Charger, glad your liking the Windy city. When your ready for a trip west, let me know. The Hobby Depot in Monroe WI is a great all N and HO shop. I go at least twice a year to get buildings and detail parts. Rockford really doesn't have much in the way of N.
Glad you like Chi-town! RAM is a weird little store. It's the closest to where I'm at but, I usually bypass it and head to Des Plaines or Chicagoland, depending on what I'm looking for.
Just a note for anyone in the Area, I stoped by today, 10 July 06, Destination Hobbies on Buckley is closed temporarily.
Destination is closing Unfortunately, Steve at Destination Trains is closing the doors, he is trying to sell everything off, so if you are interested stop by or give him a call.
In August 2006, I visited Grayland Station, and it was really worth the visit, even for me, as a die-hard traveling hobby shop visitor. A lot of older hard to find N scale locos and cars on the shelves. GRAYLAND STATION 5514 W DEVON CHICAGO IL 60646 773-594-1906 http://www.graylandstation.com ======== I'll second the opinions on Des Plaines Hobbies, Ram Hobby, Ron's Mundelein Hobbies. I visited Lombard Hobbies out in Lombard, IL, about 4 years ago - at the time, seemed they always have great prices on N scale locos and a good selection. ============ You can also visit the Kato USA showroom, which is nice. Located in Schaumberg, ILL (which is roughly 30 mins northwest of downtown, just west of O'Hare airport) Take I-90 West Exit on Rochelle Rd, go south (left) go about 3 or 4 stoplights go left (east) on Remington it's about 1/4 mile down on your left Highlight: Kato USA has a small showroom which has a lot of Kato's models displayed, both past and present, both N and HO. It's worth going there to see the USA home of this manufacturer. During the week, you can also purchase Kato parts right over the counter there if you want to. Kato USA 100 Remington Rd Schaumberg, ILL 847-781-9500 Showroom is open till 5pm on weekdays.
If you go to Elmhurst don't forget Al's Hobby shop just one block west of York Rd on Addison 121 Addison Man I am getting home sick reading these posts, I grew up in La Grange Park, been gone about 7 years now. La Grange hobbies at that time (pre 99) was not good. No Discounts and fairly nasty group of guys running the joint. Als would at least let you walk behind the counter to look at things hanging on the wall. I'm into HO myself but a good buddy of mine is into N and he liked Als.
Al's hobby shop in Elmhurst Went by Al's Hobby, great Hobby store, Trains mostly O and HO, little bit of N which was mostly list price from what I saw.... Des Plains is still the best. BC
BN9900- Your comment about LaGrange Hobbies brought back memories.... I lived in Brookfield but went to Brook Park Grade School. In the late 50's LaGrange Hobbies was a GREAT shop. They were located on Calendar Avenue back then. This was, of course, before N (or even OOO!!). I had a large American Flyer layout then and they had a lot of Lionel and American Flyer as well as a fully stocked HO department. There was a great HO layout in the window which I'd like to build in N someday. In 5th grade I'd ride my bike to LaGrange over lunch hour and hit both LaGrange Hobbies and the shop opposite the Stone Avenue station.... Even Brookfield had a shop and several "variety" stores that carried some model trains. Charlie Vlk
