Other NYC Stores with trains

Me too,   Those was the old good old Day's.........................             

".....There was another place nearby, across the street that was on the second floor. I don't recall the name. I remember riding up a tiny elevator to get to it. I think the elevator opened right into the store. I only went there a few times because they didn't have much, if any Lionel."

I think that place was called The Red Caboose.

There was a corridor in the middle of the block between Gimbel's and Macy's. 33rd to 34th street. It was a short cut at street level with a high arched ceiling. We called it the Arcade. It was lined with small shops. Julie from Savoy opened up a small shop in there and sold strollers, cribs, and used trains. It was nice to visit there as Gimbel's 6th floor train display / dep't had all but vanished by that time.

Also spent much time at Jack Gilbert's appliance shop at 1461 Third Ave. just off the corner of 83rd street.

At one time there were 3 stores on 45th Street, all across from each other:  The Train Shop Ltd, The Red Caboose and the Roundhouse.  Also, in the office building near them was Quadrant Press, who published and distributed railroad books.   I used to hit all 4 when I was in the area.

Dont remember MREC but Red Caboose was there on 45th st

Thank you to the original poster for starting this enjoyable thread. It's bringing back nice memories of action packed visits to Manhattan.

The Red Caboose was on the 4th floor across the street from the Model Railroad Equipment Corporation. Indeed, you were delivered directly to the store via a very tight elevator. A third store, the Roundhouse, was just a few doors down from the Red Caboose on the same side of 45th Street. The Roundhouse was reached by walking up one flight of stairs. Not a model train store but also on the south side of 45th was the office of railroad book publisher Quadrant Press. As I was interested in all things trains, I would also stop at QP as he stocked the latest books from a variety of publishers as well as memorabilia and photos. That gave me four places to hit on 45th Street alone.

In later years after the Roundhouse and Model Railroad Equipment Corporation (later the Train Shop, Ltd.) closed, Manhattan Train & Hobby opened in the space formerly occupied by the Roundhouse and the Red Caboose moved into the old Model RR Equipment store. The Red Caboose is the only train store remaining on 45th Street now but the store is really a shell of it former self. Formerly extremely well stocked and exclusively model railroading, it's now a hodgepodge of trains, plastic kits and airliner display models all displayed in a very haphazard manner. I know a lot of people have found its proprietor Alan Spitz difficult to deal with but he's always treated me well over the years. He's well into his 60s now so I'm not too sure how much longer he's going to hold out. 

Other places in Manhattan selling trains not previously mentioned when I started making my trips in the 70s were America's Hobby Center down in the 20s on the west side, Hobby Mart which was located in the Port Authority and FAO Schwarz which had an incredible train department albeit exclusively foreign equipment. During the holiday season each year, the Swissair office on 5th Avenue set up a fabulous HO layout which was a must-see. There were also two railroad memorabilia dealers, the Broadway Limited Antiques Company and Mr. Arnold Joseph's Railroad N Things, who I'd try to hit as well. My visits to the city were pretty full in those days.

Bob

P.S. I must have been typing when Diok responded so some of my information duplicates his.    

There was also America's Hobby Center on 22nd St. For years they ran full page ads in Model Railroader every month. Their $1 HO wood and cardstock freight car kits got me started on kit building and later scratch building. (oops, I see Bob snuck in there ahead of me with mention of AHC! )

The Roundhouse on 45th that Dick mentioned later moved south to Florida. They began advertising the Roundhouse and the Roundhouse South in MR. Eventually, they closed shop up here and continued on in Florida for a while.

While not hobby shops, Masters and Digby's sold train sets in O gauge and HO. They were worth a stop also.

Jim

Hi, Jim.

America's Hobby Center was always an interesting place to visit. I usually dealt with Marshall Winston, the owner. He was a real character.

Bob

Here's an old AHC catalog from '72.

Bob

Back in the 50's my friend and I would take the trolley over the 59st bridge and head to Bloomingdale I thing the 6th floor had the best train layouts. And the after Christmas sale was the best, my Mom would let me buy $25 worth of Lionel. That was a lot back then I got the 50 trolley, trailer loader, gate flag man and so much more over the years. After that we would walk down to Polk's Hobby then over to Lionel and the American Flyer buildings. Those were the days!

