We’re losing our only LHS here in town, a Hobbytown. Compared to a full mrr hobby store they didn’t carry much but the did have track and roadbed, styrene and Woodland Scenic stuff. Now it’s going to be a 110 mile drive, one way, to full line mrr store.
Hobbytown didn’t carry much but I’m going to miss the things they did carry.
Jarrell
IF you live fifty to one hundred miles o rmore from a great LHS, try a Saturday outing with two or three other train fans and make a day of the trip including prototype railfaning and other adventures to the LHS. You can share expense money for gas and have a great time with some othersat the same time.
ACE HARDWARE!!!???
On 22nd Street!?!
There’s an ACE near my house on E. Broadway, but I’ve never
been to the one on 22nd St. I guess I’ll have to give that a try
this weekend, caellis!
Many Thanks,
smyers
There aremany ACE stores in Tucson. But only the one at 6959 E. 22nd street carries MRR stock. They do discount.
No, I support my LHS’s FIRST, then ,any internet items that are deemed a good buy, too good to pass up. My LHS’s have always been able to match internet prices, and without passing on shipping cost.
Since I have a special interest within a minority scale and gauge (modeling a freelance indoor Large Scale logging & industrial RR that I’m building from a scale model railroader’s point of view) I have to rely on online shops for a lot of supplies. The hobby shops in San Francisco have either only LGB (nothing wrong with that as I have a good loco from them) or sell LS from either a collector’s or toy aspect. These shops are pretty skimpy on supplies and information, not only for Large Scale but for many HO items and anything outside of mainstream modeling interests (if Walther’s don’t carry it, it dosen’t exist). Luckily this city is endowed with many arts and crafts stores such as Pearl, Blicks, and Michaels that carry a lot of useful scratchbuilding material, glue, styrene, stripwood, and other useful items at a substantial discount compared to most LHSs. There are also hardware, dollar stores and Walmart that have a lot of useful items. There’s a great LHS in Santa Clara called The Train Shop that is a dedicated model railroad store. Although they have much more supplies than the shops in SF, I still need to order online for a lot of specialty parts. This is a pain in the you know what due to the week-long wait and the shipping and handling charges. Besides the inconvenience of putting a project on hold while waiting for the parts to arrive, the online merchants I deal with are very courteous, knowledgable, and treat me as if I’m the only customer they have. I can’t say that about some of the LHSs I’ve been to. Despite the S&H charges, it is sometimes cheaper for me to buy online due to the discount and saving money on sales tax and bus or train fare I’d spend going to a LHS.