“All Aboard!”

The local train show is a great place for imagination and adventure. Walking through a train show door is like stepping into a land of make believe. You and your children can pretend to be engineers of your own steam locomotive, huffing and puffing down the track, hauling freight and passengers.

A train show, sometimes called a model train show, is where train lovers from all around the community come together to share their love and knowledge of trains with the public. They buy, sell or trade every item imaginable having to do with trains. The show is usually held in a large building, like a school gymnasium, and filled with rows and rows and rows of tables heaped with train “stuff.”

All types of electric engines and steam locomotives stack the tables. Rail cars, made exactly like the real ones, are piled up in the thousands: passenger coaches and dining cars, box cars and hopper cars, coal tenders and cabooses, all made of metal, wood or plastic.

Toward the back of the show are the moving, interactive attractions. You’ll see model train sets running on the rails, so lifelike you’ll want to shrink down and climb on board. This is where your imagination can really take fligh.

One table may feature a huge train station with lines running in and out of a major city. There might be twenty different trains running at one time, weaving around buildings and buses, taxi cabs and telephone poles, state capitals and street lights. You can pretend you are a passenger traveling into the city for the first time. Imagine how big, bustling and noisy it would be.

Now imagine that same city built completely out of LEGO building blocks! That is exactly what was found at the Washtenaw County Train Show in Saline. LEGO makes a gigantic train set, complete with surrounding neighborhoods, parks with playgrounds, parking garages with real moving vehicles and two complete monorail systems.

Most train sets have buttons and switches surrounding the track. Each button operates something on the set. Kids can use these switches to drive the trains, switch the points to different tracks to change the train’s direction, or operate an accessory. Accessories may include lamps, swing sets, doors and window, even a Ferris wheel at an amusement park.

The train show is also a place to buy, sell or trade train memorabilia. Train posters, pictures, paintings and wallpaper are available to decorate your bedroom. You’ll find train books and puzzles, train whistles and railroad signs, and toys like Thomas the Tank Engine.

Some people dress up like train engineers or train conductors when they visit the train show. If you’d like to look like you’ve been working on the railroad, engineer hats and bandanas, bibbed overalls and pocket watches are available for sale.

When all of the shopping and building and operating make you hungry, most train shows offer a food and beverages stand, much like that of a train’s club car. A club car is a coach car that offers a snack bar and window seats. They sell items like hot dogs, chips, candy and soft drinks.

If you already love trains, there will be so much to see and do at a train show you’ll fear you may not have time to experience it all. For others, visiting a model train show is a super way to learn. Either way, a day spent there will be fun, interesting and informative for the whole family. For more information contact your local railroad club! Here in Ann Arbor, it is the Huron Valley Railroad Club.

April Scarlett is a freelance writer and the former owner of Beanstalks Play Cafe in Saline. Learn more about her at her blogs and sites: www.fromherdesk.com, www.successfulwomenweekly.com, www.aprilscarlettwrites.blogspot.com or www.aprilscarlettmotherboard.blogspot.com.