and equipment. From mid level kits to craftsmen level in store.

Also, there will be a 6x9 foot operating N Scale Layout sponsored
by Woodland Scenics and Walthers. Future months will see the
addition of a small double deck O and HO Scale Layout as well!

June 2007:

BRH reintroduction of weekly sales page starting 06/12/07.

Retail Sales location for local customers negotiation has collapsed. In our attempt to get the best rate and convenient location to keep our prices low failed on 06/01/07. We have 3 other locations we are now negotiating with 3 other potential locations in Greer, Greenville and Easley. We plan to have this space secured by Fall 2007.

In our continuing effort to make our website more user friendly, we are updating our manufacturers pages to include MSRP so that you can compare prices and SAVE!

Global search engine planned to be re-introduced by 07/15/07 to help you find the products you need. Beta Testing starts 07/01/07!

May 2007:

BRH has delayed reintroduction of weekly sales page.
New global website search engine is currently being tested.
New accounting software "bugs" being addressed.
New base price shipping cost now $4.60. Click here for more shipping details

April 2007:

BRH begins reintroduction of weekly sales page. Beta testing begins on 04/03/07.

March 2007:

BRH begins product data base overhaul to accommodate new features of POS software.

February 2007:

BRH prepares migration to new software program in anticipation of retail store opening.

January 2007:

New backorder tracking page now available for customers with advanced reservations,
special orders and back orders to allow them to view the status of their order online.

December 2006:

BRH sets another new monthly sales record and becomes a
Walthers 5 star dealer.

November 2006:

BRH sets new monthly sales record.

All image files back online

October 2006:

Athearn is back with BRH. Limited products now available for the time being.

BRH is back in Model Railroader through Christmas.
BRH appears at the Autumn Rails Show in Flat Rock NC on October 7th.
October 14th -- all prices lowered an additional 3%!

August through September 2006:

Beta Testing is completed and start of image reload begin.

July 2006:

07/11 thru 7/15/06
Beta Testing of the search engine for all manufacturers
starting with the letters N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z.
Images for these manufacturers have been temporarily removed

07/07/06
Beta Testing of the search engine for all manufacturers starting with
the letter M. Images for this manufacturer have been temporarily removed

07/05/06
Beta Testing of the search engine for all manufacturers starting with
the letters K and L. Images for these manufacturers have been temporarily removed

07/04/06
Beta Testing of the search engine for all manufacturers starting with
the letter J. Images for this manufacturer have been temporarily removed

07/03/06
Beta Testing of the search engine for all manufacturers starting with
the letters H and I. Images for these manufacturers have been temporarily removed

07/02/06

Beta Testing of the search engine for all manufacturers starting with
the letters E, F and G. Images for these manufacturers have been temporarily removed

07/01/06

Beta Testing of the search engine for all manufacturers starting with
the letters C and D. Images for these manufacturers have been temporarily removed

June 2006:

06/28/06
Beta Testing of the search engine for all manufacturers starting with
the letter B. Images for this manufacturer have been temporarily removed

06/27/06
Beta Testing of the search engine for all manufacturers starting with
the letter A. Images for this manufacturer have been temporarily removed

06/20/06
Beta Testing of new search engine begins. New product pages for
Peco and Z-Stuff added for Beta Testing

06/01/06
New manufacturer: Rapido Transit added.

May 2006:

05/18/06
Website and email back online.

05/14/06
Migration to new database link causes crash of website and email.

05/10/06
Migration to new database link. This should make searches for products easier and will allow pricing and stock availability to occur in real time.

New Manufacturer T R Castings featuring fiber optics for
HO, N and ALL Scales added.

March 2006:

03/28/06
Search engine taken offline until the site is
completed for functionality reasons.

03/24/06
Downtown Deco product pages added with images coming soon

03/20/06
Website hosting service GoDaddy.com moves the entire site
to a server that will make the functionality of the search better.
In the process, the entire site goes offline until 03/24/06.

03/19/06
Broadway Limited images added.

03/11/06
Precision Craft Models pages updated and images added

03/10/06
Atlas Products 2006 pricing update completed. Image coming soon.

03/02/06
Roco Imports (Roman and Company, importer)
new direct supplier. Product pages now available. Images will
be added when time permits

02/04/06
Images for ConCor completed.

02/03/06
Aristo Craft Trains becomes direct product supplier

12/28/05
Broadway Limited Imports and Red Caboose product pages
now available with 2006 pricing.

12/26/05
All pages now are added and searchable by manufacturer product id and by item product number in groups of 30! Full search engine coming soon!
Use the Domestic or Foreign manufacturer's page list to "jump"
to the manufacturer of your choice.

More updates to continue as we upgrade the site!

Other December Information:

Our first ad in Model Railroader is delivered and business doubles over night!

