George's Trains - Moving from Toronto to Markham

[RobertInOntario]

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