Visit to Mr. Muffin's Trains--Wow!!!

Keith LOGR Forum Member

Our family made a brief trip this week from Chicago to downstate Indiana to visit my elderly father-in-law. As the route goes by Indianapolis, this gave us a great opportunity to visit Mr. Muffin's Trains in Atlanta, Indiana, which is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, but which is not far from Indianapolis.

Mr. and Mrs. Muffin (Steve and Liz Nelson) showed us incredible hospitality. Their huge 4-level layout, as well as Steve's collection of locomotives, rolling stock, and Atlas reefers (by far, the largest train collection I've ever seen) is amazing. Their store is, too--I've never seen such a vast inventory of current trains. I guess the Nelsons only do things in a big way. Their popularity and success remind me of the famous movie line: "If you build it, they will come."

Our trip was short, but we returned home with meaningful memories of our visit with my father-in-law (turning 95 this month)--and with fun memories of our visit to Mr. Muffin's Trains. It's a special place.

Our thanks again to Steve and Liz.

Keith

4/5/182:54 PM

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MELGAROGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBERDIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

I met Steve and Liz at the Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show in West Springfield, MA this past January and have been a satisfied customer for more than a year. Their customer service and business are most impressive. Wish I could easily get to Atlanta, Indiana.

MELGAR

4/5/183:31 PM

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Farmer_BillOGR Forum Member

10hr drive for me -- it's on my bucket list.

4/5/1810:28 PM

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OldMikeOGR Forum Member

Wow about 10 miles from my daughters house, never new it. I go out there

every other year. The 10 hour drive is getting not to be fun, at my age. This year drove

home new years eve in snow,took me 12 hours.

Oldmike

4/6/187:09 AM

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locolawyerOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBER

I have known Steve for over 10 years, first when he was one of us going to York to have a good time and socialize. He is one of the good guys in the hobby. Then he took the leap to becoming a brick and mortar train store owner, and since then has become one of the most successful dealers in the country, which is very hard to do in this internet age. His ability to think outside the box by letting customers run trains on his big store layout, having a lot of open houses, locating the store near rail road tracks and starting other toy train related businesses shows his devotion to the hobby. One of the other things you quickly learn about Steve when you talk to him is just how pleasant and smart he is.

Erol

4/6/1810:49 AM

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NYC2UPOGR Forum Member

Heading there tomorrow morning for the first time to see their Saturday running operations. Looking forward to seeing the "big show". Plus the muffins Liz makes for the visitors sound like they're pretty good too.

4/6/1810:59 AM

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CNJ JimOGR Forum Member

A visit is also on my to-do list.

Muffins are a great part of the hobby.

4/6/183:54 PM

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SantaFeJimOGR Forum Member

NYC2UP posted:
Heading there tomorrow morning for the first time to see their Saturday running operations. Looking forward to seeing the "big show". Plus the muffins Liz makes for the visitors sound like they're pretty good too.

On your way home feel free to stop in for our open house. We are in Griffith, Indiana. Click on the link below then select Videos to get an idea of what we are about. We have over 100 videos for your viewing pleasure.

www.hirailmodulartrainclub.com

4/6/188:52 PM

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PSU1980OGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

The Muffin's are great people. Ben F. introduced Steve and Liz to me a few years ago, truely nice people. One of these days I am going to make the road trip from Northern NJ to their place. It is definately a bucket list item.

4/6/189:21 PM

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NYC2UPOGR Forum Member

A fun train day on Saturday! Got to Mr. Muffin's Trains in Atlanta, IN, and saw their very impressive layout in operation. Met and spoke with Steve and Liz for some time as well. Super nice people, a pleasure to chat with and great ambassadors for the hobby, opening their layout building to the public every Saturday to share their passion for model trains. Here are a few of the photos I took while there.

Love the New York Central Mohawk pulling a long string of flat cars loaded with Sherman tanks.

There is a lot of impressive bridge and trestle structures on their layout, many of which you walk under, without having to duck, and I'm 6' 2".

Steve's walls of Atlas reefer mania. The collection of 40' reefers.

The 36' meat refrigerator cars.

I'll have to revisit them sometime in the summer after they open their planned cafe down the street from the layout building, next to their hobby store. That opening is planned to occur in June.

On the drive back home to the Chicago area, I also took SANTAFEJIM's suggestion and visited his club layout in Griffith, IN, the Hi-Rail Modular Train Club. It's a very large, 3 main line layout, with great urban, rural and industrial scenes on the whole layout.

While Jim was gone for the day, I met and spoke with member Chuck and his wife, for quite a while till closing. Very nice folks.

Tom