Glenn's Train Shop building in Akron

Thanks for sharing this, Lou.

I'm not old enough to remember the place looking much better this.  One thing is for sure, the hobby lost an amazingly unique character when we lost Glen, and a one of kind shop when we lost Glen's.

I was in Akron - for 2 weeks! - in December, late 80's, on a work trip. I was just getting into this 3RO stuff - I had gotten my new Lionel gray 785 from Train99 the year before or so. Engine, caboose, headlight, smoke, Mighty Sound of Steam (yowza) for a mere $895 - in 1980's dollars. So the next time you see a new PSLegacy3 whatever and say: "it's too expensive...", well.

Anyway, I hopped into the rental Olds Firenza (remember those? remember Olds?) and I went to Glen's to shop. I bought a car or something. Some grumpy old guy (I was under 40) behind the counter. Glen, I guess. Then I went driving in the snow-covered Ohio countryside. As many times as we see it in the movies and on TV, when confronted with an actual white blanketed landscape, we Deep Southerners often just think it looks...weird. And it's crunchy.

Got to Cleveland a couple of times on that trip. That's another story, but I did drive along the Cuyahoga River - the one that caught fire in the 60's - 70's.

I still have the 785 (and caboose). Ever heard the whistle on those things?

I got into trains well after Glen's had been gone, and knew this place as Aaron's City trains. I went there on my lunch breaks to look at all of the boxes and boxes of trains, took my boys there to see the layout they had and was the last customer before they closed the door. 

Fortunately we've still got a few really good train shops in the Akron/Greater Akron area. 

My most favorite train shop, gone for good. 

I lived in the Akron area from the late 60's and was a regular customer for years at this establishment until my move to Arizona back in 2004. Glen's Train Shop was my one and only source for Lionel Trains. There was a certain mystic about visiting his shop as you never really knew how you would be treated. I always loved that aroma of the cinder block building, the two heavy steel doors and that loud buzzer when you first walked in. Boxes stack all over the place with lots of used postwar pieces kind of made it a treasure hunt for me. As long I didn't bother Glen with too many questions and knew what I wanted he was o.k. Since Arron's opened it's never been quite the same for me, the store too organized and the old postwar stuff gone as well. 587 grant will never be the same. Yea, he's probably turning over in his grave now that his building is now used for drinking. He was a quite religious man in fact.

I'm thrilled I was able to visit the store about 2 weeks before it closed. I'm from Ohio but never knew about that store until the end of its existence. 

Pretty terrible how monetary gain trumps pure human decency and respect. I'm sure there were other places they could've have put a bar other than that man's establishment. OK, I'm done with my ranting. 

Dave

luvindemtrains posted:

I'm thrilled I was able to visit the store about 2 weeks before it closed. I'm from Ohio but never knew about that store until the end of its existence. 

Pretty terrible how monetary gain trumps pure human decency and respect. I'm sure there were other places they could've have put a bar other than that man's establishment. OK, I'm done with my ranting. 

Dave

It was sitting abandoned and its fate would be worse if not for the bar.  Two property's over is a peep show bar already there for decades.

I bought a number of things from Robert Uhle, the original Glenn's son.

D500 posted:

Some grumpy old guy  behind the counter. Glen, I guess?

Based on the Glen Uhl stories I've heard over the years, that would be him. That would be one of the more gracious descriptions people used! Apparently he had some clout with Lionel, though, given that he got them to do special runs for him over the years. There was one famous story about him, something along the lines of how he got into a contest with Lionel over a shipment of GG1s that didn't meet his quality expectations, and he just shot the entire shipment back to them COD without authorization. 

breezinup posted:

Based on the Glen Uhl stories I've heard over the years, that would be him. That would be one of the more gracious descriptions people used! Apparently he had some clout with Lionel, though, given that he got them to do special runs for him over the years. There was one famous story about him, something along the lines of how he got into a contest with Lionel over a shipment of GG1s that didn't meet his quality expectations, and he just shot the entire shipment back to them COD without authorization. 

The story is even better than that. This was in our local paper back in 1980.