Harley House,
I remember that place, bought an engine phone in there and it had to be fumigated
just to keep it in our living room. Very child unfriendly place no doubt about it.
On the other hand you have Bill & Walts, where David the owner was in on this past Sunday, playing with the kids on the floor, with his old train stock, he did the same thing with my daughter 35 years ago. When you step into that old store you step back
in time, to a different place. Frank at the Iron Horse was the same way and people got to run their engine purchases even before they took them home, on one of his layouts.
His office layout was world famous, in Viet Nam around Christmas time, I was talking to a SGT in our SF Group about Frank and his train club at the Iron Horse, a Col from the 2nd Armor Division was stranding near by, he came over and opened his wallet, and showed us his old Iron Horse Train club card with Franks signature on it. As he walked away I heard him tell his Lt, you see those SF boys over there, they are members of our train club in Pittsburgh, they need help, you respond no matter where they are, that's an order.
Most Pittsburgh area train store owners were not anything like J&J, who came much later on. Most of these old train store owners, helped form bonds that lasted a life time, even in a war zone.
PCRR/Dave
Great story Dave about the officers in Viet Nam.