Even though they didn't sell much of anything for Lionel "O" gauge, I always enjoyed studying the AHC ads in MR and RMC. How I wished they sold stuff I could use! Never visited their store.

Julie from Savoy opened up a small shop in there and sold strollers, cribs, and used trains.

So the fellow who ran Julie's came from Savoy? Or did people call Savoy store "Julies" at one time?

In addition to the 8031 CN Geep that I purchased at Savoy, I also purchased small boxcars: the 9040,9041,9042, and 9090 from them.
Back then I purchased very little newly made stuff. I had very limited funds, I felt my money was better spent buying trains out of private homes and train shows. I did purchase relatively inexpensive new, old stock postwar Lionel from Madison, but most of my purchases there were parts.
For a while, Carl like to play the "what's this" game with me. He'd show me a part, and ask me what it was / where it went.

I went to Red Caboose on Friday to see what it was about.  Alan was there.  He told me where I could stow my bag when I asked.  He tried to stay out of my way and let me look around.  There are a lot of glass cases full of trains in every scale.  I couldn't find the prices though and didn't have much time.  the store is pretty disorganized, but there are sections for each genre. I left without a purchase.  I have many options back home in the Chicago area where I can more easily find what interests me.  Not sure who Alan's clientele are, but he should refocus the store on them and dump everything else.  

C W Burfle posted:

Julie from Savoy opened up a small shop in there and sold strollers, cribs, and used trains.

So the fellow who ran Julie's came from Savoy? Or did people call Savoy store "Julies" at one time?

 

Yes to both. I just checked with my cousin and he remembers similarly that Julie was Savoy's "train guy." It was one of the other guys in Madison that told me to go to Julies (Savoy) to get the 8030 as Madison didn't have them at that moment. Afterwards Julie went on his own.

CNJ 3676 posted:

Thank you to the original poster for starting this enjoyable thread. It's bringing back nice memories of action packed visits to Manhattan.

The Red Caboose was on the 4th floor across the street from the Model Railroad Equipment Corporation. Indeed, you were delivered directly to the store via a very tight elevator.

Bob,  I posted this on similiar threads in the past. Boy, do I remember that skinny little evavator. Not for the clostrophobic! 

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01...stomers-dwindle.html

Across the street, I remember going down the basement with my dad many years ago, but I don't think we bought too much stuff ever. I don't recall if the New York Times article mentions it, late night talk show pioneer Tom Snyder, since passed away, used to be one of Mr. Spitz's customers. 

I have a bunch of business cards of old train stores I used to visit in the New York metropolitan area, down to around 3 left that are still open and/or ones that I still am willing to visit. 

Nice topic.

Tom 

Tom:

In times past, Red Caboose proprietor Mr. Spitz shared space in his store with Golden Spike International Limited, a well known dealer of vintage trains in the New York Metropolitan area. Jay Walsh usually manned the display in the store. In addition to Jay, veteran hobbyists may recall his partner, Ken Post. Over the years, Jay and Ken developed a reputation for selling older equipment of superb quality at fair prices. They periodically had Dorfan and Voltamp items which were tough to find at any price. Some of my best MPC dealings were with Jay and Ken. I also got my one and only Hafner set from Jay during a visit to the Red Caboose.

One of the newspapers - I can't recall which - published an article complete with picture of a visit to the store by Mr. Snyder. The picture shows him holding a piece of Standard Gauge equipment with Jay standing next to him. Let me see if I can dig that up.

Bob

Here's the article about Mr. Snyder's visit to the Red Caboose. It was published in the Daily News in 1995:

http://www.nydailynews.com/arc...ack-article-1.705180

Unfortunately, the picture which accompanied the article isn't coming up and I can't locate it elsewhere. I had actually retained the article from the paper when it was first published but I doubt I still have it.

