| Date |
| Current Postings |
|
See Current News for more current postings.
|
| June 30, 2010 |
The last day before HST. Not much will change in pricing for model railroad items. Most
items already have PST and GST. This will be replaced with HST.
The only things that we think will change are Magazines and Repairs. Currently they both only
have GST on them. As of July 1, 2010 they will have HST on them.
|
| June 29, 2010 |
Well back to work after a week off.
The lane and parking lot are paved. There are no lines in the parking lot yet so please be sensible
when parking there.
If you park in the lane behind the store, please park beside the tracks, parallel to the tracks and
West of the 'Renfrew Station' sign.
|
| June 23, 2010 |
| The mud bowl parking lot is now paved. As well the lane behind the store is paved and will
be available for parking. It will be ready to use tomorrow (24th)..
|
| June 21, 2010 |
| Road work is finished (for now) and traffic and parking are back to normal.
|
| June 19, 2010 |
The city has started tearing up the road. They are working on both sewer connections at
the same time. Currently one lane each way is open. Traffic is a bit backed up on Grandview but
not too bad.
Of course this means that there is no parking on Grandview Highway. As the weekday Skytrain
parkers are away there are many spots available on the side streets. Skytrain is still the easiest
way to get here today.
This will be finished by Monday. Of course the city will be back some time in the future to re
pave the road. No idea when that will be.
|
| June 18, 2010 |
The water pipe installation went well. Mostly completed before the store opened. A bit
more to do next week.
The City cut up the road today.
No parking signs have been posted for Saturday the 19th and Sunday the 20th. Digging up the
street will commence tomorrow (Saturday the 19th) with partial or full street closures during
both
days.
With this weekends parking issues it looks like Skytrain will be the easiest way to get here. |
| June 17, 2010 |
| (Sarcasm on)Yet more Wonderful News (sarcasm off) from the City. They are going to do
sewer work on our street. Cutting up the street will start on the 18th (tomorrow) with actual
digging occurring Saturday through Monday. This will mean street closures. At least they are
doing both sewer connections (one at each end of the building) at the same time rather than
coming twice. That should get the pain over with faster. |
| June 15, 2010 |
| (Sarcasm on)Wonderful News (sarcasm off) from the City. The Fire Department Standpipe
has to be located West of our store instead of just to the East. This means running a pipe through
the already finished front of the store. Going to be a Fun (not!) Friday morning. The work should
be largely finished before we open in the morning. |
| June 10, 2010 |
| Actual good news for once. Work on the parking behind the store has started. Should be
finished in a week or so. Looks like the West end parking lot, currently the "Mud Bowl" will be
paved soon. |
| June 9, 2010 |
| Post Inventory work continues - totaling all the pages filled out on inventory night. This
should be finished by early next week so we can get back to normal - whatever that is. |
| June 8, 2010 |
| Bad news - there is sewer work on our street in the future. The whole road will be closed
for a day or two. Due to the traffic on the road it looks like it will be a Sunday / Monday event.
Which day it will be we do not know yet. |
| June 4, 2010 |
| Hooray no street work today! |
| June 3, 2010 Afternoon |
| The City is finished for now. There is a temporary road patch and a sidewalk patch that will
need replacing in the future but for now they are gone! |
| June 3, 2010 |
| It is not as bad today as it was yesterday, no Case tractor parked IN FRONT OF OUR
DOOR ON THE SIDEWALK. The side walk has now been dug up so access from the East is
not good. Still easy to get to us from the West. As predicted the City workers are gone by 3 PM
to clear the afternoon rush hour. |
| June 2, 2010 |
Today we arrived at the store to discover what the City of Vancouver is doing to help local
businesses:
Despite all this we are open.
Please be careful moving past the work equipment.
As usual they will be gone by 3 PM so if you need to come to the store that would be a better
time.
|
| June 1, 2010 |
| The city is digging up the street today. One traffic lane is blocked and most of the parking
on the street is occupied. I expect things to get better after 3 PM. The sidewalk is still OK and
the store is accessible from both the East and the West.
|
| May 31, 2010 |
We survived the 2010 inventory. Although Saturday was a looong day we finished in good
time before midnight and didn't have to come back for more counting on Sunday. As always it
would not have been possible without a good crew of helpers. We would like to thank (in no
particular order): Bob L, Rob M., Steve and Judy. Tom J, Mike M., Neil, Glenn, John G., Geoff,
Crazy Ricky, Al M., Al M. and Marge, Dick S., Greg and Suzie, Sandy and Kris, Ed M., Phil and
Leanne, Mac S., Margaret and last but not least Monkey Emily.
