Just came back from a trip to Tennessee. One tornado came within 6 miles of where we were, but I digress. The important stuff: I was surprised how different the Hobby Lobby stores are. The best one was Marysville, TN. I had been looking for sheet plastic, and asked someone if they carried it (2 others didn’t, just wood and brass). She said no. Well, next to the stined glass stuff, there it was! I was able to get a few different sizes for my Toonerville Trolley project. I believe you can order online, but I don’t know if they honor the 40% off coupons. I used one to get a bag of “Sizes & Shapes, Your Bread & Butter for Scratchbuilding.” All tubing, shapes and metals. Stock #707. $17.99 (40% off), on the tag are the numbers 216 20. All round shapes, but looks like over a hundred from 1/8" to 1" dia., 1/2" to 5" long. They also had 12" long brass, aluminum, or soft steel rods. The one I got is called thin brass, looks just the right size for railings, 1/16" dia.
I had about lost faith in Hobby Lobby, but I found these in 2 or 3 different stores, 'ya jist gotta look!
Rode the Tennessee Valley Railroad, and picked along the roadbed and filled a bag with coal that will go into my hoppers. Overall, got much more ammunition for my unfinished projects.
Lou
Lou,
The only stuff our HL carries is some balsa wood.
I did get some ink for my alcohol washes at 40% off tho.
Calligraphers ink is hard to get around here.
Lou.
Sounds like you had a great trip.
Did you take pictures at the TVRR ? You know, we like pictures 
The Hobby Lobby nearest me really didn’t have much. But it’s been a couple of years since I’ve been there.
Should probably take another look.
Ralph
Never heard of these. I looked it up and the closes one is a good 2 hours away. I have a hobby town close by. They are pretty good for building materials and train mags. They have very little in the way of G scale. Some LGB and Bachmann sets and a few pieces of track and rolling stock. Problem is they are very expensive. I can get the sets at half the price on line. They have a decent selection of N, HO and Lionel stuff.
Lou, I order from the Hobby Lobby website for different components for my buildings. The bullet clasp makes good telephone pole insulators!
Ron
out here the chain is called Hobby Peope, and the local one has a good selection of plastic models & RC planes, but model trains are virtually non-existant in any scale, I only go there for paint, tools and ACC.
Oh yeah, got pix of TVRR. Will probably put into Photobucket.
My suggestion was to get these items from the Hobby Lobby website. They don’t carry very guage specific things, but I found good imagination building stuff! We found the first one in Denver many years ago. We don’t have one in New Jersey, the closest ones are in PA.
I like their super glue gel they carry, with the yellow label. Works great, does not dry out. One near here has brass shapes, I’ve bought those packs of metal and also they used to have handy packs of wood pieces.
I think it varies from store to store. In central Illinois I liked the Micheal’s better than the Hobby Lobby, but here it’s the other way 'round.