Rick Rideout’s Rix Products Inc

Were you interested in model railroading before you got into model railroad manufacturing as Rix products? Oh yeah. Yeah. I've always had the trains or slot cars or something. And this was just a, the manufacturing end of it was just because I needed something that wasn't available. That's how you got into the manufacturing? Yes, yeah. It started off with throttles. I needed a throttle that didn't get hot in your hand. And I redesigned an old troller throttle that I was able to handle a whole lot more current and went from there with the Rix Racks. And the Rix Racks was plastic bracket that you could Mount the switch machines to that you didn't have to fabricate yourself out of wood. And because I needed so many I didn't want to build them all by myself. I'm building all these wooden brackets myself. So I figured, well, heck I'll just make a mold. And if other people want to save time and use this plastic bracket, I'll have them available. And that, that mold, you know, that product sold. And from there I did others. So that's how the Rix Products got started? Right, yeah. To fill, fulfill a need on your railroad, not this railroad but an older railroad that you had. Right. Yeah. Do you test market your stuff or do you just know that, "Hey, I liked it and I need it on my railroad. Therefore, all the other 200,000 model railroaders are going to want it too." No yeah, that's about right. If, whether or not I think it will sell, if I really want it, yeah I'll do it. The, the telephone poles really, one week I had no idea I was gonna do a telephone poles. The next week I decided, "Hey, I need poles with, some with three cross arms, some with two, maybe some of four." And a one, I want, a lot of, a lot of my products are because I want things that they're quicker. I want to build assemblies in a hurry and get them on the railroad. I don't want to have to use wood and stain and all this, a lot of craftsmen type thing. You just don't have time with a railroad this large. Right yeah. You just don't have time. I try to keep moving. Try to get it in an area and out of an area, and continue. You say you've been interested in trains all of your life. Why don't you to tell me about that. What got you into trains? I really don't know. I think as soon as I saw the first train set, I was just overwhelmed. When you were a kid? Mmhmm. Yeah. And from there- It just grew, yeah. Were you active as a teenager in the hobby? Oh Yeah. Yeah. I used to take my wife on dates and of course then she wasn't my wife but I used to take her on dates, and if we had nothing else to do we ended up working on the layout of my mom and dad's house. Oh that was nice. Yeah. She enjoyed that. Yeah I bet. Has as model railroading become more than just a hobby to you? Yeah. It's, it's a, it's a life time commitment. It's a job. It's all of the above really. It's more than a hobby. Well, how does it fit in with your family? They respect it, and because it's, it earns some of the money then it's part of my job. They just accepted as part of my work really. And they'll come down, and appreciate what I've done and encourage me. Are you a full-time model railroader? Yeah, yeah, more or, yeah. That's basically- At that point- What you do. You actually- I mean, that's basically your job isn't it? That pretty much sums it up. And you make a living doing this. Right. And you're kind of the the epitome of a lot of model railroaders. I mean, the dream that everybody has, the ultimate goal in life is to, to work on their model railroad full time. Yeah. That's true I- You're fortunate aren't you? Yeah. I have to say that, yeah, life's been good to me so far, yeah it has. What would you tell other people that are, that are watching this, that kind of say, "Hey that's a great lifestyle. What could I do?" It's a hard living. I mean, it's not, there's not, it's not a big industry. You're even though you come out with a very successful product it's not going to make you wealthy. It's just going to do okay, and give you some extra spending money, and maybe give you enough money to do something else. But don't get, don't start looking to get rich quick. It's not going to happen in this hobby. What do you think of model railroading as such, it's so much a part of your life. What, what are your thoughts on the hobby? Well, it's a very good teacher. It's taught me a lot. I've really learned that model railroading is, well, it has a lot of things to offer. It's taught me woodworking, electricity, computer interfacing, how to design a home. And just from everything, I've learned from model railroading. So I felt like it's a real educational hobby to get into. Does it ever become just a job? Not no, there's still enough love for the hobby that it's exciting every day, and I really look forward to it, to come down and work on a railroad, and or to come up with products and do the business end of it. But my main interest is the layout itself and the hobby end of it. This is my way of being able to express, I guess, my artistic ability, being able to do three dimensional paintings instead of on a canvas. When people come down here and look at the railroad, I, they're kind of seeing what it is that I was visualizing that the model railroad should look like. So they're able to see what I saw in my head when they come here and look at my railroad. What do you like most about the hobby? Hmm, that's a tough one. I like so many things apart, about it. Everything from just an empty room is exciting. Thinking about how you can, what kind of layout you can build. The planning, the thoughts. Yeah, the, yeah. From the word go, it's exciting.