Now for the "fun" process of totaling hundreds of pages of numbers.
|
| May 26, 2010 |
| So far the City Water Work is a non issue. They showed up early Wednesday morning, cut
the sidewalk and road then picked up their "NO Parking" signs and went away. No idea when
they will be back to do the actual digging. At least they did all the noisy work before we were
open.
|
| May 22, 2010 |
CN had a work train behind the store today; Unit RCM1, and three flat cars with a mobile crane
on them. It was picking up old ties from the track work they did a few weeks ago.
|
| May 21, 2010 |
| Great news! The city just put up no parking signs along part of our street. They will be
digging up part of the street and sidewalk to get water to part of the building. Looking at what is
marked up access from the West will be the easiest. I will post more info when I know what's up.
|
| May 11, 2010 |
| The West parking lot is useable but rough.
|
| May 5, 2010 |
| Not a good day for parking. Both parking lots are being dug up for drainage reasons. Not
sure when they will be finished. For now Skytrain is a good option. As well there is a lot under
the Skytrain west of the store that always seems to have room.
|
| As well to add insult to injury the City has started enforcing the two hour parking limit.
|
| April 13, 2010 |
The second of three busy April weekends has passed successfully.
The Nanaimo show (this last weekend) was again a good show. The weather cooperated in not
delaying any ferries.
Going over Saturday the ferry was not full. Coming back Sunday evening it was chock-a-block
full down to the last vehicle parked sideways at the rear.
|
| April 7, 2010 |
The first of three busy April weekends has passed successfully.
It started on Thursday with the boss taking the store to the Spring Meet in Salmon Arm.
Friday was WINDY. It howled. Didn't bother putting the sidewalk sign out as it would not have
stood up and I didn't want to have to walk down the block to retrieve it.
Saturday was a good day with Dale Sanders and his wife coming to the store to Autograph his
new book: Northern Lights. We had a good crowd show up for autographs, to buy the book and
to talk to Dale. It was a great day!.
Sunday we hit the road to go and visit the outlaws in Salmon Arm. A good trip. We came back
Tuesday. During the trip we experienced four seasons; Spring - clear and warm, Fall - it poured a
few times, Winter - it was a bit of a Blizzard coming back through the Coqihalla from about the
former location of the Toll Plaza down to Shylock, and of course 'Construction'. The four
laning of Highway One from Kamloops to Calgary is under way in various locations.
CPR seems to be running long container/auto rack trains east. Both going up and coming back,
east of Kamloops we saw a double length train; a unit on the nose, a long string of container cars
(some empty), a unit in the middle, another string of container cars and a long string of Auto
racks with a unit trailing the whole mess.
|
| March 16, 2010 |
The Neon Sign arrived Saturday and is installed. I need to take a picture in the evening.
Now I can restart organizing the books. Of course with Western Rails this past weekend we have
to deal with the mess created by that event.
|
|
Work has resumed on finishing the outside of the store. Flashing and siding are now starting to
fill the formerly empty spaces. Thanks to the construction crew we had an early morning Alarm
test< G >. Works well.
|
| March 5, 2010 |
Another week of working on the 5% left to do.
As mentioned over a month ago, was the move really that long ago, some of the panels (#s 12
through 37) were mixed up when they were moved from the East wall to the West wall. Work
has started on rearranging them. Tools, misc trucks and couplers, Kadee, Details West, NWSL
and MBE are now back on facing panels. Details Associates is next in line. All the vehicle panels
will be reorganized soon.
Books were reasonably organized but have now been piled up to make way for the Neon Sign
installation. I still do not know how the books are going to be reorganized. I am still waiting for
the 'Aha' moment to tell me what to do.
The Inventory is looming in the future (two and a half months). The plan we used for ten years
went out with the old store. Time to start designing new maps for the new store. We will use the
same method of inventory, we just need new control maps.
Out back of the store CN has been doing tie replacement. Seems a Government Agency came
buy and said you need to do some track work. Here's a fine to get you started. They had a full
track gang here.
I haven't had time to take pictures of everything or get numbers but here are two images.
 Harsco MK IV .
 Kershaw Machine .
|
| February 24, 2010 |
Signs, Signs, everybody needs signs.*1
A store needs signs. We now have a  sidewalk sign.
