I went to Polk's several times when I was in high school, feeding my aircraft modeling habit don't ya know.
If I remember correctly, there were four floors, one for model airplanes flyable and static, one for trains, one for cars both slot and static, and one for everything else. Quite a place, and enough to make your head swim. Almost fifty years ago, hardly seems possible.
Polk's was fun to visit, but Hiway Hobby House in Ramsey NJ was more convenient, about a half-hour from where I lived, so I spent most of my hobby dollars there.
I never made it to Madison Hardware, I wasn't into trains at the time so I never heard of it. Modeling World War One aircraft was my bag back then.
Firelaock, thanks for the links. I think the Train Store took over from Madison Hardware as the northeast Lionel distributor. I was in Madison Hardware many years ago. There used to be so many fine train shops in Manhattan; America's Hobby Center on west 23rd street. My father shopped there in the 1940s for flying model airplane stuff. He told me that it was a small room with catalogs on all the counters. You told them what you wanted, and it would be dropped down from an upper floor in a bucket and there you were. The times I was in there, it wasn't much different but sadly no bucket. The Model Railroad Equipment Corp. on west 45th, now called The Red Caboose, was a total dungeon that seemed to be run by a crazy man. Not sure if they're still in business. And of course, the legendary Polks's on 5th avenue. A scene from "The Godfather" was filmed in front, when Sollozo had Tom Hagen get in his car to tell him that Vito Corleone had been shot.
That was Trainland all right! The producer of the show is an O gauge fanatic, and when he wanted to film Bobby's demise he had a choice, reproduce a train store in a studio or go for the real thing. He went for the real thing.
The current owner of Trainland, Ken Bianco, was interviewed for a TM toy train video, and said the whole process was one of the most amazing things he'd ever seen. Like a military operation and just as disciplined. He said from what you saw on TV you'd never guess there were over 100 people there involved in the production.
The shot-up Lionel boxes are still there in Trainland and on display for all to enjoy, Ken won't sell them.
On the video he had a sign in the front window: Bobby Baccala "Bought it" at Trainland!
I just remembered, Bobby's home layout and the one he landed on, plus it's back-up, were built at a train store called The Train Station in Mountain Lakes, NJ.
www.train-station.com
What the hell, while I'm at it here's the site for Trainworld/Trainland.
www.trainworld.com
That was in Trainland? I had no clue. I bought my first N gauge set there when it was called "House of Mulraney" in 1967. Still have the locomotive and it still runs. Man, the scene of him getting whacked was a classic!
No, I missed that one, not being an HBO subscriber. I have seen some "Sopranos" episodes on A&E, and clips on You Tube, such as the one where Bobby Baccala got wacked in "Trainland" in Lynnbrook LI, NY.
Bobbys O gauge layouts and the one he flattened after gettin perforated survive today in the collections of the New Jersey High Railers train club in Paterson NJ. I think you can see them on their website.
www.njhirailers.com
The Pine Barrens are reputedly a favorite body disposal site for mob rub-outs, considering the sparse population and (for New Jersey) remote locations.
I assume you've seen the Sopranos episode called, "The Pine Barrens," directed by Steve Buscemi? it was sure one of the better episodes of a great series.
The term "Piney" refers to the residents of an area in south Jersey called "The Pine Barrens." The name goes back to colonial times when the first settlers found the area almost useless for conventional farming due to the sandy soil. The area is thickly wooded with what's locally called "scrub pines," somewhat stunted local versions of loblolly pines, and in actual fact the "Barren's are pretty botanically diverse. The "Barrens" are quite large, covering almost 25% of New Jersey's land mass, and up to recently have defied development being just a little too far from New York and just a little too far from Philadelphia.
A "Piney" is to New Jerseyans what "Hillbilly" is to residents of the American south. You have to be from the "Pine Barrens" to be a Piney. Residents of Jersey's Atlantic coast and from along the Delaware will be highly insulted if you call them "Pineys," as a matter of fact I don't think the Pineys are too crazy about the name either.
Lakehurst Naval Air Station is right on the northeastern edge of the Pine Barrens, close to the towns of Toms River and Lakewood.
Firelock, I stand corrected. Does the term for someone from south NJ still "Piney?" That term is used several times in the superb HBO series "Boardwalk Empire."
Thanks Wanswheel, that was interesting. Everyone who went to Glassboro State College when I was there knew about the summit meeting, but that happened four years before we got there.
"Where's Glassboro?" Reminds me of the college's unofficial motto:
"We never heard of you either!"
And 54light, G-boro's nowhere near Lakehurst, Lakehurst is over by the shore, not the Delaware, Jersey Central country. Glassboro used to be served by a branch of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Line.
