Jump to content
 

Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Premium

Railmail , St Vincent St , Glasgow which went onto be D&F Models , much missed off the Glasgow Scene. Railmail were one of the first model shops to discount model railways . I think their main base was Watford but they had the Glasgow shop.   Round the Corner was Scale Models Scotland , which around 1979 was at its peak. They sold transfers but also had Hornby Mainline etc.  Up in Cambridge street there was a very old fashioned shop that sold Hornby and a lot of construction kits .  Then under Central Station Argyle Models . Superb little shop ( it moved to a big one in 1978) well remembered. As you went in there were lots of construction kits . Not just the standard Airfix and Revell but all sorts of exotic types . Planes , boats the lot . Then downstairs to the model railways . Triang Hornby of course , but in earlier days to a little boy displays of the very exotic Trix . A2s, A4s Transpennine Units . Wrenn  and Triang Hornby . I think they had Wills , Ks and Gem kits too .   And of course we had model railways in John Menzies .  A huge display and stock of Hornby . I remember lines of Hornby 2P LMS locos for some reason!

 

And now the only place to buy Hornby in Central Glasgow is Hamleys and really you’d need to be mad to pay the prices there. Nothing else remains . So sad .  We really need someone to set up a Glasgow operation

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
2 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Thanks for that correction.

 

Out of interest when did it open and close? Years, not 0900-1700 ;-)

118 Wimbledon Broadway was my home every Saturday from when it opened around 1969/70. I stopped working there about 1975. Soon after John sold the shop. It was still open when I moved to Basildon in 1980 under the new management but I think it had closed by 1984 due to the landowner wanting to have the buildings redeveloped.

  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

W & H models in Paddington St where I bought a Ks 63xx kit in about 1962.They moved to New Cavendish St  where I used to buy Bilteeze sheets and other items.My route home to Warren street to catch the bus home took me past The Trix Showroom on Gt Portland street. I never got to visit Bonds of Euston rd,their offerings were a bit too eclectic at that time. 

 

        Ray. 

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

On 11/02/2020 at 19:52, Chris116 said:

Janes Trains which is a two minute walk from Tooting station has lots of new and secondhand items. Open Tuesday to Saturday it is well worth a visit.

On my ‘bucket list’ of shops. I was referring to ‘central’ London. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, sb67 said:

I think there was a model shop opposite Kings Cross as well, cant remember the name though.

 

 I still have one of their bright orange plastic bags with 'The Model Railway Manufacturing Co' Kings X on one side and 'Eames' of Reading on the other.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

I used to buy from the shop.  The shop closed in the mid 1980s, possibly 1988,  the new owners converted the shop to a a greasy spoon cafe which attracted  far too many of the "filles fe joie"  of the locality.  The Kings Crosss area, , was a cesspit of crime and  blatant drug dealing,  the award-winning sympathetic restoration of the KX railway goods depot, to become St Martins Arts College,  transformed the area in the welcome  direction of civilisation  

Edited by Pandora
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

As you say the area around King's Cross was very seedy in the 1970s and 80s. My employer at the time announced plans to move there around 1980 and we were taken around the new building which was just up the road from Keen House where the MRC of GB meet. There were lots of concerns about the area and we were assured that the area was "on the up". To which I made the comment "does that mean the tarts will be charging more?" The manager was not happy with me for that but he walked down to the station with me and we were stopped by "the ladies" five or six times asking if they could improve our day. When we got back onto the tube he said that I was right with my comment and we never heard anything more about the move. 

Edited by Chris116
  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Argyle Model Dockyard, unbder the Heilen'mans Umbrella, in Argyll Street in Glasgow.   When they had model kits on the ground floor and railways in the basement.  Sadly it flooded when the Clyde rose.  They relcoated into a bland ground level place in a similar location, but it was nothing like the old place.  Whaur is the Glasgae that I used to know?

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

When my grandmother collected her pension from A. C. Beaney in Farnborough, Kent I used to buy Dinky Toys and Matchbox Toys from the shop to go with my model railway.  I enclose an extract from the Dinky Toys 1955 catalogue stamped with their name that I bought in 1955.  I liked the Foden Tanker to go with my Hornby 0 gauge railway but never bought it due to its limited play value but I bought a replica from the toy shop in Swanage a few days ago.

