Seattle WA train shop(s)? UPDATE

Eastside Train across Lake Washington in Bellevue is a really great trainshop.  The staff is friendly and knowledgeable and the selection of trains is large.  Just a hop across the floating bridge.

There are only 4 Seattle-area train stores (5 if you count Tacoma, but is a bit out of the way) that I'm aware of. But nothing in Seattle proper.
Now whether they're available by public transit, I can't wholly say since I do have a car. A bus might be possible.
All of these can be found doing a search on google maps.

The one you have to get to, although it is on the Eastside (across Lake Washington) is Eastside Trains in Kirkland. It's about a 20 min drive w/o traffic and is probably one of the best train store in the country. Extremely organized. It primarily caters to O-scale, which works well for those on this forum, but does have a decent allotment of other scales, including an impressive amount of G-Scale, which is always cool to see. If you're looking for something, this is the place to visit since they have a lot of merchandise readily available for sale.
Expect pricing to be MRSP on new items, but with such a large selection, there's always a handful of clearance items.
I typically visit about once a month.

Another store about 10 min from Eastside Trains is the Inside Gateway. Mostly caters to HO, and has good selection from what I've seen. Small allotment of O-scale, but a well organized store. I go here on occasion since its closer to where I live to check for the random accessory.

Down in Burien (just west of Seatac Airport) is The Electric Train store. This is your typical independently run store. Big store, with random assortment of products. Again, mostly HO. O-scale primarily consists of what you see on the racks behind the counter, and within the counter itself. Mostly older or 2nd hand items. Not much in the way of new stuff being readily available.

The 4th and final place is the Seattle Train Center on the north side of Seattle. I haven't yet been to this place myself since it was being relocated and refurbishing their new location at the beginning of the year. I did drive by and look inside once, and again, appears to mainly be HO and small scales with a limited amount of O. This has been reflected similarly when I've seen their table at some of the local train shows.

Hope this helps and you get to visit at least one of the stores. You're coming at the best time of the year. Summer is Seattle's best kept secret.

Regards,

- Joe

While I haven't been to Seattle, I ordered an MTH N&W Railking Imperial Y6B Coal Set (Engine, 4 hoppers & Caboose) from Eastside in March. Not only is the train great, the service and customer care was exceptional. I try to get from the local guy as much as possible but Eastside was the only place that still had this set and was very pleased with the transaction. 

Hi Sam,

Joe gave you a good synopsys of Seattle area train stores.  The only thing I would add is that Inside Gateway has a nice assortment of narrow gauge, including On30 and On3.

Getting around Seattle without a car is pretty tough.  The bus system is HIGHLY concentrated on serving downtown Seattle commuter traffic.  However, I believe all the stores are along bus routes.  If there's a way to get there, you can find on the Metro Transit website.  Enter your starting address and destination and the website will show you the routes, transfers, and cost to get from point A to point B.  Just for kicks I entered a trip from Eastside trains to The Inside Gateway.  Its about 10 miles and 15 minutes by car, but the bus can get you there in 46 minutes.  Not too bad.

If you're interested, the NorthWest Trunk Lines is about 20 minutes from either store.  If you'd like to see one of the largest layouts in the area contact me via e-mail and we can set something up.  We can probably help get you from A to B as well.

I love Eastside Trains. They won me over years ago when I lived in Milwaukee. And I've ordered a few items here and there. As a Milwaukee Road/Northern Pacific/Montana Rail link guy it's good to have a store that caters to my rail interests.

When you go speak to Steve or Johnnie. Tell him Dave from Washington, D.C. sent you!

There are buses from Downtown Seattle to Kirkland to visit Eastside Trains, I checked the Metro Bus schedule and the bus drops you off 0.2 miles from the store.  Kirkland is on Lake Washington and a very nice place to visit, there are many places to eat near the store, so its worth the trip!

Thanks to all who replied.  Looks like Eastside Trains is the place to go, just don't expect any price breaks or bargins.  To loosely paraphrase about store: "nice place to visit but wouldn't want to live there".

Thank you Dave.  I will be in contact.  We are taking in the Seattle Film Festival as well and I don't know the times she got.  I do know that Monday we will be most free so that will probably be when we try to go to Eastside Trains, but schedule is open to last minute changes.

