This is where the Lionel visitors center used to be ... oh well anything around that's worth a visit ?
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P&d hobby shop in Frazier. Also just a couple of blocks away from former Lionel hq was the factory.
Great Lakes Hobby.
I checked out both their web sites ... not much on there.
Do they typically have many more items in store that are not on the site ?
To a certain extent, it depends how far you are willing to drive.
1) Great Lakes Hobby Store is at 43055 Van Dyke Avenue, Sterling Heights 48314, slightly north of 19 mile Rd (southwest of Chesterfield, about 12 miles, according to SIRI). Great Lakes has a significant amount of O Gauge, and depending on recent purchases, may have a varying a number of used items in O gauge.
2) Whistle Shop Hobby & Toy is at 21714 Harper Ave., St. Clair Shores, MI, about 18 miles by car , according to SIRI. (mostly south of Chesterfield). The Whistle Stop usually has a decent amount of O Gauge, although I haven't been there in a year or two.
3) Empire Trains & Hobbies is at 3278 Rochester Rd., Troy, MI 48083, southwest of Chesterfield, about 19 miles by car according to my "source". Empire has a lesser amount of new O Gauge than the other two stores in my experience. Lately, Empire has had a very decent amount of Postwar, which is on very nice glass shelves in the back of the store. (IMHO, Empire has recently had a significant amount of Postwar, and the inventory has additions almost weekly.) The owner frequently reconditions a number of the postwar items to restore their operating characteristics. (Empire is generally closed on Sunday and Monday.)
4) Lake Saint Clair is, not surprisingly , adjacent to St. Clair Shores (The "grosse pointe" of Michigan is actually a large. wide pointe on Lake Saint Clair.). Lake Saint Clair is sometimes referred to as the "Sixth Great Lake", and is 26 miles long and 24 miles wide, with 130 miles of shoreline. Several fishing magazines have referred to Lake Saint Clair as the greatest Walleye fishing lake in the world, and other fish are plentiful - as are the boats. You will have to save the charter fishing tour for later in the year, although the ice fishermen and women will likely be out on the lake not too far from both Chesterfield, and, St. Clair Shores.
5). As a final note, on weekdays, driving to any of these locations from Chesterfield during the dinner rush hour will put you in very good company - front, back, left, and, probably right. Plan to keep a cupholder full of your preferred beverage, and, a favorite playlist handy.
yamawho posted:I checked out both their web sites ... not much on there.
Do they typically have many more items in store that are not on the site ?
Both are nice stores and have quite a bit more on the shelves than their websites would make you think. P&D is great if you're into scale models or modeling supplies. Their prices on things tend to be a little on the high side. Great Lakes is a bit more reasonable with a nice, well stocked store.
Dennis GS-4 N & W No. 611 posted:
2) Whistle Shop Hobby & Toy is at 21714 Harper Ave., St. Clair Shores, MI, is about 18 miles by car , according to SIRI. (mostly south of Chesterfield). The Whistle Stop , often has a significant amount of O Gauge, although I haven't been in a year or two.
They've seemingly shrunk their overall train inventory in all scales recently. They've got quite a bit of Williams and basic Lionel stuff. Their consignment shelves are quite full as of a couple months ago with some nice things.
SantaFe158 posted:yamawho posted:I checked out both their web sites ... not much on there.
Do they typically have many more items in store that are not on the site ?
Both are nice stores and have quite a bit more on the shelves than their websites would make you think. P&D is great if you're into scale models or modeling supplies. Their prices on things tend to be a little on the high side. Great Lakes is a bit more reasonable with a nice, well stocked store.
SantaFe makes a very good point. I don't think most of these stores devote the considerable resources necessary to maintain a current, ongoing website inventory as do the so-called mail order stores. I strongly suspect that their staff keeps busy with the retail store inventory and sales to a larger extent.
Both Great Lakes and P&D are very large stores, although certainly not all O gauge trains.
If you want detail parts for your locomotives it’s hard to beat P&D. Just don’t expect 3 rail locomotives. Stock up on the parts while you are there.
Scott Smith
scott.smith posted:If you want detail parts for your locomotives it’s hard to beat P&D. Just don’t expect 3 rail locomotives. Stock up on the parts while you are there.
Scott Smith
This is very true, although, in my experience there are generally some 3 rail locomotives in the glass cases on a back wall. But, there generally hasn't been a large selection compared to other shops. I haven't been to P&D since summer, so I can't comment as to more recent stock.
P&D is fun to just scout around and is very different than any other hobby shop that I have visited. As an added bonus, for true O Scalers, and those that strive for an approximation of accuracy, P&D is worth the trip. P&D is not too distant from many tooling shops and other manufacturing sites (although clearly in a commercial, retail location), and the GM Tech Center is not too far away. I recall reading that the Atlas F3 shells (or one iteration of the shells) had been purchased from P&D, but, that is clearly second-hand information. Many of the world class fabricators nearby have likely contributed various parts to the P&D Inventory. I actually listened to Rail Sounds for the first time on New Years Eve with my then young "Train Buddy" son at P&D's prior location (~1990). We rang in the New Year with a new noise maker that year!
So, generally worth the trip. As for your visit to Chesterfield, if you have the time, you could visit each of these hobby stores in a large "loop" with a little planning. Each of them is east of Woodward Ave., on the what is sometimes referred to as the northeast side of the metropolitan area.
yamawho posted:This is where the Lionel visitors center used to be ... oh well anything around that's worth a visit ?
Since you will be starting in Chesterfield where the Lionel visitor's center used to be, if you have some time, and are inclined to throw caution to the wind, you can head downtown for a meal at the beautiful, historic Whitney Restaurant, which was renovated by Lionel's prior owner, Richard Kughn. You can then head to the Detroit Historical Museum to visit the Lionel Layout there. In this regard, the Detroit Historical Museum is the sponsor of the Glancy Train group.
The Whitney was a large opulent home built by a Michigan lumber baron in the late 1880's. According to the Whitney's website: "[The prior owner], continued to maintain the mansion until 1979, when it was sold to entrepreneur Richard Kughn. Kughn learned that the mansion would likely be torn down... “It should be preserved, not for personal use but so that the public can see and enjoy it,” he said.
In 1986, after a lengthy and costly restoration (about $3 million in 1986), Kughn opened The Whitney restaurant, “an American restaurant in an American palace.” ...and enlisted crews of students from the Center for Creative Studies to help bring the painted murals back to life. A state-of-the-art kitchen was installed in the former servant’s quarters at the rear of the mansion. The dining rooms on the first and second floors were named after their original purpose and each is uniquely furnished. The third floor became a cocktail lounge named the Winter Garden. The Whitney restaurant went on to become a culinary leader in the Detroit area for many years." Here is the Whitney's website if you are interested:
And, here is the Detroit Historical Museum's website if you are interested in visiting its layout:
https://detroithistorical.org/...itions/glancy-trains
You can head downtown from The Whistle Stop if you make a visit to St Clair Shores.
Found this at Great Lakes Hobby ...
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