I think that Ron Sebastian's contributions, especially to those of us in N scale, are often underestimated. The Des Plaines passenger car kits and Centralia obviously also influenced and contributed to the development of American Limited, M&R, a half dozen small companies that sold various Des Plaines kits or details under their own labels. Des Plaines Hobbies served as the test lab and test marketer for a lot of products over the past 40 years.
When I think about it, my most frequent answer to "Nobody makes a......" or "Nobody carries...." is "Have you called Des Plaines Hobbies?"
I don't think I ever really appreciated this until I was there and saw "the aisle" of stuff that nobody else has.
If you want to save $5 on the newest whatever, visit Lombard. But if you want to know all the things you never knew you needed, spend an hour at Des Plaines.
