The Brown hall was empty without her!!! Does anyone know why Beth was not there?? I hope she is not closing shop?
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If you take a look at the PDT website you can see she has other things going on.
The trip from California with a large load of O scale most of which she winds up
taking back to California, well maybe the long trip is just not worth it.
I missed seeing Beth as well. Always one of my first stops when the doors open. She does have a lot of irons in the fire.
The Public Delivery Track is still an OGR forum sponsor, and I've purchased/pre-ordered several times without ever being disappointed. One time Beth offered to swap two-rail trucks for 3-rail trucks on an Atlas-O Gunderson set at no extra charge. Great customer service.
Recently Beth has been quite open about a variety of responsibilities in life, as well as a broad range of interests to balance life's endless challenges. But toy train enthusiasts can be a tough breed of consumer. Products ship from importers to dealers, and consumers often expect those products to then ship to their door the same or next business day -- not to mention for free. 
Admittedly, this field is fiercely competitive among dealers as we've seen right here on the forum... with some offering same-day turn-around when they receive shipments from the importers.
I've missed seeing Beth at Allentown's ATMA show for a couple of shows now, so something is definitely up. Being based on the West Coast can't be easy in terms of expenses to repeatedly fly out to East Coast venues. York and Allentown are often 3-8 weeks apart... too long to stay over for the whole time (depending upon responsibilities on the home front), but close enough to still be a pricey travel expense over a short period of time.
I did see Andy Peterson in the Atlas-O booth at York last week, since he's picking up the Atlas-O PRE-ORDER (only) part of JD Train's business -- not the inventory. As we were talking, he mentioned it's been over 7 years since he's had a booth at York!!! 
WOW!!! Only seemed like a couple of years ago I saw him at York. 
So time is marching on for all of us.
Bottom line... times change... people change... the dealer landscape changes... as does the importer/manufacturing landscape too. But as long as a dealer remains sincere and conscientious about their orders, and treats their customers with respect, I'll still offer them a share of my business. So Beth is still on my short-list of good toy train dealers until she steps away from the business completely. And if she does, that's her choice to navigate through life's various chapters. Few of us do the same thing forever... nor should we be expected to.
David
Originally Posted by Rocky Mountaineer:
The Public Delivery Track is still an OGR forum sponsor, and I've purchased/pre-ordered several times without ever being disappointed. One time Beth offered to swap two-rail trucks for 3-rail trucks on an Atlas-O Gunderson set at no extra charge. Great customer service.
Recently Beth has been quite open about a variety of responsibilities in life, as well as a broad range of interests to balance life's endless challenges. But toy train enthusiasts can be a tough breed of consumer. Products ship from importers to dealers, and consumers often expect those products to then ship to their door the same or next business day -- not to mention for free. Admittedly, this field is fiercely competitive among dealers as we've seen right here on the forum... with some offering same-day turn-around when they receive shipments from the importers.
I've missed seeing Beth at Allentown's ATMA show for a couple of shows now, so something is definitely up. Being based on the West Coast can't be easy in terms of expenses to repeatedly fly out to East Coast venues. York and Allentown are often 3-8 weeks apart... too long to stay over for the whole time (depending upon responsibilities on the home front), but close enough to still be a pricey travel expense over a short period of time.
I did see Andy Peterson in the Atlas-O booth at York last week, since he's picking up the Atlas-O PRE-ORDER (only) part of JD Train's business -- not the inventory. As we were talking, he mentioned it's been over 7 years since he's had a booth at York!!! WOW!!! Only seemed like a couple of years ago I saw him at York. So time is marching on for all of us.
Bottom line... times change... people change... the dealer landscape changes... as does the importer/manufacturing landscape too. But as long as a dealer remains sincere and conscientious about their orders, and treats their customers with respect, I'll still offer them a share of my business. So Beth is still on my short-list of good toy train dealers until she steps away from the business completely. And if she does, that's her choice to navigate through life's various chapters. Few of us do the same thing forever... nor should we be expected to.
David
Well said David. Sometimes you just need to take a break too. I did that and I am sure others have as well.
