Adobe Mountain Railroad Park in Northwest Phoenix is the home of the Sahuaro Central Railroad Heritage Preservation Society, Arizona Model Railroading Society (AMRS), and the Maricopa Live Steamers.

The AMRS is structured in three division: N Scale, HO Scale, and Large Scale (AGRS) with many members active in more than one division. With the completion of the new clubhouse, all three divisions have acquired new areas to build in.

Our purpose is to encourage friendship and cooperation among modelers of all ages and the promotion of the model railroading hobby as a pleasant, leisure-time activity that can be enjoyed at whatever level of expenditure of time and money an individual can afford. The building provides space for an N scale layout, a HO scale layout, meeting room, library, and workshop facilities. The four-acre site includes a large garden railroad, a covered patio for swap meets, and space for future buildings and displays.

The South Garden layout has an overall size of 175' X 200', with a current running length in excess of 750'. It has been configured as two smaller layouts inside a large layout. The heart is the town of Dusty Flats.

Our members have hand built all of the structures, the mountains and tunnels around Dusty Flats, and hand laid much of the track. All of us love to share ideas and techniques, come out and visit, stay awhile.

At the North end of our park is an indoor garden layout and the Sahuaro Central Railroad museum.

All of our layouts are open to the public and we invite you to visit any Saturday or Sunday. Come join us and share your interest in model railroading.

The Snort Bear & Widget RR and Mining Company (the nicknames of our three children) is an imagineered railroad built on whimsy and with the business niche of linking locations in Middle Earth, Colorado and Arizona to the Big City. Two main lines (inner and outer loop) are home to the towns of Cripple Creek, Phoenix, Bywater, and Hobbiton as the routes traverse Oliphant Canyons and the Gap of Rohan along the way. The trains run against the backdrop of warring factions striving for control of the commerce driven dollars.

The Mitril Mining Company provides minerals dug from the depths of the Mines of Moria to include mithril to latinum, oil shale to coal and everything in between. These precious linchpins of industry and commerce are then brought to the Blog & Blivett Mineral Refinery (controlled by one of the antagonists-Gimli The Dwarf and the Seven Companions) where the treasures mined from the bowels of middle earth are fashioned into ingots of wonder dearly desired by the folks in Big City.

The middle man in all of this is old Fezziwig whose warehouse and still dominate Fezziwig Yards in Cripple Creek. Not only must all Blog and Blivett Ingots go through old Fezziwig, this Robber Baron also prides himself on producing the best varietals of liquor to be found anywhere. His Old Wineyards Brew is highly coveted by thirsty citizens from the Oliphant Canyons to Big City.

Not to mention an occasional Hobbit or three. They must negotiate the right of way through Middle Earth and points North where Fezziwig & Gimli hold sway as well as keep up the staging yard on the outskirts of Big City while running under the Fed's radar to bring Fezziwig the where with all to maintain his businesses (legitimate and otherwise).

Against this backdrop of intrigue and uncertainty, the SB&W runs trains of variable lengths and consists with second hand steam and diesel motor power. It caters to storybook and cartoon legends as well as the customers on every side of the power struggle. Only by controlling the Mines of Moria do they maintain their hand (as weak as it is) at the poker table of high stakes.

The first picture smuggled out at great cost by some Hobbits and Riders of Rohan is one showing the SB&W maintenance shed along the outer loop at the Gap of Rohan. From here the consist can either continue North to Cripple Creek or head South back along the "Y" to Big City.

This picture is taken at Gram Wolfe's Charm Schule in Cripple Creek where some of the "back door" graduates are being escorted out on the town by some of Fezziwig's minions.

This picture shows a consist crossing Jeff's Run on the inner loop after leaving Hobbiton.

This shot shows a consist on both the inner and outer loop bypassing Phoenix as they enter Oliphant Canyons.

This shot shows the outer loop entering Bywater. Here is a bird's eye view of Cripple Creek. Number 1038 shows the Fed's Hanging Judge (recently recruited from Glasgow Scotland) Sir John B waiting at the Cripple Creek Station.

This narrow-gauge Garden Railroad layout is named after the Colorado & Southern route that served the mining community of Sunset, Colorado from the town of Boulder during the late 1930's and 1940's. This route provided passenger, freight and silver ore hauling service.

