Pittsburgh Area Train Shops that are Gone

It was Cranberry Hobby.

Thanks Jim.  It might have been mentioned earlier but I didn't read thru the entire post carefully.

- walt

I used to live near there.  The "store" was up a long driveway, if I recall correctly.  I had him repair something for me once, I think. 

George

Bill was a good guy, very knowledge and fair on prices.  A few years ago he repaired a transformer for a friend of my niece so they could get their father’s long unused post-war Lionel set back in operation running under the Christmas tree for the grandkids. 

Didn’t he close because his store was robbed?

Bill

Yes, I think I heard that as well. 

George

Where was Woodruff's located in Pittsburgh? Where they downtown off the Blvd. of the Allies.

that's what I heard as well. I hadn't been able to get any parts for a while, and when I tried contacting bill, his email was no good. I had asked on here, and was told of the robbery. real shame, Bill was a good guy to deal with.

I actually heard it was worse than that.  Lots of customers' stuff was taken in the robbery and he couldn't recover.  End of story.

Hi Jimmy:

No Woodruff’s was in the South Hills on Route 51 between Brentwood and Overbrook.  Following is what is stamped on the cover of my 1956 Lionel Catalog:

“Discount prices QUOTED IN STORE

LOW COST BUDGET PLAN TO 12 MONTHS

WOODRUFF CORP. TU 4-2222

2840 Saw Mill Run Boulevard  Brentwood  PGH. 27, PA.”

Note the old-style phone number and the pre-zipcode mailing address.

You are probably thinking of Bill & Walt’s which over the years occupied at least two different locations on Smithfield Street and their last downtown location was at the corner of the Boulevard of the Allies.

HTH,

Bill

Bill,

Thanks for the information. The reason I asked was because back in 1955 my mother and father got me a American Flyer Rocket passenger set for Christmas. It came from a wholesale company located in downtown Pittsburgh off the Blvd. of the Allies.

I was in Woodruff's many times. I have a Circus set with the Blvd of the Allies wholesaler's stamp on it. The Tu (88) telephone exchange was called Tuxedo, those names are long gone. The Hornes' department store at the corner of Rt 51 and Brownsville Rd had a nice train department in the 50's at Christmas.  Downtown, Kaufmann's and Frank & Seder both had great train departments at Christmas, I have original sets from both.

There was also a small Gilbert train store on Rt 88 between Rt 51 and the former Brown Motor Olds dealer. It had a nice layout inside and a Santa Fe passenger set running above the front entry. My dad took me there several times to purchase track and accessories. The building is still there, virtually unchanged. The train store closed in the mid to late 50's. 

Tom

AmFlyer,

   It was a great store no doubt about it, I remember the train always running above the entry also, gone about 1957, I have a few cars that were purchased there also.

PCRR/Dave

Thanks for the information. You are the first person I have heard from who also remembers that store! I recall one visit vividly in late 1954. We purchased a pair of 720A's then stopped to look at the just arrived 1955 Oldsmobiles. I was not sure when it closed, thanks for the estimated date.

My American Flyer #474-#475 rocket passenger set maybe had the Woodruffs Blvd. of the Allies label on the lid.

Woodruffs moved a few times.  For a while they were located on the North Side, in the then-new Allegheny Center, on the E. Ohio Street side.  This must have been around 1957-58 and perhaps a little longer;  I remember purchasing the Lionel Railway Express reefer there when it first came out -- and being chagrined at having to pay full price since it was a "New" item.  They also had a great selection of the KMT plastic kits.

Woodruff's was also unique -- to the best of my knowledge -- in that they were the only Pitttsburgh train dealer to place "large" ads in the national mags.

Best, SZ

Woodruff's weren't in the mall [ which may not have existed then ], but in a streetlevel store where E. Ohio St "was".  The building as I recall looked new [ well, by Pittsburgh standards ] and had large windows;  it looks like an office bldg is there now.

I did go down to Level 14 in the vault, but the only thing I turned up [ well, that's relevant; a PRR 1963 timetable and Maerklin catalogs from the 'old' Nicholas Smith don't count ] was the Lionel "How to Operate....Service Station List" for 55-56 with the Woodruff Saw Mill Run overstamp.  More research is needed, but my Model Trains and other mags are 'buried' somewhere.... 

