Model Railroading > MB Klein Baltimore

Many of you have been big supporters of MB Klein. Up until now, my experiences have been hit or miss. Yesterday, while driving back to Virginia from Philadelphia, I did the short detour over to Cockeysville to pick up a couple of small items. I'm here to say the store was jammed, apparently a 10% off sale was in progress, but more importantly, service levels were excellent. It occurred to me that Klein employs a lot of people, and it was clearly an "all hands on deck" day there. Several of the employees freely said "I don't know but let me find someone who does." So I got what I needed, and of course a few other items, and unexpectedly saved a few dollars too. So I'm joining the chorus of those advocates of MB Klein here.

Rich

I am glad to hear their instore is as good as their shipping dept is, I have yet to ever have a problem. Thanks Tim

This past week I ordered two items from them on line, and HO scale Atlas code 83 wye switch, and for my grandson, a Kato N scale BNSF locomotive. A few hours later they called to make sure that in fact I wanted the locomotive in N scale, as they said all my previous orders had been for HO. Now that's service!

Art House
Gettysburg, Pa.

It was packed because of the large train show (@ Timonium) down the road. Usually they are very crowded that Saturday. Judging by the amount of people at the show, I bet 50% of them make the trek to MB Kleins.

Shannon Crabtree
Fredericksburg, VA
Virginia Midland Railroad Blog

Thanks Shannon, that explains it... I overheard two guys talking about the limited number of exhibitors at a show but didn't put two and two together. I didn't think 10% off would be packing them in!

I have never had a problem either. The guy called back and made sure I wanted the Southern Belle and not the grey KCS scheme.

If only ALL hobby shops had the customer service attitude you described.

I have shopped on-line for years at Model Train Stuff. The staff at Klein's is outstanding. Their return policy is excellent. They run an excellent web site with real-time inventory and a lot of stock. With Hobbytown (that stocks almost nothing) the only brick and mortar store in my area...I'm glad Klein's is in business.

I went to the Timonium train show yesterday and dropped by MB Kliens after the show. By 4:15 it was moderately busy in Kleins, and there were a lot of helpful staff as usual. Kleins does a 10% off the most expensive item on Timonium show days, thats a standard thing they do on show days I have learned. I just picked up some wheel sets I needed.

As an aside, while I didn't bring a lot of money to spend at the Timonium show, there were a lot of great bargains and certainly could have spent a lot more and benefited. As it was some great bargains I got were:

- RTR Red Caboose 53' Southern Pacific flat car with wood deck - NIB $10! (the SPT&HS possess the molds for these and doesn't have any plans to produce them according to an email response I got from them)

- Kadee bulk pack #58 couplers 20 pair for $16.50

- Above table Peco switch machine $5 (for staging yard)

- Athearn kit 2 box set end and intermediate units Trailer Train Impack spine cars $10


The MB Klien connection: had to get 28" wheelsets for the spine cars, and some 36" wheelsets.

Cheers, Jim Fitch



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/14 09:55 by SPDRGWfan.

My experiences with Kleins have been overall good, but slow. For living nearby, I would prefer to shop online and pick up in store. With them having so much stuff, I can't just go in and browse, I need to have the part number of the item, or have a list with me. That said, when I do ask them to get something out of the back, it takes a long time, even for one or two items. Don't get me wrong, I am not in a hurry when visiting any hobby shop, but I would love to know how much stuff they have back there to cause the long wait time. I will continue to shop there no matter though, it's a great hobby shop with great prices.

-Sean McCaffery

living in CO I order stuff from them I havent had a problem with them.