Over 98% of the 100,000 products we offer are now available on line! We are now making them easier to access. This should be completed by the end of the year.

On December 1 more problems caused by Charter Communications! The ISP is down for 3 days stopping website construction. Calls to the Charter supervisor are completed ignored. The problem is not fixed still and service is spotted at best. It is not related to internet "traffic". Just poor service on the part of Charter!

ISP access is back on 12/5 but promptly goes offline 12/6 again!

Service is back on 12/7 and 12/8 and then Charters servers go offline at approximately 9pm during a site update upload. This server "crash" effected the upload and some of the links on the site. The ISP came back on line about 6am 12/10, however the link from our software uploading was not working. Temporary fix was able to be completed., it seemed via ftp fix upload but some files are not functioning.

In the past we have had to go as far as to contact a Charter Communications supervisor directly. This time was no exception. Since the connection to the internet was down again on 12/11 and early 12/12, the supervisor was not responding to repeated calls, I was forced to go to the dispatch office and "corner" him.

After doing so, he advised me that he would have the problem fixed. And within 4 hours it was. And, at least for the last 20 hours, I have not had any problems and the site seems the site seems to be functioning properly.

December 15, a large ice storm hits the Carolina's. Especially hard hit is the upstate of South Carolina and Greenville. Specially, Blue Ridge Hobbies®! Power is lost at 6am, thus losing access to the internet. At 2pm the phones are lost.

Deliveries and shipments are cancelled for the day due to heavy ice on the roads and trees in the area. Over 500,000 Duke Power customers are effected.

Friday, December 16, we found a location we could get internet access.
Orders are prepared for shipment. Those scheduled for December 15 and 16
are planned for Saturday shipping to customers. Power, Phones and
Internet are still not available at the warehouse.

Saturday, December 17 phones are transferred to a cell phone. UPS and FedEx can not do a pickup. 3 local post office's are closed with no power. A UPS store is located that has power, but has a 2 hour wait time. All orders are shipped today. Power is restored. Phones and internet are still offline.

Bell South finally restores phone service late December 18. Internet access still down!

Internet service from Charter Communications offline until December 22 AT 10pm!

December 23, now Bellsouth voicemail was offline and transferring to a Sun Com discounted number. This was fixed by 7pm.

All seems to be operating now!

November 2005:

Another Atlanta Train show in Marietta at the Cobb Center November 19 and 20. At this show we will have product for sale from Peco, Lifelike, Miniatronics, Walthers, Micro Engineering and Rix. We will also be giving away 2 train sets. You can register at our table for the train sets or you can join our mailing list as well! Also, a train show discount will be offered for online purchases. Click here for a train show discount coupon.
See you there!

As of 5p November 300 manufacturer's pricing pages (ALL SCALES only at this time) added for shopping. The next 50+ pages will be added as fast time will allow!

The Atlanta Greenberg Train Show went well. We spoke to well over 500 people over the 2 day show. Adding nearly the same amount of names to our email list.

Manufacturer's with single pages should be added by 11/08/05.

Pre Grand Opening Sale and website testing starts November 1 thru 23

Additional web pages being processed to bring total ALL SCALES links
up to 300 by November 23.

October 2005:

By October 15, "featured manufacturers" pages are completed with
master product lists for all. Work begins on secondary manufacturers pages.
Construction delays on retail location.

Decision is made to obtain an 800 number prior to retail store due to construction delays. 800-988-2125

First small ad for Model Railroader magazine submitted for the January 2006 issue
(December 2005 news stand date).

Table reserved at the Great Western and Atlantic Trainshow in Atlanta
for November 19 and 20.

September 2005:

2 weeks offer before the target opening date, unanticipated price increases occur and all manufacturer pricing needed to be updated. Online opening day pushed back 30 days to November 1.

August 2005:

Website page creation continues and the "featured manufacturers" pages are targeted for completion by September 14^th.

July 2005:

After over 30 days without internet access, we are but creating the website when again on July 22 the internet access was lost again! This time for 2 weeks. Construction on the retail space is delayed due to weather from mid June.

June 2005:

Progress on the website was moving along at brisk pace when on
June 7, the internet connection was lost. The internet access supplier, Charter Communication, could not seem to locate the problem and website creation came to a complete standstill. The construction of our retail location moved along, with the store front to be accessible for interior completion by August 1, 2005. When Blue Ridge Hobbies® was to take possession of the retail space.

April 2005:
The decision to build an online store is made and immediately the website is live with limited information and products. GoDaddy.com is chosen as the ISP provider. Tentative "live" opening date October 1, 2005. Walthers becomes the first supplier while the store front, brick and mortar location under goes construction. Cart32 is picked as our shopping cart software provider.

This page was last updated 08/31/2010