ModelTrainStuff/MB Kleins (USA)

[cteno4]

MB Kleins was a long standing excellent model train shop in outer Baltimore area that has a large online business as well of ModelTrainStuff.com. The shop moved from downtown Baltimore to outskirts of town in 2008 and then closed the brick and mortar store in 2019 to do online sales only. They are a major KatoUSA dealer for the US and usually have a very good inventory of unitrack and a smattering of Kato Japanese trains they pick up from Kato thru KatoUSA. They also have some of the Tomix fine track and tomytec items that Walthers has imported, but that is usually out of stock. Prices are generally good on Unitrak and usually just below Japanese list price.

 

much of the Japanese stuff is on this page.

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

There is a long running MB Klein thread and several other threads.

 

 

[cteno4]

This thread is meant to be the general page to talk about them like we have for other suppliers. Just realized they did not have a general thread. Other suppliers also have misc topics on sub stuff here and there.

 

jeff

[Szdfan]

22 hours ago, cteno4 said:

MB Kleins was a long standing excellent model train shop in downtown Baltimore that has a large online business as well of ModelTrainStuff.com. The shop moved to outskirts of town a decade ago and then recently closed the brick and mortar store to do online sales only. They are a major KatoUSA dealer for the US and usually have a very good inventory of unitrack and a smattering of Kato Japanese trains they pick up from Kato thru KatoUSA. They also have some of the Tomix fine track and tomytec items that Walthers has imported, but that is usually out of stock. Prices are generally good on Unitrak and usually just below Japanese list price.

 

much of the Japanese stuff is on this page.

 

jeff

I remember when they were at their old location in downtown Baltimore and when they moved to…Towson? A little shocked they closed the brick and mortar store, but that’s how things increasingly are these days.

[cteno4]

Yeah the old downtown store was quite fun packed to the gills and narrow isles and glass counter and wall cabinets all over. Felt like a Japanese train shop it was so dense. I remember every time I was looking for a greenmax building kits they were literally on the floor on the bottom shelf so you had to get on your hands and knees to root thru them. It was our pilgrimage every 4 months or so from dc area to just visit a well stocked train store and pickup unitrack and once and a while a Japanese train. When they moved they decided to clear out their greenmax kits so they offered a dozen or so to the club at very reduced prices and all gobbled up! 
 

yes new store was out just north of Towson area in Cockeysville. It was a very big store space quite the opposite of the old store, kinda didn’t feel right! But out in a warehouse district they got few walk-in customers. The exception was the new store was only a mile or two from the state fairgrounds where 3 great scale model train shows happen a year and a couple of Greenberg train shows. You didn’t want to go to the store those weekends! They stopped having their large sales area at the timonimum shows as they store was so close. Closing the storefront was probably good as covid would have done it for them, although you could way socially distance in the new store! The online business was slowly expanding and I think the storefront dying. Also the founder passed away just after the closing.

 

jeff

[chadbag]

They’re having a 10% off sale in their sale items. Here are the Japanese items on sale (and some DB).  Coupon code 10sale stacks on these prices.  
 

https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/sale/trains/#/filter:custom_scale:N/filter:brand:Kato/filter:custom_roadname:Japan$2520National/filter:custom_roadname:Deutsche$2520Bahn/filter:custom_roadname:Japan$2520Railway/filter:custom_roadname:Joban$2520Line/filter:custom_roadname:Kyoto$2520Line

[cteno4]

Not bad especially with the high shipping costs now days from japan. Also considering the very weak yen as well. Mb kleins tends to do sales on their import trains every year or two I think to clear out inventory. Then later a new batch is bought.

 

bummer with them now is their cheapest shipping is like $11 for a pack or two of unitrak and we live 50 miles away so should be cheapest level. Makes buying just one or two packs of Unitrak expensive. Use to be fun to just go over to pick a few needed bits up and just nose around the store as it had quite a selection.

 

jeff