Bob

I remember being at the Model Railroad Equipment (or whatever the downstairs train store was in those days) in the mid-late 70s one Saturday morning and met an Engineer from IBM in Silicon Valley who was on a 2 week business trip to one of the Westchester County IBM facilities. He was buying a brass O Gauge Diesel for well over $1000. I remember that he had to use 2 or 3 credit cards to pay for the purchase since his limit on each was only $500. As a poor graduate student at the time was I impressed!

Lad

Mary Arnold Toys on Lexington Avenue sells Lionel starter sets and Fastrack extention sets. Gotham Trains has closed. I remember Arnold Joseph. Nice guy but the store stank in places.

yardlet6 posted:

Mary Arnold Toys on Lexington Avenue sells Lionel starter sets and Fastrack extention sets. Gotham Trains has closed. I remember Arnold Joseph. Nice guy but the store stank in places.

I'm sorry to learn about Gotham Model Trains closing. It was a nice store.

I used to go to Honig's Pkwy on White Plains Rd near Allerton Ave in the Bronx as a kid....They had a 2nd store uder the El on Webster Ave. As a kid, the Strauss Store at Westchester Square had a nice supply of Lionel's to look at over the holidays. In those days I would accompany my grandmother to Westchester Square to shop.....we would pick out a live chicken at the poulterer, shop and on the way home pick up our chicken packed in plain white paper.

As an adult I visited Madison Hardware in the early 80s before it closed. In the 80s and 90s, I visited World of Trains on Woodhaven Blvd in Queens. They moved to Metropolitan Ave in Queens sometime in the 90s(I think) and I lost track of them (no pun intended) and at some point disappeared....does anyone know what happened to them?

Peter

Not sure if I remember the name right but there was a store, possibly "Hobby Mart," in the Port Authority bus terminal was where I first saw Arnold Rapido N gauge.  I bought a set of Atlas N Santa Fe heavyweight pullman cars there, I think they may have been manufactured by Rivarossi.

In '61 or '62 I was dating a gal who lived near the Newkirk Avenue station on the Brighton line.  One day I just happened upon a pretty decent train store either on Newkirk Plaza or very nearby.  Wandered in and bought a couple of Athearn blue box kits.

There were a lot of neat little hobby shops "back in the day."  One was under the 2, 3 or 6 El (can't remember) in the vicinity of East Tremont Avenue.  Bought a Guillow's Thomas Morse Scout WWI Biplane kit and some building supplies there.  They also had Lionel and American Flyer trains.

There was a shop called Hobbyland at 182nd and St. Nicholas Avenue, walking distance from where we lived.  Was a pretty big store, had Lionel and Flyer, and a lot of model airplane kits, engines and supplies.  It was my "go to" store for Monogram Speedee Bilt airplanes.

In the fifties and into the sixties there pretty much was a hobby, hardware or stationary store in most neighborhoods that carried at least some trains, planes and supplies.  Brown's Hobby Center across from Van Cortlandt Park was model plane heaven.  Sad to see places like this disappear, more every year.

Pete

Peter:

The last time I visited World of Trains and mail ordered from them was in the early 90s. It appeared to still be a thriving business at the time and I honestly don't know how much longer the store stayed in business beyond that. I remember the store's full page ads in Railroad Model Craftsman. It was a very well stocked store in multiple scales. I bought everything from N to O there.

Here's the Google street view of 10518 Metropolitan Avenue, the last address of record for World of Trains. You can see the old store front is closed up:

https://www.google.com/maps/pl...ropolitan+avenue%3F/@40.7099158,-73.8474673,3a,75y,192.96h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m4!1sv2cqRSBN7JvmHHHOFEMIXg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xe06eda8a292c9660!6m1!1e1

Bob 

Hi, Texas Pete.

Did Brown's carry any train stuff? I ask because when I met my wife-to-be in 1983 she lived in that neighborhood and a faded advertisement for the hobby shop was still on the side of the building.

Thanks,

Bob 

Manhattan is not a good place to find model railroad shops. All of the significant model railroad shops are on Long Island and in the Bronx. Both locations are easy commutes via the Long Island Railroad and the subway.

