Greetings to all,
I’ve got a trip to NYC planned for early December (from the UK), just wondering whether anyone can recommend a good Model Railroad shop in NYC? My primary interest in On30, but I also have some HO as well.
Thoughts are obviously with the residents of NYC at the moment, hope they can get the city back on its feet again pretty damn soon!
Cheers,
Stephen
Speaking of NYC, I wonder how Trainworld in Brooklyn survived the hurricane. I don’t know the address off the top of my head. They have an advertisement on the right column of this forum. I buy lots of stuff from them mail order.
Thanks for the suggestions, will aim to check both those stores out.
I’m staying in Manhattan for five days, so got plenty of time to wonder a bit further afield - so Booklyn could be on the agenda as well!
Cheers,
Stephen
Ahhhh, your talking about ‘Victors’! Funnily enough I visited the shop during its last few weeks of existance, they sold off a lof of stock at very reasonable prices. I think the owner then tried to run the shop purely as mail order - not too sure whether he is still doing so.
You are right, we have very few model railway shops in London now, e-bay and the box shifters have had a real negative impact on their trade.
Slough…I dont think half of the UK knows why Slough even exists…I’m guessing someone thought it would be the ideal place to set an Office based comedy in…
Cheers,
Stephen
I’d think they’d be OK. A googlemap check of their address (751 MacDonald Ave.) shows it is about two miles in-land. BTW it’s interesting that the street in front of the store has elevated train lines running over it.
I could’nt find red caboose the last time i was there about a year ago. Think it’s gone.rambo1…
I was in the Red Caboose in August. Its there, but hard to find.
They even mention this on their website I linked to in my post above:
“Look for the building’s new chrome and glass front. We’re still downstairs, off the back of the lobby”
I remember the former hobby shop at that locatio (Manhattan Hobbies? I don’t recall the name) was actually a lot cooler, but then this was 20 years ago, maybe everything was cooler back then.
And as for Slough UK, I didn’t realize that the UK version of “The Office” was set in that town - I heard of Slough from an older “Top Gear” episode challenge (Budget Italian Super Cars), where the presenters raced toward a Gentlemen’s Club located there…
I suspect they are just fine, being no where near the ocean. Goodly distance froore m Red Hook and or the Gowanus Canal. It is a fine store, but is built for mail/phone/web ordering. LION has not been to the Lynbrook store in years.
Red Caboose is there too, but while it has much merchandise it is not very user friendly, crowded isles and all. If you go there give my regards to the cat.
ROAR
Well, I live relatively nearby Trainland in Lynbrook, and have been there two months ago (I did miss the semi-annual special this past weekend, though).
LION, where you there AFTER they torn down the rather large display layout they had (with the big center mountain w/ ski-lifts). They ended up blocking that window off, and adding another story for storage.
For our UKian friend, here’s a description of Trainland in Lynbrook:
Right now the building (south side of Sunrise, runs East/West) has only one display window with a motley collection of various train-sets (O, HO), and some disconnected track - nothing running. Also a sign pronouncing that this is where they filmed the scene of Bobby getting wacked in the Sopranos. Inside the store (center), there is a very small display inside of a mix-multitude of scales, that sometimes runs - and also a playset of those wooden swedish train sets for kids to play with.
West side of store - the walls and glass displays are mostly Tinplate and O Gauge (3-railer), no On3 that I recall. Testors/Model Master paint displays, and the center shelves are HO structures and accessories, and scenery stuff (some O scale building kits too). There used to be die-cast also, not sure what they have now.
East side of store, HO & N locomotives around the wall and display cases, HO and N rolling stock, N building kits in the center - scenery items (Woodland Scenics), Floquil Paint, Thomas stuff.
All items are generally recent, standard manfacturers such as Bachmann, Walthers, Atlas, Athearn, Lifelike and so on - very good prices, but (HO or N at least) DON’T expect to find a classic 1960 Global switcher hidden treasure there - O gauge/Tinplate I am not certain. If you can use it, you’re golden. The Staff is pretty cool.
Willis Hobbies in Mineola is good, but they are harder to reach by Ma
I swear that cat barked like a dog.
Never heard such a loud sound come out of a cat before.
Bear in mind that right now there is limited power and transit in the NYC area so getting around will not be easy.
Sure, right now… but it’ll be fully operational in a week or so.
FWIW, I got an e-mail from Trainworld / Trainland this morning saying that they are back at full operational capability after the storm.
Good to hear
I was at Trainland Saturday, and for whatever reason this thread sprang to mind - I wonder if Mr Stephen ever made it here from the UK?
Well, we may never know since he doesn’t seem to be a regular poster, but in Trainland there have been several changes since just a few months back - the Die-cast section (which was other scales besides HO) seems gone, replaced entirely by Thomas stuff. The Display cases on the the West side which formerly held O & Lionel are gone - entire wall and tables of Lionel there now. HO equipment is advancing further South-West, with some displays of BLI track mobiles (among other things) in former Large Scale terrority. Also, for the first time that I can recall, I saw glues, cements, tools etc in the SE corner - I don’t recall that being anywhere in the store before, although I may have simply missed it.
There were some native German speaking customers at Trainland - so the word must be getting out somehow!
Firstly a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all who have responded to my initial request!
I did indeed make it over to New York and managed to visit both Trainworld and Red Caboose. I’ll start with Trainworld:
Nice shop, seemed very, very busy, and nice display of all different scales, athough no On30 for me to pick at! They didn;t seem to be effected by Sandy, and when I was there (9th to 14th Dec), most of the transit lines were in operation to Brooklyn.
So…Red Caboose…where do I start! I did indeed pass on everyones regards to the cat, who was very vocal, alert and certainly more friendly than the bloke who owned the shop!
As per previous reports this shop is a potential Alladins Cave, but if you have a sensitive nose, the dust will certainly get you sneezing. The amount of stock the guy has is unbelieveable, some real brass gems in all sorts of gauges, but I really dont think he knows his own stock at all.
I saw a few Grandt Line On3 Porter kits in a cabinet so enquired about them. The owner was literally on the phone to friends all the time, and his conversations were quite amusing to listen to, although you had no choice, you could hear him from all corners of the shop! Anyway, I asked him about the kits and he wasn’t really too interested in selling them! I managed to drag him away from his desk to at least look at them to see what state they were in, seeing as if they were near complete I would have had them.
He was reluctant to open the boxes, but I pursuaded him and one was pretty much complete, the other had quite a few bits missing, so I asked what he wanted for them…but he said he couldnt sell them! I said I wasnt bothered about whether they were not complete seeing as they would be bashed for a diorama, so he said okay $140 for the complete kit. I tried not to laugh at that point and politely declined.
$80 for both would have been reasonable, but alas he wasn’t going to budge, wasn’t interested in having $
where is red caboose on what street? rambo1…
23 West 45th St, New York
(212) 575-0155
I was at the Red Caboose this Thanksgiving. It is a couple of stores east of the corner of 45th and 6th Ave just east of the big black buiiding where I use to work at before moving to Memphis. Back in the day there were three great train shops there on 45th. The Red Caboose was across the street from the shop it is in now. Peter Smith Memphis