Has Selma , NC been mentioned. Technically it is where NS (SOU RR) crosses CSX (ACL) . But Amtrak splits with Palmetto and Meteor going south on ACL and Star and Carolinian going WNW on SOU.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassboro_Summit_Conference
Excerpt from transcript of interview of Robert S. McNamara by Walt W. Rostow
http://www.lbjlibrary.net/assets/documents/archives/oral_histories/mcnamara_r/McNamara1.PDF
McNamara: It wasn't long after Dobrynin returned to Moscow that we learned that Kosygin was coming to the U.S., to the U.N. Many of us hoped that he and the President would meet together. The President--I think perhaps properly, but certainly to my disappointment--said: "Well, by God, if Kosygin wanted to meet with him, the President was available in Washington and Kosygin could come down from the U.N. to Washington and meet with him." And Kosygin was essentially taking the same attitude: "By God, he was coming to the United Nations as the United Nations and he wasn't coming to the U.S; and the fact that the U.N. was in the U.S. was coincidental; and if the President wanted to talk to him, he could come up to the United Nations and talk to him." There seemed to be no way in which we could get these two men together.
One night, late in the day, six or seven o'clock in the evening, the President called me and said, "Bob, what are you doing about Glassboro?" And I said "Glassboro where, Mr. President?" I had never heard of it. "What do you mean?" And he said, "You're in charge of this, what have you done?" And I said, "In charge of what?" He said, "You're in charge of it. You've been pushing me for a long time to meet with Kosygin. By God, I'm going to meet with him and you haven't made any preparations for it." Well, I said, "What do you mean? I don't know a thing about it." Well, he said, "I'm going to meet him in Glassboro and you better darn well get the place fixed up." And I said, "Mr. President, where is Glassboro?" And he said, "It's in New Jersey." I should have guessed that because if you take a compass and put one prong in New York and draw an arc and then turn around and put the prong on Washington and draw an arc, the two arcs would intersect at Glassboro.
Rostow: Governor Hughes found it for him.
Getting back on topic, the station in Walpole sort of qualifies for this topic, though the station was by the diamond with three of the four quadrants having connecting tracks.
This station is the subject of an article in the September 1967 MR.
I was last at Marino's in 1994 when I drove to Florida with my now ex brother in law so it may still exist. It was the kind of place that's been there forever because the food is so good. Glassboro? Isn't Lakehurst near there? Oh , the humanity!
54light, it's a small world indeed! While you were in Runnymede in 1975 I was just down the road a bit in Glassboro attending the college of the same name. Best cheesesteaks down that way came from the Cavalier Sub Shop. Since Lady Firestorm can't abide cheese on her steak sandwiches and I detest onions we'd have all the cheese that would go on her's go on mine, and all the onions that would go on mine go on hers, she loves those vile vegetables.
There was another place we'd go called Tarantella's, no so much for the cheesesteaks but for a tuna hoagie for her and a 12" pizza for me.
Forty plus years ago, both probably gone by now. We drove though Glassboro about five or so years ago and couldn't recognize the place, so many changes. Some of the happiest times of my life were spent there, but now I know what a ghost must feel like. We won't be going back.
Getting back to the honorable subject of cheese steaks, when my ship was in the yards in Philly in 1975, I shared an apartment with a guy in Runnymede, New Jersey. The best, I mean thee best cheese steaks were at Marino's on Black Horse Pike in Runnymede. I saw them put a huge sirloin on a slicer, that thing had to be two feet long and the slicer cut it as thin as bum wad. Man that was good!
Two years ago I was at the classic car meet in Hershey and there were vendor booths selling cheese steaks. I asked the guy what cheese they used and he almost got angry, saying, "Cheeze Whiz" I told him that back in the 1970s everyone used Provolone. He didn't believe me. I set him straight and he agreed that Provolone sounded good.
There was a cheese steak place on Broad Street under the approach to the Walt Whitman bridge run by an ex-Marine and his were pretty fine too. Getting hungry now.
Boyd Firelock76 We can talk about Bigfoot if you want to. New Jersey's got one of them too, "The Big Red Eye" of Sussex County! Unless you have your very own video or picture that's not blurr,,, I'd say no. I've seen many of the credible videos out there already.
Firelock76 We can talk about Bigfoot if you want to. New Jersey's got one of them too, "The Big Red Eye" of Sussex County! Unless you have your very own video or picture that's not blurr,,, I'd say no. I've seen many of the credible videos out there already.
We can talk about Bigfoot if you want to.
New Jersey's got one of them too, "The Big Red Eye" of Sussex County!
Ah, there's the rub, just like Bigfoot a lot of the sightings of The Big Red Eye might be a lot more credible if the observer hadn't had six beers in him. Or her.
