Tell your Madison Hardware tale

[chipk]

Forgive me if this is a topic that has already been stated in this forum.  I don't have many regrets in life, but one of them is the fact that I lived in New York City in the late 1970's and early 1980's and never visited Madison Hardware.  I just wasn't into trains at the time.  I know there's a new book coming out later this year on this landmark Lionel dealer of years gone by, and I enjoy the stories that CTT has run and continues to do on the place. Accordingly, I'd enjoy reading about anyone's experiences at Madison Hardware over the years and/or any stories they can either personally relate or have been told about Madison Hardware. Thanks!

[Bob Keller]

This might be an interesting topic, so I made it sticky. I'd be interested hearing stories from forum members who'd actually been in the store. My only contact was after it re-located to Detriot. Not the same thing at all!

[cwburfle]

I was a Madison Hardware (NYC) starting in the early 1970's until they closed. I think the majority of my purchases were parts. I also purchased a fair number of motorized units, and the rolling stock they'd have on special at good prices. When I moved out of the area, I'd still go there any chance I got, and often would spend hours there on Saturday mornings when I was in town.

I had a lot of interesting conversations with Carl and Lou, but I don't know that anything much would be of particular interest without external context.

I guess folks might be interested to know that Madison Hardware really was a hardware store at one time. Carl showed me pictures of the store back in the day. There was a balcony running around three walls. I guess staff would go up on it to retreive stock for customers. Carl claimed to still have a keg of nails in the basement, and offered to sell it to my brother and I. We passed.

[chipk]

Wonderful! Exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking forward to reading about.  From the photos I've seen of the store, it was extremely narrow and a challenge to get around.  Plus from what I gather, as prices for Lionel items got up there in value during the 1970's and 80's Lou and Carl weren't bashful about getting what the items were then worth, which was their right as businessmen.  Best of all, it seems like they still had merchandise ranging back into the 1950's.  ChipK

[traindaddy1]

Right out of High School, I went to work for a (not to be named) major commercial bank. My branch was located on 23rd Street just a few steps away from Madison.

While my trains were HO, I used to spend some lunch hours looking at the bigger Lionels and "dreaming".

My only real memories are that, even though I seldom made a purchase (except for my best friend Mikey who had Lionel), the guys there were always cordial and didn't mind me "just looking". As they would often say "We know,....someday"

Thanks for asking.

[thesiding]

 

 

My first Lionel Alco came from Madison when I was five  Brand new in the box (1065) my Dad was on a trip in NYC and probably remembered the store from his youth visiting it, so he stopped in and got the loco.  Soon other items including 156 station 151 semaphore Marx Floodlight Tower AND my first passenger set          N0'S 2404 2405 2406

 

Dad claimed either Lou or Carl recomended the forementioned for the budding railroader

 

Then in the late seventies Dad and I got serious about Lionel so we tried to go to the store often

 

I remeber seeing many a item shile visiting  like the Submarine Car The 6800 airplane the locos those ladders after seeing Secret of Nimh in a theater inNYC near the store we stopped

Those old trains WELL before my time AND            Lionel HO

One Third of my Lionel Ho collection came from Madison Hardware

 

My last visit was in November 1988 after going to an acting audition (Did not get the part) Madison was nearby so I stopped in and spent at the least  a half hour

looking and saying to myself amd out loud   "Someday"

 

After a trip into NYC in 1990  went to the store and saw the young man who would find Lionel HO for me helping to close it down

 

"The store was sold" I was told.........................................

 

Thank you VERY much Mr Kuhn

 

If any one of us Toy Train afficendos could have been let loose in that store for 24 hours

 

WE WOULD HAVE ONLY scratched the surface   If they did not have it          then....................... well probably no body did

 Many a person knew of the store despite not knowing the name of it .Probably because of that window in the front  a truly sad day in 1990 (or was it 1989?)

 

So there's a book coming???????????

 

Who owns the sign now?

 

AND is is still (shudder) a 7/11?

[LL675]

great thread! I would have loved to get to Madison at least once.

[chipk]

Book is coming out later this year.  The author is going to feature many photos of the store.  He's got some information about the book on Facebook.  I was wondering myself what is now at the location?  

Interesting that in some of the stories I've read about Madison in CTT that Lou and Carl would often say how they could get their hands on a particular engine or a piece "in a few weeks."  I wonder if that's because they or another store employee had to search through all the storage areas the brothers kept to locate what the customer was looking to buy.  ChipK

[Texas Pete]

Dad used to indulge me occasionally and take me to the Gilbert Hall and the Lionel Showroom.  One Saturday we made a side trip to Madison Hardware, since all these locations were within easy walking distance of each other and Dad seemed to want to check it out.  I'm thinking it probably was 1952.  I was just a little kid, and of the American Flyer persuasion to boot.

I have two recollections of our brief visit, which was on a busy Saturday.  One was that the place looked like an auto parts store (except it was trains) that had been organized by a demented mentally incoherent psychotic.  The other is that one of the staff was giving a customer a brutal tongue lashing.  I mean he was really letting the guy have it, almost foaming at the mouth.  I can vividly recall the verbal violence and the shouting, which was quite alarming, but no details.

We decided to leave, and so did some other folks.  That was the only time I was in Madison Hardware.

Pete

[thesiding]

Last I heard it's a 7/11

[chipk]

Interesting that they never stocked any American Flyer products, as I understand due to the brothers loyalty to J.L. Cowen.  I'm not sure you'd find that kind of product devotion today because it had to have cost them sales, even if Flyer wasn't as popular as Lionel.

[Texas Pete]

Pretty sure I saw a few Flyer locos and a 751 log loader in one of the poorly organized and maintained showcases, possibly taken in trade.

Pete

[chipk]

Interesting!  I know I've read where the brothers had Flyer salesmen over the years ask about stocking their product and were always turned down.  However as you mention, if they got something in trade I could see them taking in the items to sell.

Was recently re-reading a story about Madison Hardware in the back of an old TM price guide with some photos.  One photo in particular reminded me about how narrow the store actually was.

[Firelock76]

I never went to Madison Hardware, but did hear a good story about it.

It seem that when Lou and Carl's father opened the business he got a 99 year lease on the premises.

He WOULD have gone for a 100 year lease but he didn't think he'd live that long.

[submmbob]

I never visited the store, but they provided the parts in the early 1980's for my first Lionel train, a #258, circa 1930.

It was a hand me down to my father and his brothers in the 1940's. When it was given to me in 1979 (I was 12) the drive wheels were badly broken down. The only place going at the time that had replacements was Madison Hardware. 

I think I remember seeing their ad in the back of MR. I think the 4 wheels and the 2 axles cost me a whopping $12.50 w/ shipping back then. I am guessing now they were probably new-old-stock parts. 

The axles ended up being a bit too small and the wheels would slip out of quarter. I ended up having the repair person for Arizona Trains in Tucson fit the new wheels on to the old axles when I went to college. That's yet another place that is no longer in existance. 

I am in the process of repainting the boiler shell and frame as it was badly corroded on one side when I got it. The motor w/ the replacement wheels still runs fine.

[chipk]

Pre-orders now being taken for the Madison Hardware book out this Fall.  There's a page on Facebook that gives the details.