I'm going to miss them.  One of my fondest memories was getting the Lionel 60' Burlington Passenger Cars including the extra car in the 1970s.  I still have that set.

Is Des Plaines Hobbies gone also?    They were one of the GOTO places for O Scale.

@prrjim posted:

Is Des Plaines Hobbies gone also? 

Nope. They are still there.

  They were one of the GOTO places for O Scale.

@prrjim posted:

Is Des Plaines Hobbies gone also?    They were one of the GOTO places for O Scale.

Still there—and still a GOTO for O scale.

I bought my first 3-rail O gauge from Greg a K-Line UP City of LA 18" cars.  Still love it!

Art

He was a big K-Line dealer and was close to where I was working at the time.  Spent many a lunch hour there drooling.   That and watching the action at the UP Proviso yard..

Art

@Chugman posted:

He was a big K-Line dealer and was close to where I was working at the time.  Spent many a lunch hour there drooling.

Art

I remember when Chicagoland Hobby became a K-Line SuperStore.

Sad news as that was a great store. I wish him a wonderful retirement!

I went there in March for the first time.  Looks like it was my last time too. It was a really neat store.

On my once frequent trips to Wheaton, there were three shops hit, Desplaines, this, and the one owned by the O scale show promoter who closed his shop.  Certainly sorry to see train shops in a major city and railroad town close.  It may become as big a wasteland as this area.

That O scale show promoter was Mike Hill and his shop was Hill's Hobbies (formerly Bill's Hobbies) in Park Ridge, IL.  Still miss them both.

Chuck

Chicagoland Hobby used to have a booth at the DuPage / Wheaton show, and I bought many things from them at very good prices. They stopped selling there when the show was sold in the early 2000s.

Long before that (late 70s / early 80s), when they were located in the Arcade in Downtown Chicago, a work colleague and I killed many a lunchtime in the store. He was into military models and kits, and they sold many.

A nice thing about the store on NorthWest Highway was that it was barely a block from the Norwood Park Metra station, so you could reach the store from anywhere on the Metra system. I did that a number of times from my "home station", further out on  the same line. It was great to avoid the vehicle traffic on the expressways.

Sadly, all things must pass. Good luck in retirement!

I did visit Chicagoland once while attending an O scale meet. Nice store. The Detroit area has lost most of our hobby/train stores too. 

Is Des Plains still open?

Yes, and I'm planning to visit today.

Chuck

Website appears dysfunctional.

@Keith L posted:

"...The business is still for sale, if anyone is interested?.."

Chicagoland Hobbies is a profitable business!

Surely there is someone here interested in getting into the hobby business, with an already established customer base.

@Jim 1939

Yes Des Plaines Hobbies is still open.

You can’t take your local hobby store for granted. Chicagoland was good for having a wide variety of O gauge product lines.

Wow sad to see them go