Forum Sponsors: Great Service

Hennings Trains recently did a great job for me fixing a Lionel Boston & Albany Hudson made in the mid to late 1980s.  My LHS couldn't fix it and my regular train doctor declined trying to fix it.  A very highly regarded model railroader friend of mine with a World renown layout recently told me he uses Hennings Trains for his repairs.

The locomotive was packaged extremely well when shipped back to me (I received it today),  it now runs good as new, and the cost of the repair was very reasonable.

Hey Arnold,

I purchased my benchwork from forum sponsor Mianne after all the good reviews I read on the OGR forum.  Very satisfied with their product.  Tim worked with me to customize one of his standard designs to perfectly fit my available space.  I also purchased some LED lights from forum sponsor Evan Designs.  Very happy with those products as well.

John

I too am very happy with my Mianne benchwork(and Tim's help), Now it is in a broken down state but soon to be rebuilt again.

Beth at Public Delivery Track is always very helpful, Mister Muffin's Trains, Mario's Trains , I consider all of them my LHS since we don't have one near me anymore. I don't buy much anymore(although I have bought from all 3 in the last couple of months!) I do like to browse. All the above have very user friendly web sites, with great search features.

I, too, have had great service from Beth, at Public Delivery Track, in addition to her wide selection. I also had great service from Charles Ro. I get great deals from my local shop (Grzyboski’s), and timely repairs. I’ll also miss Scranton Hobby. When I travel to visit family in Gaithersburg, MD, there are good shops in that region.

Nicholas Smith Trains - Great service, great people; it's as simple as that.

Although not a Forum Sponsor, I can't restrain myself from mentioning the extraordinarily good and prompt MTH repair work that our own GGG has done for me during the past 3 years.

JR Junction Hobby, a Forum Sponsor, has been a pleasure for me to make purchases from, and I am also very pleased with the purchases I have made from Railroadbackdrops.com, another Forum Sponsor of ours. They have both provided me with outstanding customer service.

By the way, I am particularly pleased with this thread because I absolutely love singing the praises of those businesses and individuals who have provided me with excellent service. Arnold

I've dealt with quite a few of the Forum sponsors mentioned above and had great service from all of them.

I have dealt with a number of Forum sponsors and have yet to be disappointed.

If nothing else when ordering from a Forum Sponsor, if given the opportunity, you should at least thank them for their sponsorship so they know the value of sponsoring the forum.  I know some folks will directly go to the website rather than a banner click so by at least letting them know their sponsorship is valued they get a nod from us who use the forum for free basically.

In dealing with Forum sponsors, I always mention that I learned of them through OGR.  No issues. Mark

@Prr7688 posted:

Nicholas Smith Trains - Great service, great people; it's as simple as that.

And, good prices.

Andy has gone searching through that NOS place they have to find something weird for me many times over the years. lol

Besides mailorder, I sometimes take my wife down to Thomas Jefferson hospital in Philly ... I always make a stop to see the nice people at Nicholas Smith (and get a cheesesteak at the Thunderbird next door).

Quote Arnold, “This time, the focus will be on great service in the broadest sense, and if you want to say anything else that's good about any Forum sponsor, please do”

I’m staying on topic here,

Arnold, My very first thought regarding great service is OGR, and Sponsors, they remained open and on the job during our two years of pandemic.  I’ll go on to include the number of manufacturers who continued to supply our many sponsors.

Secondly, the ones who remained on the job to  handle, transport, and deliver the many orders I placed during the past two years I personally thank them.

Sincerely

John d.

I respectfully submit, partly in jest and partly very seriously, that we should change the name of our featured topic from "OGR Forum Sponsor Index" to "OGR Fabulous Forum Sponsor Index."

Not only do our sponsirs all seem to provide outstanding service, they also make it possible for us all to have access to, and contribute to, this Forum free of charge.

One more thing, the poet in my loves the alliteration in: Fabulous Forum.

It would be great if we would share the good word here and update all of our positive experiences in dealing with our Fabulous Forum Sponsors.

As usual, I will chime after some of you have had a chance to contribute.

Arnold

Nassau Hobby Center has always been my go too shop and I've never been disappointed. 

Plus Chris does lots of special runs.

Love using Forum sponsors………my big four are the Muffins, Ross, Mianne and TW TrainWorx.

Thank you all for sponsoring!

