Hello all,
I will be traveling to El Segundo, CA (just south of LAX) for a business trip. I’m looking for recommendations on model railroad shops while I’m out there. Also looking for any good spots to do some railfanning? I want to see Tehachapi Loop, but I don’t think I’ll have time to make the drive.
Thanks,
Keith Baker
Hi
I live about five minutes from El Segundo, and haven’t found too many great shops nearby. However, if you have a car and an afternoon, I can recommend a couple that I frequent quite often.
In Culver City (a few miles north of El Segundo up the 405 (…a few hours in LA traffic)) is Allied Model Trains, they’ve got a lot of HO stuff, an ok Lionel selection, and a good chunk of N stuff. They’ve also got a lot of scratch building things. There’s also a large scale display in the camera store across the street. It’s easy to find, as the outside of the building is decorated with train logos around the top.
My favorite place to go, though, is in Burbank (if you leave El Segundo around 11am, the traffic is usually alright, and it’ll take about an hour to get there), it’s called The Train Shack. Half of the store is Lionel stuff, with a goodsized O scale hi-rail layout. They’ve also got a lot of large scale stuff, tons of HO, and a lot of N. This is also easy to find, the outside of the shop is covered with a painting of some Santa Fe F units.
There are also a few smaller ones in the Burbank area that I’ve been to, but I usually only go to those if I’m in the area for some other reason, with the others, though, I’ll spend the time driving just to go shop there.
If you’re looking for something in particular, let me know and I can try to tell you which store would most likely carry it.
nick
Nick,
Thanks for the information, that’s just what I was looking for. I’m not looking for anything in particular, just wanted to browse the HO inventories. I’m hoping to get an afternoon off so I can make it to a few shops, unfortunately, most seem to close around 6 which makes it difficult. Thanks again.
Keith Baker
My family just moved from the area and probably the most famous shop there is Allied Model Trains since 1946. One of the coolest things there is that one of the clerks worked on Rod Stewart’s Model Railroad (DEC. 07). Allied Model Trains can be contacted at http://www.alliedmodeltrains.com/
Allied has moved in the last year to a smaller shop across the street. Bob is one heck of DCC guru, set me up with my DCC system a few years back and did some wicked programming. He has some health issues of late so I’m not sure if he is still working.
Train Shack usually has some cool things. They been working on an in store display which is interesting to see how they are doing things.
But don’t forget http://www.thewhistlestop.com/
I’ve gotten all my brass (DCC) work done there. And always have some NICE items about. Brian is the main guy there and you might see if you can check out his HUGE SP collection - IF you can catch him!!!