Arizona Grand Scale Railway Society

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Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Arizona Grand Scale Railway Society

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Hello All,

Very excited to announce, Scotty Brooks and I are organizing a Grand Scale Railway Society in Pheonix to build and operate a 15” gauge live Steam railway division at the Sahuaro Railroad Museum - parent organization of the Maricopa Live Steamers. All the resources on are hand to commence laying rail mid January, 2022 - pending Museum Board approval. RR members will be able to build and run their own 15” ga equipment, or operate the Museums locomotive.

If you are interesting in joining, or participating in building the RR, or supporting efforts down the road feel free to let me know off line or via PM.

Thanks much,

Glenn
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Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
LIALLEGHENY
Posts: 363
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 12:36 am
Location: Bohemia, NY

Re: Arizona Grand Scale Railway Society

Post by LIALLEGHENY »

Gosh darn, that's a bit of a commute for me. Just out of curiosity, what is the minimum radius going to be? At some point in the future I will be looking for places to run my locomotive, once I get it built. 100ft minimum sure would be nice.....I could squeak by on that.

Nyle
Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Arizona Grand Scale Railway Society

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Hey Nyle, how far along are you? Pics would be great. Our short line might be 60 or 70’ radius. Probably have to rethink that in the near future- like Tuesday when we review our ROW plan. We do have a possible 3 mile route in mind - far in the future, but possible, that could be 100’ R.

So just ship that bad boy out here and leave it to play with in the nice warm winter months. - sunny and 75* today - mid day.

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
LIALLEGHENY
Posts: 363
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 12:36 am
Location: Bohemia, NY

Re: Arizona Grand Scale Railway Society

Post by LIALLEGHENY »

Oh, I am not close to being done by any means, regular work keeps getting in the way, but I have to think into the future. I'll shortly have a machine up and running that for the most will be dedicated to the production of my loco. Eventually I'll start a post of my build in the Grand Scales forum.

Nyle
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Arizona Grand Scale Railway Soci

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Well, good news! The Board approved our 15” ga RR proposal this morning. A primary objective is to build a member operated and maintained railway - and encourage members to build or restores then operate their equipment on the railway - similar fashion to the live steam club model- only hosted as an historical exhibit through the Museum.


Phase 1 is a short 650 LF freight yard outer loop. - black trackage in the attached photo. Phase 2 be a mainline extension, and Phase three (yellow) an additional point to point extension out to MLS and back. A 2 mile “transcontinental route” around the periphery of MLS will extend Phase 3, as we develop sufficient community.

The RR will be an operating, 1/3 scale historical interpretative exhibit, focusing on Arizona railway development since the first 1886 transcontinental railway route opened up through the Sonoran desert.

Here’s the plan, as of today...
C38A642B-ACEE-4F0C-8757-8467C39EE4FE.jpeg
Come and join us!
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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Loco112
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Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:09 pm
Location: Dallas ,Texas. USA

Re: Arizona Grand Scale Railway Society

Post by Loco112 »

1/3 scale ...? What: flange, check gauge, back to back, etc.? A 5/12 scale loco (3' narrow gauge on 15") , and also a 3" scale (3/12) loco, will probably not run through turnouts and frogs made to 4" scale (1/3) track standards. There isn't much room to play with different scale in those track standards.
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Arizona Grand Scale Railway Society

Post by Glenn Brooks »

We’ve been reviewing that, so far leaning towards the 5” scale standards, flanges 1/2” x 11/16” wide.

Back to back is 13 5/8” on everything, so 15” gauge with 12# rail isn’t a problem.

However, We have equipment with wheel profiles at 1/4 scale, (3” scale), 1/3 scale (4” scale) and 5” scale. So it’s a delima.

We think most hobbyists will want to build either 3” or 4” scale - which is also the lion share of amusement park trains size. So looking for advice and operating knowledge running 3” equipment through 5” switches. Any thoughts?

Jut starting to build switches this week, and would like to nail down standards discussion before we get to deep in the project.

Thanks
Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
rkcarguy
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Location: Wa State

Re: Arizona Grand Scale Railway Society

Post by rkcarguy »

I responded in the other post, I think to keep it such that you'll have interchange with other 15" tracks you should adhere to 15" gage standards regardless of scale. There are large dimensional differences in the wheel profiles between 3, 4, and 5" scale, one isn't going to work on the other.
That said, there are so few 15" tracks that if this equipment will never travel, you can do what you like as far as adopting a spec.
It doesn't even need to hold back track laying, just hold up on mounting the guardrails until it's been finalized.
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Arizona Grand Scale Railway Socie

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Denis Larrick in Cincinnati has been helping us out with some remote site design work in CAD. He has drawn up a roundhouse for us to begin permitting work for phase 2. We are planning on 7 stalls in the round house and 6 covered sidings opposite the turntable, that will be located adjacent to the our planned passenger loading zone. So 13 engine stations initially. We have 10 locomotives to date that can be displayed in this setting, plus several more that members have expressed interest in restoring or building, once our Phase 1 track and engine house are operational.

Hopefully, we will fill up the roundhouse with our existing static display equipment, and three operational engines, then attract 4 or 5 additional privately owned locomotives to add an extension. Denis has designed the roundhouse so that we can erect additional stalls in groups of three as we receive funding and interest from additional members.

Here is our roundhouse design:

These two photos are an O scale model printed out on ScottyBrooks’ 3D printer
FB0E6F2E-5361-44EF-9640-86483027F991.jpeg
8A03B499-ABFB-4453-B900-1E60B13CB597.jpeg
And some CAD design elements for the Roundhouse
FF1FB6B3-2B97-48EB-86D7-BBF416472F46.jpeg
0C251223-09E8-4DE9-920C-440054494070.jpeg
08800A4C-F5FA-45DD-82DD-039A8D46D406.jpeg
69B6EA1A-798C-4824-BA11-36B3929D0468.jpeg
As the RR is supposed to be a working interpretative exhibit of the Club’s small RR museum, we intend to place the roundhouse and turntable in close proximity to the passenger plaza- e.g. close as in forming the north end of the plaza, so riders can view our existing antique park gauge trains while they are waiting to board trains.

The map below shows our initial plan for siting the roundhouse near the passenger plaza area.

We are theming the plaza facade (cement block wall, with sun shade) to resemble the original Santa Fe passenger building in downtown Phoenix.
80C3ED72-FD3C-45DC-8A11-F543DF628C3F.jpeg
894B6E4F-36C9-4B83-BE5E-DC0E8934C35F.jpeg
45831407-A00B-41B5-9A2A-DDCAC38BCAF4.jpeg
Glenn
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Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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NP317
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Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: Arizona Grand Scale Railway Society

Post by NP317 »

Looks magnificent.
Funding?
RussN
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Arizona Grand Scale Railway Society

Post by Glenn Brooks »

What is
“funding” ??

Hahaha.

Actually, one of our board members thinks we can acquire decorative cement block in large quantities for free from his son‘s company. If so we’ve got the lion share of our materials cost covered. And we have two or three cement Masons who are club members who can help direct of the construction of the cement block walls. The rest we’re gonna have to go out and scratch up money for. Our plan is to give naming rights to the passenger Plaza to one of the railroads, if they will donate some money towards the roof and other incidentals. UP and Burlington northern have major terminals in Tucson and Phoenix, so we’re hopeful.

Gpb
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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NP317
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Re: Arizona Grand Scale Railway Society

Post by NP317 »

No dreams no progress.
Wishing you and your Team The Best.
RussN
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