Last week, the model railway community was surprised to learn of the closure of Hattons Model Railways, a renowned United Kingdom-based model railways manufacturer and distributor. In the ensuing days, questions have arisen regarding the future of M.B. Klein, also known as Model Train Stuff. It was announced in September of 2023 that M.B. Klein had been acquired by Hattons. A representative from Hattons has issued the following statement to Model Railroader regarding the future of Model Train Stuff:
“At this present time, the company is undergoing reorganization and we will share further news as to the outcome of this in due course. Hattons does own M.B. Klein; However, the two companies are operated as separate entities.”
Since the announcement of Hattons closure, the status of Model Train Stuff’s website changed to reflect the current status of the company.
A lot of people were taken by surprise at the Hatton's announcement, as well as M B Klein's closure, but in February of 2021, I posted this: My Bet Is That Modeltrainstuff.com Is Heading The Way Of Caboose Hobbies. I talked about Caboose Hobbies and the increasing problems I had ordering from them before they closed their Denver store in 2016.I concluded that I was seeing the same symptoms from M B Klein, and it looks like I was right. In the mid-2000s, M B Klein had been a brick-and-mortar train store in downtown Baltimore, but its owner, Ted Klein, saw the opportunity to expand into internet discount sales. M B Klein as Modeltrainstuff.com became a major online retailer, and I was a frequent customer, especially aftter Caboose Hobbies went under. However, Klein died in 2020, and service began to deteriorate soon after.
The staff blamed it on COVID, but I have a feeling the real problem was the loss of Ted Klein. But I'm also intrigued that whoever was the owner after Klein's death sold out to Hatton's just last fall, and only a few months later, Hatton's went under. Was there a problem with Klein's that took Hatton's with it? But as I said in 2021, hobby stores come and hobby stores go.
