But I am surprised you invested in a commercial operation for children's hobbies, sounds all to familiar for me.
STL, the only reason I did was that I was a big slotcar racer back in the 60's. This way I could rationalize buying it for myself to play with. It's now at a new home somewhere in Illinois. Slotcar racing is still pretty big east of the Mississippi river. Theres a helluva alot of it going on up around your parts also, thats where I got most of my invevtory from. Someplace called Bud's HO around you I believe.
Ronnie