The last stop for retail businesses in Hayward is store you have to see

HAYWARD, Okla. (KFOR) – There are still train tracks running through the Garfield County community of Hayward. While the big trains no longer stop, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any left.

“Everything here is for sale,” states Tommie Rath pointing to piles of model trains and model train equipment.

Since 1999, at the suggestion of an old friend, Johnny and Tommie Rath have operated a unique model train shop just a few steps outside their home in town.

“Where you’re at was the first building,” Tommie shows us. “I thought that would be plenty big.”

The Raths eventually added two more buildings to fit their vast inventory.

Johnny recalls, “In ’99 I thought this would last a couple of years and then we’d quit.”

They never meant for it to get this big, but over the years whatever they sold went right back into buying more trains, more track, and more buildings.

“I’ve got city after city,” boasts Tommie as she walks into a room stacked with shelves of miniature buildings.

Johnny usually handles the trains themselves while his wife, Tommie, builds doll houses and any building you can think of.

“All for railroads,” she smiles.

Organization in their store is loose and if you want to find something in here, you better pack a lunch.

“We don’t care if they don’t buy anything,” she says. “We just sit and visit. I go and bring the pop, and the coffee, and the cookies, and we’re all happy.”

So much track it’s hard to ‘gauge’. Inventory is what you see or don’t mind digging for.

Believe it or not, Johnny was a long haul trucker before switching tracks in retirement.

In a world where these types of toys are harder and harder to find, there’s a model train mecca in a long-lost siding that’s still tooting its horn for very good reason.

The Rath’s store is called Johnny’s Trains. If they are home the store is generally open.

Appointments are encouraged by calling them at 580-3360-2823.

Great State is sponsored by WEOKIE Credit Union

Close Modal Suggest a Correction Suggest a Correction