I spent most of the morning and a big part of the afternoon at the Mad City Model Rail Road Show today because I’m a train nerd and therefor I must. Therefore. Whatever.

Train shows are really as geeky as I get. I don’t go to Star Trek conventions. Okay, I did, once, back in 1969 when I was eight years old and my best friend talked his dad into taking us so we could see the blooper reel (which was as hard to see as the Pope then but you can watch any time you want on Youtube now) and buy a plastic model of the Enterprise. But that was way before people started dressing up in costumes and speaking Klingon.

Train shows are way geeky, though. I’ll admit that in a heartbeat. Quite a lot of the guys who bring their choo-choos to them, and you will find that ninety-eight percent of the exhibitors there are guys, dress up in the stripey bib overalls and pillbox hats of locomotive engineers, or navy blue suit jackets and caps emblazoned with a brass nameplate that says “CONDUCTOR.” The ones that don’t dress up and make pretend that they actually drove a train at some time in their lives are there to sell something.

And it’s all great fun.

More photos from the Mad City Model Rail Road Show 2010