I live only a few miles away, snapped this shot a few minutes ago…note the iconic tin sign of the B&O Royal Blue Pacific that was on the Gay St store is gone, as well as all the other signage.
My Grandfather was born in 1901 and worked for the City of Baltimore. Henry was a train nut and shopped at M.B Klein on Gay St. his whole life. Kleins began as a hardware store and morphed into a train shop. Henry took me and my brother there many times as boy. As an adult I worked only a 10 minute walk from the Gay St. location, and probably walked up there once a week during my lunch hour to see what was new in the store. It was my LHS.
They had great customer service. Everything was marked down 10% before it hit the shelves. Their return policy was great, if you weren’t happy with a purchase you could return it for your money back or an exchange if they had another one, no questions asked. I remember I bought the first Legacy Big Boy, there was something wrong with it right out of the box, I took it back and was given another, no questions asked. They also had good repair people in the store.
When they moved out to the County they were good for awhile, until they changed tactics and committed all their space to internet sales and customers could no longer go inside, internet only. Curbside pickup was allowed. But, half the fun of a LHS is being able to shop, and you might walk out with something you didn’t expect to buy. They lost me on that, and then I was like I can buy online via internet from Trainworld, Ro, and Pats Trains out of state, and save the 6% Maryland sales tax I would pay Kleins.
I was shocked by sale, there were rumors for over a year, but I found out about the actual sale in December. The end came quick, the closure of the County location, and movement of inventory to the Nebraska warehouse. But to have the buyer go belly up in January was really crazy.
I don’t know anything, but I suspect something went wrong with the purchase of MTS, and that lawyers are now involved.
Maybe the hobby rags (CTT, OGR, or Trains) will dig and find out the truth of what really happened.
