From our trip to the model train club.

Brian and i take a trip to the local model train club to take some pictures for my mom's thesis defence.  

So i wanted to do a little write of of this very bizarre little trip we took to see the model train club with my mom. It's not somewhere i would ordinarily hang out, but after visiting i would definitely recommend checking out your local club when they have an open house. It was so much fun watching these men at play, chit chatting with each other, joking around, and leisurely running their model trains around the track. they have hundreds of little buildings, people, trees, 

Their layout is huge,

and extremely detailed. 

I have to admit it was hard at first to understand how this could be so amusing for so many hours. although i enjoyed walking around the layout, and taking in all the details. the tiny people, in intricate scenes, engaged in little plastic activities, were really quite spectacular. i don't think the photos really do it justice

Despite this, I was still having a hard time understanding how someone would want to come couple of days, some everyday, to spend hours just running these little trains around the track.But after watching a few of the trains run slowly (yes the drive them very slowly around the track)I realized that this was a sort of Zen like activity for them. Many of the groups members are former rail employees, others are simply train enthusiasts, and many are cops or retired police officers. they come here after a long day's work to relax, or, those who are retired come here simply to get out of the house for a few hours. They can come here and run their trains and just not think about anything else. conversation breaks out from time to time, but it is not mandatory, and many of the men simply stand quietly and watch their trains. Many of them bring their dinners (they were having a dinner break when we first arrived) and they sit around eating and socializing. for some of these men this may be the only regular form of socializing they do. Here they have a sense of community.