Click on each image for a closer look!

This field trip was made over a year ago by Lance Gleich, one of our volunteers. He visited the Maricopa Live Steamers at their miniature railway facilities in North Phoenix, Arizona. This club has been in existence a long time as I remember visiting them 20 years ago.

Their Adobe Western Railway now has over 14 miles of track running in the desert. Every Sunday they open the facility to the public.  But they are closed in the summer months as the temperature is consistently very hot all summer long in the Phoenix area.

In this first installment of this Field Report, we focus on their facilities. Note that their station is well covered in light of the amount of sunlight experienced in the desert.  They also have built a number of control towers to manage train operations across the 14 miles of track.   Note that they use a transfer table to move equipment to and from a long row of storage containers as their member sown all of the engines and rolling stock so they have a large number of them to safely store away when not operating.

Finally they also have a building with hosts an O-gauge (1/4″ to the foot) model railroad as well.

For more about their track, click here to get an aerial view of their railway and click here to visit their website which has a very nice slide show on the home page.  Finally, a map which shows the immensity of the railway can be found by clicking here.

Posting by Russ Milland; Photos by Lance Gleich