Best rgds, SZ

I remember the name on set box either Woodruffs or Woodwell or Woodweld wholesale. I was with my mother and father when they got the train set and I remember the store was downtown on or right off the Blvd. of the Allies. The side street was going towards the Monogahela River. Maybe it was Wood Strret. Hey guys, that was almost 60 years ago.

What do you folks know about a place called The Joseph Woodwell Co. They were located at Second and Wood Street. They were a wholesale for hardware stores. My great uncle and father ran a hardware store in Homer City. I would bet this is the the place my train set came from. I just found this place on the internet.

Yes.  The portion of Sandusky St that is the eastern boundry of Allegheny Center has since been renamed 'East Commons'.  The store was on the corner, and actually "fronted" the cross street, which had been semi-pedestrianized.

    At that time they had a reasonable HO inventory, too.  I'm pretty sure I bought a Varney "Old Lady" Consol kit there, for example.

    I was thinking they earlier had a location on Banksville -- but I may be thinking of one of the Rt 51 stores.  As you might imagine, their business was pretty seasonal -- except for us 'hard core' guys, of course....

Best, SZ

How about Round House Hobby which according to the 1996 Lionel Service Station Listings was at 1902 Brownsville Road?  That address is right after Copperfield Ave. in Carrick which is where I remember that store being located.

Bill

SZ:

A friend scanned and emailed to me the 1959 and 1961 Lionel service station listings that I was missing.  The 1959 listing shows Woodruff’s on Sandusky like the 1960 listing so that more closely agrees with your original time frame for the North Side store.  Once again they could have been there in 1957 and ‘58 as well but not have been an “Approved Lionel Service Station” at that time.  The 1961 listing shows them in the Whitehall Terrace Shopping Center on Saw Mill Run, just like the 1962 listing.

HTH and Regards,

Bill

Vidkidz,

The store you are referring to in South Hills Village was called "Card and Camera Shop."  There was at least one other in the Great Southern Shopping center, and there may have been more.  Usually carried lower end items, though I was suprised to see them carry the top of the line (for that time) 8753 GG-1, circa 1977.

The defunct store in Cranberry was the Cranberry  Hobby Depot closed not due to lack of business, but the age of the owners.  Current site is occupied by Grand Central Hobbies which looks like its hanging on by a thread.

A mile or so away is Hobby Express which is an amazing store.  They keep expanding, not shrinking, and have a huge inventory.  They are located in a huge shopping center and have retail hours like a big box sotre.  Run out of ground foam at 4 PM on a Sunday?  No problem.  Just run over and pick some up as I did last weekend.  They are just 10 minutes from my home, and I am very grateful to have them.  Due to their location in a shopping center in a growing community with lots of young kids, their business appears to be supplanted by young families whose kids are only casually into a hobby...but it helps all of us serious model railroaders and those into other hobbies.

Not sure if I missed it, but there is Esther's in Millvale.  More into N scale that anything, but right out of the 1950's, including their bench outside with their motto "Relax with a Hobby!"  A real pleasure to visit, and like stepping into the past!

Neal:

If they are still open, then they would belong on that other thread of existing shops in the Pittsburgh area?

Bill

You are right, they are still open and I should have made that clear.  My kids love going down to that store.

Neil,

   I thought Esther's in Milvile was strictly an Ho/N gauge hoddy shop, am I wrong, if I am I will put them on the O Guage train store list, with their store telephone number.

Just got off the phone with the owner, he does carry some O Guage trains and rolling stock, his main sales are Ho/N however, I will put heir name on the active list.

PCRR/Dave

I visited Esther's no more than 1 month ago because I'd never been there before and I only live 15 minutes or so from it.  If they have 'O' it's pretty much hidden from plain view!!!!  They might have some lights or something but I didn't see any 'O' in terms of rolling stock or engines or sets.  I'm not totally claiming that they don't have something "O", but I wouldn't make a trip there to find out. 

He has a nice 'N' layout downstairs that some guys get together to run.

