Trained

Here are the pictures from the train show in Wilmington 2 weeks ago. There were about 300 vendor tables and a dozen or so layouts in all scales from Z to G. Every aisle that we went down had plenty of Thomas the Tank Engine (R) products to keep Henry interested. The only problem I had with kid care was when we got to the Lego layout. I wanted him to see everything so I took him out of the stroller. Major blow out when I tried to get him back in. Can you blame him?

For his troubles Henry got a school bus from Bubbie. Jake got a Storm Trooper figurine. I got the Walthers' 2007 25th anniversary catalog. A thousand pages of day dreams and imagineering.

In the first few pictures we are just starting down the first aisle:




Jake and Bubbie in the background:



Three shots of the Lego layout. The first shot has the circus and 3 main lines. The second shot has the sky scrapers, mono-rail and Moe's Tavern. The third shot has the train yard and part of the Lego Town:





A typical layout scene. This is from an S gauge layout:



I found out there is an O gauge layout just down the street from the condo in Melrose. It is a club layout for the New England Hi-Railers. They had an open house last week. Their layout is in the basement of a church.

Also, the National Model Railroaders Association Youth group in Massachusetts was sponsoring a spree of open layouts in private homes. I think it was 22 layouts in 2 days. You could go to any or all of them. There were a couple near our new home in Reading.

Joni has pointed out that that model railroaders are a lot like sleeper cells - you have these guys secretly building stuff in their basements, then the call goes out from the central authority to rally and suddenly you find there are miniature trains everywhere! Oh the horror!