@Joe Connor posted:Several people mentioned Two Guys, which was also my local train shop. For those who don't know, Two Guys was one of the first big-box stores and had locations throughout the northeast.
If I remember correctly, Two Guys stocked Lionel trains only at Christmas. On December 26th, all the remaining Lionel inventory was put on sale at 50% off. If you got any cash for Christmas, this is when you could really making a killing!
I grew up in Morristown, N.J., only about 30 minutes from Lionel's Hillside factory, but I can't recall any local shops that stocked a lot of Lionel. The closest was Leitner's Toy Store, which was a Lionel dealer and carried a tiny bit of Lionel. What I remember about Leitner's is that they sold replacement chemicals for the chemistry sets we all had back then. I'll bet about half those chemicals are now considered hazardous materials! I also remember that Leitner's was so old-school that even the kids who worked there after school had to wear neckties.
I grew up and still live in the area (heck, worked at the Two Guys in Morris Plains, my first job), grew up in 60's and 70's there. There used to be Rich's hobbytown, which originally was in Parsippany where the Holiday Inn is just before rt 46 and 80 cross, they had some Lionel (though were more scale trains and other hobbies). They later moved a bit west on Hook Mt Road in Montville (it was a repurposed church that later became Gametown arcade and then a restaurant, is an empty lot now).
The other place, that still exists, opened up in the early 70's, Mountain Lakes Train Station. It focused on Lionel, still does. It especially focused on post war stuff. Problem with it is that it is basically expensive, you will pay MSRP there (and when post war was at its peak, well...the prices there still look like that). Still nice to have a local place, and they do repairs.
And you recall well, Two Guys only carried trains around the Christmas holiday season, by Jan 1st it was all gone. Mostly sets, and maybe some holiday themed cars if I remember. I also remember talking to someone from the toy department (manager) about it (this was late 70s), basically said they knew the week after Christmas they would be taking back a ton of stuff that didn't work,he spent a lot of time testing engines and the like to see if it was in fact broken (MPC quality was, well, what it was), he had been there like 12 years and said it started being like that in the late 60s.
