World in Miniature

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Between 5th and 6th avenues on 45th street, the world is recreated in miniature. A world perhaps not exactly in the same time plane as ours. Clapboard houses from the late Fifties sit along railroad tracks in crowded glass cases. Along narrow corridors with colorful boxes stacked to the ceiling, the dust from the collapsed buildings of old Europe coat the panzers and Jeeps rumbling through devastated landscapes. For a few dollars part of this world is available to you to take home at The Red Caboose.

Allan Spitz has been guiding customers to the pleasures of train set building and model making since 1973, when he first came to 45th Street to work at one of the four model train stores on the very same block. At the time, it was all about the trains, but as time went on and Allan took over running The Red Caboose in 1994, the business went on to include the military model kits that my younger son is fascinated by.

In the age of Amazon, and near-instant gratification of all one's shopping needs, it's refreshing to go through the store's shelves to find what you are looking for; and sometimes just as gratifying not to find it, as happened to my son and I when looking for that certain shade of Desert Yellow for his latest project. No matter, the trip is always worth taking. One of the few hobbyist stores left in our town, The Red Caboose is still here for your train and model making needs in scales both miniature and human.

The Red Caboose / 23 West 45th Street / New York, NY 10036

www.theredcaboose.com

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Diamond Way

(Click on images to make them larger) Since the 1920's New York's diamond district has called the one block stretch of 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues home. It's one of the few places along with Chinatown that seems to keep its character over the decades. It hasn't changed much since the early 1970's when I first moved to New York City.

Alone in the Crowd

(Click on images to make larger.) The holidays can be an especially lonely time in the city. People bustling about the streets of Manhattan, looking to partake in a holiday spirit that seems ever more elusive. It's not really how they show it in movies, and perhaps it never was. And yet there is something touching to me about these millions of loners seeking connection, as we all are. Wishing you a warm holiday this season.

Grand Central Commuter

(Click on photos to make larger.) Like most New Yorkers, I commute to and from work, and all parts of the city, by subway. On occasion my family and I will catch a MetroNorth train to go beyond the city to towns and trails up along the Hudson River. Otherwise, we don't really have occasion to use this train station. I have to say, though, that I've always been envious of the commuters who take the trains coming into and out of Grand Central. Standing in its vast halls and platforms I think of what it must feel like stepping into a train in the late afternoon, and fly past the eastern shore of the Hudson, to later emerge in a small town where the streetlights glow in the dusk. Maybe I'm romanticizing, but still...

Olde Style New York

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