Trains and Model Trains in London

Get familiar with the London Underground and keep a lookout for Baker Street station with the Sherlock Holmes silhouette on the walls. Exit there and you'll find 221b Baker St, the famous sleuth's address, although it's actually an insurance company building.

Another station to watch for is Tower Hill, where you exit directly facing the Tower of London and the Thames tour boat dock is right ahead of you.

I go to London every year and there are no Model Train shops there. If you want to see real trains go to the top of the Shard (London Bridge Station) look down on three stations Waterloo, St Pancras, there are lots if you want to see a photo of a particular station I have all the main stations on file I will post some here are some samples. Margie looks bored in that Underground photo! Ha Ha. Roo.

"Mind the Gap".  

If you can out to the Didcot Railway Centre you will have a full day to walk in and amongst an operating railway.  It's about an hour from London by car.  You can most likely take the train from London.  There's also the Swindon Locomotive Works.  Not only is it a superb museum, but there is a large shopping center right at the same location.  It is also about an hour from London.  

http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk

http://www.steam-museum.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

Around London Bridge Station there are markets plenty of food places the "Black and Blue" for a nice steak under the arches at London Bridge Station, (that's the railway above it!) lots to see, beautiful city never tired of it.  Stayed there one year for 8 weeks love the place lots to see something for everyone. Forget the underground, walk around you see more on the streets always felt safe sure they have armed police at some of the stations and no trash bins but that's London they have been under siege for years I felt safer in London at night than some cities in Australia at night! You will have a great time. Roo.

You might try Hamleys Toy Store on Regent Street in London.  It is in the heart of London a short walk from Piccadilly Circus.  Hamleys is one of the largest toy stores in the world and it used to carry an extensive line of model trains.  I haven't been there for many years and I don't know what they have now.

 The Hamleys website doesn't list model trains but that doesn't mean that they don't have them.  It has been my experience that most European toy stores carry model trains because the hobby is very popular in Europe.  Also, British department stores such as Selfridges used to carry model trains in their toy departments.  

Both Hamleys and Selfridges are wonderful stores to visit even if you don't find trains.  The streets that they are on are couple of the best shopping streets in the world.  Your bride may like them more than you do.  Ask around and I am sure that you will find someplace to look at and perhaps buy trains.  You might also check the London museums to see the collection of early real trains.

NH Joe

Thanks Dan and Roo, gives me some things to research.

Great pics, Roo.

Chris

Hi Chris,

For G scale items try Garden Railway Specialists at the link below. It is about an hour from London, nice ride and my wife and I both enjoyed the town

Miketg

http://www.grsuk.com/Find_Us-U11

The London Transport Museum is another great place to visit. It's all transportation, but a good amount of rail history there. 

The London Transport museum has a fantastic book shop almost all about English railways which has never deterred me from buying a couple of books sometimes more. There is a loco on the second story I asked one of the guides one day how did the builders lift the loco up so high. "Easy, raised the loco on a set of rails with strong girders for support then built the building around it!" another interesting station is Stratford this is a huge complex where four railway lines criss cross each other.... The underground, the Overground, the Docklands Railway and the standard main line out of London with their cross country trains. In central London itself you have 13 terminal Stations, London bridge is also a through station as well as a terminal the other 12 are...

Paddington, Marylebone, Euston, St Pancras, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, Fenchurch Street, Cannon Street,  Blackfriars, Charing Cross,  Waterloo, and Victoria, all great stations to visit I've been to them all and snapped many photos which by the way is allowed. Truly a railway city.

London's railways are actually growing the latest line is their Cross Rail which goes right across London still being worked on. Chris, you said London I haven't mentioned the National Railway Museum at York up the north of England which is probably the biggest and most interesting but there are many railway museums all over England almost in every town and they do a good job and the other guys here have mentioned some of them. I have also travelled on many restored railways in Britain. My son and family live over there which is why I know so much about the place and why we go there every year and of course I am a Railway/Railroad fanatic if some place has a railway I will find it!

Chris. If you are going to stay only in London buy an "OYSTER" card which gives you travel on certain railways/buses around London. Find out where the Docklands Railways starts at Bank or Tower hill (mentioned above) and jump on the Docklands railway and go for a tour around the system you can stay on it for as long as you like and you will get a tour of the East End of London from an elevated position it's a driverless train and if your quick getting on jump in the front and pretend your driving the train! Ha Ha.  It is a very extensive system we stayed on it one day for a couple of hours much to Margie's disgust I bought her dinner that night at a swishy restaurant to make up for it.  OK, that's enough back to the Steel Mill. Roo.

Look here for a list of model railway shops in London:

http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/county/Greater%20London

Regards

Fred

Lots of great information - I'll try to keep some in mind for the next time I get to London.  And if you follow all of this advice, you might not need to worry about where you're going for your 36th anniversary.

