Overview of Model Train Layout for Villages

"On behalf of Expert Village my name is Bob Lanning and I’m here to tell you how we’re making model villages. I’m going to show you how we built this diorama to represent all the villages that were here in the mining days in the valley and how we came to make all these buildings. This village right here up in the mesa is Parkdale Arizona, which was one of the original planned communities in Arizona. This is representing about the 1950’s and you can see the main downtown area. It’s pretty accurate, to the real village, which you can see today and then you can see all the track and stuff that was there to support all the people living in this area. And there was about thirteen miles of track in this particular smelter area and of course to represent that in this scale, we’d need about sixty square feet, so we kind of compressed it and you can see the little railroad depot down here, where the uh, the oil was transported out to the main line of the Santa F. All of this was built in about 1915. This was a very rich ore find but it was called the United Verde mine and uh, copper was really a by-product. They made more money on gold and silver, and the copper was all profit. The gentleman that built this was Senator Carp from Montana and he became very rich, had his private railroad car, and a little mansion right here in the cotton wood area."