Know any good places to purchase trains.
I mainly use www.internettrains.com.
I buy from internet shops,local discount hobby shops,mail order and local train shows at the best discount price I can find.[:D]
i voted other. i buy some stuff at hobby shops. i’ve bought some stuff off of ebay. and i buy a lot at shows whenever they come around.
Local hobby shop, train shows, and private sale from friends, in that order.
Auction or online vendor once in a blue moon.
I buy right from my local hobby shops. If they don’t have something, then I have them order.
I buy from the LHS.
I use www.1stplacehobbies.com for all items except locomotives because they are the cheapest and I’ve had good experiences with them. I purchase diesel locomotives from www.maxmodeltrains.com and www.toytrainheaven.com because they are usually the cheapest and give good customer service as well.
It all depends. I am not a millionare so I have to get the most for my hard earned dollar. I buy from LHS, eBay, and trains shows.
LHS, internet, Ebay, and shows.
I buy mostly at shows, because the LHS has very little S. But all the others are sources also.
Enjoy
Paul
I buy most of my stuff at local hobby shops and Train Shows.
I get all my stuff by mail/ internet orders because the closest hobby shop is a 5 hour drive away.
Here is the internet list so far.
Listed by 4884bigboy and darth9x9: www.ebay.com
Listed by AggroJones: www.trainworld.com and www.firsthobby.com
Listed by appst03 : www.maxmodeltrains.com and www.toytrainheaven.com
Listed by both appst03 and AggroJones: www.1stplacehobbies.com
I usually get mine from area train stores. I’ve gotten a couple things from shows, and maybe 2 engines off of e-bay.
-John Zuna
I have bought Proto 2000 E units and Proto 2000 FA1/FB1, and Athearn Blue box locos from the LHS (also my entire fleet of passenger cars)
I found a 4 8 2 Mountain (Spectrum) at GATS
I have bought some cheapos (Bachmann) from K B Toys
I have bought some by internet sales
I have bought some from forum members (comments withheld in order not to be tacky or worse)
I have been given some by forum members (very nice forum members I might add [;)] [:)] [:D] )
I selected to vote with the other other. You see, some years ago when I started in this hobby, I lived on a dairy farm in rural America and it was hard to get to a town that had a hobby shop. There was this traveling sales man that came around two or three times a year and we purchased or trains from him. Sometimes he would give us a few items for payment for the meal we provided him with. Then of coarse, ther was Santa Claus that always brought something for my trains. I had mainly Lionel and some Marx stuff, and had to leave the locos of the trains cause I had to push and pull them by hand cause we didn’t have electricity to run them with. I had a wind up Marx that was kind of neat as it had a flint in it that would shoot sparks out the stack as it ran. We finally had electricity run to the house about 1947 and my train interest really took off then. Still had to order stuff from the Sears or Monkeywards catalogs. It was about the middle fifties when my city slicker cousin hooked me on HO scale and he would buy things from his LHS and mail them to me. Back then most everything came in kit form and my first loco was was a trusty old 0-4-0 Shifter. It was still a bear to assemble. I now purchase from a hobby shop about 100 miles from here on occasion, from Walthers, from members of my club and still from a guy that visits the club selling things similar to the old traveling salesman. Oh, I also purchase things from hobby shops I may visit when we go on vacation or go to visit distant relatives now and then. Didn’t mean to bore you all, but thought it might be of interest to the younger people here to understand what some of use went through in our youth compared to todays way of purchasing things. Ken
I go through Firsthobby.
BNSFrailfan.
I voted other, because I dont get my trains from any one single source. LHS,(one of four in my area) ebay, train shows and friends (one is my brass dealer, sometimes I go see him to get my “fix”). However I do not do any internet pruchasing outside of ebay. My LHS’s are that good, that shipping negates any real difference in price.
In order, hobby shop, shows, internet, Ebay.