Train Town — Local services in Rock Hill

AVOID THIS PLACE.

My father bought an awesome train from this place for my son for his second birthday. Looked way cool, had a whistle, a working smoke stack, the whole nine yards. He had it set up at the party and it stole the show! EveryOne was impressed by the gift and all the kiddos were sitting around in awe. My son didn't even want to open any of his other gifts because this was the coolest one he could imagine. We then moved it to another location and had it set up for him to watch.

Everything was perfect! However.. after a few days, it started to fail. Slowly it started going slower and slower. It was acting really funny, going in reverse sometimes, sometimes not. Sometimes it wouldn't move at all and just make this loud buzzing noise. Finally, one day, it stopped working all together. I called my father to let him know and he told me the nice people at the train town shop garunteed the train for two weeks and so if I took it in the next day (exactly two weeks after purchase) I could take it back and have it fixed up or replaced with receipt. I took the train in, in a box that was a little too big for the train. I was greeted by a nice seeming lady who asked if I was needing repair or if I was selling it to the store. I told her replacement or return, to which she gave me a dirty look. I told her my story and she told me it looked like I had "beat up the train" and because the train wasn't perfectly placed in the perfect size of box that I don't know how to take care of trains and I probably broke it and she didn't know if they could do anything for me. I was really upset. I felt insulted. Probably age discrimination if I had to guess. It was complete disrespect to me and my son who had taken well care of the train. Sure track and coaches had slid around in the box on the way to the shop, but that's nothing I could help. I walked away and waited. I was then told by a guy at the shop that some dirt probably just got up in the train and he would have to take the whole thing apart and repair it. I don't know how to tinker with and take apart electronics well so this was concerning to me. I asked him if this was regular maintenance and he told me "it depends". Depends on what? He didn't really have an answer. I talked to my wife and we decided we wanted to return it and try to buy a new train that I didn't have to tinker with because I'm not good with that. He told me that they wouldn't return it, not even for store credit, because I had it for two weeks and I must have done something to it and the best they could do is tinker with it and get it running again. This is not satisfactory to me. My father was garunteed a functioning train, and what he got was a tinker project. The train is in the shop now being "repaired", and afterwords I'm not sure what I'll do with it, maybe try to sell it to someone who knows how to tinker with stuff and buy a new train from a real retailer with a real warranty.

Bottom line, this store is a scam. It has rude workers, who are quick to accuse you of breaking their faulty products. Avoid this place at all cost unless you want to pay too much for a tinker project. It's a shame because I love supporting small businesses but "businesses" like this make it very...

I love Train Town. St. Louis, we are lucky to have a place like this! Good model trains stores are becoming very rare. If you're into model trains and are interested in used stuff at a reasonable price, this is the place. They have prewar, postwar, and modern O, standard gauge, and HO. The only problem with Train Town is the store itself is cramped. It's a really tight squeeze if there are more than a few people in there. But don't let the size fool you. There are tons of trains and accessories. The family who owns Train Town are nice folks and will be happy to help. They have never been anything but pleasant with me. Give...

I've been stopping by Train Town for several years, whenever I'm in St Louis. While I'm not a Lionel collector (an On30 "narrow-gauger"), I've found that they have lots of other manufacturers' train items as well as vehicles. Their prices seem more than fair & they go to great lengths to explain the item's condition. Even though the store is not large & it is "packed" with trains-one needs to look closely & ask for what you want, or you might miss something! All four owners have been extremely helpful & friendly, which keeps me...