Hartmann Model Railroad

This place is awesome. Chris was so nice and polite as he welcomed us into the museum. My toddler loved the toy trains. I loved all of be toys that brought be back to my childhood. My brother Brent said that he is going to bring his family here. He said that he is going to bring both his wife and girlfriend here to meet for the first time. The staff was very welcoming! They didn’t mind a loud toddler!

This model railroad shop has a ton of merchandise, but you’ll pay the price. Both in your wallet and in the abuse you will receive from the owner. She will treat you like a thief. And don’t ask to see anything. She will just shake her head No. They are very proud of themselves and it shows with their arrogant attitude towards customers. They clearly don’t need the money from sales. And definitely not child friendly. I was visiting from PA and will not visit again.

This place was beyond terrible and the staff were obnoxious and RUDE! We were in and out in 10 minutes and I’m more upset with the fact the kids (9, 6, and 5 yrs old) were subjected to cruel treatment.
There were five of us and immediately after saying the routine «hello» the kids were mildly scolded with, «don’t touch anything.» I let it pass, but gave the kids a friendly reminder to try and keep their hands to themselves as we were going to enter a so called «museum». A sign then was pointed out to the kids that was in numerical order and read, (1) You Look (2) You Buy, (3) Then Play. My gut instincts started to kick in that we should leave, but the 9 year old is really into trains and I didn’t want him to miss out on what I thought would be a fun activity.
We paid the ridiculous entrance fee and went to the first train model. The train didn’t even complete one lap before one of the employees approached one of the kids (6 year old) telling her to step back away from the train model so she won’t be tempted to touch anything. I can tell she was scared. I told the gentlemen that if he had any concerns he is to approach me before speaking to one of the children. He became slightly defensive and told me he was just following policy. I scooted the kids along to another train model. Now, I really don’t like this place, but we already paid the entrance fee and the behavior of the employees didn’t seem to phase the kids much. This would be the second time I let something bothersome slide.
The 9 year old then finds a train model he thought was relatively cool and called over his younger siblings to show them. The girls who were observing the train model one table over ran over when all of a sudden the train stopped in its track. The red light indicating that the train was in motion stopped. They must have lost power, I thought. I go over to the employee to let him know when an old man comes from a back room and began scolding me that we were not following policy. What I previously thought was the loss of power by fault of an electrical error or failure to pay a bill, I realized was not. The old man had turned off the power!!! Already agitated from what had occurred shortly before this encounter, I turned to the kids and told them we were leaving. The older man told me that he wanted to share his trains, but we have to follow his policies. I told him and the employee who had been on us like a hawk that this place was not kid-​friendly and they have no business dealing with families with children. I told him we didn’t want any part of his trains and proceeded to leave, when he then all of a sudden told me, «kids who don’t listen don’t belong in this world.» He lost his damn mind when he said that to me in front of the kids, and to keep it short, the city girl came out in me. I was mindful that the kids were present, but it was important for me to let this man know that he crossed a line.
It wasn’t long before the kids stopped asking questions about what happened on the car ride home, but it pained me that some of those questions included, «why didn’t they like us?», «what did we do wrong?», and «why did he say we don’t belong?».
This place at best, is for adult train aficionados that don’t mind moldy smells with awful lighting. Whatever this place is labeled appropriate for, for sure it is not safe for kids!!!

I’m an avid model train builder with 2 sons ages 3 and 6. I model O Scale.
I find the people in the Hartmann train shop to be quite rude. I can’t even get past the front door without a lecture on how my kids should behave. My 2 sons both are trusted with 3^rd Rail brass engines at home and I find the lecture at the door at Harmtann to be rude.
Of course my 2 sons want to ride the trains outside. I understand that they are not licensed to be a amusement park. To get around this they give rides «free» as long as you purchase something in the store. I’m fine with that. I would have been happy to buy many things in their store. However, only the table up front qualifies as eligible for a train ride. The junk on the front table is horrid and over priced. It’s an overly blatant move to sell what is obviously junk. I would however have spent far more then the requisite $ 30 on the Woodland scenics items in the store, but NO! For train tickets I have to buy garbage. So, for my kids to enjoy the train I bought the minimum garbage and I’ll buy the Woodland Scenics items some where else. This place fails at failing.
The best part was when the lady tried to make a comment about my son in German. A rather uncalled for comment that was both rude because of the comment and rude because it was being said in front of us in German. Sucked to be her however as I am fluent in German so I answered her rude question right to her face. This «woman» in the store of Hartman as a true rude bitch. If it wasn’t for the fact my kids wanted to ride the train I would have left immediately.
We won’t ever visit this place again. They give a really bad name to model trains.