I think there was a place of Sutphin BLvd, in Jamaica (Queens) that was an authorized Lionel service station. As I recall, it was only a couple of blocks from the LIRR Jamaica Station. They had a case full of used trains on the right, just inside the door. The rest of the store was sporting goods. Anybody else go there, or recall the name of the store?
They were still there in the early 1970's.

CNJ 3676 posted:

Hi, Texas Pete.

Did Brown's carry any train stuff? I ask because when I met my wife-to-be in 1983 she lived in that neighborhood and a faded advertisement for the hobby shop was still on the side of the building.

Thanks,

Bob 

I don't remember ever seeing trains there.  Doesn't mean there weren't, but as I recall It was dominated by planes of all types along with some fuel powered boats and cars and a large selection of glow and spark engines.

Pete

The place on Sutphin Blvd we bought out from the owners many years ago. Leon and Billy ( Leon has passed) became World of Antiques and went out. We bought their inventory too a few years back.

The place on Sutphin Blvd we bought out from the owners many years ago. Leon and Billy ( Leon has passed) became World of Antiques and went out. We bought their inventory too a few years back.

I found a 1971-1972 list of Lionel Authorized Service Stations. The place I was thinking about on Sutphin Blvd. was called "T. R. Herman".  Glad I found it, I would have driven myself nuts trying to remember.

I only went there once in a great while. It was quite a trek to get there from where I lived using public transportation.  I drooled over what they had in their showcases, but I did not have the money. I still remember jonesing for a #51 Navy Yard switcher that was in the case. LOL, I have several of them now.

Putnam Division posted:

I used to go to Honig's Pkwy on White Plains Rd near Allerton Ave in the Bronx as a kid....They had a 2nd store uder the El on Webster Ave. As a kid, the Strauss Store at Westchester Square had a nice supply of Lionel's to look at over the holidays. In those days I would accompany my grandmother to Westchester Square to shop.....we would pick out a live chicken at the poulterer, shop and on the way home pick up our chicken packed in plain white paper.

As an adult I visited Madison Hardware in the early 80s before it closed. In the 80s and 90s, I visited World of Trains on Woodhaven Blvd in Queens. They moved to Metropolitan Ave in Queens sometime in the 90s(I think) and I lost track of them (no pun intended) and at some point disappeared....does anyone know what happened to them?

Peter

I went in to Honigs Parkway for the first time in 1977 and by then the trains were gone. My father and I went to Strauss on Westchester Square to buy a bicycle about 1971 or 1972 and the trains must have been gone by then. I used to take the bus to a hobby shop on Tremont Ave a block off Bruckner Blvd near the Throggs Neck section in the early 70's. He had a few used Lionel trains and some parts.         

I think the name of the proprietor of World of Trains was Bookbinder. There is a web site for Bookbinder's Trains Unlimited but it is not complete or functional. About 1970, my uncle took me and my cousin to an unmarked store front on Westchester Ave up around the Middletown Road station under the number 6 elevated line. He bought each of us a silver 2023 A unit from that place. Unforgettable about the event was that the man in the store said his name was Bookbinder and inside his unmarked store were dozens of fish tanks on wood platforms. Apparently he was raising fish to sell to pet stores. The engines my uncle bought us came out of the back of the store where we were not allowed.

Bobby Ogage posted:

Manhattan is not a good place to find model railroad shops. All of the significant model railroad shops are on Long Island and in the Bronx. Both locations are easy commutes via the Long Island Railroad and the subway.

As train guy who lives in the area, there are no train stores in the Bronx!! Westchester, yes and of course all over the island. But none in the Bx!

Moving further east out to Nassau there were a ton of Hobby Shops and stores that sold trains that are no longer. In Massapequa there was Eastli Coin and Hobby, that carried a little bit of everything. There was Pete at Choo Choo Land in Baldwin, a shop in Belmore that went out in the late 80's or early nineties, another in Amityville and every Mays Department store on the island had a good sized train department in the basement. 

As per the city, I went to Madison Hardware often, along with Polks and the trio on 45th street. I was very impressed by the LGB layouts at FAO as a college student and swore I would get these trains someday which I have now done.

Add to that the Greenberg shows at the Colony Hill and all the local shows in Elmont, Levittown, Franklin Square, and Amityville and you had a real great train Mecca back then.

