I don't know if this fits in here or not...
My Father introduced me to the world of railways as a very young boy. There was only one shop to go to in our home town of Cardiff and that was in Canton. Bud Morgans. One of those strange emporiums that had everything. Toy cars, plastic balls and of course model railways. Triang was everywhere. My first engine bought for me was a Britannia. 50 odd years later I still have it...sort of. It was the first engine to recieve a 'modern' upgrade. Comet chassis, Markits wheels with a Branchlines gear box with a 1224 motor (yeah, I know!). Later after we had moved to Cwmbran, we found that the Brit had a habbit of burning out it's XO4 motor and Dad used to take it to a place in Caerphilly to get the motor re-wound. Can't remember the name of that place though.
Mike
Cardiff was and arguably still is, well served with model railway shops, though less now than a few years ago.
The Bud Morgan shop I remember was in the Castle Arcade for many years. Quite small but packed to the rafters with all sorts of goodies. I still have a Triang Lord of the Isles bought from there for my 7th birthday.
Bud was there as was Mr Williams who I remember as always wearing a blue stores coat. They also had a plastic kit shop upstairs on the balcony from where I bought many kits including Esci and Tamiya 1/35th military kits when I was a teenager. I'm pretty certain that Peter Lord, now of Lord and Butler worked there for a little while.
The shop was taken over by Antics who expanded into the shop next door, then moved to High Street, then Wood street and they now reside in the Wyndham Arcade. Not a patch on Buds though.
Lendons is still going strong in Llanishen which is still the go to shop for bits and bobs and is now arguably the best destination in the country for Hornby spares.
I also remember a model shop in Frederick street but can't remember the name. Disappeared when the area was redeveloped to build the St Davids centre.
I worked in Beatties, on Kingsway for four years, moving on when I was 20 to work in a motor cycle dealers. Thinking back to Beatties, we stocked Hornby, Mainline and obviously Lima as Beatties was part of the Riko group. Also LGB, Fleischmann, Roco, Trix, Graham Farish and Minitrix. Kits included M&L, Ks Ratio and DJH. Funny but typing this, I can still visualise the Model Railway deparment.
Before it was Beatties, it was a Welsh Craft shop with a coffee shop in the area which became the model railway department. We frequently had people coming in asking about the coffee shop.
There was also a model railway shop in Broadway which dealt in secondhand, run by the grumpiest bloke you could wish to meet.
There were probably others.
Rob.