CROCODILE TRAIN STORE.....NEW FORUM SPONSOR and MAGAZINE ADVERTISER ....!

Hi Alan,

I want to thank you so much for all of the help in quickly and efficiently including me in your wonderful enterprise that does such a GREAT service to the world of model trains and in particular the O gauge community.  I have been enjoying the magazine and the incredible knowledge base as a hobbyist for many years now and am excited to share my love of the hobby with the many wonderful Forum participants and viewers.  Also thank you for sharing the video of your wonderful city layout.  It is a world of it's own.

To the many people that might view this post, I welcome you to contact me for whatever service I may be to you in helping you enjoy as I do, the joys of the hobby.  Trains are especially important to me because being a home based business with my store attached to my house it allows me to spend quality time with my wife who has a long term illness and needs care throughout the day.  I welcome phone calls and visits at any time between 10AM and 10PM 7 days a week.

You can see my layout by following the links on my webpage to the store layout category.  I have put some pictures to share below

Happy and Healthy New Year to All,

Mike

welcome

Thanks for being the first to welcome me!

Mike

Welcome aboard!!!

Thanks,

If you are interested I just  posted a cool way to do an electrical control panel schematic.

Welcome Aboard as well. You have a very fine looking store, website & layout!!! Sometime will stop by.

Thanks,

I look forward to it.  We have a big Victorian house and used to have a large B&B called the Brewster Inn in Dexter Maine so we are used to having visitors stay with us, so if you visit the Finger Lakes of New York state you have a place to stay and run trains.

Cheers,

Mike

Crocodile Train Store posted:

Thanks,

I look forward to it.  We have a big Victorian house and used to have a large B&B called the Brewster Inn in Dexter Maine so we are used to having visitors stay with us, so if you visit the Finger Lakes of New York state you have a place to stay and run trains.

Cheers,

Mike

 

 

Mike, thank you for the information. Much obliged.

Mike, you have such a tastefully done and beautiful layout. Your Crocodile Train Store must be 3 to 4 hours away from my Yorktown Heights, NY home, but well worth the long drive for me and my wife to visit. Also, I think model trains and music make a great combination. I hope to visit your store in the not too distant future.  Arnold

Hi Arnold,

Thanks for the kind words.  I look forward to your visit.  Give me a call so I can make sure to be home when you arrive.  Hopefully you can stay long enough to run trains and I can pick a banjo or guitar tune for you.  You are not to far from my cousin who lives in larchmont New York near Long Island.  I owe a great debt of gratitude to my friends Al Judy, and Dan Giles for the realization of my layout that would not have been possible without them.  Please visit my store if you need anything.  I have recently lowered all my prices to make trains more easily available for everyone.  My layout is my passion and I hope to help others in their endeavors.

Happy New Year 

Mike

Hi Mike, thanks for being a sponsor, what a great looking layout, I'd love to see more of it and even better yet I'd love to be able to see it in person but alas, I live in the "Arm-pit" of Texas and it is a wee bit to far for me to go and see it.  I agree with Arnold, trains and music make a wonderful combination, an old friend of mine is fiddle player and he also does classical music on the violin extremely well but to top it all off, he is a fantastic modeler and has a terrific eye for modeling.  He has that special touch if you know what I mean.  You seem to have the same touch and knack in your modeling too.

Welcome aboard and by all means, please feel free to post your pics of your layout as well as your tips and such, I for one would love to see them.

Back to the tumble weeds,

J. Motts

Hi J.

Thank you for your kind words.  It is especially meaningful to hear it from a REAL train guy,   I see from your bio that you actually worked on the railroad.  WOW! 

 I was an industrial control trainer for 25 years for Siemens and Moore products and I visited Texas numerous times in that capacity near Midland, Odessa, Hobbs NM and Houston 6 weeks a year.  It was great in the Winter not so great in the summer.

