Toronto Christmas Train Show ?

[RobertInOntario]

Hi Rob,
I can tell you for a fact that the Christmas Train Show and the Santa Claus Parade are always on the same weekend for as many years as I have been doing the show.
It also conflicts with CFL playoffs!
A mother complained to me that there weren't any Hobby Shops inside city limits anymore, so there wasn't any place to browse with her kids.
Credit Valley has moved to an Industrial Park, and George's has moved too...
Although Keith's didn't sell Trains, they still had lots of other stuff, but they've moved out of town too...
We can't support our local hobby shops when there aren't any that are LOCAL!
The bigger problem is that the manufacturers won't sell through department stores anymore, so you can't get trainsets for Christmas in order to get kids started in the hobby...

Good point about the Santa Claus Parade!

There are still a few hobby (model railway) shops in Toronto. Two are just minutes from where I live ... One is Hornet Hobbies on O' Connor in East York and the other is John's Hobbies & Photo on the Danforth near Woodbine. At least those two are still chugging along in the city. Apparently, Toronto's high business taxes make it difficult for small hobby shops to succeed inside Toronto (I've also heard that a similar situation exists with London, UK, where it's very difficult to find LHS's because London is so expensive).

On a positive note, the Thomas phenomena has probably done an awful LOT to get kids interested in trains, what with its TV show, books, toys. There are a couple others -- Chuggington and Underground Earnie. Chuggington is another British series similar to Thomas. I've seen the Chuggington toys for sale at a local Toy Shop as well as at the Halton County Radial Railway. Underground Earnie -- also British and also kinda Thomas-like -- is mainly based on the trains of London's Underground/Tube, they have names, faces, personalities, etc. Admittedly, it's not as popular as Chuggington or Thomas. My son is going through a Chuggington phase at the moment!

Just some thoughts,
Rob