 

I had a less pleasant experience at a nearby post office near Orpington.  While my father was waiting to be served at the counter I had a look at the toy display at another counter.  The manager asked me if I was going to buy anything.  I said that I was just looking and he told me to get out of his shop much to the delight of my younger brother although my father told my brother that the manager should not have told me to leave.

P1090650.JPG

P1090657.JPG

  • Like 5
  • Friendly/supportive 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I grew up in Portsmouth in the 70s and 80s where there was Fratton Bargain Shop, on Fratton Road, Tony Collett who specialised in kits and bits on Winter Road, and Collector's Corner originally on the corner of Winter and Highland Roads, later relocated to New Road.

W&H in London was a regular haunt of mine during the 80s and early 90s, I remember visiting Hamblings in Cecil Court once when I was a student in London the mid-80s together with nearby Motor Books.

I also visited Eames? opposite Kings Cross station, Victors on Pentonville Road, Shunting Yard in Tottenham, a shop near Woodside station (forgotten its name), another in Northfields, west London, Puffers in Kenton, Harrow Model Shop, Jane's Trains, Tooting, Hadley Hobbies near Petticoat Lane; also once Bec Models and various Beatties and McKennas stores whilst living in London during that time.

Edited by gc4946
Remembered more shops in London
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, gc4946 said:

a shop near Woodside station (forgotten its name), another in Northfields, 

It was Engine'N'Tender in Woodside, secondhand trains and model cars piled floor to ceiling. It only closed finally a couple of years back with the death of the owner. The Northfields shop was Braleys Hobbies.

Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, gc4946 said:

 

 

 Victors on Pentonville Road, Shunting Yard in Tottenham, a shop near Woodside station (forgotten its name), another in Northfields, west London, Puffers in Kenton, Harrow Model Shop, Jane's Trains, Tooting, Hadley Hobbies near Petticoat Lane; also once Bec Models and various Beatties and McKennas stores whilst living in London during that time.

The Shunting Yard,was that the shop on the corner of Bruce Grove & Lordship Lane?.I know that Chris Crawley had a shop there which i used to use when i lived in Tottenham but then it was opened by a lady who sold collectable toys,i used to buy Hornby Dublo & Meccano from her.

 

                       Ray.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
On 07/02/2020 at 18:49, JohnR said:

My earliest model shop memories are of The Model Shop in Exeter, when it was in the old City Arcade (just recently demolished for student flats!) and run by Pete Lindsay.

 

There was always boxes of stuff to rummage through - and I got lots of old copies of Railway Modeller for pennies (which is all I could afford at the time). And despite having the demeanour of a grumpy old git, he was often really helpful too. He would also be able to give suggestions to this young enthusiast when I was building my first layout out of my train set. 

 

 

I've just seen that the shop is up for sale! Hopefully Dave Harding (the current owner) will find a buyer and the shop will continue. 

 

https://www.emfgroup.com/businesses/view/M34502N/model-railway-shop

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 12/02/2020 at 20:42, sagaguy said:

There was Ross Sheill in Liverpool street in the 70s and not forgetting Hadley Hobbies in Middlesex St by Dirty pub & the Hounsditch Wharehouse.

 

         Ray. 

Hadley Hobbies was a good shop to go in before getting my train from Liverpool Street.  Still got a few boxes with their price stickers on.  Hadley Hobbies started in a small shop in Eldon St in 70s,  next to a stamp collectors shop. Still using 2 H&M controllers that came from there.

Edited by railroadbill
  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

I think they might have been the UK importer for jv catenary, vaguely remember magazine ads for it. Hadley Hobbies had a lot of "continental" models, lots of Trix etc.  in showcases, very impressive (and expensive but they were in the city...)   I've got a Lima class 47 and 40 from them, must have been towards the end of   Lima UK models.

The guy from the original shop was around but I think the person really behind the bigger shop also had something to do with the London Toy and Model Museum, long gone,  which was once in Craven Hill.  Only went there once,  interesting and they had a 2 1/2 gauge electrically powered railway outdoors.

 

Bill

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...