Dixie Union Station — Local services in Mason

Still trying to process what happened this afternoon. The majority of negative reviews are from those new to model railroading or children. We're new to model railroading and my son is 11. So you see where this is going...

To give the owner some credit, I did come into the store today with three young children. If the owner were to tell this story, he'd say something about this lax parent waltzing into the store with her unruly children, letting them run wild, potentially damaging the merchandise or worse, hurting a customer.

But from where I stand, replaying what happened in my head, I came into the store, and while my son asked lots of questions, I really strived to manage my children. There was one moment when he told my daughter not to touch, literally as I was saying the same thing. I agreed with him! I doubled down on not touching. I thought, good, we're cool. Nope.

There were other customers in the store. An older couple, who he was pleasant with. They seemed to know what they were doing and knew him. They were super friendly with us. There was another woman with a child, likely around the same age as my son. He seemed completely fine with them. They didn't ask any questions though. When he asked if they needed anything, the child said, "no." Meanwhile, my child blissfully kept on peppering him with questions.

Unfortunately, my children, who I might add were not touching because they had been told sternly by him and myself not to, decided to pretend to be frogs, out of boredom. At this point all customers had left. All of them. It was just us. My son had selected a set and we were just trying to figure out between the two of us if he needed more track. Suddenly the owner yells, "No running!" I whirl around and call to my children, who come (unfortunately) running to me. As I'm kneeling down to correct my child, he comes up behind me and bellows, "YOU ARE MAKING IT UNSAFE FOR THE OTHER CUSTOMERS, I MUST ASK YOU LEAVE THE STORE." [Remember, we're the only ones left in the store].

My daughters burst into tears out of fright, my son puts down the set and quietly leaves the store. I grabbed the children and left. All children are in tears in the car. I'm shaking with fright. After we calmed down, we drove to EnterTRAINment Junction, where the staff sold us the exact same set for slightly more (~$10 more), but the staff person was kind, friendly, positive and upbeat. Also none of the merchandise was faded. It all looked new and nicely displayed.

Checking on Amazon the price is cheaper than both Dixie and EnterTrainment Junction. But I liked the experience of buying form EnterTrainment Junction and seeing the product in person and learning from their expertise.

Needless to say we won't be back. I was happy I could end the day on a positive. My son has loved trains for ages and this was the big day we were finally going to purchase. He was super excited and then so deftly crushed by this man.

I know, I have kids. I know, it's difficult. Not everyone loves kids. No, you don't have to tolerate them in your store, but you can be kind. You can be empathetic. Considering I literally agreed with your rules and was working hard to manage my children, you could have told them not to run and we could have moved on. They were no longer touching. They listen.

Also, another weird sidebar - he claimed he didn't carry the smaller sized train scales because 'People steal them. They're too easy to pocket and walk off with.' I don't know what that's all about. I mean, maybe? EnterTrainment Junction does carry them. They are more expensive, but honestly not by that much? Is there a black market for N scale trains? Mmmm...unlikely.

So zero stars for...

My 8 year old son is interested In getting into the electric train hobby. He inherited my old train set, my father's set, and his great grandfather's. He was excited to find out there was a train store close by as he had a ton of questions about getting his trains cleaned up and working. He walked in the store there was one man being waited on. When the man was finish my son sat his box on the floor and the 2 men behind the counter said they don't have time before my son could ask a single question. He proceeded to ask anyway and said I just want to know how to make my grandpa's train smoke again, and if he could fix the light on another engine. The man behind the counter told him he doesn't know and that they don't make parts for those cheap trains anymore, and he couldn't help. There was no other customers in the store. We left and went to another hobby shop in the area and they were very helpful and spent the time to answer all of my sons questions and sent him home with everything he needs to get 3 of his 4 engines running again and even showed him on the test track what he needs to do. One is broken but they didn't tell him how cheap his trains are. Just explained the failure in the design of the engine and it's not easily repairable and he should focus on the ones that are in good shape.. He is very proud of his trains and is excited to see them run around...

One phone conversation, complete waste of time.

As an aspiring enthusiast, I was excited to talk to someone at this establishment, but instead of finding myself in an engaging conversation, I found myself speaking to a grumpy jaded man who didn’t seem to want my business. I have a used set of trains that I just purchased that appear to need a little work, and instead of encouraging me to bring them in to see if they were fixable, I was simply told that they don’t give estimates on cost of work and he wasn’t even willing to provide me with a ballpark figure. No labor rates or anything!!! I have plenty of money and a passion for this hobby, but I’ll definitely be taking my business elsewhere. So unfortunate, because this type of attitude will be the end of this store. I feel confident that at one time, this was the best place in the city for trains, but no longer! So sad. Also the store hours indicate that they are closed on Wednesday, but they answered the phone anyway. I assume this Google listing never gets checked, so don’t rely on this listing for accurate...