Owen and I attended the 39th annual Ann Arbor Model Railroad Club Train Show at Saline Middle School. Given Owen's obsession with The Polar Express, this seemed like a good fit, and it was time for some father-son bonding anyway.
So we took off Sunday morning for the show, anticipating 50% show and 50% stuff for sale. The place was packed, and the ratio was more like 90% sale and 10% show, but it was still interesting for both of us.
The highlight was a Lego railroad set-up with 500,000 pieces, including a 3 foot high skyscraper. Owen liked the push-button that summoned a miniature Thomas to go back-and-forth in another display.
Owen was extremely well-behaved. He wanted to pick up all the toys, but did not bristle when I had to remind him he could not. He was rewarded with a nice red caboose to play with and take home.
We probably won't do it again, but it was an interesting experience. Model railroad people are definitely a distinct sub-culture of geek, and they are not really up for sharing with kids. The vast majority of people there were older white guys. It was, sociologically, an interesting time.
Below we are enjoying our post-show cookie.
1 comment:
the museum of science and Industry (my shift key is going bad--can you tell?) has a great hall of Transportation that has a wonderful HUGE model train set up. I would highly recommend it! there are photos on our blog somewhere.
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