Produced for us by Coastal Signs
 Sign Box
We now have a store sign. It is not lighted yet (will be this week we hope) but gives us more
visibility. Not as good as our old awning. Still to come, a neon sign for the front window.
*1 For those of you who remember The Five Man Electric Band
|
| February 23, 2010 |
Found the DVDs and set up the DVD display.
Also a bit space for plastics was made.
|
| February 18, 2010 |
The main display case has been loaded.
The DCC Test Layout is now operational.
|
| Saturday, February 13, 2010 |
| The HO Scale Rapido Trains cars are organized.
|
| Friday, February 12, 2010 |
| The Preiser HO scale figures are now in one rotary cabinet as well as lights and signals.
|
| Thursday, February 11, 2010 |
| Z Scale is now all in one Rotary Cabinet.
|
| Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
| The Royal Hudson came back from White Rock today. It was a great day for steam. The air
was cool enough for the steam to linger.
|
| Monday, February 8, 2010 |
| A day to ride the Royal Hudson to White Rock. A very nice trip.
|
| Tuesday, February 3, 2010 |
The rush to get things out of boxes and on the shelves is slowing down. Now we are
working on organizing things on their shelves. The Book Nook is still a disaster but it is getting
better. Still need to put four shelves on the wall and then sort and organize the books.
A major future project is reorganizing the thirty-seven parts panels. With the move, twenty seven
of them moved from the East wall to the West wall. This means that items that used to be across
from each other on adjacent panels, are now on the Opposite Sides of adjacent panels. This does
not affect too many manufacturers (Details Associates, Details West, NWSL, Kadee and
Miniatures by Eric) but it is a good excuse to reorganize all of them.
The N Scale area has had a major reorganization. Many items that were on low shelves in the old
store are now on shelves on the wall at a much more accessible height. All the shelves still need
to be sorted in order but they are up and full.
|
| Tuesday, February 2, 2010 |
The wall of boxes is getting much lower however the pile of boxes with junk is getting
higher.
Most displays are in their final (or close to) locations. Most aisles are clear. Still more to do.
Starting to think about the Grand Reopening. We are not ready yet but with the Olympics coming
soon that will push the date into March. |
| Saturday January 30, 2010 |
| Open for business. Filling shelves. Much still to do. |
| Friday January 29, 2010 |
| More shelves on back wall and N Scale wall. |
| Thursday January 28, 2010 |
| The back wall of shelves are up, twenty-four feet by seven shelves high. Now to load them.
|
| Wednesday January 27, 2010 |
Open for sales. Still a long way from finding everything! More moving and reorganizing.
The renovation crew painted the back wall. We can put up the shelving later today. Then we can
start on the wall of boxes.
 The new store front.
No sign yet.
|
| Tuesday January 26, 2010 |
Open for limited sales. Front counter mostly assembled.
The computer is up and works! Yeah! More moving and reorganizing.
The renovation crew mudded the back wall. |
| Monday January 25, 2010 |
Only junk left to move, give away or throw out.
The renovation crew started working on closing in the back wall. Moved boxes, set up displays.
More reorganization. |
We had a fantastic crew of helpers yesterday. Customers donated from a few hours to a few
days and some are still helping.
Central Hobbies would like to thank: (in no particular order) Al M., Greg and Suzie, Emil, Paul
N., John G., Dave M., Dave H., Dave S., David Y., Mike M., Dick S., Glenn W., Norio R., Jim
G., Len T., Geoff G., Graham W., Neil R., Richard Y., Jay San, Greg K., Doug S., Ian P., Ian L.,
Al R., Bob H., Mark, Jamie and Jamie (yes two Jamies), Rusty, Monty, and no doubt a few
others who I forgot.
Thank You everyone for helping with the move. We could not have done it without
you. |
| Sunday January 24, 2010 |
Moving Day. What a Day! Twenty plus customers came to help. The vast majority of stuff
was moved into the new store. All of the displays and cabinets are where they are supposed to be.
Sadly it looks like my measuring of the new store was wrong. Happily it was short not long so
we ended up with wider aisles.
We knew in advance that not everything would fit. We have to down size a bit so G Scale which
has not been paying its way for a long time will be sold off. We will special order anything but
we will not stock it. Plastic models will be cut way back. The new store only has two-thirds the
space the old store had for them. Should be a bit of culling in the train stock we currently have.
|
| January 23, 2010 |
| We started moving boxes today. After a long day it didn't look like we had made a dent in
the store stock. |
| Previous Postings |
|
See: Pre Move for postings from before the move.
|
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