I remember way back then making window frames out of toothpicks and they are definitely NOT for seeing close up or including in pictures! Doug
From the Sears 1969 Christmas catalog. This was the year I got my first N set, the Revell Rapido Yard Iron Roustabout, C&NW Baldwin switcher, cars, track, rerailer and power pack. (Not my picture)
So cool! It sure is neat to find old documentation of our first trains, isn't it. And, those catalog pages were magnets and we were steel (or other ferrous material)! Doug
Great memories. Those were fun times. Much anticipation for the future. Somehow we do not have that same feeling for the hobby today.
An excellent and well-preserved example (not mine) of an Unadvertised Special... and a reminder that I really need to write about this for inclusion in the Irwin's Journal Online section of my website... There were THOUSANDS of Postage Stamp items available during the Legendary Two Guys After-Christmas Sales.
I remember an unadvertised sale at Kaybee Toy & Hobby at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, IL in the mid-1970s where I bought some UP Minitrix dummy Fs, one A and two Bs for about $2.00 Ea. Some years later, I painted them in RDG.
Kaybee at the Rochester, MN Apache Mall had some trains and I remember buying a couple Bachmann switches because they had the same geometry as Atlas switches. I just wanted to see how good they were. They were OK, I guess, but had these weird little metal "boxes" to join the point rails to the closure rails and weren't super reliable (however, is ANY method super reliable other than soldering jumpers which is a pain in the neck?). Doug
The Kaybee "Toy and Hobby Shop" branch in Woodbridge Center, Woodbridge, New Jersey, also had a varying selection of Bachmann trains. Examples with full price stickers turn up on eBay, sometimes with prices that fit the category of our ever-popular "More eBay Humor" thread. The Wikipedians tell us that the chain closed down in 2009. At one point there were over 1200 stores in the chain. Forum rules prevent me from commenting on how the company met its fate, but you can look it up...
I bought my first train set at a KayBee. I remember they had a nice selection, no Athearn but they did have a display case with some Rivarossi steam locomotives, at least in mall in Evansville, IN. What was name of train shop that was in some of the large malls in the larger cities? The did handle the better name brands but charged retail and only lasted a few years? Ralph Edit: Was it Great American Train Store ?
Maybe "The Great Train Store"? They had one heckuva going out of business sale... Interesting thread "on another network" about that chain's overexpansion (they started at the St. Louis Union Station) and subsequent demise: http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25410&sid=d7c259f7a911aa3883a6714363e5cf1e&start=15
Ah ha! I couldn't remember and that was it alright. I visited several of their locations. They had some nice stuff and as @umtrr-author said, their going out of business sale at our local store was a grand slam. I was sorry to see them go.
I know I was in one of their stores but I can't really remember where it was. It seems it was at the Mall of America but that didn't open until 1992. Did the Great Train Store last until then? Doug
I am in Cincinnati and I remember they had a store in Kenwood Mall and one in Dayton ohio. Back in 2001 35 family members went to Disney World for Thanksgiving and there was a Great Train Store there.
The last store closed in 2000 I read. While on a business trip in the mid-90s to visit a supplier, some of us also visited the Mall of America and I still have the Atlas GN 2-Bay Centerflow hopper I bought there as a souvenir.
I went to the Great Train Store in the mall in Albany, NY about 1998-99. It was a pretty neat store but expensive. I lived on Long Island and could buy the same trains at Trainland, the sister store of Trainworld (an advertiser here), for considerably less.
Which was a primary reason why The Great Train Store went under... there weren't enough impulse buyers to pay the MSRP, especially in malls which were locations not closely connected to trains (exception: The Mall at Steamtown, which is mostly dead now anyway) and meanwhile too many actual modelers comparison shop.
