Pinellas Park model train shop has made Christmas merry for generations
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Alice Morris (center) and her sons Dennis Hoffman (left) and Jim Hoffman (right). Photo: Selene San Felice/Axios
Alice Morris remembers being giddy to find an American Flyer S gauge model train under her tree on Christmas morning — until she saw her brother's name on the gift tag.
- Trains aren't for girls, she remembers being told.
State of play: Morris, now 83, has proved that point wrong for nearly five decades, owning not just her own train set but an entire store with more than 30,000 models and set pieces.
- Adults walking into H&R Trains and Toys in Pinellas Park turn into children with the same excitement Morris got seeing that Flyer under the tree.
Yes, and: Their eyes widen further to see Santa himself stocking the shelves. Morris' son is Dennis Hoffman, a member of Santa's Drill team.
- Hoffman and his other siblings help Morris run the store, finding tiny lightbulbs, and helping work decoders and program Bluetooth-controlled engines.
Flashback: When Morris was in elementary school, adults were still trying to figure out how polio was spreading. A theory about children overheating on the playground led to kids staying inside to play with a Lionel train set. She's been hooked ever since.
- "It's something to relax the mind," Morris says. "You accomplish something, see it in 3D, and get to make it as close to the real world as you can."
How she got here: She and her first husband opened the store 47 years ago, originally in Gateway Mall, and began hosting train shows.
- When they divorced, she kept the store and became best friends with a man who started helping her. Don Morris later became her husband and business partner.
- After nearly 33 years of marriage, Don is now in a nursing home with Alzheimer's. Morris visits him daily.
She and the store have survived a lot. They made it through termites eating tracks, location changes, legal battles and the pandemic (when a lot of people picked up model trains while in quarantine).
- Along the way, she's won industry awards and hosted more than 75 train shows.
- "It's all thanks to my children and our employees," Morris says. "They've worked hard to make everything perfect."
What they're saying: Beth Bloch, 73, was also discouraged from playing with trains as a young girl. She's making up for lost time, pouring hours into a train set in her home.
- "I was always the girl who got slighted on the trains," Bloch said while visiting the store last week. "I liked dolls, but they have more action than dolls."
What's ahead: Morris is inspired by the next generation of train hobbyists. She keeps a good chunk of the store kid-friendly with a Thomas the Tank Engine play area, along with hats, scarves and whistles for little conductors.
- And she brags about her train engineer, 19-year-old Marco Camuzzi, whenever she can.
Camuzzi had been shopping at H&R since he was a small child and started working at the store two and a half years ago. He says the job is the best thing that's ever happened to him.
- "Alice is that person who I didn't know I needed in my life, but I'm so glad I have her," he says. "…I hope that H&R trains stay there until the end of time."