Eastside Trains in Kirkland is one of the best and well stocked O gauge stores in the country.  Steve, the owner, is very nice and WILL work with you if you "bundle" a few items to buy.  Their staff is friendly, knowledgeable and helpful.  The store carries many sets and individual engines which have been out of production.  If you purchase engines they can test the locomotive before you leave and their service department is great.  Have fun.

TEX

Steve

Hi Dave

email sent using your address  in forum profile.

Sam: Also, there is a trolley to ride at the Waterfront.  But from what I’ve read, the monorail is defunct.  Can any local confirm?

Bill

When I was doing an internship there you could catch a bus from Federal Way all the way downtown.  The buses used to go all over King County.  I'd try to find a schedule on their website.  As I recall, there is a shop down that way too.

Hi Bill,

Actually, it's the other way around.  The waterfront trolley is out of service.  The city's supreme soviet decided that a modern art sculpture park was more important and they tore down the motor shop.  The original Alweg monorail, on the other hand, is still running regular service between Seattle Center and Westlake Center.  There was an effort to build a new monorail system from West Seattle to Ballard, but that went bully up a few years ago.

There are three other "train rides" in Seattle.  There's the Link light rail line that runs from Sea-Tac to downtown via the worst neighborhoods in the city.  There's the Sounder heavy rail that runs north and south from King Street Station.  The northern run to Everett is a really great ride along the Puget Sound.  But the "best" rail ride in Seattle is the South Lake Union Trolley, which runs around twenty blocks of old warehouses and new high rise condos.  This line doesn't move many (any) people but it has spawned a whole new industry of T-shirts that read "I went to Seattle to ride the SLUT!"  They tried to change the name to the South Lake Union Street Car, but it was too late.

Sam,

You have mail!

Hello one and all,

Wife and I returned from Seattle visit with our son and daughter.  According to the natives, Seattle summer is July and August, rest of time is coudy or damp with occasional sunbreaks as we heard the term on weather forecasts.

Daughter took us to some really out of the way resturants that were several steps above your Applebee or TGIF places.  Rode the monorail, and fumbeled our way around on the MetroTransit with its three thousand bus routes (it seemed ).  Got stuck in the hotel elevator for 5 minutes.

One of the best parts was visiting Eastside Trains.  Quite a store alright, just as several posters said it would be.  Came away with two buildings to add to our layout. 

Met with Dave Hikel who gave us a grand tour of the Northwest Trunk Line layout being built for a private owner (need a basement for your layout?, just jack up the house, excavate, pour foundation and you're done!!).  Dave has been working on it for 4.5 years (one year of track and scenery planning before the first boards were nailed together), with assistance from other talented artists and builders in his crew.  Truly a spectacular layout, well thought out as you move from area to area and the landscape changes.  Dave relates going to a site that does not get much sunlight  to get up early enough to photograph the area, just to get the color and rock type correct.  If I remember right Dave said it takes a train traveling 30Smph, 20 minutes to traverse the 1100 foot main line.  Thats alot of track laying and ballasting!!

Dave hints that a certain individual may be doing an article and DVD about this layout, stay tuned.

Sam

I was hoping to get a chance to meet you at the NWTL but had to work that afternoon.  It is nice to hear that you enjoyed your visit and meeting my brother Dave.

Your assessment of our weather is too true this spring, although the sun did come out just this past Wednesday.  Other than that this is our third consecutive Juneuary. 

Glad you liked our local restaurants.  We do have a wide selection of styles, many of good quality and even a few good ones that still have reasonable prices.  It is fun to imagine what York's Thursday at Fridays might look like in the Seattle area.  Thai, Indian or Ethiopian anyone?

You have the travel time on the NWTL mainline correct.  It is 1100 feet or ten scale miles to traverse the "long main line".  That means 20 minutes to travel 10 scale miles at 30 smph.  And we can tell everyone that PS-2 smph measurements are accurate!

If I could add just one point of clarification, there are no nails in the NWTL.  Everything is screwed and bolted together.  The benchwork is constructed in modules so the layout can be moved through the doorway and up the stairs someday.  However, there are several thousand spikes in the custom track work.