St. Augustine Florida

http://www.folkston.com/trains/trains.htm

 

you could go here...but it's north of st. augustine, florida...

 

howard

Not really. There is a hobby shop in Orange Park that is not worth visiting. Roundhouse South is in Daytona. That's about it. Visit Castillo De San Marco. Visit the lighthouse. Walk through downtown. Plenty of stuff to keep you busy without trains. You could park your car along US-1 and if you're lucky you might catch a FEC train.

Florida is pretty much a desert when it comes to good train places and functions. Any destination I ever sought out was a long drive and a solid "meh" when I got there. Seek out some actual Florida sights as Flash pointed out, will be much more worth your time.

http://www.folkston.com/trains/trains.htm

 

you could go here...but it's north of st. augustine, florida...

 

I've been to Folkston twice, and it is really a great place to watch trains. Nice little museum, too. BUT: It is about 1.5 hours from St. Augustine.  One time I went I drove an hour each way from St. Simons Island, and it was still worth it.

 

 

As Flash stated, there are some FEC trains that come through and the track is parallel to US1, so plenty of places to stop and watch.  There are no grade crossings through most of the area, so trains will sneak up on you.

 

If you can pull away, Folkston is worth the drive.  Was there for the first time a few weeks ago and had four come through in under an hour.  I'm not one to waste hours sitting trackside for a train, so Folkston is about the only kind of railfanning I'd do--the "guaranteed payoff" kind!

 

Florida is a wasteland for good train shops, unfortunately.  You'd think it would be otherwise with our retiree population being what it is.

While there's no train store in St. Augustine, there is a killer diecast store there. I picked up 6 Solido M7 Priests for a yet-to-be-built military train. The sign on the outside of the building says something like, "If it's diecast and I don't have it, they don't make it." The only bad news is that I don't remember the name of the store, but I'm sure a quick search on The Google will come up with it.

I believe that's Big Bill's, and it is indeed a terrific store!  Got a Corvette and Mustang for my layout last time I was there:

 

 

Would love to know where--I'm not opposed to a drive if I know there's a great store at the other end of it.

 

SJC. You say "dragged down to St Augustine" like its a bad thing. I'm only 45 min away and I go several times a year. Not for beaches or to see trains. It's just a great place to visit.

Google St Augustine and Henry Flagler and you'll find lots of RR related history to visit.

Unfortunately around 90 of that 100% trains is smaller scales and the remaining O gauge selection is mostly at or above MSRP. Consequently a lot of it has sat on the shelves for years . . .

 

On the other hand it's a great store if you're looking for layout building / project materials; I just cannot recommend the drive if you're only going for the O gauge section.

I think Frank is referring to Gulf Coast Model Railroad in Sarasota. And he is right, wall to wall trains. Unfortunately, about a 4 hour drive from St. Augustine.

Looks good!  I'm in Orlando but do get over that way for business occasionally.  I'll put it on my list to check out. 

About an hour drive.

The Sarasota zoo train ride.

http://www.jacksonvillezoo.org/things/train_rides/

 

 

I sure am being dragged down. I did not and still do not want to go. 

 

Thanks all for the tips. Sounds like I'll be on the beach...

within 2 hours you can visit:

http://www.orangeblossomcannonball.com/

Andre.

Frank is understandably enamored of his local shop as per his off-base and sarcastic reply to my post. Truth of the matter is while the store carries a good selection of project and layout supplies, the rest primarily caters to the smaller scales. The small section of ready to run O gauge will disappoint and most all of it can be found elsewhere for half the price. Of course if the store is in your travels then it never hurts to check it out, I just can't advise going more than an hour out of the way for the O gauge section. This tends to be the case with most Florida hobby shops.

 

One that I always do hear good things about however is Hollash's Trains in Riverview. One of the few I haven't been to yet. Unfortunately, opposite coast from St. Augustine.

Well, there is the old fort and then the alligator farm. The coast is beautiful between St. Augustine and Jacksonville, but, you don't like beaches. I went on vacations to get away from trains.

Pretty spot-on assessment. I will definitely have to check out Hollash's next time I'm around Tampa.

Indeed, the silver hall of York alone had twice as much to offer than the dwindling Great Train Expos and other shows in Florida. Like most of the hobby shops, they too are no longer worth going out of the way for.

there is really only one true train store that you can enjoy in fla,   Ready to Roll in North Miami.

Completely forgot Ready to Roll. A great choice for the MTH enthusiast but this would be one of the absolute furthest shops from St. Augustine at 4.5 hours down I-95 

I actually looked up Ready to Roll as I'm a diehard MTH junkie. Too far. 

 

I did look up some fishing boats in the area...been FAR to long since I've gone fishing! 

Since nobody has mentioned it, the main shops for the Florida East Coast Rwy. are located south of you at New Smyrna Beach. Also, Jacksonville really isn't that far north for train watching.

If I wasn't so far away from you in southwest Florida I'd invite you over in a heartbeat for some train running and fishing. My cousin and I often go out to several spots in the Charlotte Harbor for some gorgeous flats fishing.

The Roundhouse South(changed 7-14-13) is south of St. Augustine and is a major MTH dealer.

Not much else train wise near St. Augustine, except historical places and Flagler's old motel that is now a museum.

Also the headquarters for FEC, Florida East Coast railroad, is there too.

If you like cats there is a store that caters to cat lovers on one of the side streets in St. Augustine called "City Cat, Country Cat." That's where I bought a humorous cat floor mat.

 

Lee Fritz

Lee:  Did you mean Roundhouse South which Flash mentioned above?  RS is just south of Daytona in Port Orange (probably about 45-55 minutes from St. Augustine). 

 

There used to be a train store in St. Augustine co-located with a gun shop but when I stopped in there in May, the gun shop owner said the guy with the trains "disappeared" and what trains he still had were left behind and mostly packed in crates.  Perhaps someone local has an update on this store?

 

Bill

The Northeast Florida Model Railroaders are only about 20 miles out located in Green Cove Springs. It's an HO club that has a very large modular layout set up and operating.  It's aprox 25 ft. x 80 ft.  Here's a link to our website.

http://neflamodelrr.org/

 

This is also where I have my Lionel Double Helix.  I'd be happy to have you visit us and let you run some trains on the helix.  Bring your own engines if you like.

When I lived on Florida's Space Coast I visited St. Augustine at least once a year.  There is plenty to keep anyone entertained.  If you're bored in St. Augustine, you have no one to blame but you!

Jacksonville would be a great place to watch trains.

If you go there I would hang out at the Landing it right on the St John River.

Plus you can eat at Hooter/American Grill watch the trains crossing over the F.E.C Drawbridge.