Welcome to the January
22, 2012 edition of,
The Hockley Express
The winter of 2011/2012 has been kind to us in southern Ontario, but don’t
you get the feeling we’ll have to ‘pay’ for this? Who knows,
spring just keeps getting closer, and I’m all for that.
Hockley Valley Railroad is ready, not only for spring, but for any season on
your railroad! We have everything from the scenery products you’ll need,
to friendly advice to get you rolling. Our shelves are stocked, and our no-charge
phone number is at the ready! Give us a call at 1 888 942 9900, and have our
shipping department send your next item right to your door. Check our stock
listed on our website at www.hvrr.ca or drop in to our Alliston store to check
every department. The stock in the consignment section is always changing, but
you’re assured a great deal!
Other than Wiarton Willie, another sign of spring is the Barrie Train Show,
once again held at the Bradford Greenhouses Garden Gallery, at the corner of
highways 90 and 27, in Barrie’s south east. If you’ve never been
there, plan on going, it is a treat! All things trains held in a greenhouse,
so the sun is on your back the whole time. You’ll find Verna and me there
again this year, looking after the Hockley Valley Railroad display, and we’re
always glad to see you. Be sure to stop by! It’s on February 18 and 19,
with the doors open at 10.
Just arrived from American Main Line, the Bethgon coal porters in CN. These
museum quality models are welcome additions to garden railroads, especially
with their expanding product line. Have a look, check the detail and the steel
wheels, and take one home at $129.50.
HO roads will look and sound great with an Athearn Genesis SD70M at the point.
These engines are in CN paint and come with Tsunami sound, factory installed.
We have them in two road numbers at $275.00 each.
Volmer has sent us their McDonalds kit, with a drive through! This eye catching
layout addition is yours at $52.00. Perhaps you could park an Airstream trailer
nearby. This one’s from Busch, and sells at $18.50. Woodland Scenics has
sent us their built up community church. This is well detailed and looks great
at $66.50.
Hockley Valley has lots of details ready to go including coal loads from JWD
at $6.50 - $8.50. Excel hobby has their 20 piece drill set with a stand offered
at $23.50 and include drill sizes 60 – 80, and Kibri has their telescopic
crane and extension jib for $27.50.
N scalers will find the Walthers articulated 5 unit well cars in TTX in our
shelves at $45.00.
Train Trivia
During 2012, train trivia is featuring your story ideas. If you have a story
you think is of interest to Express readers, send your ideas to me at: tuxedo@wightman.ca
I’m also looking for a photo of your layout. Send me one photo or publication
in The Express.
John Tanner sent this story shedding some light on a little known fact about
time pieces, and the railway.
If you were in the market for a watch in 1880, would you know where to get one?
You would go to a store, right? Well, of course you could do that, but if you
wanted one that was cheaper and a bit better than most of the store watches,
you went to the train station! Sound a bit funny? Well, for about 500 towns
across the northern United States, that's where the best watches were found.
Why were the best watches found at the train station? The railroad company wasn't
selling the watches, not at all. The telegraph operator was. Most of the time
the telegraph operator was located in the railroad station because the telegraph
lines followed the railroad tracks from town to town. It was usually the shortest
distance and the right-of-ways had already been secured for the rail line.
Most of the station agents were also skilled telegraph operators and that was
the primary way that they communicated with the railroad. They would know when
trains left the previous station and when they were due at their next station.
And it was the telegraph operator who had the watches. As a matter of fact they
sold more of them than almost all the stores combined for a period of about
9 years.
This was all arranged by "Richard", who was a telegraph operator himself.
He was on duty in the North Redwood, Minnesota train station one day when a
load of watches arrived from the east. It was a huge crate of pocket watches.
No one ever came to claim them.
So Richard sent a telegram to the manufacturer and asked them what they wanted
to do with the watches. The manufacturer didn't want to pay the freight back,
so they wired Richard to see if he could sell them. So Richard did. He sent
a wire to every agent in the system asking them if they wanted a cheap, but
good, pocket watch. He sold the entire case in less than two days and at a handsome
profit.
That started it all. He ordered more watches from the watch company and encouraged
the telegraph operators to set up a display case in the station offering high
quality watches for a cheap price to all the travelers. It worked! It didn't
take long for the word to spread and, before long; people other than travelers
came to the train station to buy watches.
Richard became so busy that he had to hire a professional watch maker to help
him with the orders. That was Alvah. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The business took off and soon expanded to many other lines of dry goods.
Richard and Alvah left the train station and moved their company to Chicago
-- and it's still there.
It is a little known fact that for a while in the1880's, the biggest watch retailer
in the country was at the train station.
It all started with a telegraph operator:
Richard Sears and his partner Alvah Roebuck!
Jeff Norgate
Hockley Valley Railroad