Red Caboose (NYC) on TV

Is the Red Caboose on 45th St?
If so, I think it was originally the Model Railroad Equipment Co., nicknamed Carmin Webster's or Ma Webster's.

I used to visit there often, but I don't know whether I ever made a purchase there.
Madison Hardware and Savoy Merchandise got all my money

Yes, I remember well when it was Model Railroad Equipment Corp and if I remember the Red Caboose was across the street and upstairs...I think the Red Caboose then moved across the street into the basement where Model Railroad Equip. Corp was. But, I'm confused I thought they were out of business?? Am I wrong? The last time I was in Manhattan and went to that area where the stores were, I could have sworn neither one was their anymore (maybe like 15 years ago).

When they were both there, I went there with my dad when I was a youngster and then later in life with my wife.

Tom

 

The name of the store was Model Railroad Equipment Corp., and it was owned by Carmen Webster.  No nickname involved, she was the owner.

 

I bought several Ambroid "1 in 5000" HO craftsman rail car kits there.  The ones I can remember are the Livesay Poultry car and the Combine Work Caboose.  There may have been others but it's been a while.

 

I also bought a Con-cor N-scale Santa Fe PA-1 there that I still have.  I think it was manufactured by Kato, but it's buried too deep to go look.  I bought it because the MR mag test said the low speed was .83 mph., and it really does crawl.  The standout memory of that purchase is that the sales dude put it on the test track, operated it forward and in reverse, and then asked me if I wanted to fondle it.  I told him I preferred to wait until I was in the privacy of my own home.  Aside from that slightly disconcerting experience MR Equipment Corp. was a fabulous train store.

 

Later on never did much care for The Red Caboose, upstairs, can't remember what side of the street.  Just an annoying train store IMO.

 

Pete

 

 

Just found this news segment from a few weeks ago on Fox:

 

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/2...el-train-hobby-alive

 

Tom

Here was an older newspaper article from 2003 (like any good packrat, I have the original in my basement)...talking about the decline of the hobby back then.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01...stomers-dwindle.html

 

Tom

Hey, MNCW, just curious.  Were you ever there?  On West 45th St.?  At any time?

 

Pete

Yes, I was in both places when they were across from each other... probably the last time was around when the NY Times article ran, so around 2002-2003.

I remember both stores but I mostly shopped at the Model Railroad Equipment Corp.  At the time I worked at 44th Street and 6th.  They were around the corner on 45th between 5th and 6th.  They had a lot of product and parts jammed in that basement.  I spent a lot of time and money there.  Good memories.

From what I recall, there was a store across the street, on an upper floor, called The Red Caboose. I think the customers had to ride up in an elevator to get into the store.

I was only there a couple of times.

I don't know whether its the same store.

 

There was also a Heathkit store nearby. I used to walk past it going to Model Railroad Equipment Corp.

That's it...I seem to remember that elevator was very small, too. 

I also recall not much Lionel stuff in that upstairs store...

 

Tom

 

With me it was the early seventies, before I came to my senses and moved to Texas.  I don't remember any elevator to the Red Caboose, just a narrow stairway and that it was upstairs.

 

Pete

 

I took many a subway trip from my home in the Bronx down to MRREC in the early 60's.

 

When you got to the bottom of the stairs you turned right to get to the scale section with its wall of brass locos. If you turned to the left, you were in the Lionel area.

 

At that time in my train life, I always turned right. Now, I hate to think of the bargains to be had in the other section that I passed up!  I do remember stopping briefly to see a blue/yellow Virginian FM (probably second-hand) on the test track going through its paces for a potential customer.

 

Somewhere during that time period, the shop across the street upstairs opened. I beleieve it was first known as The Roundhouse.

 

Back then, we also had the America's Hobby Center on 22nd St a few blocks from Madison Hardware and Polk's at 32nd and 5th. Even my old neighborhood had the Bronx Hobby Center on Jerome Avenue south of 170th St. and another smaller train shop across the street next to the Shortline Bus Terminal.

 

Good old days!

 

But, Pete, weather-wise, I should have followed your lead and headed for warmer climates.

 

Jim

 

Jim:

 

I remember America's Hobby Center well. I had a good rapport with Marshall Winston, the owner of the business. I'd walk in, he'd ask me what I wanted, I'd ask him what he had that was good, he'd go into back and come out with an armful of stuff. I bought a lot of N scale in that place.

 

Marshall passed on fairly recently. Here's a link to his obit:

 

http://obits.dignitymemorial.c...6415&mid=5567385

 

Funny that you mentioned the brass section in the MRREC store. The Roundhouse always had an incredible selection of brass equipment as well. I remember an emphasis on local prototypes such as NYC and NH electrics, of course none of which were available in three rail O gauge at the time. As a young person on a limited income, all I could do was stand there and drool.

 

Bob 

I was just at the Red Caboose about 2 months ago and the guy who runs it is crazy!!!! He was nasty unhelpful and just rude! I said to him, I work at a train store, part-time, keep up what you are doing because we get a lot of business from you!

You should have gone in with a TV camera (see the link for the Fox news story listed earlier/above)...to get treated well! 

