Hobby shops/layouts/museums in SW Ohio

Well a must see on the list is Entertrainment Junction it is the world's largest indoor G scale layout. it depends on what you want to do. 

I'm a Flyer/S-gauge guy. <snip>   The art deco train station in Cincinnati is already on the list.

Make sure to see the "Cincinnati in Motion" exhibit at Museum Center (the train station building).  It is a HUGE display of Cincinnati from the early 1900's through the 1940's.  Different parts of the city are depicted in different eras.  It is full of trains in motion and the trains are all S-guage.  Be sure to continue down the ramp from the main exhibit area to see the airport and amusement park areas.

The S-gauge hobby shop situation in Cincinnati is not good.  Dixie Union Station in Mason is almost all 3-rail O-scale, with a little bit of HO and even less S-gauge.  There is more S activity in Dayton including a modular group (Miami Valley S-gaugers).  Here is their website with e-mail addresses of people who should know more about what to see for an S-gauger.

http://www.trainweb.org/mvsg/

Thanks for the ideas - we definitely plan to go to the train station in Cincinnati.

Trip Report:  Just to followup on my previous question about what to see/do in the Dayton and Cincinnati area (train-wise).  Two items of possible interest - first, craft brewing seems to have found the Dayton and Cincinnati area.  We tasted lots of good to really quite good craft beers - some yummy porters and stouts and a couple of really very tasty belgian-style beers - Breweries we visited (and in which I have no "interest") included Yellow Springs, Toxic, and Warped Wing.  Check 'em out if you are in the Dayton area.

We also went to the Cincinnati Union Terminal - built in 1931 in the Art Deco style.  I've attached a few photos here.  The Terminal is worth visiting for its Art Deco architectural style and decor, the Cincinnati (history) museum and the companion Natural history museum.  We didn't have time for the latter.  There is a docent-led tour of the Terminal, including some otherwise not-open-to-the-general public restored offices of the Union Terminal secretary, president and board room.  The Art Deco decor, which relied heavily on the use of exotic wood, was quite spectacular - well worth the ~90 minutes - see a few sample pictures below.  There is a separate, self accessed 'tour' of the old yard control tower - this currently overlooks the active yards of both CSX and NS - again staffed by volunteer docents who had lots of information.

The History museum is really worthwhile - we didn't budget enough time for it, thinking our primary interest was the 'Cincinnati in motion' cityscape.  But, wrong - the rest of the museum - through which we did a very high speed run - is excellent and highly recommended.  The museum itself is worth several hours.

The city scape and its operating S-scale trains and street cars was very well done - unfortunately for me I took all my pictures of them at 'night', not realizing that just as we were leaving that exhibit the 'sun' came up...!  Lots of trains running - all steam engines as I recall, circa late 1930's.  Most of the engines and rolling stock seemed to be S-Helper or American Models - though I did recognize several cars as being AC Gilbert or Lionel Flyer.  Interestingly, the couplers were all the out-of-scale Flyer knuckle couplers!  Might have been some scratch-built rolling stock - almost all of it was slightly weathered and the layouts were really well done.  Lots of starting and stopping controlled by block signals

The photos below are slightly out of my intended order (but I don't seem to be able to fix that...) - so the first one is a part of one of two murals above the entry hall.  Turns out that the mural is really a (glass) mosaic, which is why the colors are so vibrant.

The second photo is a restored train gate (the train shed no longer exists) set up in an alcove off the board room. 

The third photo is an exterior 'approach' shot of the Terminal itself.  The (former) train shed was out behind this building.  Originally built to accommodate seven railroads (I don't remember them all - B&O, C&O, Pennsy, NYC, ...), there is now, alas, only the once a day Amtrak Cardinal which arrives in the middle of the night (WB around 1:30 am and EB around 3:30 am).  Still the Amtrak waiting room (available on the tour) is mostly Art Deco - except the new plastic chairs...

Finally, the last photo is the Union Terminal president's desk.  Apparently the presidency of the joint operation rotated among the several railroads.

A very worthwhile day spent at the terminal.

Did I mention the beer?

FWIW - the Amtrak Cardinal is three times a week, not daily... I missed that detail in the timetable.