You know what would make a train set look cool? If some giant (to scale) robotic animals were terrorizing the passengers.

I've been to a convention of model train engineers. (My brother is a fan). There's a lot of variety out there, and some very cool layouts.

Did this convention happen in Salt Lake City, by any chance?

It's just that I can't think of a more dry and serious convention, and it deserves a dry and serious setting...

Still, it would be far more interesting than a Zoids convention...

Hell no. I don't go anywhere near Utah if I can possibly avoid it.

The convention was in Eugene, OR, and wasn't really dry at all. Pretty fun, really, as long as you like trains. While there were a few sellers, most of it was taken up by displays where people had set up their tracks with scenery.