In the late 70's and early 80's I was building my two NYC layouts using the trains I had as a kid in Oregon. These had been stored and shipped around the country as we moved from Oregon to New Jersey to North Carolina to Florida. When I got married, my dad sent them to us in NYC as a wedding present. The arrival of my own kids prompted the interest in layout building.
I needed some some repairs and got pointed to Madison Hardware. I was in there six or seven times with no clue as to what it was. To me, it was just this weird store that did repairs and had lots of interesting things hanging on the walls.
It it took a long time for me to emerge from my PW world. TMCC had been out for a while when I saw it for the first time. I was floored.
