I just learned that George's Trains is expanding its newer Markham location and closing down its Mount Pleasant Road Toronto location.

Overall, I think this is a good plan. The Markham location is bigger, brighter with lots of parking -- plus, it's a 5-minute walk from my office! It's also right next to the CNR York subdivision, so you can do some rail-fanning as well. The Toronto location was already recently down-sized and I found it very crowded.
The sad part is that (AFAIK) they've been at the Toronto location since 1962. They're also phasing out the Thomas toys and focussing more on "serious" MRR-ing, as well as collectibles and vintage railway items.

Overall, I think this is a great decision but thought I'd see what other folks in the Greater Toronto Area think about this.

Rob

I dropped in at George's today. Very sad looking with only 2 days left and the whole original half of the store shut. There were some interesting items dredged up from the basement (old TruScale roadbed and Atlas switch kits), but nothing I could actually use. Dayle wanted a train destination sign board but I thought it a bit expensive.
My first visit to George's must have been in 1962 or 3. Our class went to a play at The Crest Theatre and when we got off the bus Peter said, "There's a sign down there that says Trains." 2 blocks away there was a shop that couldn't decide if it was George's or Bob's. I hadn't known about it before. So over the years i watched as he expanded to include the second floor and the shop next door.
Back then, there was Streetcar service on Mount Pleasant and a Trolley Bus that went not that far north. The Streetcar was converted to Trolley Bus and then that went in the big gasification. That made the shopping trip a little less interesting. Then the parking was switched to those meters where you have to guess how long you're going to be in the store.
The new store s possibly handier for me. Getting from the northwest by car to Mount Pleasant is a tricky trip.

Right now there is a Toronto Star story: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.thestar.com/article/633402">http://www.thestar.com/article/633402</a><!-- m -->

BR60103 Wrote:I dropped in at George's today. Very sad looking with only 2 days left and the whole original half of the store shut. There were some interesting items dredged up from the basement (old TruScale roadbed and Atlas switch kits), but nothing I could actually use. Dayle wanted a train destination sign board but I thought it a bit expensive.
My first visit to George's must have been in 1962 or 3. Our class went to a play at The Crest Theatre and when we got off the bus Peter said, "There's a sign down there that says Trains." 2 blocks away there was a shop that couldn't decide if it was George's or Bob's. I hadn't known about it before. So over the years i watched as he expanded to include the second floor and the shop next door.
Back then, there was Streetcar service on Mount Pleasant and a Trolley Bus that went not that far north. The Streetcar was converted to Trolley Bus and then that went in the big gasification. That made the shopping trip a little less interesting. Then the parking was switched to those meters where you have to guess how long you're going to be in the store.
The new store s possibly handier for me. Getting from the northwest by car to Mount Pleasant is a tricky trip.

Right now there is a Toronto Star story: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.thestar.com/article/633402">http://www.thestar.com/article/633402</a><!-- m -->

Thanks for posting the link to the Star story -- interesting and emotional. And I guess we can partly blame Mr. Miller for this??

I remember my Dad taking me to the Mount Pleasant store ca. 1977. Ultimately, I'm positive about this change. I used to occasionally enjoy going to the Mount Pleasant store but, frankly, the Markham store was becoming so good (upstaging the old one in many ways) I didn't really have a reason to go to the "downtown" store. There is lots of parking at the Markham store, you can rail-fan at the same time, and for me I have the advantage of it being minutes from my work!

David, if you are ever visiting the Markham store around noon time, perhaps you could give me a call and we could meet for a coffee or lunch? I could send my work phone number offline.

Cheers,
Rob

Even though I was born in Huntsville, when I was young, my parents moved to Clarkson. Father worked at Ford in Oakville.

There was one hobby store in Applewood Plaza, but he did nto have much. I can remember as a kid, going to the big city with my father to go to George's, did would spend "forever" in there talking to the guys and always came home with lots of stuff, most times a large box full, and enough knowledge to put it to good use.

back then you could get sectional track or you could buy a big coil of paper ties and long 3 foot sections of rail.
I remember father going in and asking about turnouts. well, after studying the turnout and finding out how much they cost... He came home with his big coil of ties and long pieces of rail... he had purchased only two turnouts, one LH and one RH, I remember asking him why he did not buy enough for the layout, he said cause he could copy the 1 he purchased. And he did. His entire layout was hand spiked and the turnouts werre hand soldered and laid. He never did put the two store bought turnouts on his layout, they were alwasy in the drawer.

For me, as a kid, I always enjoyed watching the trains run in George's window. Then when I was old enough to start building, it was the only shop around where you could get a Campbell kit.

Sad that it had to go...

But don't blame the mayor: He's not the only Left Winger on council and it takes more than one vote to do anything one way or the other....

Don't even blame the economy, even though it sucks right now.

Blame the hobby itself.

