The one I liked even more than Scale Models was the Hub Hobby in Richfield since I never got to go there it was a real treat to stop in there. They had so much stuff I didnt get to see very often. Now I work there and its kinda lost it shiny
As a professional child, I decree that Nicholas Smith is the best train store.
I missed the huge Lionel and AF displays as I grew up in the late 1970's and early 80's. But there was Forest Park Hobby shop that still had some stuff in stock in the back corner of the store, and a trip to Indianapolis to Casey Jones Trains or Train Express with my dad was a highlight of my childhood. My first trains were Tyco HO sets ordered thru Sears. When those proved less that satisfactory(they died before my birthday the following March!). My first Lionel set also came from Sears, mail ordered. Mike
Sears and May Company in SoCal.
Wonderful.
ROGER1 posted:When I was growing up and living in Borough Park, Brooklyn between 1952-59, there was a train store on Fort Hamilton Parkway across from my elementary school.....PS 131. It was where my father bought all my trains while we lived in Brooklyn. I have memories of the outside and inside of the store, but don't remember the store's name.
Roger
Was that Stanley's?
Hmmm.......I'll have to think about that for awhile, Jim.
Matt Makens posted:The one I liked even more than Scale Models was the Hub Hobby in Richfield since I never got to go there it was a real treat to stop in there. They had so much stuff I didnt get to see very often. Now I work there and its kinda lost it shiny
I worked at Hub Hobby from 1988 to 1996 part-time when that Penn Avenue store was one quarter the size it is now. Todd Andersen was merely a manager then, not Bill Barker's partner. If I had seen the 20,000-square-foot Hub when I was still a kid, it would have definitely been my favorite. (My first visit to Hub was circa 1984, when it was still on 66th Street in the Hub Shopping Center.)
Simmonds in the City of Chester, PA. (Early 70's)
And some place I can remember the name of on RT 202 in PA right next to some hot dog place. (West Chester maybe?) Had a massive display where you put nickels, dimes and quarters in slots to make the trains run. I remember a real caboose at the intersection we made the right turn to get to the store. (Late 60's)
Fred
As a parent with my avid "Train Buddy" first son, our favorite train store was P &D Hobby Store in Fraser, MI. Fortunately, P & D is still operating, having numerous O gauge and O scale trains and equipment. I was "released" early from my day job one New Years Eve Day, in about 1989. Later that afternoon, my son and I went to P & D Hobby, and the new Lionel Reading T-1 with Railsounds had just arrived. The staff was kind enough to repeatedly "test" the revolutionary sound system for the assembling crowd of onlookers. My son and I were: "like, totally impressed"!
My uber kind wife granted permission in a hurried call from my newly installed car cell phone (office supplied) to make a purchase, and my son and I played with the new engine until early in the following year. (Our youngest son also joined in the fun in the train room. He was soon to be lost, however, along with his best friend to the siren call of Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers and its progeny.)
Early New Years morning, I did get into a little, playful, not-too-serious, trouble with my wife for keeping our older son up too late. As I promised her, I was confident that he would still make it to adulthood, even after having missed a little sleep. Most fortunately, that prediction has come true, and he is still my Train Buddy, along with his young sons...
My parents didn't have a lot of money so between them and my Aunties I managed a Hornby Clockwork train set and eventually some turnouts and a few extra freight cars and I had my first Industrial Switching layout soon I had the clockwork springs out of the locos and I hand pushed them around. That was my favourite train and my favourite train store was in Melbourne City, Victoria, Australia called "The Model Dockyard". I just looked! Roo.
I really don't think there was one. I have a photo of me, 4 yrs old, in 1938 with our Xmas tree and Lionel Standard gauge 318 and cars. It only came out at Xmas and then I could run it a little bit. My Dad was always picking things up from friends and acquaintances so, I guess, that is how we got it. There was a typical crowded hobby store in downtown Pittsburgh where my dad worked and that is where I would guess he got my new Scout set in 1948. AB Charles was on Potomac Ave between Mt. Lebanon and Dormont where we lived but we never went in. I think the big stores in Pittsburgh had layouts but not sure. It wasn't until I was older and earned a few $$ that I bought Lionel cars etc. we weren't poor but the Old Man didn't throw his $$ around much on toys for kids. I still have the 318 and cars. The paint on the cars flaked off pretty bad so, about 1949-50 I repainted them with model airplane "dope" which has held up pretty good. I think I got the "dope" at a nearby 5 &10 store. That was all there was to use. Different world then but we never felt like we were missing out on anything. No vacation trips, no eating out, no ice cream treats but we had the "farm", a 160 acre playground of woods and fields which today is a half mile down the road.
Dorseman's Hobby Shop on Main Street in Newark Delaware. Spent many hours there.
Madison Hardware - too young to remember it exactly - my grandfather and father took me their when I was younger and when we lived in NYC.
My favorite one, was whichever one my mother and father took me to that day. Kaufman's, Horne's and Gimbel's in Pittsburgh and Penn Traffic in Johnstown.
treasure house in garfield nj 1950
Boy, when somebody pushes the nostalgia button, it sure creates a lot of responses. What a great thread!
