Matt Makens posted:I didn’t say the train department at hi is small, I said the train staff is lacking. The train department at both stores is decent, much better at the Richfield location but it’s nothing special.
I realize that. I just wanted to clarify that the store, as a whole, is worth a visit.
I also agree that there are no 3-rail experts at Hub, though Harry isn’t exactly uninformed given his decades in the business, including his role as train department manager before he went part time and Nick took over. I don’t know Nick all that well — I have only met him twice — but he seems personable enough, though obviously has little exposure to American 3-rail’s past given his British background.
Too bad you aren’t part of the mix any longer, Matt. They could use your dynamic.
Scale Model Supplies has had to make adjustments recently to stay in business. I hope it all works out in the long term. That store offers some traditional hobby supplies like few do in the country.
I do wonder why 3-rail and O scale is so underwhelming in the Twin Cities, which has a substantial metro area (3.6 million people). I still remember the 3-rail O gauge layout I saw at the Minnesota State Fair in 1974 and the fascination it elicited in me in those years when I was an HO guy. And the 2-rail Twin City Model Railroad Museum and club still exists. Not the mention Elliot’s short-lived enterTRAINment at the Mall of America in 1992-93 and his current club-sized home layout in Stillwater.
