Los Angeles, CA LHS or other O Gauge stuff

Matt Jackson (AGHRmatt) is a member and his email address is on his profile.  He's a good guy and can let you know how to visit their layout.

I used to visit Calif. fairly regularly on business, and once made a safari through the

LA area checking out the LHS.  I remember one (except the name!) that was long known and well publicized as a tinplate shop, but have heard nothing of it lately, (I was underwhelmed when I visited some years ago) so I would also like to know what is now in the area.  There was one on a main road in Pasadena (think of the song, "Little

Old Lady from Pasadena")...can't think of the road or the shop's name, that was well

known, too and I visited once.

Don't tell people I'm a good guy! I have a reputation to think about among my colleagues in my megalomaniac support group.

The club is open to visitors pretty much any time the doors are open, but the general "public" day is Saturday from 10:00am to 4:00pm. We have a mid-week meeting Wednesday from 4:00pm to about 8:00 (first Wednesday is the Business Meeting). Fewer trains are running if at all because we're often doing layout work. We also make special arrangements for out-of-town visitors.

As for train stores, there are none in the city of Los Angeles per say, but in surrounding areas of Los Angeles and Orange Counties. The ones below deal in all scales, but the pickings can be slim for O Gauge/O Scale. Not sure what's outside of the LA Metro area and the "hobby shops" in the area tend to carry little model railroading supplies other than R-T-R sets with little, if any, O gauge equipment.

Los Angeles County:

• The Train Shack in Burbank (http://www.trainshack.com)
• Allied Model Trains in Culver City (http://www.alliedmodeltrains.com)
• The Original Whistle Stop in Pasadena (http://www.thewhistlestop.com)

Orange County:

• Arnies Trains in Westminster (http://www.arniestrains.com)
• In Costa Mesa is The Train Crossing (http://www.thetraincrossing.com/)
• In Anahiem Hills there's Milepost 38 (http://milepost38modeltrains.com/)

BTW, Colorado Hi-Railer, the Original Whistle stop is on Colorado Blvd. Good reference regarding the Jan & Dean song "Little old Lady from Pasadena" as she was the "Terror of Colorado Boulevard." My mother was one of those, hot-rodding around in a 280ZX Turbo.

If you don't have luck with LHS scene, you can go to Griffith Park.  Locomotives, miniature trains, museum. 

Also try the Los Angeles Steamers Museum for looking and ride on fun.

Only open Sundays if memory serves correctly. Here's the link.

http://lals.org/

Matt,

Thanks for posting the hours for the club.  I will be visting my daughter in Costa Mesa the weekend of January 25 and plan to drop by on Saturday.

san diego is not to much farther south from costa mesa.  if you get down there stop by the san diego model railroad museum and the 3-railers.

I will second the trip to San Diego.  The museum and layouts were awesome.  Excellent 3 rail, older 2 rail O Scale, and then some really nice smaller scales with some great structures and scenes.

I had a very long (12hr) layover at LAX and rented a card and drove south.

I'll third that trip to San Diego. Nice layouts. Nice people.