I *usually* shop E-bay, but when I buy locally, I hit Roger's (or Railroad Junction now I suppose it's called). I've always really enjoyed the shop and Roger and Nancy are great people. His prices are a little steep usually, but when he would have a sale, it was a good one. And since I live on West Lane near Swain, it's just a hop down the road for me to go into Lodi. I just went there last week for the first time in 3 years and the lady that runs it now seems really personable and the selection is even better now. I haven't bought much lately, because working on the real things all the time, you get kind of burned out, but I had also been buying a lot (usually on order) from the museum in Portola since I am working up there so often and I get a great discount.
Alicia bought some scenery stuff at RR Junction last week for her little church diorama for the new layout when we went, but I didn't buy anything. Alicia couldn't believe it.
I don't like Bruce's at all. My brother in law and I went there once and he is a career Conductor and I am a career Engineer/Brakeman/Switchman/Conductor and now trainer and a life long model railroader, and when I was looking at one of the layout displays there, I guess I got too close for the guys behind the counter to it (I never touched anything though) and they both started yelling at us and asked us to leave. Really rude and arrogant. I was having a bad day anyway as my daughter had just died that morning, and Alicia was in the hospital in bad shape, and Mike and I had stopped in there to pick up some magazines to take back to the hospital and get some lunch at the shopping center there. We popped in mainly to relax for a minute and try to take our minds off Jacque, but after that, we left and I will never return. THe previous time, I called there to see if they had any left of the resin WP/CCT hoppers they had made and the guy was really rude said "Come up here and look" and hung up. Apparently they don't want my business, not if they are going to treat me like a grabby little kid and run me off. To hell with them, Railroad Hobbies in Roseville and Railroad Junction in Lodi are much better shops in my opinion anyway.
What part of Stockton are you in?
Tom