As for the layout I knew what I wanted and realized I needed help so Al Judy master modeler and friend was the real visionary in making my dream come true.  I concentrated on the computer and electrical side of things and did what I could not to mess up what he was doing as we worked on it.  Three of us started this layout in March of 2018 and I am on my own now finishing up wiring the buildings and the accessories.  I still have to add the Lionel and MTH wifi and swwitch acessory boxes to automate the switching with an AIU and the Legacy interface to the IPAD and Legacy Cab .

Tumble away my Texas friend, like the guy in the quirky movie The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Cheers,

Mike

Welcome to the Forum and OGR magazine, Mike!

We need to get your store layout in the magazine at some point in the near future for the benefit of our print issue readers and newsstand readers (potential subscribers, in particular) who are not necessarily connected online. I will get in touch with you about that.

Again: Welcome aboard!

Allan

Hi Double L Allan,

Nice to meet another Allan.  One L Alan has done a fantastic job getting me set up.

Thanks for the kind words and warm welcome.  I also need to write copy for the dealer listing in the back of the magazine and figure out some text for the magazine AD.  I have already become more involved in the train community thanks to your great Forum and publication.  I look forward to a great New Year of participation.  I have recently lowered my prices across the board on my online site to make what can be an expensive hobby more affordable and I want to get that message across to the other train guys and gals that are working hard to make and improve nice layouts, and with your help perhaps I can make that happen.

I love the hobby and business as it lets me simultaneously work, have fun and take care of my wife simultaneously.

I look forward to sharing my layout in the magazine both in pictures and words.  Al Judy and I documented the entire layout building process and I learned a lot in the process which I am happy to share.  We wrote some article text early on in the hopes of publication since Al had done some publishing with you previously as in the case with my buddy Sam Pennise who live near me and has a great ON30 layout. 

Thanks for reaching out.

Best Regards,

Mike

Mike,

Great layout. Allan is correct, it belongs in the magazine for our print readers to see and enjoy.

Welcome to the OGR family, glad to have you join us.

Ed Boyle, Partner

Associate Editor, O Gauge Railroading magazine

Allan Miller, perhaps you could also check into Mr. Sam Pennise's On30 layout for a future article too.  I'm sure there are a number of On30 modelers on this forum who would enjoy seeing his layout and how he built it.  I also have quite a bit of On30 stuff dating back from when the Bachmann first introduced their nice little shays and that is what got me started in On30.

Keep up the great work on the magazine, I look forward to its arrival each time it comes out.

WELCOME! GREAT layout! One question: why "crocodile"? Are you from Florida or Louisiana by any chance?

Tinplate Art posted:

WELCOME! GREAT layout! One question: why "crocodile"? Are you from Florida or Louisiana by any chance?

Isn't there a locomotive known as the Crocodile something or other?

I assumed that was the reason for the name Crocodile Train Store.

Yes, on the Swiss railways, but is that the reason? I am a fan of, and own, an LGB  RhB crocodile.

I will give you a hint why I am CROCODILE TRAIN STORE

My store is in the village of

Dundee,  NY

I do indeed also have a MTH crocodile locomotive.

Crocodile Train Store posted:

I will give you a hint why I am CROCODILE TRAIN STORE

My store is in the village of

Dundee,  NY

 

I do indeed also have a MTH crocodile locomotive.

Got it! Great movie and great name for your store!

COOL - NICE tie-in to a great film character! G'day mate! ☺

I made a rather large GarGraves track purchase (large to me that is) from Mike some time ago.  Excellent pricing!  Thank you Mike for becoming a sponsor.

Once again Alan, thank you for all your hard work!!!

Here is a logo I decided not to use for my store. I still like it.

I like your little world byline!

Crocodile Train Store posted:

Here is a logo I decided not to use for my store. I still like it.

I like your little world byline!

Mike, in case you do not already know it, my little world by line is a line of lyrics in the chorus of a model train song I wrote. the name of it is Who Am I (Rollin' By).

Would you like to hear the song? If so, I can email an MP3 recording of it to you.

If you like the song, you have my permission to play the recording for your friends, customers, acquaintances, anyone you like.

Arnold D. Cribari

Just got back from my weekly old time jam.

I play guitar and banjo.

I would love to hear and learn your song.

