Hi,
Does anyone know who/where is the US’s largest brick and mortar hobby store for HO and N gauge model railroad?
That is in terms of floor space, largest selection of merchandise?
I want to go there.
Thanks
It depends on who you ask! I just googled “Largest Model Train Store” and at least a half dozen hits came up with each store claiming to be the Largest Model Train Store. [(-D]
-George
Caboose Hobbies in Denver claims it.
Let me know when you’re going. Maybe I can hitch a ride with ya.
Without a doubt; Caboose Hobbies in Denver, CO.
Has to be Caboose Hobby in Denver! Kevin
Even a phrase like “brick and mortar” needs a definition. For example Walthers has a retail outlet here in Milwaukee that offers everything they have in stock that is in the catalog (and that is a lot of stuff) plus now and then they find a supply of stuff they have not carried in years and put it on a table at bargain prices. Sometimes I have ordered stuff at the desk and when they bring it out they told me it was the last one, meaning your dealer’s order will not be filled, maybe for months.
But the room itself has a small museum, a Maerklin display, a nice HO layout and a small N scale layout, some display cases, a few shelves with a variety of structure kits in N and HO, some freight cars in both scales, a magazine rack, a couple of bargain tables, computer desks to search the catalog, a video on TV, a bathroom, and that is about it.
Their inventory might be the largest but as a shopping experience it is more or less like an in-person telephone order.
Dave Nelson
Caboose Hobbies!!! Glad I live only 15 minutes away from it. I must be spoiled.
Is it a deadly sin that I envy anyone who live real close to a large hobby shop. I have to drive 70 miles to find one with the basic necessities.
All well, if I did live really close to a large hobby shop, my finances would suffer.
OK sounds like Caboose Hobbies in Denver rmakes first place with four votes. Anyone know about what the square footage is of their showroom?
There website says they have 18,600 square feet of floor space.
So 18,600 square feet of showroom space represents the largest model train store showroom in all of the united states? None bigger?
Since you are either unhappy with the responses, or are expecting something more humongous, no, this is not the largest model train “showroom” in all of the United States. The largest I’m familar with is the Amherst Society Train Show at the Eastern States Exposition Grounds in West Springfield, Massachusetts. It encompasses 4 buildings, and I’m certain that the floor space and product selection far exceeds Caboose Hobbies. Since they don’t use tents, I think it qualifies as brick and mortar. The downside is that it is only open for one weekend during the year, normally in late January. If I were looking to make a weekend trip and didn’t care where or when I went, this is where I’d go.
Trains & Lanes hobbies in Easton PA is pretty large.
and
M.B.Klein (www.modeltrainstuff.com) is large in Cockeysville, MD
A lot of their stuff is in the backroom warehouse and not on the floor.
Caboose Hobbies in Denver is certainly a large store, but I have to say that I was disappointed on my last visit this past Easter (so almost a year ago). The shelves are far from full, in fact there was a lot of empty space, with merchandise spread out to make the place look fuller than it really is. Having visited some 2 years prior, and being really impressed, I was to say the least disappointed this time around.
Charles Ro Company in Malden Ma. Say’s they are the largest in America. I don’t know how much N scale inventory they have as I didn’t bother to check when I was there. They do have a nice selection of Ho and a Extensive inventory of O gauge. Also They have their mail order business coming out of the same building…
No maxman I am absolutely not unhappy.
All I am trying to do is plan out our summer vacation around visiting the largest model train store in the United States. That is all I am doing.
Gas is expensive and I want to make the trip worth while, we are driving our class C RV on a camping trip this summer, and I asked the wife this year, if I could pick the area to visit centered around the biggest HO train store in the US and we would visit that store and then go camping around that part of the country when done.
I was looking through the Walthers 2009 Reference Book and they say their building is two and half acres under one roof. I have never personally stepped inside so I don’t know how big their showroom is.
Wherever you go on your vacation, remember the journey and the good times you had.
Show room space or is one also counting the display layouts, seminar room, and the like?
Caboose currently occupies what was formerly three store fronts on Broadway. 1/3 of one of those is the seminar room. Our local Hobby Town USA had a bigger floor space out in the suburbs, but 1/2 of that was pool tables, about 1/3 of the other half was an indoor RC car track, and trains were only a tiny percentage of the remaining floor space. So while the Hobby Town USA is larger Caboose is clearly the winner for trains.
I do know that Caboose Hobbies is Walther’s largest customer by a large (three digit) percentage. About 6 months ago I could have given you the exact numbers.
As another poster stated, it is also true that Caboose is a shadow of its former self when it comes to stock on the shelves. They have had to react to all the competition from the internet. It is too expensive to keep at least one of everything on the shelves like they used to do. Then the new manufacture model of limited quantities has also taken a toll. Bummer.
In that case there is no contest. Come to Denver and Colorado. There is enough train related stuff around here to keep one busy for a month. Not only is there Caboose Hobbies, there is Mizell’s Trains. There is the Colorado Railroad Museum, The Forney Museum (not just trains), the Greeley Freight Station Museum. You can camp in the mountains, see the Moffatt Tunnel portals, ride the Georgetown Loop Railroad, The Leadville train, then work south and pick up the Royal Gorge train (both the full size one through the gorge and the miniature at the top. There is the La Veta-Alamosa train, the Cumbers & Toltec, and to the southwest the Durango & Silverton.
If you like ghost railroads you can follow the grades of the Boulder Western, the Colorado Midland (highway 24 - and the dirt to Hells Gate), the Florence & Cripple Creek (Devil’s Creek Canyon - even though the famous curved trestle has been replace with a modern steel thing), there is the Denver South Park & Pacific (highway 285), and of course the Rio Grande Southern. There is the roundhouse in Hugo (UP)and the one in Champa (DSP&P), and the Colorado Midland in Colorado Springs (now Brigle Potter Company). There is the Alpine Tunnel (I understand a regular vehicle can now get to the west portal - it requires 4x4 to get to the east portal). A few years ago I followed the D&RGW Tennesee pass line as well as the Monarch Branch, Turrent branch, and the Texas Creek branch. Fascinating stuff - especially if one does the research up front.
And yet I think of more. There is the Glenwood Springs Amtrak Station with th