Of particular interest are the photos of Hudson's 12th floor Christmas toy display. As I recall, (and this is about 60 years ago) there was an escalator not too far from that massive train display, and as soon as you got off from it, there was a smaller display of "other toys". Two items in THAT display were a child's 1955 Thunderbird, and, I assume, a 1955 Chevrolet Corvette. I can't remember whether they were battery powered or gasoline powered (not likely back then) , but Lionel trains notwithstanding, they sure both caught my eye. As I recall, they were priced high enough that I would never own one.
Back to the favorite local hobby stores.......for a town of about 30000 people (back then) we sure had a lot of them......one full-time hobby store had two locations, both loaded with Lionel postwar; there was a furniture store that had a huge O-gauge layout in their front window for the Christmas season, and stocked Lionel for sale....S. S. Kresge had a ton of both Marx and Lionel, as did a drug store, and a tire store.
On top of that, we were an hour away from Detroit, with all its hobby stores.
Those were the days!
initagain posted:Boy, when somebody pushes the nostalgia button, it sure creates a lot of responses. What a great thread!
Yep, you got it! 
They are the best threads. One of the best threads ever here was on the MPC era. Great discussion and pics.
Sure beats some of the navel-gazing stuff.
Oh this one's easy. I'm a life long St. Louis resident. I grew up on the South side.
Johnson's Electric Trains on Chippewa was the place to go. I would go there every November to get the latest Lionel catalog.
Another great place was Morris Variety on Cherokee again in South St. Louis.
These are the greatest of memories.
Waddell Hobbies on Newkirk Avenue between E.17th & E.16th streets in Brooklyn in 1947 was my 'first' Lionel Train dealer. I passed the store walking to and from school (PS 217) twice a day. The owner and his wife were very nice, even gave me catalogs, although I was anything but a big spender. In fact, I doubt I spent more than a few dollars over the entire time they were at business at that location. Waddell later moved to Cortelyou Road and and were doing business there in the 60's. When I started collecting trains in earnest (circa 1966), I visited Waddel a couple of times, but they no longer carried much in the way of Lionel; but it was still nice to say hello to folks I had known for almost 20 years.
In the late 60's, I lived in Manhattan and had easy access to both Model Railroad Equipment Corporation on 45th and Polk's on Fifth Avenue. I was also not far from Madison Hardware. I did some business at Madison, but the brothers' behavior was erratic, to say the least. I was able to purchase some decent new old stock from them, but also got taken (e.g., repainted F3 cabs that they pitched as replacement cabs and a "remake" of the 700T tender that they sold only on special order.) As a result of my frustrations dealing with Madison, the 700T tender in particular., I began looking for alternative sources for old trains and 'found' TCA.
Sattler's Trains & Hobbies in Haddon Township, NJ
My father use to take me to Sattler's as a kid in the 60's. Although they don't sell O gauge they still hold a place in my heart. They are family owned and still in business.
Chris
initagain posted:Boy, when somebody pushes the nostalgia button, it sure creates a lot of responses. What a great thread!
Yeah, but sometimes they're the wrong buttons. I so badly envy anyone who had a local hobby shop growing up. The first real one I ever lived near, I was in my late 20s by then...
pennytrains posted:Lou N posted:rockstars1989 posted:CLEVELAND OHIO
The Hobby Shop Parma town Mall
Trading Post Trains-Jimmy Barilla.
Nick
My memory banks need a boost. Where and when was the shop in Parmatown mall? Thanks!
Lou N
Perhaps they were thinking of Southland Hobby in the arcade at Southland Shopping Center?
Penny No mistake I remember the one at the southland arcade, they were there forever.Nick
johnstrains posted:initagain posted:Boy, when somebody pushes the nostalgia button, it sure creates a lot of responses. What a great thread!
Yep, you got it!
They are the best threads. One of the best threads ever here was on the MPC era. Great discussion and pics.
Sure beats some of the navel-gazing stuff.
They sure are the best especially this time of year.Nothing wrong with romanticizing with our passed years it sure feels good.Even get a tear or so once in a while.Nick
rockstars1989 posted:johnstrains posted:initagain posted:Boy, when somebody pushes the nostalgia button, it sure creates a lot of responses. What a great thread!
Yep, you got it!
They are the best threads. One of the best threads ever here was on the MPC era. Great discussion and pics.
Sure beats some of the navel-gazing stuff.
They sure are the best especially this time of year.Nothing wrong with romanticizing with our passed years it sure feels good.Even get a tear or so once in a while.Nick
Obviously you were a west sider (Cleveland). I dont think anyone has mentioned Wings in Lakewood or Bob Parsley's shop on Puritas. How about Hudson Hobby (in Hudson)?
Yes Nick, good stuff!
Lou N
Yes,
bobs hoppy shop on Cary st!
also had slot cars & aurora mini slots!
I didn't have any local hobby shops or even a Sears store but we did have a Western auto store that sold only O scale Marx trains which was fine by me. Got my first set in 1976 at the ripe old age of ten. I still have the set in almost pristine condition. It's the Illinois Central Gulf work train.