Thanks 

Mike

Crocodile Train Store posted:

Just got back from my weekly old time jam.

I play guitar and banjo.

I would love to hear and learn your song.

Thanks 

Mike

Hi Mike, I've been working on my layout this evening, trying to make a stream using acrylic paints and Mod Podge for scenic water. 

The song is in my Drop Box. Earlier this evening I visited the website for your store. It is very impressive. I will now try to email an MP3 recording of my song  to your store's email address. Arnold

Hi Arnold,

 Glad you like the store site.

Lots of stuff at good prices.  I work on a small margin to keep my prices low to help people  afford trains and I update it each day so I only show what is in stock as of that morning at 5am.  New items are added regularly.

I spent about a year building the site with my computer buddy and co worker from Siemens where I taught industrial control systems for 25 years.

Would love to also see the stream.

Best email for me brooksmj1948@gmail.com

Have fun

Talk to ya soon after I check out the song.

I will try to work it out by ear.

Thanks.

Mike

Crocodile Train Store posted:

Hi Arnold,

 Glad you like the store site.

Lots of stuff at good prices.  I work on a small margin to keep my prices low to help people  afford trains and I update it each day so I only show what is in stock as of that morning at 5am.  New items are added regularly.

I spent about a year building the site with my computer buddy and co worker from Siemens where I taught industrial control systems for 25 years.

Would love to also see the stream.

Best email for me brooksmj1948@gmail.com

Have fun

Talk to ya soon after I check out the song.

I will try to work it out by ear.

Thanks.

Mike

 

Mike,

As you can see, I wake up early. I just emailed the song to your personal email address via Dropbox.

We have a lot in common having model railroading and music in our lives. Can't wait to meet you in person at your train and music store. 

I believe Dundee, NY is not far from Binghamton, NY. When my 32 year old daughter and 30 year old son went to college, they both went to SUNY Binghamton.

Arnold

Mike, in further reply to your above post on January 10th,  you can see what I have done so far on my streams and scenic water using acrylic paints and Mod Podge, by visiting Senic Water near a Furnace that is Safe, under the Scenery & Structures. Arnold

Mike is a great guy, and the hobby is lucky to have him. I would highly recommend purchasing from him. If he doesn’t have it, you probably won’t be able to get it anywhere else. Great pricing and even better customer service! I always enjoy going over to see Mike’s layout, and to talk trains and life. 

Hi Mike, and a hearty welcome aboard!  I love your layout and your store theme.  You are definitely on my list of places to go see if I'm ever within a hundred miles of you (which I will surely be at one time or anther).  I like your logo of the two crocks on the electric loco.  I'd give some thought to reconsidering that baby.  It sure makes your store name image stick out in the mind once you've seen the logo!  Thank you for your sponsorship of our Forum and magazine, and we look forward to doing YOU some good as well!

Partner, Asst. Editor

Welcome!

Very nice website, I spent a good amount of time tonight browsing through. It looks like you have some fantastic deals. Ended up placing an order for a BTO Legacy loco.

Look forward to working with you!

jarred

Hi Jarrod,

Thanks so much for taking the time to visit and purchase,  it is much appreciated.

I really love the hobby and want to make a meaningful contribution to the hobby in the best way I can.

Thanks,

Mike

Since I am new to the Reply process, it seems like this one reply is applicable to all of the post above the Reply area, so thank you all Jim and Arnold so much for the nice comments and especially to John Ptak  who gives me great encouragement and hope for the future of model trains since he is one of the younger participants in the hobby compared to a 70 year old buzzard like me.

Very cool pics, I'll have to check out the site when I get home. Most welcome.

Thanks for the nice comment on the pics. Much appreciated😊

Reminds me of Cooperstown in the middle of nowhere .

Sort of like my hometown of Dundee in the middle of nowhere and just how I like it.

Thanks

"Crocodile" inmediately brought to mind a long swim to"down under".  It does look like a "fur piece" from here.  Welcome aboard.  There must be some teakettle short line that operated in your area, that you could get a run of cars done for, and introduce the O world to your shop.  (With precious time spent in research)