Feather River Trains ROCKS

[DKS]

This needs to go in rotation!

It is.

[kverdon]

I spoke with Chuck a little over month ago. Yep, definitely a class act. He had to close the brick and mortar due to escalating rent costs. He has also had some recent family medical issues that took quite a bit of his time. As a consequence he can be a bit hard to get ahold of. Give him a bit of a break, he'll be back at it soon enough. Pity about Athearn, he has way more class than they have showed of late. They need to bring their business practice into this Millennium and take their QC and customer service back to the last one. No great loss there, I won't be buying anything from them again but certainly will order from Chuck again should someone produce something new in NScale to entice me back into the purchase arena.

[nkalanaga]

KVerdon:  That's basically what he told me the last time I called - too much rent for the B&M store, and lots of medical issues with family members.  He also said that his wife's business brings in a lot more money than FRT, so if anything has to give, it's FRT.  He certainly wasn't planning on quitting.  He and his wife are fine, it's older family members having issues, but I don't recall which side of the family they were on.

I asked about simply opening a store in his garage, which would be a "fixed location", but he said Horizon wouldn't go for that.  They want a "real" store, in a commercial location.  In short, they have no interest in real "old-fashioned mom and pop" businesses, many of which WERE home-based.

[dougnelson]

Anyone heard from Chuck lately?  Emails and phone messages have not been returned.

[Cajonpassfan]

I did get a belated call back from Chuck about two weeks ago, with apologies. Family/elderly parent issues back east.
Otto K.

[nkalanaga]

I tried calling and emailing him last weekend, also with no response.  The last couple times I talked to him, January and March I believe, he mentioned that either his or her, I don't remember, parent(s) were not well. 

I didn't try to remember the exact details because, after years in bank data processing, NOT remembering personal data is second nature.  You might be surprised what we saw on some checks!

[peteski]

It's been a while - anybody know Chulvis' status?

Website is up, but I haven't seen him post anything here for a long time.

[tom mann]

@Chulvis you ok?

[Atlas Paul]

@Chulvis you ok?

He posts on Facebook from time to time, so he is still around.

[SecretWeapon]

I talk to him about every 2-3 weeks. He's doing ok. He, like Jerry Debene, OC ENGINEER, is spending every possible minute at the gym .