The layout has over 400' of mainline with 26 turnouts providing a unique operational configuration that has many levels with trains crossing over and under in several locations. The eight tunnels, numerous bridges and two long trestles provide interest in this small space. The Sunset & Boulder is track powered using the LGB MTS Digital Remote system and operates the four Moguls simultaneously. The many trackside structures are kit; kits bashed and scratch built.

Landscaping on the Sunset & Boulder Railroad consists of dwarf plants and ground covers. The layout has an automatic drip irrigation system for those warm Arizona summers.

Design of the railroad began in 2001 with the initial stage complete in 2004. Expansion continued in 2005 and early 2006 with the completion in time for the Eaglewings Open House scheduled for April 8th and 9th.

Here is my picture of going from N scale to G scale.

On the other side there is a frog and it shoots water out of his mouth and it goes into the pond. Next to the brick wall there is a rock water fall that slopes down for about ten feet. Mainly I made it so when we sit outside you hear this rushing water.

Here is my railroad crossing sign I made with an old iron bell that still rings really loud.

Then there is the bridge that Eaglewings Iron Craft made for me. Right after the bridge and around the bridge pine tree I am working on a tunnel and hope to have finished before the show. The tree lanterns around the tree have flicker lights and one of them makes crickets sounds. They work on a 12 volt system.

The rest of the lanterns I bought for $4.00 each and went to Checker and Auto Zone and bought car brake light sockets and lights and place them all over the yard. These lights also hookup to my Malibu system.

The last thing I made was the wishing well and I put one of my Lanterns in the well.

Its fun. I have been working on this for about a year

The G&R has passed it 4th anniversary and is growing. The original concept that Roberta and I decided upon was to build a garden railroad with no particular vintage (not modern day) with many stops along the right-of-way and to either take advantage of or enhance the existing landscape in our back and side yards

The original loop is 26' by 55' featuring small towns, bridges and trestles, a 6' tunnel and a 20' passing siding. We continue to run full track power which allows visitors to run on our layout. GRDRR is slowly converting to battery power and the new North section will not have track power.

We added a whimsical oval at the South end, next to the authentic cross-bucks and bell (it really works) that features track power for fun little trains. Along with a Mickey Dees restaurant, this area is for the kids to enjoy. An LGB tank engine with two LGB short passenger cars run on this line.

The North loop is under construction and is interconnected with the original. It contains a functional and quite unique 4 track car barn / building storage structure, and a reversing Y. During the coming year a number of bridges, a small and large pond with connecting stream, tunnels, and other features will be added.

A spur track at the South end by the Tombstone grave yard will lead to an equipment storage barn and a third area of track. The future will bring more towns and buildings, people and interesting view points alone the right of way.

Over the years we have welcomed friends, fellow railroaders, and passer-byes to enjoy our railroad. We love entertaining, come visit us.

This backyard layout features a 7/8" scale train station in which the trains are stored, repaired, and electronically powered. All controls are run from this station where they are protected from the weather.

Each of the two parallel tracks covers a distance of over three-hundred feet and the train makes two trips around before retuning to the starting point. The track runs through the sunroom as part of the loop around the entire backyard. Still under construction, the water feature is a large fish pond with three waterfalls.

The train passes over one of the falls and goes under another fall. A grist mill and an 1890 lumber mill will be part of the scenery near the pond. Two long tunnels will eventually be part of the eastern side of the layout that will include desert landscaping and will feature a copper mine shaft, common to Arizona. There will be a total of 10 wooden trestles and steel bridges.

This is a small layout featuring a pond and water falls with a mural painted on the wall around the layout. It is depicting the early 1920's era in the Arizona desert.

The St John Railroad is a desert mining railroad hauling the usual commodities. Wood for the mines and structures, coal for the mines and railroad, supplies for the miners, and of course, ore concentrate from the mines to be shipped out.

The St John interchanges with the RGS at Hillside -- RGS then transfers the freight to the D&RGW.

Eastbound trains leave St John and stop at the mine in Congress for the daily ore concentrate output, to spot empties, and to drop off supplies at the mine.

Continuing east bound the train arrives at Hillside, site of the RGS interchange. Any interchange cars are dropped off and inbound cars are picked up.

Due to the logistics, helpers are not used on the grade. The train continues on through tunnel #2 and begins the long ascent to Nickels pass and the summit. Another mine is located at Nickels pass, which provides more traffic to the smelter at Alhambra.

Continuing on from Nickels pass is the long down grade run through Windy point and the trestle to the yard.

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