Allied Model Trains Closes

Very sad.

Saw that this morning. Very sad indeed.

A few each year lock the doors, not good for the electric train hobby. 

   Bill T.

69 years in business. That's really to bad.

Sad to hear. Another one is gone!

I got to go once during my So Cal travels......too bad.  I  don't see how any small biz operates in CA. 

I was also in the store one time many years ago while taking a class from Xerox.

Worked in west LA back in the mid 80s - used to go there every Friday after work to browse while the traffic thinned out.  Later, their purpose-built store was one of the finest train places in the country.  Hadn't been there for nearly 10 years, but even then the decline had started.  Sorry to see them go. 

The Photo is from Google Map - This is the building that just closed...... 

Los Angeles Times - Correction • May 9th, 2007 

(The article and photo do help us to understand, what happen.) 

For owner, end of the line

With fans aging and the model train hobby losing steam, Allen Drucker is selling his shop.

All aboard! Allied Model Trains is leaving the station.

This week, one of the nation's largest model train stores is closing its longtime home in Culver City: a half-block-long replica of Los Angeles' Union Station. And fading along with it, says owner Allen Drucker, is the model train industry.

"It's just a dying hobby," said Drucker, 58. "We probably have another good 15 years."

Drucker will hang up his cap after 32 years of running a miniature railroad hub. "I always told myself I didn't want to be the old man running the train store," he said.

New owners will move the business to a smaller Art Deco-style building Drucker owns across the street. He'll rent the Union Station look-alike to Samy's Camera.

It is always disappointing to hear about these LHS's 

Gary

Cheers from The Detroit & Mackinac Railway

Who/what is in the station store they built??? I remember the magazines covering it when it opened. That's the store I visited.

Isn't that a older press release??? They moved into the Deco building years ago.....

I saw that article too, but it is from May 9, 2007 when Allied Model Trains moved from the replica train station to an Art Deco building across the street.  Such a loss...

Hi Dave - Yes - 2007 - I will fix it above......

Hi Bill & Dave

     Is the photo the new building or the old building?

Cheers from The 

About 2400 Miles away, I have taken the Amtrak West to LA, Grand Junction, CO and all points west of Detroit and even east. 

Sad day - I got my first US train from Allied Trains when my wife bought me a LIONEL RTR set for the Christmas tree.

The photo shows the "current" store which just closed - they moved here about 8 years ago when their bigger old store was taken over by Samy's Camera.

 " I  don't see how any small biz operates in CA. "

  This is not a Cali problem, it's a graying hobby/ internet sales  problem. Folks in Cali have more money than many states and lots of small business thrives here. Sadly not many of them are toy train related.....DaveB

It was quite a train & hobby shop in it's prime. I tried to visit often when I was near LAX.

That is the Art Deco building Allied moved to in 2007.  The older building is a scaled down replica  of LA Union Station and is across the street.

The original Allied Model Trains (in the building that looked like LAUPT) really was a destination by itself.   So much so, I would make a point to drive there when I was in San Diego despite having to contend with the inevitable long traffic delays on the LA "freeways."  The book department and the Department 56 section were like stores within a store - in addition to the vast stock of model trains in all scales.  They usually had a number of well-scenicked operating layouts in a number of scales - I remember a large, very nice G gauge one.  Back when the store was very profitable, there was an article about it that included a memorable photo of Mr. Drucker in his Rolls-Royce.  I am sorry to see it go too but the second store was not as special a destination as the first.

I agree it is not a CA only problem. BUT 20 years ago I had 3 friends with small businesses in So Cal and all are gone due to rules, regulations, taxes and cost unique to CA.   That is what I was questioning. 

Several niche stores are closing up. A pal of mine, a 5th generation book seller, called it quits a couple of years ago on the family book store which had been in the same location for three generations. I ran into him a few months afterward, not knowing yet until he'd told me and he looked a decade older than his real years. He said his father passing a few years before didn't hit him quite as hard, and his family had always been very close. He was a broken, defeated man.

And even one of the big chain stores which did him in is gone, too, when Borders went belly up.

It's not just model trains, it's retail in several forms.

BINGO!!!   only one constant.....CHANGE!!

Brick and mortar stores will be almost gone in 10 years. All types!!

You can't have the internet and not have the internet. As it spreads it will even come for the wholesale end of whatever business has a weak spot. In the business of selling toy trains, we are the weak spot. 

Wow, I was just in there a few weeks weeks ago working with George on some of my engines. I did notice that the store was bare. I have been going to Allied since they were on Pico boulevard in the 80's. Have known George for over 30 years. This store and George's know how will be sorely missed.

Jeff in LA

I've only been to LA once.......a CME meeting in Santa Monica in 86. I rented a car and drove there.........it was quite a place to see in the pre-Internet days. Glad I went.

Peter

Wow - and I thought that I had a dark view of the future of model RR'ing. I didn't realize that all of it was going belly up (the 3RO guys - we're old).

So - I need a new hobby that isn't so depressing. Gad - lemme outta here.

never there, but I remember their ads. shame to loose another store.

Previous building...

Current building...

"So - I need a new hobby that isn't so depressing. Gad."

or just stop reading the news and build some models :>  Despite the dire forecast I got a big box of S scale detail parts in the mail today, something I'd never have found if not for the dreaded internet.Probably enough parts in there to keep me occupied for a year, then I can come up and check the state of the hobby!  ...DaveB

I remember the ads when just a kid.  Sad day for everyone.

Jack

I ran across the place accidentally back in the early 2000's (previous owner and building) on a drive from LAX up to our office in Beverly Hills. It was one of the best shops I had ever seen. I know things changed in 2007 or so and things weren't the same after that transition, but it was still a nice place and it is indeed unfortunate the current incarnation didn't have a longer life. 

That's to bad for our hobby. Soon there will be only 3 "O" gauge manufacturers and all the buying  will be direct from the manufacturers.

No more taking a ride to the local hobby shop to just look around and pick up a few things. I just hope it isn't going to happen all to soon. 

There are still train shows to attend.

Train shows seem to have dried up some, too.  No where near as many as when I first

got back into 3 rail in the 1980's.  I visited a large Lionel dealer in the LA area years

ago...can't remember when, but I was kind of underwhelmed.  That one sounds familiar

but it could be from the ads, which I have seen, which would be of the first building...

not sure now I was at that one, but the second does not look familiar  (was there another shop in the LA area that was known to be frequented by celebrities for Lionel?).  I only hunted down LA shops once, and at another I stopped in, the guy was so jumpy, like I was going to rob the place, I gave up on the area.  Had better luck in the SF and Sacramento areas.  (at the last, when they closed the USAF base there, two of those shops disappeared)

I remember going to Allied when they were on Pico Blvd in the 60s and visited Union Station store in the 90s and the place was booming.Sad to see it go.

Mikey

Went there in the 80's when on travel. Saw Gary Coleman (actor) buying trains on one occasion.

I visited Allied many times when I was in the LA area and bought a lot of trains.   I was a HO modeler at that time.  The store had a huge inventory and several operating layouts.  It also had a large and wonderful Dept. 56 display with trains circling it.

The store was very close to the LA Airport which made it convenient for a quick side trip.  It is sad that the story has closed.  The train is leaving the station.

NH Joe