Tacoma Trains & Hobbies

08/02/2026

08/02/2026

Sandy and I attended the 30th Proctor Art Fest yesterday. My store was in the neighborhood for 23 years and 21 festivals.
Multiple businesses have occupied the former store locations and the neighborhood is now dominated by 5/6 story high rise condo/ apartment buildings . Little remains of the district I knew. I served as the Business District treasurer for 3.5 years, president 2 years and past president for a year. Nearly every business friend has retired or is deceased. :(

08/01/2026

SPENCER, N.C. — Additional red, white, and blue railroad equipment will attend the America 250 Locomotive Celebration at the North Carolina Transportation Museum — including three locomotives that have been restored to their historic 1976 Bicentennial paint schemes. The three-day event, set for ...

07/30/2026

Today I attended the service for Herb Buhl. He was a well known and respected model railroader in Western Washington.
I met Herb at a 4D PNR clinic at TCC in 1979. A couple years later, Herb, Stan Sharpe, Ralph Weber and I formed the Tacoma Northwestern model railroad. Each of us built a 8’ x 30” module and we organized the model train shows at the Tacoma Mall. I left the TNW after a few years when I began modeling in N scale.
While not close friends, Herb and I remained friends and he was a loyal customer for my store.
When the TNW moved to the SETAC Mall, LGB and Tacoma Trains provided the track for a large holiday train display that Herb was instrumental in creating.
Herb was active in the Tacoma 4D monthly clinics. He was a regular attendee and for many years he was responsible for providing beverages and snacks for the meetings.
When the meeting venue was lost, Herb used his Tacoma Public School connections to secure space at Foss High School and later Jason Lee middle school.
When I left the IRS in 1985, Herb and Beth were my first clients as a tax accountant. I managed to keep them out of IRS jail.
His good friends Larry, Tom and Richard were also present today
Herb will be greatly missed in our model railroading community.

07/29/2026

Sunday night at McMenamins Elks Temple in Tacoma a tribute and plaque dedication was held for the late Jerry Miller. Rolling Stone magazine September 2003 ranked Jerry the 68th GREATEST GUITAR PLAYER OF ALL TIME.

The MG’s played his song NOW I SEE, with Lee Oskar of WAR on the harmonica.
The other harmonica player is Jay Mabin of Tacoma. His dad was a N scale model railroader and a customer of the store. He was employed at Foss High School when my son and daughter were there.

BTW, Jerry Miller was a HO modeler for awhile, his dad and son Dennis were G scale garden railroaders and store customers.

07/29/2026

Some of you might know I enjoy live music. Tonight Sandy and I attended the Summer Nights in the park to see Saltwater Sky a country band from Puyallup. It was a beautiful evening to be out. We were at McMenamins Elks Temple Sunday night attending the Jerry Miller tribute and plaque dedication. I’ve been a Jerry Miller ( Moby Grape) fan for decades and was fortunate he was a good friend.

07/27/2026

The GREAT TRAIN SHOW schedule for the upcoming 2026-27 season.
The Washington state shows in January 2027