Need PA Train Store!

Mark,

 

I live just a little further northwest of Radnor. I'm familiar with the Nicholas Smith train store, you won't need to go anywhere else! You can spend hours in there looking at all the trains, accessories, etc. Have a safe trip east and enjoy your visit to the Philly area!! 

Well, I hope you'll consider at least one other place, we are located about 24 miles NW of Phila. Henning's Trains in Lansdale, PA.

Thanks.

Thanks Bill!  23 miles from Radnor is perfect. I'm about to build Layout #2: 11x5, O Gauge mix of Lionel and MTH/Weaver.  I'll be posting my intial plans soon for OGR fans to critique.

Mark B. Good Luck in seeing a bunch of GREAT STORES AND TRAINS. I don't know the Philly area so will have to depend the guys to guide you. Good Luck.

I will suggest Trains 'R Fun in Fraser, Pa on route 30. Charlie has some interesting stuff, and great prices!

The one time I went to Trains R Fun his preorder prices are very good but everything in stock was msrp.  Am I wrong?  Nice enough owner, but I don't want to drive an hour and a half one way every time a preorder comes in.

Bussinger Trains, Ambler

 

http://www.bussingertrains.com/

 

Located at the SEPTA Ambler station.

Combine a train ride with hobby shop scouting.

If time allows you can try Valley Rail Trains and Hobbies in Allentown. There is a large train display located in the Mall also. http://www.merchantssquaremall.com. Stop in and say hi.

If you get out towards Harrisburg on the turnpike, set your GPS to Barry's Train shop in Elizabethtown, PA. Address for the GPS is 2 High Street. Lots of Lionel and some MTH, friendly service from Mike and Germaine and the rest. Open 12 -5 M, Tu, Fr. Th 12-8pm, Sat 10 to 5. Tell Mike Luke sent you.

If you want to venture to the Northeast section of the city, you can look up Joes Train Station. Its just outside the city, the address is 21 E Street Rd, Feasterville/Trevose, PA 19053. The phone number is 215-322-5182. Just about every square inch of the store is covered with trains.

Ride Amtrak to Penn Station, New York City. Take the F train to Ditmas Avenue in Brooklyn. The subway becomes the "el" ("elevated") south of Manhattan. Great views on all sides! Get off at Ditmas Avenue. Go downstairs to street level. Go to Bianco's Trainworld at 751 McDonald Avenue. That's a GREAT train store (www.trainworld.com)

The shop I repair for, Ye Olde Train & Christmas Shoppe, 601 Jackson Road, Boyertown, PA, off Rte 100.  Been in business for fifteen years.  Not too much non train related Christmas stuff now.  Monday thru Saturday.  610-369-0755

 

A train shop carrying all gauges and manufacturers.  A lot of older Modern Era stuff to include an MTH Coors set and a Railking Triplex.  Also older, new Lionel. 

 

Discounts off MSRP.  Doesn't 'jack up' prices on older hard to find stock.

 

An excellent Lionel, American Flyer and Marx repair person, me.  Also has an MTH school trained tech, not me.

 

A small shop but jammed with trains, new and old.  Friendly, knowledgeable employees.  The owner usually there on Saturday or by appointment.

 

E-mail me for more info.

I made a list of PA stores that sell MTH products.  The list covers most of the state.  I traveled to most of them during the last three years.  Unfortunately I lost my folder where I commented on each store.  Some of the stores only carried boxed sets and some were MSRP. 

 

MTH has a dealer locator function on their web site.  You need enter the zip code 19001 and it will put out a list based on distance from your entry.  This is not very user friendly as one shop could be south and the next shop could be north and the next could be a little further south.  i wrote to MTH and asked them to change their search function to the city name which is easier then looking up a zipcode as you drive by an exit.  

 

Lionel has a dealer locator that lists the cities alphabetically.  You need to go to Lionel.com and select Products.  Brochures and Catalogs, Find a Lionel Authorized Dealer.

You can take the time and enter the addresses into Yahoo Maps and build yourself a route so you don’t have to back track.