Then again, there's a lot of crazy stuff in NJ I've heard of recently that I NEVER heard of while I lived there, like the midget albino cannibals that lived under the George Washington Bridge! Or the "Gates of Hell" being in the Clifton sewer system!
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
Found another station with dividing lines, blundered into this one it's really obscure.
It's (or it was) the Susquehanna's Paterson (Broadway) station in Paterson NJ, it was the junction between the main line and the Paterson City Branch. The PC Branch headed 0.7 miles to a station near downtown Paterson, while the multi-track main line continued east-west. Both lines split right in front of the station, "Point of Rocks" on a very reduced scale, as it were.
Boyd You guys are talking about everything but Bigfoot.
You guys are talking about everything but Bigfoot.
Wanswheel, can you find us some information about Bigfoot?
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"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
You know, I never put mustard on a soft pretzel until I "went south." Not bad if it's brown mustard, but I still prefer 'em straight.
RME, are you old enough to remember the "Pretzel Guy" at the Garden State Plaza? Best hot pretzels I ever had! Some come close, but don't surpass.
Never tried bell peppers on a Philly cheesesteak. I actually prefer 'em without onions and heavy on the cheese. I'd TRY one with bell peppers, at least once.
Firelock76"I traded the mountains for down the shore, Taylor ham for pork roll, Italian ice for water ice, subs for hoagies, 7-11's for Wawa's, buttered rolls for pretzels, but I will NEVER trade the Giants for the Eagles!"
But that's not the REAL question -- does he, or doesn't he, now put mustard on his soft pretzels?
(I'm still trying to figure out whether or not bell peppers belong on a Philadelphian's cheese steak...)
Oh yeah, southern New Jersey (and I mean WAY south!) is like a whole 'nother state compared to the northern part where I'm from. The wife and I went to college down there and had a little bit of culture shock in the process.
Northern NJ gravitates towards New York City (a love-hate relationship when you come down to it, but that's another story) and southern NJ gravitates towards Philidelphia. A North-Jerseyite who moved south said it best...
"I traded the mountains for down the shore, Taylor ham for pork roll, Italian ice for water ice, subs for hoagies, 7-11's for Wawa's, buttered rolls for pretzels, but I will NEVER trade the Giants for the Eagles!"
And the lower part of state, away from the eastern shore, provides quite a bit of food (or used to) for those city dwellers east of the northern part of the state--the people who nothing of whence the food comes, except that they find it in the grocery stores or in restaurants. Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! is set in that part of New Jersey, not far below Philadelphia.
Johnny
Thanks Miningman! New Jersey's not all factorys, junkyards, and urban decay. There's a lot of gorgeous scenery there still to be seen.
Very nice...found a few cab rides on the NYS&W..so much better with a fixed camera versus a handheld.
Postcard tour terrific ...beautiful scenes. No wonder its called the Garden State.
If everyone enjoyed that trip on the Northern Railroad of NJ, here's a little something else. Miningman asked "What's changed?" so here's some examples.
First video is another postcard tour of the New York, Susquehanna and Western, west to east, about 100 years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGpNjc8czhA
And for comparison, here's a head-end ride on the "Susie-Q" from a year or two ago, east to west, from Little Ferry NJ to Butler NJ on a "Toys For Tot's" train. Some drastic changes, some not so much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHIJBAP9I_I
OK, I don't know why the second vid won't load, I didn't have any trouble viewing it myself. Search "you tube nys&w cabe ride!" and you should be able to find it. Or just search the video menu on the right side of the screen after watching postcard vid, that's how I found it.
Dad-gummit!
Enjoy the rides! I certainly did!
Miningman Now that was thoughouly enjoyable. Beautiful stations. Everything is so quaint, individual and looking like a million bucks. Big hardwoods and lush grounds...just please don't tell me it's all parking lots and fast food joints today accented by strewn garbage and guys in hoodies.
Now that was thoughouly enjoyable. Beautiful stations. Everything is so quaint, individual and looking like a million bucks. Big hardwoods and lush grounds...just please don't tell me it's all parking lots and fast food joints today accented by strewn garbage and guys in hoodies.
Not all of it. Up to Englewood it's quite different now with a lot of industrial development. From Tenafly northward surprisingly not too much has changed, certainly there was development from the World War One period through the 1930's that built up the town centers, and some remodeling since then, but someone from the Twenties or Thirties could be plopped down into the present day of those towns and not feel too out of place. Away from the center of the towns there's quite a bit of development, but most of the hardwoods are still there.
Some stations have disappeared, but Englewood, Tenafly, Demarest, Closter stations still survive, adapted for other uses. The Piermont station just over the NJ/NY border is still there as well.
Quite a bit of the American Revolution was fought in that area as well, and you REALLY have to look hard for the traces of the 18th Century, but amazingly you'll still find them if you look hard enough.
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