Welcome to the Rail Tales Hobby Shop Model Railroading Homepage!
Current Railroad product line
Rail Tales is an Authorized Dealer for Atlas, Blackstone, Broadway Ltd., Hornby, Fleischmann (part of the Roco family), Intermountain, Marklin/Trix/LGB, MicroTrains, Model Tech Studios, MTH, NCE, Riverossi (part of the Hornby family), Roco, Ross Custom Switches, Soundtraxx, Walthers, and Woodland Scenics.
Rail Tales stocks products for G gauge (new for 2019), O gauge, HO gauge, Marklin HO systems, HOn3 gauge, and N gauge.
Rail Tales buys and sells vintage trains in all scales and has a significant stockpile of Vintage HO, Marklin HO, and O gauge products.
For O gauge locomotives and rolling stock, we carry MTH and Williams products. Note: MTH is going to be broken up or dissolved in the spring of 2021. Rail Tales will continue to service and honor warranties for products purchased from us past that date. We do not know what will happen to the tooling for the various trains.
For Track, we carry Fastrack by Lionel, MTH Realtrax, Gargraves flex track, and Ross Custom Switches products. We service and repair Williams, MTH, and pre 1970 Lionel items. Note that we are a factory authorized MTH service center but we only work on products presented to us locally. We do not repair Lionel Legacy and TMCC items. We do not repair transformers.
Our Choice: Rail Tales is an Authorized Dealer for Ross Custom Switches. The switches and track made by Ross are actual steel nailed to actual wooden ties. The switches work exceptionally well and look great right out of the box! Best of all, Ross Switches are made in the United States. If we are building the layout, this is the track we use.
For HO gauge, we stock locomotives and rolling stock from Accurail, Atlas, Bachmann, Bowser, Broadway Limited, Fleishmann/Roco, Fox Valley, Intermountain, Kato, MTH, Riverossi, Tichy, Trix, Walthers, and others. We also stock Atlas, Bachmann, Kato, Peco, and Walthers track systems and numerous accessories. We service and repair most brands of HO trains but due to staff limitations, we only service and repair trains purchased from us.
Our Choice: If Rail Tales is building the layout, we only build with Peco track products or Kato track products. Every company that makes trains makes at least some good trains, so what you run on your layout is a complex question. If we had to pick only a single locomotive brand as being ‘always great’, it would be Kato.
Come in and see our operating HO scale store layout ‘Crossroads’.
For Marklin fans, We are a Marklin dealer and have on hand train sets, locomotives and rolling stock plus we carry the full “C Track” line and have numerous support products for Marklin by other companies as well. We service and repair Marklin trains in HO scale whether purchased from us or not.
Our Choice: For anyone who wants an easy to use and reliable product as a first priority, the Marklin system is the best and no more expensive than other systems.
For HOn3, we carry Blackstone locomotives and rolling stock, Micro-trains rolling stock, plus rolling stock kits by other manufacturers plus code 70 narrow gauge track systems and support products. Note that due to conditions in China, Blackstone product availability is very low.
For N gauge, we stock locomotives and rolling stock from Atlas, Bachmann, Bluford Shops, Fox Valley, Kato, Microtrains, Walthers, and others. We stock Atlas, Kato, and Peco track systems and accessories. We service and repair most brands of N trains but due to staff limitations, we only service and repair trains purchased from us.
Our Choice: Unless there is a reason not to, the Kato track system in N scale is simply the best.
Come in and see our N scale layout “Shadow Canyon”
For your digital needs, We speak digital, whether its for an American or European system. We can explain digital systems to you and discuss with you the advantages and disadvantages of the different options. We install DCC format and Marklin (Motorola) format decoders and set up layout systems in both formats as well. We carry Marklin, NCE, and Soundtraxx digital systems and decoders. We are a factory authorized dealer for Soundtraxx. See Going Digital
For your electrical needs, we carry a full range of lighting and control systems and we have pre-assembled control boards. We can teach you how to set up the systems yourself or we can do it for you. The best lighting system out there is the Woodland Scenics Just Plug It system. It costs more but it is worth it. See Educational Services and Layout Services.
For your scenery needs, we carry materials from Woodland Scenics (full line), JTT, Noch, Busch, Scenic Express, and others. We also carry structural building kits in O, HO, and N scale with the detail parts, automobiles, and people needed to flesh out any scene. Build it yourself, buy one we’ve already built, or have us custom build to your specifications. See Model Services and Kraff T Fox Models.
For tips on building scenery yourself: click here
Don’t have anything but a dream? We carry starter sets but we know most of the time a standard starter set doesn’t really have what you want so we’ll make a custom starter set that fits your plan and give you a discount on the whole thing just to help get your railroad empire going. We also help you choose what you need to get started.
For some frequently asked questions on trains: click here
For information on choosing the right train: click here
Track Tip: When it comes to choosing track, our policy is ABC: Anywhere but China. Kato, Peco, Marklin, and Ross track systems are each made ‘at home’. Kato is made in Japan, Peco in England, Marklin in Hungary (part of the EU along with Germany), and Ross in the US. These systems are readily available, of very high quality, are good looking, and are built by people who earn a living wage in countries that are close allies of the United States. Help us in supporting nations that support us.