The Great Train Expo Comes to the East Bay!

Today was the second day of the Great Train Expo's visit to the East Bay.  The Great Train Expo is a large traveling model train show.  Located on the Richmond waterfront in a refurbished warehouse that is now the Craneway Pavilion, the Great Train Expo included several enormous model train exhibits.

We had a fantastic time.  It really seems like a unique experience -- in part because of the venue, which is right on the water with views of sailboats, San Francisco across the Bay, El Cerrito and Emeryville in the distance, and of the working port of Richmond.

Exhibitors included multiple model train clubs from around the Bay Area.  We saw model N (very small trains), HO (a typical model train size), and G-gauge (large model) exhibits.  Model N train sets seemed to be the most prevalent at this year's expo.

We highly recommend visiting the Great Train Expo on its visits to the Craneway Pavilion.  We'll probably also go see model train shows up in Sacramento and in San Mateo in the next few months.

Here are some pictures.

This first picture shows a model/chart created by one of the model train clubs -- The Diablo Pacific Short Line -- which displays several popular model railroad sizes.  The smallest "Z" train is exceptionally small; we didn't see any Z trains in actual operation.  "N" gague is the next size up; we saw several model N trains on display.  HO was the most common size when I was growing up I think; there were a few HO trains on display.  And my son's favorite is the largest -- the Model G train.

Outside the Craneway Pavilion on the Richmond waterfront:

Outside the Great Train Expo someone set up two (somewhat expensive) bouncy-houses:

Outside the Craneway Pavilion:

Inside the Great Train Expo:

An HO gauge train:

HO train passing by grain elevators:

Going through the desert:

Old-style house and car:

The G-gauge model train displayed by the Diablo Pacific Short Line club was enormous:

Lego train going around a lego village:

Back to the G-gauge railroad, which was my son's favorite.  The California Zephyr (circa the mid-1960s I think) is in the middle:

Near the tunnel of an HO model:

An N-gauge model:

The lego village again:

The wine train:

Going past a vineyard:

Outside the Craneway Pavilion, exhibitors begin packing up:

Looking towards Emeryville:

View towards San Francisco:

More trains: