Lombard Hobbies prepares July 27 reopening after website transition delay

Lombard Hobbies says its brick-and-mortar and online store will officially reopen Monday, July 27, after a website transition delay that has paused the shop’s online operations. For model railroaders waiting on locomotives, freight cars, accessories and parts that can vanish fast once allocations land, the update matters because it points to a restart, not a reset.

The shop says the crew is “putting the finishing touches” on the new website and taking “a little extra time” to make sure everything runs smoothly before customers are welcomed back. The same reopening message appears across Lombard Hobbies pages including Model Railroad News, Railroad Model Craftsman, Upcoming Events, PreOrders/Special Order, Customer Service, and Shipping, Returns & Unpaid Orders, which makes clear the transition reaches the whole site rather than a single page or department.

For customers with reservations tied to new releases in HO, N and other scales, the key line is the reassurance that any preorder that has recently arrived or is expected soon is “safe and accounted for.” That is the detail layout builders and collectors care about most during a site rebuild, when a missed reservation can mean losing a hard-to-find locomotive, a specific car road name or the right detail part for a project that is already underway.

Lombard Hobbies also says it is continuing to receive and process incoming shipments during the transition. That keeps the supply side moving for the kind of project-critical items that often decide whether a benchwork session keeps going or stalls out, from track components and DCC gear to rolling stock and replacement parts. The company also said it had originally shared an earlier reopening date, adding context to the delay and suggesting the store pushed back the relaunch to finish the website properly.

For modelers, the practical takeaway is simple: the shop is not disappearing into a dead zone while the new site is finished. The physical store and the online storefront are both due back on July 27, and the preorder pipeline is still being managed while the transition wraps up.