I came of train age in Phoenix in the 1960's. The store was Websters Hobby Shop at Central and Camelback in downtown Phoenix. What a shop. I still remember the man who fixed my broken 736 for Christmas 1968. Later it was Tower Hobbies at 40th st and Thomas also in Phoenix. Had a tremendous N scale layout in the basement and a club to run it. In 1974, Roys Train World opened and I met Roys son Tim. We became friends who shared life, family and trains for the next 40 years. All are gone now but the memories will last for ever.
Rolland
MartyE posted:AB Charles and Sons and Bill and Walt's Downtown Pittsburgh. There used to be one out on Route 51, can't remember it's name but we stopped there a few times as well.
The Iron Horse became a favorite when I became a big kid.
All, sadly, are gone. I believe Bill and Walt still have a store in Oakdale?
Yes, definitely Bill and Walt's when they were downtown. They are now actually in White Oak. As a teenager I used to go to Oddo's in McKeesport.
In Staten Island, in the mid 70's, were 2: The Train Set on Richmond Ave and SMC (Sal Marino Corporation), located on Greenleaf Ave. Good memories!
Cesar
My favorite train store was All-Nation Hobby Shop at 220 W. Madison St. in downtown Chicago. I started visiting there when I was in 8th grade and I was a regular customer until they closed. When I was deployed aboard ship during Vietnam they were my mail-order provider for kits and supplies.
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Duane''s Toyland on upper State St in Schenectady, NY. Long gone now, killed by the mall toy stores back in the late 80's. My dad worked there while in college in the late 50's to early 60's, and got me a job there my senior year of high school for the Christmas season. I remember we used to store all the layaways up in the attic througha big hatch, and then had to climb up in there to get them down for Christmas. They sold Lionel trains, Tyco, Aurora slot cars and Cox gas powered airplanes. The whole store was old school with only a drinking fountain, no soda or snack machines, but a kids dream back then with 3 floors of toys.
Lou N posted:Obviously you were a west sider (Cleveland). I dont think anyone has mentioned Wings in Lakewood or Bob Parsley's shop on Puritas. How about Hudson Hobby (in Hudson)?
Yes Nick, good stuff!
Lou N
Well there's still the one on West 130th at Puritas who's name escapes me at the moment. And of course I spent a lot of time and money at National Hobby since it was within easy bike riding distance. (Those brick streets with steep hills to get there were always fun! 
) My mom did (does?) the bookkeeping for Parma Hobby BTW.
rockstars1989 do you remember where the store was at Parmatown?
Becky
My first fav was Campbell's hardware on 5th and Roosevelt BLVD. in northeast Philly. long gone. I do not have a fav now.
pennytrains posted:Lou N posted:Obviously you were a west sider (Cleveland). I dont think anyone has mentioned Wings in Lakewood or Bob Parsley's shop on Puritas. How about Hudson Hobby (in Hudson)?
Yes Nick, good stuff!
Lou N
Well there's still the one on West 130th at Puritas who's name escapes me at the moment. And of course I spent a lot of time and money at National Hobby since it was within easy bike riding distance. (Those brick streets with steep hills to get there were always fun!
rockstars1989 do you remember where the store was at Parmatown?
Becky
The LHS currently at west 130th in Cleveland is Depot Trains. I had also thought of National Hobby (wasn't the brick road with the big hill Liberty Street?)
Lou N
Tim Bosak at Depot Trains is a savvy businessman. When the Hobby House closed their doors, he purchased the old telephone number. Sad to hear of all the Akron/Cleveland area train shop closings, I've since moved away from the area since '04, so I still try to keep track of things out there.
The old Glens Train Shop building was sold as of October 31st. Who knows what will happen to it. Glen's was my favorite train shop, really sad to see it go.
I lived in South West Philly as a kid. We did not have any local shops worth speaking of. Of course there was Nicholas Smith on ninth and Arch but for local access to toy trains it was a G bus ride away from Sears at 69th and Market street. As is the case in most of the above it is long gone.
The Trading Post on Pearl Road with Ralph Brown and Mr. Silverthorn. Every Christmas and birthday was spent looking at the trains. The corner store is now gone for parking, and the new store is up Pearl Road, across from the RTA bus garage. My father and I had many enjoyable hours working on our Super O layout. The layout had to be removed when we had glass block windows installed. I am replacing it with a new Atlas O Century 3-rail layout with minimum O-72 curves. Dad would have loved the new Allegheny #1601, 1604 & 1608. The Vision Line Big Boys and Challenger by the 34" Millhouse Studio Z turntable would have pleased him too.
Lou N posted:The LHS currently at west 130th in Cleveland is Depot Trains. I had also thought of National Hobby (wasn't the brick road with the big hill Liberty Street?)
Lou N
Yep! Liberty and Ridge. A fast, bumpy ride on an old Schwinn with a suicide stop to boot! 
Hobby Corner in Gibsonia PA, closed a while ago. It's where I got my first train for Christmas. It was an 03 PRR flyer set, I even got to carry it to the car, though I was barely big enough to lift it. The owner was very kind and had a good selection of products, despite the shop being small. I also purchased a crane car and US army passenger coach there. Still have the coach, but the crane car broke.
