Thomas A Yorke Studios

[smason2]

I agree with you Ishmael, but I think when it gets to the point of requesting your money back, then that needs to be done directly. If Pat has a problem getting his money back after the request is made, then That can and should be posted here.

Scott

[ishmael]

But isn't the point of Pat's message that he tried to e-mail Tom a dozen times or so and got no reply? You're basically asking him to go back into that loop, which doesn't seem constructive. Actually, I believe more than one partner here seems to have a problem answering e-mails on product deliveries. Maybe Jimmy needs to think about this issue and see if changes need to be made.

[rebel]

If you can't relay bad as well good on a forum primarily aimed at craftsman kit building, then where can you air this stuff. There are those among us that can only afford one craftsman kit a year and if they order from a vendor that can't or will not deliver then that is realy bad. We all have troubles from time to time and if a vendor wants to stay in good graces they will respond if only to say I don't have it but am working on it as Mr. Yorke has done. I do hope it all comes together for him and I think a progress report would alleviate a lot of the discord.

[Belg]

Guys thanks alot for the support. Scott the many emails sent ran the gambit from requesting money back to delivering a different kit than the one I originally ordered. This goes back several years from when the Bordello in HO was first announced, the last communication I had was that I was going to accept a Rubbles since the earlier pool hall/bordello HO version was not available.
This communication was well over four months ago and several postponements due to health and personal reason which I understand arise but still need to be addressed. It is MY money after all that is in the wind. Pat

[smason2]

I understand, Pat. I hope you get things settled.

Scott

[tomyorke]

I haven't been on this forum for some time because there has been no news to report. Some of you are aware of my situation but perhaps many aren't. Put in simple terms, I barely have enough available to pay the household bills and it has been that way for the last 6 months at least. Luckily I was able to take early retirement and that is starting to help. The problem has been enough money to pay shipping costs on the kits. I am not going to go into detail here, but I have received some additional money so I am now starting to ship old orders. This will take some time as there are quite a few. The Rubbles have been made and ready to go for months now. I must add, one of the problems has been the lack of orders for HO kits. I had hoped if I centered energy around this largest market in model railroading that I could make enough to carry on business. However, this has proved to be untrue. HO sales just didn't happen. That added to the problems instead of alleviating them. Yes, that's the way the cookie crumbles I know. Fine. But now I need to try and recover losses upon losses. Not easy in this economy, but I'll get there. Rubbles will go to those who ordered them as soon as I can get them out.

The future of HO kits by me is closed. I will not do any more. I plan on spending most of my time working for myself after I get all this cleared. Future models will be limited to a very few short runs of O scale and special parts for Gn15 scale. I am sorry this didn't work out and will ship remaining kits as I can. The HO market was what I thought would breath new life into my company, but it didn't work out that way for whatever reason. I am tired and at wits end. I need to spend the rest of my time enjoying my own hobby of model railroading in the privacy of my own basement now. I am shipping as I can, when I can.

Thanks,
Tom

[postalkarl]

Hi Tom:

It's been a long wait but it will be worth it. I will be looking in the mail for my Rubbles as time permits for you to mail them out. Hope you are feeling and doing better.

Thanks for the reply.

Karl

[hjw3001]

Thanks for the update Tom, and sorry to hear things have been so tough. I also look forward to receiving my Rubbles kit when you can get them out.

Henry

[Belg]

Tom, I hope I'm on that early list of rubbles shipments. Thanks for thwe update.

I think some of your troubles in getting more HO orders has to be based around your health troubles and personal ones. Alot of your fan base is on these and other forums and have seen this thread. You can't expect people to give you more orders when there was no way of knowing if the kits were going to be delivered. I'm sure you are as honorable a man as the many others I've met and gotten to know in this great hobby but in this day and age nobody can be frivolous with their money. Pat

[ishmael]

Tom is, of course, the expert on his business and his situation, but I'm still a little puzzled. Before the most recent series of posts, I was reading the current Gazette and saw on p. 59 a photo of a Yorke grain elevator kit that Jim Vail had built and put on his layout. The kit, as best I can recall, may have been advertised once, 30 years ago, and Jim calls it "rare", so I don't know how many were run. All I can say is that if I found one now, at almost any price, I would be ripping some of my layout out so I could install it. If all that stands in the way of Tom getting kits out is the cost of shipping -- per his account -- I've got to think where there's a will, there's a way.

I wonder too, though, about the choice of kits to re-run. Both the Bordello and the Rubbles depot I would put in the category of cute or caricature buildings -- there's a certain market for this, people at least advertise old FSM runs on eBay for multi-hundreds of dollars, but I wonder how thin that market may be. Tom has, over the years, brought out many other kits that, while interesting to weather and distress, are less caricatures and more day-to-day, like that grain elevator, or the Walker Evans school, or the D&RGW modern narrow gauge water tank. Or the modern buildings like the Oswego Manufacturing Company or the steel yard office.

It's hard for me to imagine that these wouldn't sell, especially if customers could be sure of prompt responses. Where there's a will, there's a way.