Peter

Grew up going to Trainworld and Nassau Hobby and still shop in both today. I've bought a good portion of my collection from Trainz.
Evan Designs, Menards, Timko, ERR- 3rd Rail, RMT, Lionel, MTH, and so on.

All super sponsors and I've gotten great service from all.

Bob

I've had great transactions with Lionel, Nassau Hobbies, Muffins, Mianne, Miller Engineering, and TW TrainWorx.

What a great group!

Thanks Arnold for bringing attention to our forum sponsors and their support of this great forum.

I've had great experiences with Train World, Mr. Muffin,  Just Trains of Delaware, Miller Engineering, Gargraves, The Public Delivery Track, and Side Track Hobbies.   I use OGR Forum sponsors first whenever possible.     

For brand new MTH during the past several years, Phil of JR Junction Train & Hobby in Syracuse, NY has provided me with excellent products and service. Two of my Forum friends feel the same way about JR Junction, which has a service department and can fix things if there is a problem. They also have had locomotives that MTH has made exclusively for them, the prototypes of which ran through upstate NY. I like those upstate NY railroads, I've purchased 2 of these exclusive MTH Proto 3 locomotives from JR Junction during the past several years, and am thrilled with them.

A train buddy in my local train club purchases from Charles Ro and is very happy with them. He tells me that if there is a problem, then Charles Ro takes care of it for him free of charge. I have also purchased from Charles Ro in the past and was fully satisfied with them.

The willingness of a Forum Sponsor to solve problems and make the customer whole is important to me.

Like others have said above, I also make a point of expressing my appreciation to the vendor for being an OGR Forum Sponsor.

Since joining this Forum in November 2017, I have purchased many trains and other items for my layout from Forum Sponsors, and all of my experiences have been positive. These vendors include Railroadbackdrops.com, Trainworld, Beth at Public Delivery Track,  and Nicholas Smith Trains.

Arnold

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

This topic is similar to one I started in 2020, in praise of our wonderful Forum sponsors who enable us to get, IMO, one of the best deals out there:a free Forum. This time, the focus will be on great service in the broadest sense, and if you want to say anything else that's good about any Forum sponsor, please do.

Why is the Forum such a great deal for us?

Well, besides costing us absolutely nothing,

Well technically that is no longer true.  There is a cost to new members in the way of purchasing a Digital Subscription, IMO a small price to pay for the ability to post here but even better a great deal to access the entire OGR vault.  Many of us were most likely grandfathered in.  I think it's important to be accurate.

Of course many of us support the forum via Forum Sponsor Purchases, Supporting Membership, etc.

I use the Forum Sponsors almost exclusively when searching for an item.  I appreciate what they do in supporting the forum!

@MartyE posted:

Well technically that is no longer true.  There is a cost to new members in the way of purchasing a Digital Subscription, IMO a small price to pay for the ability to post here but even better a great deal to access the entire OGR vault.  Many of us were most likely grandfathered in.  I think it's important to be accurate.

Of course many of us support the forum via Forum Sponsor Purchases, Supporting Membership, etc.

I use the Forum Sponsors almost exclusively when searching for an item.  I appreciate what they do in supporting the forum!

Thanks, Marty, for your correction.

I have to chime in here with a nod to S & W Parts Supply. Not just for the usual reasons (prompt service, easy accessibility by phone and email, attention to even a small-order customer like me and a huge inventory of post war parts) but for their method of payment. When I recently placed my $6 parts order for a 445 Switch Tower, Bill said not to pay until the goods were in my hands. His preferred method was for the customer to mail him a check if satisfied. He said he had never been shorted in over 40 years of business with model railroaders. He also went to the extra trouble of mailing my order to Canada without charge. Two thumbs up to S & W.

Bob

ps - He asked how I found him and yes, @Arnold D. Cribari I told him OGR Forum!

Thanks Arnold for making me think again.  I just went down the list of sponsors , over 15 have helped me along the way.

Not a bad word about any of them. They combine to make a new generation LHS!

Add in a few print and digital advertisers , OGR print digital and forum are the link to all of them. OGR kept me close to the hobby and Kurt from Just Trains brought me back in!

Berwyn’s Toys and Trains is an easy one for me to promote. I’ve been an on and off customer for years. Now with the custom runs I am a full timer.

Getting local engines and rolling stock from companies I once worked for makes my layout more personal.

Customer service is excellent  They truly cater to you and want to know what you are interested in.