 

Tom

quote:

That's it...I seem to remember that elevator was very small, too. 

I also recall not much Lionel stuff in that upstairs store...

 

Yes, I think the elevator would hold two people, that's it.

CW Burfle:

 

     When I worked in Manhattan in 1970's- 80's I used visit both stores- Red Caboose and Roundhouse. Red Caboose was downstairs on 45th St. and Roundhouse was further east, on the 2nd or 3rd floor and you had to use a tiny elevator. As someone else said, it held a maximum of 2 people!

 

     My brother-in-law also worked in Manhattan and when he visited the Red Caboose with a co-worker, they saw Neil Young there. This was in the 1980's- '90's.

 

     One time- back in the '80's, I visited The Roundhouse (after taking that tiny elevator) and they had just had some kind of water leak and as a result, they had some discounted prices on items that had been affected. I bought a McFadden Scale Models kit for an O Scale Silver Slipper Saloon. I decided to put it away until one day when I retire.

 

      Well, here it is, 2015, and I am retired for six years. The Silver Slipper Saloon is still waiting for me to put it together!

 

      But those were both great shops to visit.

 

John Knapp

Erie, not Eerie

 

 

 

While working in Manhattan I went to the Red Caboose frequently during the late '70s. Mostly stuff for the HO layout my sons and me were building in our Morristown, NJ basement. 

 What I remember you went up on that tiny elevator and the sign on the wall said maximum capacity 10 people. I thought you have got to be kidding. You were lucky to fit 4 small people in there. I do remember a lot of brass stuff as you got off the elevator.

Originally on W 45th there was Model Railroad Equipment Corp on the north side of the street in the basement, The Roundhouse on the south side up a flight of stairs on the second floor, and The Red Caboose on the south side on the fourth floor (with the elevator).

 

And I've heard many stories of Al in the Red Caboose.

 

Stuart

 

 

Alan's shop is actually my LHS. It is a few blocks from work. I go in about once a month to get my small orders or a book or something. He has always been nice to me.

When I worked in the city (49th & Madison) in the 80s MREC & the Red Caboose were my go to places. The MREC guys were great and I bought a lot of N scale them, including brass models as Jim mentioned. They even discounted. Al at the Red Caboose was another story. I really think he's bipolar. He was always nice to me but boy, he could give someone a hard time. I did buy some nice things from him and I saw NY shopping there but it was always an adventure there.

I didn't realize it was still there (though now in the basement location).  I thought I had recently heard somewhere Manhattan officially had no train stores.  Might have to check it out next time I'm in the city (didn't know to look last weekend when I went - oh well!)

 

I was probably there in the late 80s or very early 90s, I don't remember much about the Lionel content, as I was in to HO at the time being either still a kid or a college student at the time.  The times I went was with my dad, and we covered pretty much the shops already mentioned here (Red Caboose when it was up the elevator, MREC in the basement across the street (though I never would have remembered the name), America's Best, and Madison).  I feel lucky to have been to Madison Hardware once before it was sold/closed.

 

-Dave

 

 

 

The MREC guys were great and ...They even discounted. Al at the Red Caboose was another story. I really think he's bipolar. He was always nice to me but boy, he could give someone a hard time. 

LOL! Esp if he saw you come to his store upstairs after shopping across the street. anyone coming in with a bag from across the street he would throw out immediately!

 

Funny thing with me was I came in was a bag from a grocery store and he assumed it was a bag from across the street. I didn't even know what was across the street but since he made a big deal about it, after leaving his store I had to find out. LOL when I saw there was no O gauge across the street in the basement, I figured that dude was a real fool to say the best and least. 

 

IMHO- if the writers of Big Bang Theory knew about the red caboose owner, they could have a field day with an episode or two! [a la Seinfeld and the "Soup Nazi"]

 

"I seem to remember that elevator was very small, too"

 

great to make out in, though.

The only place I ever visited was the Model Railroad Equipment Corp., from the mid 1950s through the early 1960s. What a place to drool over, what with all that brass stuff.

You guys crack me up.

 

I've known Alan personally for 35 years. He's a genius, he's generous, and he likes cats. For those not from New York, his supposed abrasive behavior, refined by decades of dealing with the tire-kickers and other odd sods who walk in to his shop, is known as a "schtick."

 

http://www.urbandictionary.com...ine.php?term=schtick

 

Lou and Carl were well-versed in the same behavioral habits, for the same reasons. Try dealing with the public for 40 years (70 years in the case of the Shur/Shaw brothers) and you'd be a little prickly, too.

During the 70s, my friends and I began making trips into Manhattan to go to the train stores on days off school. My personal experience with Mr. Spitz has been the same as Mr. Bloom and Silver Lake. Alan has always treated me well and I've purchased a lot from him over the years. Nowadays, he's very accommodating with my young son whenever I bring him in the store. Also, regarding the above comment about him throwing you out of his store if he thought you had purchased something in one of the other stores, my experience was just the opposite as I found the Manhattan train shopkeepers more than happy to send you to one of the other guys if you wanted something they didn't have or carry.

 

Bob