- walt

Walt,

   That was always my belief, however I know very little about his actual inventory.

I believe at this point we will leave Esther's of the list of O Gauge contacts unless

sombody else knows different about the business.

Thanks for your input Walt.

PCRR/Dave

Dave, Walt,

You are correct, he has very little O scale.  But you can pick up things like train magazines and scenery material there.  It's still a delightful store that looks like its circa 1952, and worth a visit if only for the nostalgia.

Al's Bargain Center located on Clay Ave in Jeannette.  Santa delivered my Texas Special by way of Al's.

Norm Rish

I just saw this thread by accident while searching Train O Rama.  I had seen some O gauge layouts as a small child, but was bitten by the bug when I saw and bought a Railroad Model Craftsman the mid '60s in Nick Brown's magazine and tobacco shop on Grand Avenue in Mars.  I wanted a train set badly.  My dad told me to save my quarters, and he took me the whole way from home in Valencia down to Train O Rama, because it was the only store he knew of.  I had seen Tyco sets that fit my budget in RMC, so I bought a Tyco HO set and a Lionel Type 0100 transformer.  Don't know how I ended up with that combination.  I still use the transformer, but only have a flatcar from the set.  The rest was destroyed in storage.

We used to go to Butler Main Street to shop, but my parents avoided Aland's toy store and stayed on the East side of the street.  They had a hard enough time getting us away from Woolworth's toy section.  No trains there.  I was never in Aland's until a few years ago, shortly before they closed.

Someone mentioned a shop in a strip mall on McKnight Road.  There was a hobby shop in the shopping center Gimbles was in, but I don't remember the name.  As a teenager in the early '70s, I bought most of my hobby supplies there.

In the '80s there was a shop on Jefferson Street in Butler.  I think it was Jim's, but I am not sure.  He may have had a different name.  Then in the '90s, he moved out on 422 west of Butler between Mt. Chestnut and Prospect, but didn't last long.

Surprisingly, I never went in CT McCormick's Hardware in Zelienople until I got the O Gauge bug a few years ago.  Of course they are still thriving and I have done business with them, Hobby Express, and Mercer Junction, but that isn't the purpose of this thread.  ;-)

Thanks for the memories.

Add the J&C Hobby that was in the Pittsburgh Mills Mall Frazier Township.

They did not renew thier lease.

Woodruff's was on the North Side across a little alley from the old Sears store. Can't remember the year, but bought my #612 Alaska Switcher there when it came out. So, whatever year that came out was when they were there. front entrance faced 7th St. Still have that switcher & it runs fine.

I frequented a hobby shop that had trains in Mt. Lebanon, on rt 19, in the business section.  Some of you may have mentioned it by name but do not remember the name.  Anyone remember this shop?

I mostly bought model building supplies when I lived near there as I had out grown the 027 trains and was into scratch building model boats and planes.

Later when visiting my folks in Upper St. Clair we would visit Bill and Walts on trips on the trolly downtown.

Since many on this thread know Pittsburgh, I will say my families yearly at least trips to visit my folks we always liked to ride the trolly from the South Hills Village mall to downtown, shop and tour around and ride back. I only lived in Pittsburgh 1 year buy my folks spent 40 years of so there and retired there so I know it well.

I also remember the Card and Camera Shop shop at the South Hills Village Mall.

Charlie

AB Charles and Son was the hobby shop on Rt19.  They moved down the road a few years back, and then again out to Donaldson's Crossroads.  They were not the best train store in the last few years and from what I understand sell very little now.

I haven't been to the Mills in a couple years, but that place was losing tenants at a pretty quick rate for a while.  

Mark:

As mentioned earlier in this 3-page thread, among their one-time many stores, Bill & Walt’s had a shop in a strip mall on McKnight Road.  I have relatives near there and was in there only once.

Bill

Burlands was on McKnight Rd

There was also a shop in Latrobe, PA - Adam & Eve's Pet and Hobby Shop - that closed down a few years back.  I bought a few things from them from time to time.

Andy

We need a thread on PGH shops that are still open !   Lotsa luck !

100% Agreed!