BEST LOCAL HOBBY SHOPS OF MY TIME IN HOBBY

[Anonymous]

Instead of the blues, let's honor the best. Mine are:

1.) Engine House Hobbies - Wichita, KS (Much like Caboose. Great people, great inventory).

2.) Christmas City Hobbies - Bethlehem, PA (out of business now. It was in the front of the Lehigh and Keystone Valley Model Railroad Club). Learned a lot from the club and the shop. Club is still booming. Check it out on the NMRA July tour.

3.) Discount Model Trains - Addison, TX (This was the mecca of modeling. Everything in the store 20% off. I worked there to help out for product in Summer of 1993. Loved Barbara, Bob, Jack and James who runs it now.

4.) Does anyone remember this one: Switchstand in Richmond Heights, MO. A St. Louis suburb? I remember buying an Athearn 40' AT&SF box car for $1.75 there in 1977 and having a two hour conversation with the guys who ran things.

5.) Woolworth - St. Louis, MO (Yes they had a giant model railroad department) Great stock and prices.

6.) Val's - St. Louis, MO (Val Dasho's shop - great place) Val turned me on to other brands of track than Atlas.

7.) Frank The Trainman - San Diego, CA - My first hobby shop as a kid growing up in San Diego. Used pieces of brass snap track for 5 cents.

8.) Reeds Hobby Shop - Escondido, CA - Visited there in 2002. I don't know if they are still in business up there. Great store.

9.) Trains and Lanes - Easton, PA - This place has 25 units of everything. If you want a 3 pack of NRM cabooses, they have it.

10.) J&D's Whistle Stop - Quakertown, PA - Great layout and nice store with decent inventory.

The weirdest - Fisher's in Effort, PA - They have an ad in MR that says operating layout. It's a circle of track. The place is a TV repair shop. A store in St. Louis on THE HILL another TV repair shop I called the horder. This guy had every Revell and Plasticville building in original boxes, new in stock in a room, not for sale. Oh and Tom's Trains here in Fresno. I can't tell what it is.

[ARTHILL]

How about Gager's in Minneapolis?

[Anonymous]

Caboose Hobbies in Denver. The biggest

[jpmorrison]

i like caboose hobbies and mizells trains in denver also walthers in milw.

jeff

[Mailman56701]

TPA Hobby, in Hollister, Missouri. Incredible place.

http://tpahobby.com/vrtour.htm

[Anonymous]

M.B. Klein, Baltimore, MD;

Peach Creek Shops, Laurel, MD

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by KenLarsen

M.B. Klein, Baltimore, MD;

Peach Creek Shops, Laurel, MD

[#ditto][#ditto]

Also within striking distance (1/4 tank fo gas each way) Tommy Gilberts in Gettysburg,PA , Mailine Hobby Supply in Blue Ridge Summit, PA, Both well stocked stores.
Also getting an honorable mention from me is the Moose Caboose in Winfield, MD. While it is not a terribly large store like the others, Glen the owner is all about servicing his customers. If I want it, he gets it A.S.A.P, and his stock seems to grow daily.
A long time fav for me is Dennison's in Berlin MD. Right off route 50 outside of Ocean City, I always make a point of stopping there before a couple of days at the beach. After all, its gotta rain sometime!!![:D]

[howmus]

I would vote for Lake City Hobbies in Geneva, NY. Excellent local shop that will order in most anything you need if they don't have it in stock.

http://people.clarityconnect.com/webpages2/valley/books.htm

And Empire Northern Models in Webster, NY. Tim Smith is Da Man for DCC and beats just about everybody's prices including the big names on anything DCC. Knows his stuff!

http://www.empirenorthernmodels.com/index.htm

[jrbernier]

Art,

I remember Gagers. Great folks. Their best MR store was the one in Southdale Shopping Center - They had everything. Gagers was bought out and replaced by Craft Village, which died as well.

Jim

[wjstix]

I'll go with Woodcraft Hobby - "The old reliable on Lake and Bryant" in south Minneapolis. A family owned and operated hobby shop started by Claude Newman in 1938. They sponsored a local 15 min. TV show in the sixties-seventies on Saturday afternoon. That (and living next to a rail line) made me really want to get into model railroading!!! Luckily my Dad was their mailman at the time, and on their advice he bought a Tyco train set and MRC "Golden Throttlepack" from them that I got for Xmas 1971.

[Anonymous]

My favorite is also the first LHS I ever went to. Dayton Model Railways (aka Smitty's Hobby Shop) in Dayton, Ohio. 58 years without a single bad experience. It's one of the last two LHS's in Dayton. The other one is a wonderful place to go if you don't need anything.

FritzvB

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The only hobby shop I can get to right now is Hare's Art & Hobby in Alexandria, Louisiana. I visit there when I have to go the Alexandria for my medical appointments. The drive there just to go to the shop and come back is a bit expensive. It's a 120 mile round trip and with the way gas is going up and up and up, it adds up. Did I mention, my Century gets only 12 mpg and that's on a good day.

[Tracklayer]

The Houston Roundhouse in Houston, Texas is my favorite!... I had a falling out with the owner last year because he marked a loco up $25.00 that I had on layaway, but after a big arguement, he came back down on the price and has been a lot nicer ever since.

