Overview of the Verde Valley Model Train Layout

Series Summary

Verde Valley is a valley in central Arizona surrounded by forest and presided over by Mingus Mountain. It was a bustling mining area in the 1870's and continues to be a popular tourist area for hiking and fishing, though mining is not as much a part of the economy as it used to. There is, however, a place where you can see the Valley during the mining heyday. And that's at the Clemenceau museum, where Bob Lanning maintains a huge diorama of the valley, complete with replicas of the train lines which used to run through it and models of the towns of Clarkdale, Jerome, Hopewell and Cottonwood. He even recreated the Phoenix Cement company.

In this series of model train layout videos, our expert diorama builder will share his experience of building his re-creation of Verde Valley. Learn how to combine different gauges of model trains and keep track of the power controls which run all of them. He also shows you how to create cue cards which help engineers manage all of the trains and visitors to learn about them. You will learn tips for how to create bridges, landscapes and even towns. Want to make a building look as close to a vintage photograph as possible? Bob shows you how to use Photoshop to create the perfect facade.

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village my name is Bob Lanning, I'm here to tell you about making a train diorama in HO scale. This diorama represents the Verde Valley from the mining days in the late 1870's, actually to present. And, we have four villages represented, you'll see Cardale, Jerome, Hopewell, and Cottonwood and also Jerome Junction which was the Narrow Gage Railway back in 1894. Now the original railroad here was United Verde Pacific which was a Narrow Gage Railroad that ran from Jerome over the mountains to the town of Jerome Junction which is now a days called, the present day, Chino Valley. That was built in Narrow Gage because it was a cheaper way to construct a railroad with all the turns. I think it was one hundred and thirty six turns, it was the crookedest railroad in the world at the time. Now when there was better methods of transporting or building the railroad into Cottonwood and Carpdale that when there was actually a need for about eight more railroads that worked through all the different towns and tunnels to bring the smelter down to Carpdale and Clemenceau."