 

 

You may want to get a cheesesteak and milkshake at the adjacent Thunderbird before you go into Nicholas Smith ..... for energy to check out everything in that great "toy store!"

I lived in Philadelphia about ten years ago, but my parents still live in Bucks Co.  Some of my impressions may be outdated but I offer them to be helpful.  Nicholas Smith is the largest, but the service can be spotty and the store is a mess.  I know train stores can be crowded but there comes a point where it is unprofessional and they are getting there.  Hennings in Lansdale has the best service.  Hennings also does excellent repairs.  Joe's Train Station in Feasterville used to be Toy Train Station.  Those guys had everything but were just plain weird / rude.  Signs everywhere "look with your eyes."  Nice, and then folks want to bemoan that some of these guys go out of business.  Hopefully that has changed.

 

 

 

Joes Train Station in Feasterville is good, and the service is excellent.  I stop in there when I travel for business.

I live 15 minutes from trains-r-fun and I never go into that shop, you never know if he is open, cranky and mostly junk with msrp prices. He also bemoans lack of customers, well duh!

 

Nickalos Smith, Hennings trains are the ones I would visit. 

It seems people have had different experiences at the same train shops.
Nicholas Smith trains advertises stuff at msrp, so I never bothered to visit. Maybe I should give them a fair shot one day.
Trains R Fun has allot of nos standard gauge stuff, but its all at MSRP.  He had a car I wanted, but I would have liked a little discount.  I'm not asking for much.  I ended up buying it online elsewhere for a considerable discount.  I see this as a bad business decision with several stores.  Another example of this is Island Trains.  They have tons of MTH ps1 stuff they list on eBay at original msrp.  Don't they realize the longer they hold on to their stock the more it costs them?

Both Henning's and Nicholas Smith are very much worth visiting. They are two rather different, but very worthwhile retailing experiences. I have made several good purchases with Smith's, and Henning's has been indispensable to me for nearly forty years.

 

Bob

I have noticed in my many adventures into train shop that the pricing depends on the local economy.  The big cities usually want big city prices.  Nicholas Smith is one of those stores.  They stock a lot of merchandise, but want MSRP.  Of course some may claim that they get good deals because they are repeat customers.  I ’m like everyone else; my funds are limited and the cheaper I can buy something the more items I can add to my layout.  Besides some of the stores mentioned above, I would recomend these places.  They all have web sites. 

 

Grzyboski’s Trains is worth the trip.

 

Village Hardware & Hobbies is worth the visit just to look at the hardware.

 

Just Trains of Delaware.  They are located south of Philadelphia at the first Maryland exit.  You head toward Newark and they are about 2 miles on the left across from Dupont and behind Delaware Freezer.

 

MB Klines <cite>modeltrainstuff.com located just off I83</cite> 

243 Cockeysville Rd Ste A,

CockeysvilleMD

 Nicholas Smith is one of those stores.  They stock a lot of merchandise, but want MSRP.

Not to pick on Nicholas Smith trains, but for all dealers like this, I ask why would I want to go there?  Do they have something that I couldn't find anywhere else?  Do they have a friendly staff that likes to shoot the bull with non-regular customers like me?  What do they have to offer that would entice me to buy something there at msrp?

I live in SE PA and have shopped at the stores referred to. My purchases depend on availability. Each and every one is fine. They are honest. I can't recall ever paying anything outrageous. Not every store has everything and so one looks around. In my world, profit is not a dirty word. Their profit = my benefit, because they remain in business. My issue now is I have reached a saturation point. There's just so much space and a limit to what you can run. I once calculated if I ran all my stuff equally just three more times, it would take me about 18 years or until I was 82, doing so many items a month. I finally got rid of magazines, because I had stored them in bankers boxes until I ran out of space. I plan to get the digital editions. But, I have family obligations which cuts into the above.  I've been running the same trains for the past six months, due to lack of time to rotate them. I go in spurts and will hit the shops again, as time warrants.     

