Collectible Caboose • Cedar Park

Collectible Caboose • Cedar Park

Written by Mark Collins Friday, 07 December 2007

Trains, candles, ornaments and more in collectible store

Like a classic movie scene, a little boy runs into Collectible Caboose and pours over the model trains before pulling on store owner Craig Berry’s pant leg to ask him to turn on the overhead train.

“What better place for this store than in the Railyard, with the train tracks and the place where they have the big train?” Craig said.

Craig and Elizabeth Berry opened Collectible Caboose five years ago, but have been collectors for far longer. Craig got his first train when he was 6 years old, and the couple began collecting Department 56 brand villages when they married almost 20 years ago.

“This had been an idea in the back of our minds for 10 or 12 years,” Craig said. “I wanted to own a store that featured Department 56 villages and trains. Really, everything else has just grown from that.”

Half the store is packed with train merchandise from Thomas the Tank Engine to hundreds of model trains available on multiple scales.

Collectible Caboose also carries an extensive variety of display villages, earning a Gold Key dealer distinction from Department 56. Retailers with this title are required to have a large inventory from the company.

Other items in the store include Tyler Candles, Lampe Berger fragrance lamps, stuffed animals, Webkinz, ornaments, licensed college merchandise and various other collectibles, including the largest local selection of Willow Tree angels and Christopher Radko ornaments, Craig said.

“The biggest compliment people can pay us is that when they walk through the door, they say, ‘wow.’ And we get that all the time,” Craig said.

Collectible Caboose is so full that space for trains and hanging items on the ceiling is getting sparse.

“People come in and tell us that we need more room, and we say, ‘yes, we know!’” Craig said.

Craig and Elizabeth will have that extra room soon, as the store was chosen as the vendor for the gift shop at the new Cedar Park Regional Medical Center facility.

The hospital location will feature much of the same merchandise as the main store, with some additions and subtractions to suit clientele.

The gold standard

As a Gold Key store, Collectible Caboose features the largest Department 56 collection in a 100-mile radius. Some of the collections on hand include:

• The Original Snow Village – Started in 1976, the traditional, home-style collection has grown to include more than 200 individual pieces.
• Heritage Village – Inspired by Charles Dickens, this quaint series depicts the time of David Copperfield and Oliver Twist.
• North Pole – Santa’s North Pole is a place of joy where elves and reindeer play as they prepare for Christmas each year.
• Halloween – Spooky houses, crazed witches and creepy skeletons come to life in this haunted village.

Source: www.department56.com

Collectible Caboose, 601 E. Whitestone Blvd., 259-9494 • www.collectiblecaboose.com