We sell over 90% of our trains through our website or over the phone. It’s the only way for a model company to survive – and thrive – in the 21st century. And if you're reading this, the chances are you do business with us in this way. But that’s not to say there's no place for a traditional shop front. Because everyone needs to escape the 21st century once in a while...

We gave you a whistle-stop video tour of our showroom this week, largely to demonstrate the sheer variety of models we get in – and that, like the weather, this is constantly changing. Which is one of the exciting things about dealing in pre-owned trains and means we can guarantee that no two visits will be the same.

A lot of the things contained in the showroom will never make it to our webite and are the prize for wandering enthusiasts who venture to the edge of Skipton (i.e. seven minutes' walk from the town centre) seeking treasure. There's no password required to enter a  haven of sleeping dogs, cheery staff and models galore.

If we could pick one O Gauge highlight this week, it'd probably be people – together with their horses, carts, crates, cases and pretty much anything else that you mind find around a railway of yesteryear. These came from the ‘Hadleigh’ layout we sold a few weeks back and far from being just any old people have been professionally made and decorated, representing years of custom work with a deft hand and an artist's eye for detail. They're the best kind of people, and we probably won't see their like again. But you'll have to visit us if you want to meet them, as it's not viable to list them online. Or perhaps they simply belong to a more civilsed age. In any case, if you need to populate an early 20th century scene, you may just find all the relevant players here.

Stepping down a scale, we’ve a had a major warehouse revamp this week. A lot of our exhibition stock lives there,but as we have no OO Gauge shows until the autumn, we’ve decided to rapatriate a steady stream of this to the showroom. These are mostly pre-owned coaches and wagons (alomost all mint and boxed) that won't make it to cyberspace (there aren't enough hours in the day!) but that sell like hotcakes up close and personal. Because who wouldn't want to bag themselves some top-notch rolling stock for a fraction of the price you’d pay for them new? Like beavers in the wild, they've already changed the showroom landscape and have staged a British takoever from the legions of American HO models that had recently occupied the shelves on their way to new homes.

But the showroom is only so big. And despite our ability to bend space-time somewhat within its depths, its worth noting that if you're after Gauge 1 or Coarse Scale items – as well as most of our stateside models – go away. We don’t want to see you. Just kidding! However, it's worth calling ahead if you're visiting to inspect something in those categories that you've seen online, as we can then bring it up from the other side of town.

So what are you waiting for? If you're even vaguely in our neck of the woods (and assuming you actually do like model trains...), stop by to delve/browse/rummage/indulge. X marks the spot.