Model Railroaders are spoiled rotten with the number of RTR items available. It takes a lot of overhead cost for a hobby shop to stock one of everything, only for the fickle model railroader to browse without buying anything because the road-number or livery on an item wasn't the one that they wanted. Plus, they can buy it cheaper on-line.

I've seen several Hobby Shops that have stopped carrying Model Railroad stuff because they can't compete, or else, they've gone out of business altogether...

Growing up in the North-West Corner of the city, I didn't venture downtown as a kid.

The nearest Hobby Shop was in Rexdale Mall [ further west ] or the Hobby Hut in Yorkdale Mall.

Downtown was the Eaton Centre and another Hobby Hut.

By the time that I was a teen-ager, the model trains were moth-balled and I was playing FRPG's.

When I got back into model railroading a few years ago, all the old stores in the malls were long gone.

Now, George's Trains has moved to the boon docks and I won't be making the pilgramage there any time soon.

I went to the short-lived Den of Trains at Bloor Street and Royal York Road, then to other west end stores like North-Star [which has stopped carrying model trains] and Panther Hobbies. Or even further west to Credit Valley Railway Company. Keith's Hobbies didn't carry any model trains, but they had other useful stuff and was just a short walk from where I work, but they've moved wayyy out of the city.

If I'm heading east, it will be to Hornet Hobbies but I'm more likely to make the trek to Johns Photo and Hobby at 2188 Danforth Avenue first...

But, sadly, most of the things that I am looking for aren't stocked by the local hobby shops, so I'll be doing most of my shopping on-line...

TinGoat Wrote:Now, George's Trains has moved to the boon docks and I won't be making the pilgramage there any time soon.

The new George's location isn't that remote! I think you could easily get to it from the west. It's between the 407 & Warden and Steeles & the 404. You could either go across the 401 and a short distance up the 404 OR drive east along the 407 and go south on Warden for 5 minutes.

That is, if you don't mind the 407 -- I realize you have to pay! Either way, it's only a few minutes north of Steeles.

Just FYI.

Rob

RobertInOntario Wrote:The new George's location isn't that remote! I think you could easily get to it from the west. It's between the 407 & Warden and Steeles & the 404. You could either go across the 401 and a short distance up the 404 OR drive east along the 407 and go south on Warden for 5 minutes.

That is, if you don't mind the 407 -- I realize you have to pay! Either way, it's only a few minutes north of Steeles.

Just FYI.

Rob

It's a Pilgrimage by transit. One and a half to two hours to get there...

As a west-ender the world and civilization as I know it ends at Yonge Street.

Ron: where in the northwest did you grow up? We moved to Thistletown when I started high school. I don't remember a hobby shop in Rexdale Plaza but there was a shop in Elmhurst Mall for a while.
Were you there when Wellington's was in the plaza by Scarlett Heights C I? My major shop was North York Hobbies on Avenue Road until they moved to somewhere else.

If you want a major urban area with no significant train shops -- London, England. When I went there in 1976 there were 2 major shops -- significant distributors -- and a few others. Now the only one worth a visit is way out the other side of the east end.

BR60103 Wrote:Ron: where in the northwest did you grow up? We moved to Thistletown when I started high school. I don't remember a hobby shop in Rexdale Plaza but there was a shop in Elmhurst Mall for a while.
Were you there when Wellington's was in the plaza by Scarlett Heights C I? My major shop was North York Hobbies on Avenue Road until they moved to somewhere else.

If you want a major urban area with no significant train shops -- London, England. When I went there in 1976 there were 2 major shops -- significant distributors -- and a few others. Now the only one worth a visit is way out the other side of the east end.

I think there may be a few in London, but not many. I expect it's mainly because London is SO expensive -- high rent and taxes? This is the way Toronto is going!

Rob

BR60103 Wrote:Ron: where in the northwest did you grow up? We moved to Thistletown when I started high school. I don't remember a hobby shop in Rexdale Plaza but there was a shop in Elmhurst Mall for a while.

The forgotten corner of North York. Along Weston Road between Sheppard Avenue and Finch Avenue West. I went to Emery Junior High, but transferred to C.W.Jefferies C.I. for high school. Back in the day when C.W.Jefferies had high academic standing and an Arts Program, before they created the North York School for the Arts at Earl Haig and Spring Garden. Then they took all the good teachers out of C.W.Jefferies and started taking rejects out of other schools. Taking the drop-outs and expulsions from Westview Heights, etc...

The creation of the North York School for the Arts at Earl Haig and Spring Garden sucked all the talent and good teachers out of the rest of the North York Schools and to my opinion, left an academic wasteland behind.

I graduated out of high school just before it went to hell...

I digress...

I'm talking about Rexdale Mall on Islington at Rexdale.

Rexdale Hobby Centre at 2267 Islington Avenue at the north end of the mall. At the south end of the mall was Eatons and the north end was a Towers.

My wedding reception was in the Catalina Sand Bar and Grill, but now they've torn down the whole mall and replaced it with a Walmart.

I didn't know about the Hobby Shop at Elmhurst. :cry: