By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

STOCKTON -- Marian Conyac could tell when the economy started collapsing nationwide.

That's because business came to a standstill at her End of the Line Hobby's shop in Stockton.

As the name suggests, it is a hobby shop built around model trains, although it offers more than just scale railroad paraphernalia.

"It's picked up a little bit," Conyac said late last week, but still sporadic. "It's either feast or famine."

Little more than a week ago, she said, the shop had an $800 day. But a few days later, sales only amounted to about $30.

Conyac is straightforward about details of the shop because its future depends on who walks through the door.

"I figure if I can take in $100 a day, that will pay my utilities," she said.

The End of the Line is in a cavernous Main Street building in Stockton, which also serves as home for the Stockton Area Train Club.

Several model railroad displays take up a big chunk of the front of the building, with the hobby shop in the back.

Conyac is waiting for electrical work to be completed on a set she's been working on as time allows.

Those railroad displays come in all sizes.

"I'm trying to get one of every scale," she said. Those scales include Lionel, HO, N and Z.

"I have just a little bit of everything," Conyac said of the railroad supplies that she carries. "I'll put my landscaping up against any hobby shop.

"That's where my love is."

To help with the shop, she's also brought in art supplies and has its own gift shop, with fine arts, pottery and such.

She also carries model cars.

"One little boy," she recalled, "he got graduation money and he came in and bought four model cars."

Far in the back is perhaps one of Conyac's prized possessions -- a Z-scale model train set.

"That's the smallest scale they make," she said. "I had to pay $185 for each locomotive."

The entire set is on a board 2 feet by 3 feet across.

HO scale is perhaps the best known and possibly most popular scale of trains.

"There's quite a few with N scale," she said.

Conyac was also thrilled to have on display a 1937 Lionel train set in "perfect shape." The find came from Plainville.

Conyac said she bought what had been known as the Smith Building to house the trains, a hobby she started in about 30 years ago.

"To help offset expenses, I put in the hobby shop," she said.

Part of the problem, she thinks, is a lack of exposure.

Today, she's working with other Stockton businesses and soon hopes to put up a sign north and south of town on U.S. Highway 183.

She hopes that will bring in extra business for her and the other merchants.