TL

[brothaslide]

The Train Shop - Santa Clara, CA

[jag193]

Most of the LHS's that were my favorites are long gone ...

of course, Caboose Hobbies in Denver (even when it was downtown back in the 60s) was fantastic and still is

made most of my model railroad friends and got the best advice at Action Hobbies in Tulsa, OK

Dan's in Ocala, FL, is now my favoriate but I can only get there about two or three times a year

[Anonymous]

Trainland and Kross Hardware on Long Island.

[SilverSpike]

Not sure if they are up and running again after Katrina flooded the place, but Hub Hobby in New Orleans was a great place to find modeling supplies and had a huge inventory of HO scale gear.

Update: Looks like they moved to Metairie, which is just a few miles from New Orleans,

http://www.hubhobbyshop.com/

[csmith9474]

Caboose Hobbies in Denver is cool, but I do most of my shopping at Custom Railway Supply in Colorado Springs. That is a great train shop with knowledgeble and down to earth staff.

[cwclark]

there are 4 hobby shops in the Houston area that are really good places....1. The Houston Roundhouse, 2. Papa Ben's Train Place, 3. Larry's Hobbies, and 4. The Spring Crossing....there are more, but these are the best of the rest...chuck

[tsgtbob]

My vote would have to be Mainline Hobby in Blue Ridge Summit Pa. followed by Tommy Gilbert's in Gettysburg too.

[Blind Bruce]

Does anybody remember Jim Graces hobby shop in Milwaukee? I made the 40 mile trek there as a kid using the old Chicago, Milwaukee and shore line interurban electric trsain. (The North Shore line) Too many years ago.
BB

[nbrodar]

Lin's Junction in Lansdale, PA.

Nick

[Anonymous]

Shepaug Railroad Company- Leominster Massachusetts

[BurlingtonJohn]

Always enjoyed visiting Bobby Hall's when she was open in Dallas.

Whistle Stop in San Diego ... even though Scott is a confirmed AT&SF fan, he still manages to feed my appetite for all things CB&Q, even after I moved 2000 miles away. The Whistle Stop is kind of a 'Cheers' type place, where everybody knows your name.

Regards,
Burlington John
[8D]

[csxns]

Red Caboose in Gastonia NC.The Whistle stop hobbie shop in Charlotte NC.Southern Rails in Belmont NC and the Hobbie Center in Greenville SC.

[csxns]

And i cant forget the Wilco dept stores they had a train section.

[wctransfer]

Hmmm, I see a lot of the guys around me have posted, wjstix,Art and Jim, so i'll chime in.

Beckers Model Railroad Supply: Great guy, great store (if you need it he has it, or can get it) and low prices. Surprised none of you guys mentioned him.

Hub Hobby: Was pretty good that I remembered, maybe one of you can chime in.

Scale Model Supplies: They have EVERYTHING, seems some stuff has been on the shelves since 1995 hehehe. But, I and a few others have had bad experiences with the guys, and gouging of prices. One day someone called in to reserve an item he saw earlier. He picked it up and they upped the price on it, pretty blatent "patch" also. They charge FULL retail, but have what you need.

Alec

[Anonymous]

Harper Hobbies, San Bernardino, Ca. Gone now, but had everything, layout and great advise.

[PASMITH]

Reeds Hobby Shop. I visit it every time I am in San Diego to visit my grandkids.

The best of all hobby shop worlds for me was in the mid 80's, when I was working at 1166 Ave. of the Americas in New York City. Within less than a block on 45th St. were THREE of the finest model railroad shops imaginable. These included one of the oldest shops in America ( Down in the basement) and the Red Caboose across the street on the fourth floor that could only be reached by an elevator that took courage to ride in and, which moved into the basement across the street at a later date. The clutter and confusion of the Red Cabboose is described in wonderfull detail on page 43 of Sam Posey's book " Playing with Trains". These three shops were visited every lunch time for four years and were instrumental in the building of my first model railroad.

Peter Smith, Memphis

[Adelie]

My list would include:
1) Caboose Hobbies, Denver
2) The Train Shop, Santa Clara, CA
3) MB Klein, Baltimore
4) Peach Creek Shops, Laurel, MD

Also on the list:
Custom Railway Supply, Colorado Springs
Just Trains, Concord, CA
Willis Hobbies, Mineola, NY (Long Island)

And Chuck, I was in the Switch Stand on a visit to St. Louis last year. My last visit there was probably 1978 or so. From what I remember, they moved further east on Manchester. I enjoyed the visit there - brought back memories. The store character hadn't really changed from what I remember.

While we are on the subject of St. Louis, back in the 1970s Checkered Flag Hobbies was great. They were always a full range hobby and craft shop but back then were about 50% trains. They are still around, but probably 20% trains these days. Less impressive, from our perspective.

There was also a hole-in-the-wall named Johnston's Train Shop in South Central St. Louis (near Cherokee Street). They are long gone. The place was owned and run by a somewhat grumpy old lady, but she had some off the wall stuff. Certainly not the best, but always worth checking when you needed some oddball piece of track or part.