I will be in Huntsville next week for a training event. Just wondering if there are any decent hobby shops in the area. I did a search on the trains.com website, and it doesn’t look too promising unless I’m into R/C or scrapbooking.
If you can find UP2CSX in the members list, try and send him a PM. He lives there but got fed up with this forum and moved on. You can probably still send him a PM though.
Thanks, loathar. I tracked him down and sent him a message. Waiting with bated breath! [dinner]
Hunstville has an old depot that is probably worth looking into. There’s an old roundhouse, which is restored but only as a building. It’s got a flat floor now, and I think they use it for indoor events like charity dances and such. They have a tour, also. Sorry, I don’t have any web sites, but I’m sure you can Google around and find them.
There’s a very small LHS in an old caboose on the depot grounds. The owner told me that the Civil War train that was stolen in the real-life train chase that led to the movie (don’t remember the title) was actually stolen from that depot.
There’s a Hobby Lobby and a Wal-Mart, too. The only thing I’ve ever bought in Huntsville that’s train related is 1:87 autos at Wal-Mart, and a copy of MR at Barnes and Noble.
I’ve heard that round house is worth the trip. Someone told me they used to have train shows in it.
If you find a descent hobby shop, let me know when you get back. That’s not too far a drive for me.
NASA is in Huntsville. It’s where they run Space Camp, and they have tours of the facilities. If you have a few hours (don’t know about evenings) it might be better to go with the space-age flow rather than trying to do trains in a place that’s more geared towards rockets.
I like Ritas for Mexican food there, by the way, or ask around for real barbeque places. There are also a couple of really good German restaurants, too, with real beer.
Our hotel choices are limited, but I try to stay at the airport Sheraton if I can. You can sometimes hear trains from the Madison Radisson.
According to the Walthers website there is this at least one:
America’s Hobby Store (formerly Trans-Global Hobby Shop)
179 Baltimore Drive
Huntsville, AL 35810
Phone: 256-852-7634
I have never been to this store (I have only been to Huntsville probably 5 times in my life). The only contact I have ever had with them is when I was looking for a specific item that was out of stock at Walthers, I called to see if they had it (which they unfortunately did not), so I really cannot say how good their store is.
They do have a website:
Mister B - I have actually visited Space Camp before on a previous trip to Huntsville a few years back. That was before my MR days, so I wasn’t (as) interested in trains at the time. Thanks for the suggestion on the Mexican restaurant - I could use me some good Mexican right about now! And the German place with the real beer sounds appealing, too! As for hotels, since I’m in the military, I have to stay at the visitor quarters on the Army base (unless they’re full, then I can stay out in town).
gcri - the hobby shop you mentioned sound very promising! Much better than anything I’ve turned up so far.
For those who mentioned the train station and roundhouse - I’ll have to look into that when I get there. Sounds like it would be a cool thing to check out!
That’s Wes Savage’s place, and he is a good man. The shop maybe small but fun to visit. Still probably has more train stuff than the other one.
MrB;
I think you must be confusing Wes’s shop with the one across from the Civil War museum in Kennesaw, GA. Thats where the Yankee raiders led by James Andrews hijacked the W&A loco “General”. It was chased down by its counterpart “Texas” and several others led by the conductor of the hijacked train. The “General” is on display there at the museum while the “Texas” sits in the basement of the Cyclorama, in Grant Park in Atlanta. Both great places to visit.
If traveling to Huntsville by car through Nashville, TN, consider seeing Southbound Trains in Franklin, TN.
Hi, Hope you enjoy your stay in Rocket City. The best all around Hobby shop in N. Alabama is RC Hobbies on meridian Street. There is/was a trains only shop in the Red Caboose at the Old Huntsville Station(I don’t know if it is still in Business,sorry) And last but not least is Southerland Station near Huntsville Hospital /behind Capt D’s on Governers drive. They are Mostly Lionel but have a little of everything and are proud of it all.
Enjoy, Gary W.
I just read back thru the thread and saw where your Military, and have to stay on Redstone, THE BEST German Food is at a place on the base But I don’t have access anymore(9/11 and all!).
I have a daughter lives in Cullman about forty five miles down the road towards B’ham and about ten years ago on a visit we went up to Huntsville to visit the historic depot. There were four or five shops listed in the Yellows including Rio Grande Models which, I found out later, had been sold almost half a year earlier - my phone call got a disconnect intercept. I attempted to find a shop located in the SW part of town but it closed at five and you can guess the rest of this story.
