The Red Caboose New York
Model train shop
Geoffrey from New York
Things I’d like to have again in my life are a cat and a model train. But I live in a one-bedroom apartment, so no cat, no train.
Instead, I go to this model train shop in New York to peruse and reminisce. Before I got my childhood Lionel, I dreamed about an HO layout. Here, they’ve got both, and other scales I’ve never heard of.
Of the only two (that I know of) New York shops remaining, the Red Caboose on West 45th Street is one with a landmark: the constant sound of a train whistle marks the proximity of the front door. You'll hear it before you see it: behind the hard to spot portal, which opens into a hallway, leading down a narrow stairway, down, down to the basement is the shop so packed with stuff, a puffy jacket might be an obstruction.
The boss (Al Spitz) and his assistant (the Professor) banter, bicker, yell at each other and sometimes at customers. It reminds me of a NY delicatessen.
Another shop, Trainworld, is out on Long Island with a warehouse in Brooklyn. I’ve been to Brooklyn too, but it has been reconfigured and is less a showoff than its other location.
I rarely pass an old-style hobby/toy store without going in because there are so few left.
And, they even have HO scale inhabitants for your model train's village red light district. No kidding.
New York Spotter Geoffrey
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