1979 was when l tracked down a shop with trains near the tourist centers, staying in a B&B near Victoria Station.  Shop probably long gone, but l came home with OO structure kits. Took the train up to Inverness and Loch Ness (Nessie laid low).

Ian Allans is worth a stop, too bad Victory is long gone. Does anyone know if Wheels of Steel is still around. It was/ is in the basement of Grey's Antique Mall in Central London?

Miketg

Miketg posted:

Ian Allans is worth a stop, too bad Victory is long gone. Does anyone know if Wheels of Steel is still around. It was/ is in the basement of Grey's Antique Mall in Central London?

Miketg

This was posted in January on the TCS Yahoo group:

Regards

Fred

I spent 6 weeks in Oxford last year. It is true that, like in the US, many train stores are closing or going on-line only.

However, surprisingly most big department and toy stores still have some trains, mainly HO. The old line Department Store in Oxford, Boswell's had a separate train department on a different floor than the Toy Department.

The famed Department Store, Harrods in London has a great selection of trains. When I was there last summer, I saw HO, N, and some Basset-Lowe O tinplate. Prices were through the roof, however.

Near Oxford, Howes Models was closing its train department to mainly serve the RC hobbyists. They are still the importers of Heljan O-scale (2 rail - $1K per engine/$400/car) and do DCC installations on HO.

Didcot is a great place to visit. You can take the train from Paddington. The museum abuts the Didcot Parkway station and has an entrance from the Platform. Swindon is a couple of more stops.

You should look at a British Train Magazine in Barnes and Noble. Railway Modeller and Continental Modeller are the most popular. There is also Hornby Magazine.

When you get to the UK, stop at the first WHSmith and look at their magazines. There are several other magazines that are rarely exported to the US. All have ads and dealer lists.

What I found amazing is that living in an apartment in a older residential district of Oxford, I never saw any trains, even HO for sale at the numerous Yard/Tag sales on Saturday mornings. - I had expected to come back with some used, but well played with Hornby tinplate.

You'll see trains in the most unusual places. I stopped by the Lancaster Town museum because it had started to rain and I had 45 minutes before my bus came. There were several display cases of O gauge trains from the Lancaster area.

Enjoy the UK.

Lad

The famed Department Store, Harrods in London has a great selection of trains.
When I was there last summer, I saw HO, N, and some Basset-Lowe O tinplate.
Prices were through the roof, however.

You were lucky, When I was there Two Years ago, it was an expensive Harry Potter Hogwarts Loco only for 800 pounds! The rest of the train department was Hornby Hst's and Bachmann O and N scale sets.

But DO ride the TUBE, Esp The Docklands Light Railway! It's an Unadvertised attraction that takes you over the rebuilt Docklands area of London!

Roo posted:

Who cares about seeing trains if you can see this.  Not sure the wife would agree.  I need to get back to London sometime.

NH Joe

Wow, you guys are great, thank you all.  I might have to add a few weeks to our stay.  I wish I could take in everything, but my bride insists I get a dose of culture now and then at museums and such.  I actually enjoy that as well.  Thanks again guys, I have a lot of research to do now.

Chris

You must remember that London is really two places. Central London and the rest, which is suburbs that extend out for a long way in all directions.

If you have never been to London before trying to find hobby shops is like getting teeth pulled yes there are "Hobby Shops" and "Toy Shops" and in Wapping and Bethel Green there are scratch building shops (4D) which supply architectural students and I have used them to buy limited items to bring back in my suitcase there are no really dedicated Train shops in London anymore as the rents are expensive for the return you get, don't forget Britain has one of the best mail order systems in the world people complain if you don't get something the next day after ordering the night before my Daughter in-law does, of course she pays extra for that privilege. I order scratch building items and track from Hattons they are wonderful on service both in Britain and to Australia

Chris was originally talking about visiting London and as I understood mainly as a tourist so to me these places would have limited value in spending precious time looking for these shops rather than looking at what I have mentioned above The Shard is a Must. Ian Allen, yes, a nice Railway Bookstore and I go there every visit it is found around the "rear" of Waterloo station not in the station itself but in a street worth having a look at, they have limited OO/HO stock.

I mentioned Bethel Green in the East End they have a wonderful Toy Museum which to me is worth going to I visit the place every visit you can catch the underground or a bus which is another cheap way of getting around the place get a seat up the top at the front and pay with your oyster card and sit back and enjoy the traffic letting someone else get frustrated!

Lots of historic things to see, pick out three things everyday your there, and try to make it to two if you get to three it's a bonus the London Eye is another great tourist attraction and as a bonus you can look down on Charing Cross railway station that looks like a model from that height all this talk about London I'll be there again this year and look forward to taking the grandsons on train rides.

Roo.