RailRoadFan.com

I went by the shop the end of last week and saw the property was completely vacant. There was talks going around that the city wanted the property to build more public parking (which is becoming sparse here in town), but I'm not sure if that's the case. New location is at the corner of Ann Arbor Road and Ann Arbor Trail. Don't know if it's reopened yet.

Very unfortunate! That was always a nice little shop, even though I don't really do Lionel the owner was always nice to talk with and there was a good selection of O gauge trains in stock. I think that leaves Dave's Hobbies in Garden City the only model train supplier south of 96 in metro Detroit, since Nankin Hobby in Westland stopped restocking their train inventory years ago. Very sad

Store hasn't gone out of business, just relocated. Had been there for I believe Dave said 25 years but owner of building was raising the rent on April 1st so new location is only 2.5 miles east of old store at the crossroads of Ann Arbor Trail & Ann Arbor Road next to the Dollar Tree Store.... bigger store too.

Fred wrote:Store hasn't gone out of business, just relocated. Had been there for I believe Dave said 25 years but owner of building was raising the rent on April 1st so new location is only 2.5 miles east of old store at the crossroads of Ann Arbor Trail & Ann Arbor Road next to the Dollar Tree Store.... bigger store too.

That's great to hear! I had no idea he moved. I know last I spoke to him a few months ago he wanted to expand to other scales, but I didn't know what the outcome of that would be. I'll have to go check it out. I changed the subject to this thread for the relocation.

In regards to other stores in the area (south of I-96) there is also ACE/ Nankin Hobby Center in Farmington/ Livonia area that has a decent selection of N and HO scale trains and items.

Yesteday I went by the new location for a bit:

The new location is larger for him, especially now that he sold a good majority of his O scale inventory and is making room for his upcoming selection of N and HO scale products. So far he has a whole section dedicated to HO scale and N scale Atlas track, switches, and other items that just started coming in. He has a few HO scale rolling stock items that he didn't have at the old location. Now he does special orders for all scales which will be great. He's also open to suggestions of what items he should have in stock for his upcoming orders.

Give the new location some time for their new inventory to come in (as there is lots of shelves expected to be filled with non-O scale items) and I believe this could be the place for us to shop in the Plymouth area.

Hows his pricing on stuff compared to others?

Cool, glad Dave relocated. I had heard he was looking to retire. I'll have to check the new store out when I get back. The new location is a better one too as that intersection is very busy.

Nankin at this time is the place to go for trains in the south/western regions of the area. Empire (formerly Merri-7) seems to be doing well in Rochester.

Whats his business hours? Hes not to far from where I work, if hes carrying HO, Id love to swing by after work in the morning. Nice to have a place that's not way out of my way if I need something

Not terribly well marked at this point, but it does have a sign, if you know where to look.



The currently-posted hours are Mon-Fri 11am-6pm and Saturday, 11am - 4pm.

Arriving there at 4:30, yesterday, all I could see through the window was a lot of lawn equipment and some cartons of MTH tinplate stuff.

Hopefully I'll be in the neighborhood again some time when it's open. It's definitely much easier to get to than the center of Plymouth.