Wow, that's such great stuff to have held onto Doug. A pair of electric switches at $8.98 was all the money in the world to me back then. I had 8" radius curves on my layout and never gave them a second thought. They must have been what came with my set.
Hi Doug, As if 2008, it was owned by a fellow in Virginia. https://www.pbase.com/atsf_arizona/n_scale_clinchfield_rr&page=all Hopefully this piece of model railroad history is still in existence?
Found this while sorting some stuff out today. This is the mail order arm of Hiway Hobby in Rt 17 Ramsey, NJ. (Or is Hiway Hobby the retail arm of Standard Hobby?)
Found my 1988 Walthers N scale catalog (all 1/2 inch thick of it...mostly European trains) and a bunch of Tex-N-Rail newsletters over the weekend. I need to get them photographed and posted.
Speaking of train stores on Fifth Avenue... there was Polk's Model Craft Hobbies, on 314 Fifth Avenue. That address is between 31st and 32nd Streets, technically the southwest corner of 5th and 32nd, a couple of blocks south of the Empire State Building. A check of a certain "Street View" shows that the building is gone. It was five floors of various hobbies. Polk's had several branches for a while, including being one of the original stores in the Woodbridge Center mall near me when it opened in 1971. I would buy a Minitrix car there every once in a while.
Growing up in the city my parents would sometimes take me there. As a little kid, my eyes went wide open every time the elevator doors open to a new floor. Each floor had a focus; trains, radio control, dolls, etc. A true hobby store and only two blocks away from the Empire State Building. Can't imagine what the rent is there now! Actually the building is still there - I think. Google Maps street view shows a "312" Fifth Ave but I think that's just an entrance. The 314 is the black façade part. Current street view shows the lot north of it to be razed. But overhead view shows 314 as the lot just south of the now razed lot. Also, looking up on Street View shows the 5 stories and I think that's the outside ornamental façade looked just like that. Ah! Memories!!!!!!!
Here's an old picture I found and it clearly shows that Polk's was not on the corner but one lot south of the corner lot.
No, the building that is next to the razed lot. In the screen shot above its the "New Millennium Bank". I don't know why it says 312.