***TOURIST TRAP ALERT***
We found ourselves with two hours to kill before dinner, and this place seemed like the perfect option since my son LOVES trains. He nearly went crazy at the Conway Scenic’s free model railroad display, so this place seemed like a stroke of genius. For only five dollars a person, the boy could walk through ten different model railway setups in a ginormous museum building, and even push the buttons to make the trains go! Along with the owner’s HUGE collection of antique toys throughout the building, this place was a totally awesome visit that I’d highly recommend. There weren’t any stools there so I had to keep hoisting my boy up onto my shoulders for a better view, but we both loved it.
The problem with this compound is the ride-​on railroad out front. The employee at the museum building explained that they couldn’t sell tickets for it or else it would be legally classified as an «amusement», so they skirt the law by giving away free rides with the purchase of a souvenir. The explanation sounded a little shady to me, but whatever. Who am I to judge, what with the fantasy football pool in my office? So anyway, we dropped another ten dollars on some crappy watercolors of locomotives that could always «disappear» into the recycling bin once we got home, then headed across the lot to start our ride.
The actual train rides start at a separate building on the compound, which is a hobby store run by a fussy German guy. While my eager kids waited outside, «Hans» informed me that the train rides were only free when you bought a souvenir from a designated table within the hobby store building. He pointed me towards some more crappy watercolors, keychains, t-​shirts and coloring books, priced anywhere from eight to twenty dollars. (The coloring books were six pages long, stapled photocopies from actual Thomas the Tank Engine coloring books, and Hans wanted eight books for the privilege of committing copyright infringement!!) Of course, the watercolor pictures that I’d purchased at the museum building didn’t qualify for a free ride, even though they were the exact same item as what was on the stupid table. All of a sudden, I realized why there was a «no refunds, no exchanges» sign posted over at the museum building!
Shelling out another sixteen bucks brought the total expenses up to fifty dollars for four people on a two-​hour visit. It stung a little to get bent over like that, but I’ll be man enough to admit that the five-​minute train ride was pretty awesome. It wasn’t worth fifty bucks to me, but it probably was to my son. This place is probably worth a visit, but make sure it’s a cautious one. If you go, tell Hans I said hello and give him the middle finger from me…

Went there with my 10 year old grandson last week. Museum was fine. Went to hobby shop and was coaxed to buy a die cast model car. These were all in boxes and nothing about the hobby shop indicated these were used products. $ 36 later we found that the windshield and rear windows on this car were distorted. The next day I contacted the owner Roger Hartmann to see if we could send the car back for a replacement. He responded in the email saying all his sales are final. I never noticed all sales final in the hobby shop, nor did my sales slip say final sale. I certainly would understand if you opened something, but this was a die cast model car in its original package. Try to give a local business some business and you get this for an answer. Next time we will purchase from a reliable business. Small business complain about walmart — but they listen to the customer. No more visits to this place.

Biggest waste of money ever. Forget bringing your children here. My son pointed at something in the hobby shop, and the woman yelled «no no no!». And that was after she told him to stick with mom – and he’s 2! we left right after that, did not even ride the train. Instead of just charging a fee, they ask that you buy some junk as an admission price. It was truly junk and not cheap. Inside the model railroad part, you cannot have drinks which is understandable, but they are also not very friendly regarding kids. Never, ever will go back. Really left a sour taste in my mouth.

A lot of fun here, I had a day alone with my 3 year old boy while my wife went Kayaking. I saw a sign for this place and had a lot of fun while we were there. The museum is a lot of fun for a 3 year old boy, there are about 10 large train layouts and you push a button to turn them on for 3 minutes. You can go in any order you please and even go back. There are a lot of misc planes, trains, trucks, and boat models and toys (thousands) spread around the place you can see as well.
If you stop in the gift shop to buy a «souvenir» you get a free ride on the mini train they have out front. It is typically a private ride and is a lot longer than you expect. I bought a poster and a t-​shirt and we went on the ride twice.
The signs throughout the place are quite rude, along the lines of «you touch it you buy it» and «order of things you buy, you pay, you play» but the people I met there were quite nice. I was kind of turned off by the signs but everyone was pleasant. The driver of the train builds it himself and we had an interesting chat about the progression of the project.
If your in the area and you have kids that loves trains, check it out. Expect 1 – 2 hours of activity. Museum is $ 5/​person and souvenirs start at $ 7. I bought a $ 5 poster initially without knowing, when I went to pay I asked for a train ride and they said I couldn’t, but if I paid $ 7 for the poster my son and I could get a ride. A real bargain.