Anyplace that greets me with cookies is alright by me. And if they let me play with their toys, I'll probably come back. Edgerton's Model Train Room gets my version of a Gold Star for giving me both.

Built way back in the 50's, it really is an entire room of model trains, but it's set up more like four rooms, each representing a season, and each with its own theme. During the 90's the Edgerton Train Club, which runs the room, left, and it fell into disrepair. Then about four years ago John Ciavarro, who was a member during the 80's, returned to help restore it to its former glory. Now the president of the ETC, Ciavarro has completely rewired the set-up using current technology, yet kept its nostalgic design. Even the subway still exists (he says Rochester is the smallest city in the world to ever have one).

At each season-section there is a big control board with lots of buttons and knobs. OK, that doesn't sound very fun, but fellow button and knob lovers get it. These buttons and knobs run the hundreds of miles of wire neatly sorted under the control board -- I looked -- and control the trains and moving models. And each season-section has its own theme with its own little curiosities. Summer has Seabreeze in the distance with the Jack Rabbit;Spring's Pittsford has The Depot and a graveyard. It also has a replica of Pennsylvania's Starrucca Viaduct. Winter has skaters skating, Santa flying, and even a car pulling up to order at a McD's drive-thru. Fall looks like Letchworth with a tightrope walker over the falls and a gas station with cars going in and out of the garage.

The soothing sound of the trains, the glass wall displays of "retired" trains, and the vintage art deco Leslie Ragan posters all create an everyone's-a-kid-at-heart magical ambience. I'm not a model train buff, but for the time I was there, I recognized just about everyone really is.