Where y'at Model Railroaders?

interesting that you bring this up...my youngest was just talking about this
when I was growing up we'd usually visit my mom's parents in N Miss. and gdad had a module train he'd set up from xmas - loved that thing
anyway when my oldest came along dad asked about what he might like and I said 'maybe a train' thinking we could start small and keep building
well dad just got him a self-contained plastic set - he liked it well enough but aged out of it then kinda moved on from trains to transformers or whatever
his brother otoh never lost the love for trains
we used to go to the mini train tracks in City Park and there is a group in Metairie who used to have quarterly showings (basically out of some guys garage, but set up very well with maybe 16 different lines)
we'd also talk long walks through audubon (visit the horse stables) then go watch the train if there was one running
and my parents lived in Chattanooga, so we'd visit the choo choo most times we went up there
but those kinds of adventures/activities also faded over time

now after the move to a bigger house and when xmas time approached, all of a sudden he started talking about trains again (he's about to be 11 now), I told him i'd look into maybe getting us a small set-up, but...they're not giving those sets away. I'll keep looking though