Hey guys,
I was poking around the internet and learned that there is a new hobby shop opening in a town I use to live in just 1/2 hour away…Yahoooooo, I contacted them (via email) to inquire if they will be carring HO train stuff I think they might where I found the link at Walthers…please , please tell me it is true???
I’ll let you know when I get confirmation!
I’m sooooo excited because the closest one is 2.5 hrs. away (a good one anyway).
I will pray to the HO Gods tonight.
Where in NH Red Horse? You have one LHS in Intervale which is about 1/2 north of you on route 16&302, and there is another i Maine on route 25 in Kezar Falls that is supposed to be very good.
Yup, I know about the one in Intervale, That guys prices are out of sight!!!
I’m in Ctr. Ossipee.
I’ve been in the Intervale one , maybe I’ll check them out again but as I remember from two years ago his prices were almost doubled of other store, I don’t know how he stays open?
Thanks.
Red Horse, Where is this new shop located? I’ll have to check it out.
Don’t count your chickens yet. I drove over an hour to one that advertised on Trains.com. Was supposed to be all trains. Got there and it was all RC cars.[xx(]
Been there, done that…
I wouldn’t mind having a train shop like the Houston Roundhouse 30 minutes away from me.
Good luck Red Horse.
Tracklayer
When I was at the Greenburg show last weekend, the former proprietor of my town’s old hobby shop was there selling some of his leftover stock from when he closed last August. He said a new hobby shop is opening in town in May and he will be managing it. It will be located at the same site where Northeast Scale Lumber is made.
I’m hoping it’s not rumor. The closest LHS since he closed is 30-60 minutes away depending on how nasty the traffic in and out of Boston is.
Great Western Rwy fan,
I heard it was going to be in one of the Discount Plazas on Main St.
As soon as I get confirmation I’ll post the details, Happy Rails, Jess
Double huh? Ouch. I feel you pain with not having what I thought to be a “quality” LHS. Then I found Light House Hobbies in Townsend, MA. Not exactly right around the corner for you, but only 30 minutes for me. They are a full Walthers dealer and have a fine website and will ship anywhere. I’ve found that their in-stock items can be had for the same, and sometimes cheaper, than most online stores. I’d rather spend the same, and maybe a little more to keep his doors open that risk an internet disaster. The store is small, and as such the selection is lacking. They are very friendly and more than willing to help out. I wish you all the luck in your local endeavour…
BTW, I grew up in Tuftonboro. Intersection of 171 and Ledge Hill Road. I hope all is well “up north”.
Closer to you (than Boston) would be Maine Trains in Chelmsford. Mostly HO, and a bit of N, it’s a pretty nice shop. Then there is Hobby Emporium in Tyngsboro. It’s a bigger shop with a large selection of HO and N.
Jesse,
Another train show the 20th in Hooksett. I often find new LHS’s and information on new ones at train shows. Here is the link to the next one in NH.
For what it’s worth I found Maine Trians to be very small and a limited quantity of stock, with a small operating HO layout. The knowledge of the Boston and Maine RR is phenominal. If that is what you are modeling, it’s worth a trip just to talk!!!
Hobby Emporium, while larger with a better selection, I found to be very expensive. Not really worth a 2 hour drive by Jesse ( with gas and Mass taxes, it would be better to buy online ).
I’m also a big fan of Maine Trains, www.mainetrains.com. Gerry runs a great shop. He’s an expert modeller himself, and they do decoder installations (also sound) as well as custom painting and detailing. The work is beautiful. There is also an in-store layout that was featured in RMC.
I’ve been to Hobby Emporium a number of times, too. As the name suggests, they cover the hobby spectrum, but they do have a good selection of trains. Mostly MSRP, though. Last time I was there, they had a very large stock of structures, something that most shops don’t have much of. Some of these were on sale, along with closeouts on rolling stock. They have a lot of N-gauge stuff, both trains and accessories, too, plus general modelling supplies like paints and Evergreen styrene pieces.
Is the Intervale shop the one connected to the Model Train Museum? I went to that one a few years back, and was astounded at their prices. For a store that size, they had a lot of aisle space and not much shelf space, which made the place look very hollow. Not many customers, either.
Mister Beasley ,
Yup, it is the same place that you visited a few years back, and from the description you gave I can see nothing has changed, it is still empty of customers, over priced, more plastic model kits than ever before and a staff that don’t know Jack about trains.
I did have the folks from the new Hobby shop in North Conway get back to me, the co-owner said that they have some nice “Train SETS” in stock???, I’m now getting the feeling that they probably don’t carry any rolling stock or anything other than “Sets”, I hope this is not the case, I wish her husband would have replied to my questions as she didn’t seem to know what I was talking about when I mentioned HO scale…and she also forgot to give me a location…uuurggghhhh!!!
Oh well, my great feelings of hope are now just a worried and empty feeling.
WHY…WHY…WHY?
I’ll have to wait until Saturday to check them out, the wife wrote that they just lost the Husbands Mother and will not be open until Saturday.
The good news is that she asked for my help in selecting Native American craft supplies for their shop so I maybe will be able to work out a discount for my knowledge on Native crafts?
I’ll keep you posted.
Happy Rails,
Jess.
I actually go to both shops. I like Maine Trains a little more, but Hobby Emporium has a larger selection and every once in a while they’ll have 20-30%-off sales. The traffic going to both places can get nasty, epecially after 4:00pm when everyone starts to go home from Boston and all the Massholes come out to make life miserable. I’m happy that there will be a new shop in Methuen, though, and that Wayne (the owner of the old shop, Modeler’s Junction) will be managing it. We go a long ways back.
Did I read right? A hobby store…opening? I thought that the direction hobby stores were going was in the opposite direction. Good to hear that it isn’t the case!
Here are the directions that the owners have sent me.
This is just off Rt16 in North Conway NH.
We are located in the yellow mall on Rt. 16 in North Conway where Bellini’s Restaurant is across from Junge’s Motel. Coming from the south it’s right after D’Angelo Sandwich shop on the right. Other stores where we are: UPS, Building 16, Salvatore Michaels Art store. We’re directly in front of you as you come up the driveway, can’t miss us and dogs are welcomed!
If things go well, maybe they’ll have those nice train sets, and lots of quality stand-alone HO stuff, and a knowledgable staff. Let us know how the new shop is!