There was a small store in Cullman but the owner - he was a transplanted Yankee from Circleville, Ohio - told me that Northern Alabama was not a hotbed of model railroading activity.
I used to live just south of Huntsville (near Lake Guntersville) and there never was much in the way of hobby shops - they tended to come and go and rarely had a consistent stock. I just sort of went whenever I could and grabbed whatever they had.
I belonged, for a while, to a club in Albertville (geez, does everything have a ville on it? 
It was in an old depot (caboose out front with the tracks taken out from around it) and had modular HO and N set-ups. Dunno if it’s still around.
Good luck with your trip. If you get a chance to get down to Guntersville it’s a pretty scenic place - though it’s not as nice in the winter. One of the larger man-made lakes in the U.S. I think. My dad has a place up on the bluff overlooking the lake and the view is pretty nice - course you have to go to AL to see it and I’m sort of done with that :P.
M
$$$$$$$[:-^] Nuff said…
I visited Trans-Global when I was in Huntsville nearly three years ago. It looks like they have moved, as well as changed names. The owner was helpful and friendly, and had a pretty good stock in his store. Can’t say anything about what it is like now, of course.
Dan,
I hope you check in with the Model RR Club on base (RSA). They may have pointers to shops, as well. I used to check in with them (mid-week–Tuesday evenings???) as I pulled my AT tours at RSA. They were located somewhere within the “main base” cluster of buildings.
Not much N or HO scale there. Mostly a O & larger scale dealer. Shop is near Franklin battlefield. Travelling NB could be a way to avoid rush traffic going into Nashville for AM rush. Good selection of Bruder from Germany toy trucks.
If you have the time, you could stop at a station of the Music City Star & get some photos. Trains have been 98% OTP (hard to get lost on a single-track curvy RR). Their website is good for times & locations. The MCS/N&E track is fairly close to Nashville’s airport.
The best hobby shop in Nashville is at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum![tup]
since your staying on base here in huntsville,. look up the redstone model railroad club.
julian berry was the president of the club, not sure if he still is or not. if you pm me, i will give you his home number and you can call him. as for hobby shops, it depends on what scale your in asto whether the shops are worth seeing. we have 3.
there is r/c hobbies on meridian street. they have very little in the way of model trains or rolling stock or structures, but they have a few in both ho and n scale. what they do have however, is a great selection of scratch building supplies and paints. one of the biggest selctions I have seen other than ordering online.
next there is southerland station. they have mostly o scale. they have some n scale and ho scale, but not a lot of ready avalable stock. they can order anything out of the walthers catelog for you, but then if you have internet, so can you.
the other shop is hobbytown usa. they have reopened a shop off university accross from the madison square mall. they have a small selection of train related stuff in all scales.
there was also transglobal hobby shop, which someone mentioned has changed names and moved. I have been to the shop since they moved, so not sure what they might carry. they did carry the best selection of ho and n scale trains around. cant say that for sure now.
hope you have fun while here in huntsville. I might also suggest you check out the chase train depot. they have passenger rides on certain days. its only a 10 mile trip, but hey, a train ride is a train ride. you can check out there web site for more. http://www.northalabamarailroadmuseum.com/
hope this helps medic
Thanks to everyone who gave me advice and whatnot. I’ve actually been back for a few weeks, and I wanted to post my trip photos earlier, but I got busy and never got around to it. I thought about putting these in WPF this weekend, but decided to add them to this thread to close the loop on the story.
First of all, I just want to say that I didn’t get to go out as much as I wanted, as I came down with a stomach virus on Monday, spent that night in the hospital, and felt completely miserable the entire rest of the week until I got back home that weekend.
medic_149, I did look up the club website, and saw they had weekly meetings in the evening, but there was no way I was going to be in any shape to attend, so I just passed on it and slept instead!
Early Monday afternoon I managed to scout out the area and did drive-bys of the Huntsville Depot and the N. Alabama Train museum. I wanted to go to both, but my health and time only permitted visiting one on Friday afternoon when my class got out a little early. I only had a couple of hours to kill, so I chose to go to the closest one, which was the depot.
Now without further ado, here are my trip photos:
This first one is a nicely-restored 0-4-0 static display. It had a string of passenger cars behind it.
A cupola caboose (obviously [D)])
View of a passing NS freight train from inside the cupola of the aforementioned caboose [:)]
4-4-0 on a dual-gage turntable in front of a mock roundhouse. The real roundhouse was about a quarter mile to the north, on the other side of the mainline (where the NS train was), and was demolished a long time ago. This building was built on the museum grounds purely for looks. It’s act