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The End of an Era in Roanoke

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AngliaGT said:
ALL of the Blue Angels will be paying you a visit soon,
or be flying low over your house.
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A few years ago, I was traveling north on Hwy 99 (a main north - south highway in Calif) when the Blue Angels flew across the highway at low altitude with their smoke trails. I said “The crop dusters have sure upgraded their equipment.”
 
Would you be interested in selling the Grant Rebel SST Funny Car?
 
waltesefalcon said:
Lawton, the nearest city, hasn't had a hobby shop in probably two decades. However, recently the local comic shop has started offering a broader selection of games including those table top ones with miniatures and they seem to be thriving.

I think what we are seeing, at least locally, is a shift away from model cars and trains towards table top games. They have a very healthy clientele ranging from teenagers to grown men. I have had several students who spend their Saturday's over there.
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I think some of the trend away from model trains and slot cars is having space. Most new houses (at least around here) don't have basements or attics, and as people are forced into smaller and smaller homes and apartments, room for things like trains and racetracks is no longer available.
 
During the pandemic, shops couldn't keep kits or supplies on the shelves. I know I built a few during that time. Model kits, puzzles, crafty type things kept people busy and kept their minds off of what was going on.
 
YakkoWarner said:
I think some of the trend away from model trains and slot cars is having space. Most new houses (at least around here) don't have basements or attics, and as people are forced into smaller and smaller homes and apartments, room for things like trains and racetracks is no longer available.
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My home was a late 60s build, doesn't have a basement or usable attic space. It's a small 1600 or so square foot ranch style. Could have bought bigger 30 some years ago but decided I didn't want to be in a spot where the mortgage and taxes were eating up half or more of what I was making back then. Might have done it differently today to get basement space.
 
mikephillips said:
My home was a late 60s build, doesn't have a basement or usable attic space. It's a small 1600 or so square foot ranch style. Could have bought bigger 30 some years ago but decided I didn't want to be in a spot where the mortgage and taxes were eating up half or more of what I was making back then. Might have done it differently today to get basement space.
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Our house was built in 1950, is 1000 sq ft and no basement or attic.
The design is called a Linda Mar Rancher.
Closets are a joke as is one bath.
Not enough room to swing a cat.
 
My house was built sometime around 1914. It was moved into town when the family that built it lost their farm during the depression, so it's title says 1936. It's about 1100 square feet with no attic or basement.
 
The secret to model trains in small houses is G scale. The G stands for garden and they are designed to run outdoors in all weather. They are too big for most folks to use indoors, but you can still set one up at Christmas time. I have been collecting them for 40 years and I often set one up to run all through my house. In a funny coincidence, I recently received a large collection of N scale trains and accessories, which are almost the opposite end of the scale from G scale. Where a G scale locomotive is about 18 inches long, an N scale locomotive is about 2 inches long. For small spaces you can either have a small train inside or a large train outside.
 
I liked model trains as a kid, but graduated to shooting sports at a fairly young age. Today my collecting habits tend towards guns, watches, and coins. All things that a closet is enough space to store them in.
 
God ! Hobby shops! Growing up in Queens, NY there was Sals' Luncheonette on 21st Ave near La Guardia airport. Save up .98 cents to buy a Revell kit, slap it together and he would display it in his window. Back in the mid 50's life was like that. A friend's father was an American Airlines pilot who built a diorama for his Revell DC-7 too. About a year ago I picked up a couple of 1/72 scale WW 2 kits. Good fun, and cheap. Kenvil hobby shop in Kenvil, NJ. Got to go back!
 
Celtic 77 said:
God ! Hobby shops! Growing up in Queens, NY there was Sals' Luncheonette on 21st Ave near La Guardia airport. Save up .98 cents to buy a Revell kit, slap it together and he would display it in his window. Back in the mid 50's life was like that. A friend's father was an American Airlines pilot who built a diorama for his Revell DC-7 too. About a year ago I picked up a couple of 1/72 scale WW 2 kits. Good fun, and cheap. Kenvil hobby shop in Kenvil, NJ. Got to go back!
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Growing up in NY, do you remember Polks Hobby on 5th Ave in NYC?
 
Gliderman8 said:
Growing up in NY, do you remember Polks Hobby on 5th Ave in NYC?
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Guys, we were practically neighbors.
I lived in East New York and we had a hobby shop on Atlantic Ave, near Pennsylvania.
The kind of place that you could just browse for hours, just 2 blocks away.
We got a Lionel Locomotive freight train before I was even conscious of it, mostly got set up only around the Christmas tree.
Then a few years later we got a Santa Fe passenger train with the skylight car?
I think my dad was more into it than anyone, he eventually built a permanent setup for both sets in the attic.
He built it on a table with two full 4 x 8 plywood sheets, we could run both sets at the same time.
There were tracks with switches, and he even built a bridge out of wood girders so they could be on two levels.
I remember there was a log car that you could unload with a button and a cow car with cattle that went in and out.
Sometime into the 60s, it was dismantled when the attic became a bedroom.
Now it's nothing but a foggy memory.
As far as I know, the set is still boxed up in my younger brothers possession.

I started out in the 50s building WWII model planes, Ravell P51 was my favorite.
Once they started getting broken from playing Dog Fights they went into the July 4 pile to be blown up.
I also had a model car collection, the only ones I remember is the E-type roadster and the Ed Roth cars.

When our attic got to be a bedroom, I was becoming a Space Nut.
I built a cardboard launch city with all my rocket models, I had ICBMs, and ground to air missiles.
For some reason, I started reading up on the history of rocket development, Goddard and Lea(sp) et al.
At the time I thought Werner von Braun was some sort of genius.
My collection of rocket related books was tremendous which led to my desire for Space Travel.
I decided I was going to be an astronaut before that was a word.
All that died when girls came into the picture.
 
Crazy stuff!! I too had some Lionel stuff, the we moved too many times and I then took up HO trains. For S&G we'd go to tar beach and take some beat up old plastic model, a tube of Testors glue, dribble it on the wings and...God forbid.. using a pack of matches light it up and watch it crash in flames!!! Ah, the 80th St memories!!
 
All great memories of our youth. About two years ago I sold all my American Flyers with lots of accessories. I was also into building Estes rockets in the 60’s. They were built from scratch, no kits.
I still have an old Estes catalog.
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I got an American Flyer set for my 9th birthday. Added a few bits and pieces over the next several years then put it all away except for the circle around the Christmas tree. I think the cat enjoyed that more than anyone. Then years later I got interested in scale so bought a few and converted some Flyer and converted everything to DC. Haven't run one around the tree for several years now. This shelf in my office has a few of the "best." All the cars are scale. That is an American Models unpainted FP7 that I intended to paint in Rock Island livery. The locomotive on the bottom is a NYC Hudson converted to scale with a lot of brass parts. The original set was the Pacific on the top-left.
Trains.jpg
 
Bayless said:
I got an American Flyer set for my 9th birthday. Added a few bits and pieces over the next several years then put it all away except for the circle around the Christmas tree. I think the cat enjoyed that more than anyone. Then years later I got interested in scale so bought a few and converted some Flyer and converted everything to DC. Haven't run one around the tree for several years now. This shelf in my office has a few of the "best." All the cars are scale. That is an American Models unpainted FP7 that I intended to paint in Rock Island livery. The locomotive on the bottom is a NYC Hudson converted to scale with a lot of brass parts. The original set was the Pacific on the top-left.View attachment 106608
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What I liked most about American Flyer was the tracks looked authentic.:cool:
I hated that our Lionel tracks would never pass the test, but that's what dad bought.:unsure:
 
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