I’ll be spending a month in Corpus Christi. Does anyone know of any train shops in the general area?
Southern Valley Trains is THE train shop in Corpus Christi.
4331 S Alameda St
Corpus Christi, TX 78412
(361) 992-4665
Fairly good stock of the standard N and HO stuff. And Lionel.
If you mean “train shop” in general and not merely “adult model railroad shop”, Southern Valley Trains is also your place with a big selection of Thomas the Tank Engine wooden trains and a big play table where little customers are invited to test run, test play, maybe even test crash sample trains. Working Lionel O-guage exhibit. Big HO dogbone maybe 40 feet long running Santa Fe 15-car Super Chief and long, long, long freight train roundy-round on DCC.
A big selection of used HO, N and Lionel. Old books, some merely “used” and some real collector’s item’s. A few odd wind-up tin train-related toys. A tiny smidgen of their business is RC helicopters, etc.
Have a significant other who is bored at spending time in a train shop? Southern Valley Trains is in the middle of Corpus Christi’s “Antique Row”, within 400 feet of 6 interesting shops, and a block or so of 6 or 8 others.
The city has a Hobby Lobby or 2. Kingsville, 45 miles away, home of the King Ranch has a store called Roy’s Camera Noon with a few trains, but mostly he sells cell phones now.
Sunrise Mall at Airline and South Padre Island Drive has a large modular operating HO train display in space used by a local club. Free admission, trains run all day Saturday and afternoons on Sunday.
Another club has a layout in the old firehouse on the median in the middle of Louisiana Parkway at Swantner. They meet Tuesday nights, and often there is someone in the building on Saturdays working who will show you the layout, maybe Sunday sometimes.
The Tex Mex. now part of KCS has a drive-by railroad yard on Highway 44 near the Airport. Public street immediately adjacent m
This is a great write up. Thanks for posting. I am in town on vacation and willale it a point to stop into this store and buy items to keep him around.
Don’t bother. Southern Valley Trains has been gone so long, I didn’t even remember it was there. The only thing resembling a train shop around Corpus Christi is Jim’s Hobbies in Portland, about 8 miles north of the Harbor Bridge, 207 7th Street. Half a block off the old T&NO right of way. He advertises in Model Railroader dealer directory. New models and lots and lots of old ones. There is an HO club with a public display, runs Saturday afternoons at Sunrise Mall, 2nd level. And there is another club that meets in the old city firehouse at Brownlee and Louisiana Parkway Tuesday nights and Saturday various hours. A third club has modules, goes to train shows around the state- I think they meet in a moving and storage warehouse down near the port, but irregularly and I don’t know their schedule.