I've only been there once when I was about 20 or so, the only time I was ever in Denver, back when Gary Coleman still worked there (he wasn't there that day, though). But yeah, my jaw hit the floor with a loud thud and dragged along the floor until we left. The book section was bigger than many hobby shops, by itself. My brother, who is 5 years older, was with me and we encountered the standard "overweight, balding, middle-aged white guy with no social graces or concept of personal hygiene" type walking through the book area, mumbling to himself, "Oooh, Santa Fe.... Oooh..." over and over again. he came over and whispered to me, "what's that guy's problem?" and I curtly replied, "Foamer." My brother, who knew nothing of the hobby at the time, said, "Ah," and walked over to the plastic stock area (he was a very well-known military modeler at the time), knowing what I meant yet never having heard the term before. Frankly, that's my greatest memory of the place.
I was on a cross-country sightseeing trip with my wife in 2012 and issues with my parents before the start of the trip meant we had to take a different route and cut some portions from the trip. Denver was cut and to this day, I can't say if I was more disappointed with missing the museum at Golden and the Forney museum as I was at not getting to Caboose Hobbies again after all that time.
Ross Miller Wrote:
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> It was surreal to a young choochoo enthusiast.
-Lee
Flickr photo set of my On30 layout