I almost forgot Coronet where my brother bought Arnold a Rapido N in they early seventies. They had a well stocked and well run train department.

All the best,

Miketg

As a kid, my father bought all of my trains from Franklin Camera in Franklin Square. 

Franklin Camera, was that the store just North of the Southern State on Franklin Avenue?

All the best,

Miketg

bigo426 posted:

Putnam Division posted:

I used to go to Honig's Pkwy on White Plains Rd near Allerton Ave in the Bronx as a kid....They had a 2nd store uder the El on Webster Ave. As a kid, the Strauss Store at Westchester Square had a nice supply of Lionel's to look at over the holidays. In those days I would accompany my grandmother to Westchester Square to shop.....we would pick out a live chicken at the poulterer, shop and on the way home pick up our chicken packed in plain white paper.

As an adult I visited Madison Hardware in the early 80s before it closed. In the 80s and 90s, I visited World of Trains on Woodhaven Blvd in Queens. They moved to Metropolitan Ave in Queens sometime in the 90s(I think) and I lost track of them (no pun intended) and at some point disappeared....does anyone know what happened to them?

Peter

I went in to Honigs Parkway for the first time in 1977 and by then the trains were gone. My father and I went to Strauss on Westchester Square to buy a bicycle about 1971 or 1972 and the trains must have been gone by then. I used to take the bus to a hobby shop on Tremont Ave a block off Bruckner Blvd near the Throggs Neck section in the early 70's. He had a few used Lionel trains and some parts.         

I think the name of the proprietor of World of Trains was Bookbinder. There is a web site for Bookbinder's Trains Unlimited but it is not complete or functional. About 1970, my uncle took me and my cousin to an unmarked store front on Westchester Ave up around the Middletown Road station under the number 6 elevated line. He bought each of us a silver 2023 A unit from that place. Unforgettable about the event was that the man in the store said his name was Bookbinder and inside his unmarked store were dozens of fish tanks on wood platforms. Apparently he was raising fish to sell to pet stores. The engines my uncle bought us came out of the back of the store where we were not allowed.

I believe BookBinder's Train Unlimited was a different place....I visited the fellow who ran it once in the 80s. It was in another part of Queens....in an area of nice 1 family homes.....maybe Kew Gardens Hill.......I need to go back to old CTT issues and look at the ads.....

Peter

All those Stores are long gone No one mention the Train Store   @ 242 Street and Broadway. 

A short walk from the number one Subway.

 Those was the good old Days.

John

There was a rock store called "Turvo's" or something like that in Garden City. By the time I was there in the 1970's, the trains were gone. But the owner let me root around the back, and I found some Plasticville kits, and a bunch of postwar Lionel parts. I purchased it all.
Anybody purchase trains there?

The last time I was in Garden City, the shop was still open. They had some old slot car track in the basement, but the owner wanted too much for me to purchase it.

I believe the 242@broadway store was there until the early 80s. My father in law used to park in that area and take the "1" train to the World Trade Center. 

Lad

  Bookbinders was just north of the 179st. subway station in the Jamaica Estates area of Queens. It was just a private house with no trains on display.

 Franklin Camera was a total rip. He tried to sell a kid on a bicycle one ZW roller for 10 bucks. When I refused he gave me a speech on how unions drove the price up ?  If you wanted to see what a train store looked like in the 50's this was the place. His prices were so high I don't think he sold anything. I past there many a time back in the 70's on my way to Trainland ,Choo-choo Barn and the guy in Freeport.  Made stops at Jahns Ice Cream in Baldwin and White Castle in Lynbrook.

NYC,SUBWAY TRANSIT SIGNAL posted:

All those Stores are long gone No one mention the Train Store   @ 242 Street and Broadway. 

A short walk from the number one Subway.

 Those was the good old Days.

 

Brown's Hobby Center was a couple blocks North of the 242nd Street Broadway line terminal.  As I stated earlier in the thread it was primarily a model airplane store.  I have no recollection of a train store in the vicinity.  Do you happen to recall the name of that shop?

Pete