I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I sure did. I spent the weekend with some of my family members in the Phoenix, Arizona area (specifically, Chandler). I had time on Saturday morning before we went home, so my dad, my brother, Josh, and I spent the morning at the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, AZ (near Phoenix and Chandler). We rode the train there, explored the museum, and of course, we got to see their impressive layout setups. The park has a large building with a Z-Scale layout, an HO Scale layout, an N Scale layout, and my personal favorite, an O Scale layout. The layouts are built and operated by individual clubs in the Phoenix area. I really need to join a model railroad club someday. That would be so cool.
Here are some photos my dad took of our little train adventure. We had fun exploring the park together. Plus, it was a nice day to be outside.
Magma Arizona RR #6 with me in front:
My Brother, Josh, the Snowman:
Josh the Cactus, and Me:
Josh and Me in a Sleigh next to a Christmas Tree:
Reindeer pulling a train engine; does that make them "Train-deer"? Ha, Ha!
Josh and I on the train (Josh is in the yellow shirt; I'm in front in the green jacket and the gray hat):
3D Wall Art of a locomotive crashing through the brick wall of the model train building! (I hope both the loco and the wall are insured! Ha, Ha!):
Big metal lift bridge to get into the center of the O-Gauge layout:
Hillside on fire scene:
More of the burning hillside:
The airplane fighting the fire is a cool effect. Pretty sure that's just foam used to simulate the firefighting material they use in real life.
A fun Christmas town scene:
The Carnival is in town, and the accessories operate when kids activate a panel on the outside fascia of the layout.
My favorite scene on the layout: the drive-in movie scene. This is a hilarious gag that uses a camera to make it look like the guests are giants attacking the railroad on the movie screen! The camera is located near the crossing gate at the bottom right of the photo.
This was a great trip. I spent quite a while just watching trains run on all the layouts. I also purchased a couple of magnets at the gift shop to go on the door to my own train room.
