Train Sets Only: Chugging Right Along

For Paul Christel and his wife Lisa, Train Sets Only started modestly—from their home—in 2001.

Since then, the Internet-based model railroad retailer has moved into a New Lenox industrial complex and sells across the country.

You could say they really got the business on track.

Before starting Train Sets Only, Paul Christel worked in IT and warehousing. Combining his skills with a favorite hobby, Christel got the business going at “the beginning of e-commerce, right around the boom,” he says.

“There wasn't a lot of competition, really, at that time,” he says. “There’s a lot more competition now for us.”

But it’s been a welcome challenge for him and his family, which includes two children.

“I used to travel a lot, so this has definitely been a lot easier, I think,” he says.

Lisa agrees.

“It was a way of getting him off the road—go to baseball games, be home every night,” she says. “In that way, it definitely did change the family.”

Of course, there are some drawbacks to business ownership.

“There are some things that you sacrifice. I don't get weeks of paid vacation anymore, so it's a tougher thing,” he says. “But I think we've worked around that as well as can be expected.”

And in the process, Train Sets Only has grown. Initially, the business occupied one unit space. It now utilizes three units that have been combined into one warehouse.

Don't be confused by the name, because Train Sets Only sells more than just train sets—almost anything needed to go with a train set, in fact.

The warehouse is home to row after row of train sets and individual train cars, train tracks and assorted train controllers. There are completed buildings and landscaping as well as the raw materials that allow hobbyists to build any of the scenery. There are even wooden railroad sets such as those featured in the very popular Thomas line.

The focus is on “HO” and “N” scale sets because, according to Lisa, “when you get into the HO people, you might even get more of them depicting a time or a place around the train,” with buildings and elaborate scenery.

“You don't need as much space for the smaller ones, so you can make it look more realistic,” Paul says.

But Train Sets Only also stocks “G” and “O” scales. (The different scales, in order from smallest to largest, include Z, N, HO, O, On30 (O scale cars on HO scale track) and G.)

Just as important as the merchandise, Train Sets Only prides itself on what can’t be stocked on a shelf: customer service.

“We take it very seriously, and almost personally, because it's our business, it's our name,” Paul explains. “We're not a big corporation where a customer-service person is just taking a call and following a script and can't make a decision on their own. We treat each situation individually.

“We try to take ... the customer's perspective on things, even if it's policy—'Yeah, but if that happened to me, here's what I would expect'—within reason; we're not going to run ourselves out of business doing it.”

That customer service has, in the past, extended to making special, personal deliveries. But make no mistake: This is set up to be an online business. The warehouse is set up in a particular way for packing and shipping purposes and not for customer traffic or having cash on hand.

But the warehouse’s location does aid in customer service in an important way.

“We're kinda the central part of the country, so shipping times are to our (and the customers') advantage,” Paul says. “A lot of the competition, the bigger ones, are out on a coast,” so getting a shipment across to the opposite end of the country using the same shipping service might take an extra day or two.

Then there’s the level of expertise that adds to the service experience for customers. Train Sets Only hasn’t branched out to other radio-controlled devices such as boats, planes and cars like some of its competitors have done, because “we're not experts in that,” Paul says.

“We don't just throw the stuff out the door and 'you're on your own',” he adds.

By maintaining its focus, the business can carry more items related to trains and stay up to date with developments in the industry.

Finally, Train Sets Only does offer a little-publicized deal for local residents: spend at least $50 and shipping is free. It's their way of serving the local customer without opening their actual doors to them.

Train Sets Only

• Website: www.trainsetsonly.com
• Mailing Address: 1040 Industry Rd., New Lenox, IL 60451
• Customer Service Email: custserv@trainsetsonly.com
• Phone: (815) 462-4720