The Tucson Garden Railway Club had their annual open houses at 8 different locations around the city. I was able to visit 5 of them.
The first stop was at the Rincon Country West RV Resort. This location has over 1000 mobile homes and RV spaces, primarily for snowbirds. They also seem to have the most palm trees per square mile of anywhere in Arizona.
With all the retirees in the neighborhood they have clubs for everything, including their garden railway club. Their railway set up is permanent.
Many of the buildings were custom built.
The next stop was the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum, located on the grounds of the historic railway station.
Their small garden railway has without a doubt the most impressive railroad artifact next to it, a 157,000 pound Southern Pacific Railway locomotive dating from 1900.
Next stop was a private home in the hills west of downtown. Their backyard setup was nice, as were the views.
Their pet Schnauzer kept watch over the happenings.
The 4th railway setup was in a backyard of a home in Marana. This setup showed you don’t need a lot of space to have a nice setup.
The Grand Finale was a home in Catalina Foothills. The owner, an artist, custom built nearly everything.
In addition he is an avid cacti gardener, with the railway highlighting the vegetation, and vice versa.
The building construction was impressively intricate.
All of the presentations were nice, but this one was the most impressive.
RDZ Photography 