Bussinger's in Ambler is a small store, but has inventory in another building near by; "mostly" MTH.

 

NS has a supply of K-line down stairs in the toy store. I beleive this had to be since they were a K-line super store and had to show trains apart from the other manufactures.

Timely topic as I am headed to Philly later this month for a meeting in Center City.

Any suggestions about which of these places in MD/DE/PA would be close to my route from Northern VA  (I-95) to Philly.  A good cheesesteak place would be helpful too. 

 

Thanks!

Did you say "Cheesesteaks?"   Here's a few that I've been to and liked.

 

Tony Luke's, Oregon Ave near I-95, South Philadelphia

Campo's, Market St. in Center City (200 block)

Dalessandro's Steaks, a bit out of center city on Henry Ave in Roxborough.  Many say these are the best.  Have been there forever.

Sonny's, also on Market St, very near Campo's (You could try TWO different cheesesteaks within a few yards!)

 

Ron from K&A, Philadelphians will know where that is.  :-)  Enjoy your Cheesesteaks!!

"Trains issued from relatively recent catalogs are often discounted at Nicholas Smith's."

 

If you're shopping online, its definitely worth it to check NS's price. Their search engine needs work. Such as .... Lionel numbers must be entered as : lio6xxxxx

 

 

"They stock a lot of merchandise," 

 

That's for sure. They have lots of old stock that they get in from other dealers, etc. I've found old, weird stuff there. Ask them for stuff you are looking for ... its not all on the website.

 

 

 

Philly steaks

the definite answer

http://www.visitphilly.com/art...philly-cheesesteaks/

 

Wow...  I've had the COMPLETE opposite experience at Nicholas Smith.  And it has nothing to do with the fact that I may frequent the store as one of my LHS's.  Just browse their website and you may find that they sell MANY items that are several years old at their originally discounted prices -- even though similar cars produced in more recent years may have somewhat increased prices across the board.

 

Two examples I can think off the top of my head... when I wanted to collect the steam- and early diesel-era Lionel piggyback flatcars with trailers, I picked up MANY of the earlier releases at their original selling price even though they had them in their inventory for 4-5 years.  Same was true of the modern diesel-era mechanical reefer cars.  I found many of the older individual and two-pack offerings of those cars at their original discounted selling price years later -- even though the newer versions of these cars sell at higher prices due to price increases from Lionel.

 

So I can say hands-down that I don't put Nicholas Smith Trains in the "selling at MSRP only" category.  Just not the case at all.   Just my experience, FWIW.

 

David

Yes... this store popped onto my radar screen a few months ago when Standard Gauge caught my interest.  Great store, but call before you head out that way... just to make sure they're open when you plan to arrive.  I think their normal hours are 11-3:30.  Can be challenging if your 9-5 hours are typically spoken for.    But if you're retired, then the limited hours shouldn't pose a problem.

 

You'll also encounter the limited hours issue with Bussinger Trains in Ambler; but with their hours being 2-7 (give or take), the working man can stop by after work.

 

I guess I got spoiled when I lived much closer to Nicholas Smith Trains back in the late 1980's and most of the 1990's.  Back then, their weekday hours were 10-10 on M-W-F, and 10-7 Tues and Thursday.  I think they've trimmed the hours back a bit now (especially in the Summer), but you should have no problem catching them any day they're open.

 

David

 

Also, you could take the train from Market East to the airport, and check out stores in California.

 

As of today, JusTrains has moved two doors down to 812 Interchange Blvd.  Same size unit but laid out in a straight through configuration, as opposed to the separate rooms in the former space.  It's a little larger retail area with a smaller shipping/receiving area, which I was told the shipping area is big enough for their operations.

Great news, I drove by on Saturday and they were still in the old section.

Yes, they just started moving to the new space around noon yesterday.  I had stopped by late afternoon to pick up my Golden Gate Depot N&W streamliners as they were moving stuff to the new location.

Just Trains is only 30 minutes from my driveway.  MB Klines is 45.