Shopkeeper looks back over 50 years of working on Leith Walk

By Clare Carswell
Bob Baird in Harburn Hobbies on Elm Row.

For more than 50 years Bob Baird has worked at the model shop, Harburn Hobbies where he has served generations of transport enthusiasts and overcome many challenges to his business. He shares his memories and secrets to his success with STV Local Edinburgh.

Bob has been interested in trains for as long as he can remember. From about the age of four, he would go with his older sister to Princes Street Gardens and stand on the bridge over the railway tracks.

He said: “We used to stand on the footbridge and the steam trains would be coming underneath and hopefully we would get a blast of steam from the steam engine as it passed, the excitement of that I used to love it.”

His interest of trains was developed through his local newsagents in Cannonmills where he used to go and look at the Hornby models in the shop.

He said: “He was a lovely man, a jolly, fatherly chap, everybody loved him. He knew I liked railways and in September 1961 he invited me on a railway tour of local stations, a week later I was working in Harburn Hobbies.”

The shop was set up in the 1930s by two men with the surnames Hargreaves and Burns at 124 Leith Walk which at the time were known as the ‘new shops’ because they were built in 1933.

In 1978 the shop moved closer to town to 67 Elm Row where it continues to attract customers from far and wide, from the Western Isles to Newcastle and London.

Bob started as a Saturday junior and enjoyed the job so much that he has never left and has managed to diversify the business to keep up with competition from other businesses and online retailers.

He said: “Our customers are made up of a whole range of different people from kids up to professional people.

“Some people who like trains like Peter Snow just like to have trains running, while others like to make replicas of stations including exact details and some people enjoy running their own timetable.

“I think some people like the fact that they can control their own world especially after a hard day at work. It’s an escapist thing.”

Harburn Hobbies has always been able to adapt to change and in fact were ahead of the game when it came to international sales, before the internet came along.

Bob said: “We were always sending stuff out to ex-pats living abroad in Australia and Canada, wherever. Three years ago when I went to Whistler the girl who was the train co-ordinator out there said that her father was a customer in the 1960s and said ‘I know who you are’.”

When considering the secret to the shop’s success which has been in existence since the 1930s, Bob’s said “dogged determination but I also have a fantastic team of employees who work very hard.”

He added: “I always like to try something different and have done various things for media including mock-ups of the tram project.”

Bob explained that prior to the tram project starting he had offered his specialist knowledge of the previous Edinburgh network and what had been done elsewhere in Europe but these suggestions were not incorporated.

As he reflected on the highlights of his career so far, he said: “Although it sounds cliched it's the customers from over all the years. Because it is a hobby business the people have time to spend, there are a lot of nice people out there. They are more friends than customers.

“There has always been a friendly atmosphere and it has always been a nice atmosphere to work in.

“I think that a lot of people are going to miss out in the future. You can buy anything on the internet but the personal touch, a little bit of human contact and the relationship with our customers who have had kids and their kids have had kids and they are all customers and I know a lot by their first name.”

Last week Harburn Hobbies received a Highly Commended certificate for their shop window in the Leith Shop Idol competition and this weekend will take part in the Modelrail Scotland exhibition at the SECC in Glasgow.

The exhibition is the second biggest model railway show in the UK and is one of the busiest times of the year for Harburn Hobbies.

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