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Large Scale RailroadPreviously, the only way to enjoy this hobby of Large Scale Railroading in a public setting is to travel to Maricopa County or beyond. This is considerably more difficult and expensive than it may sound. Imagine trying to load these large trains into the trunk of your car to drive to Phoenix. In conjunction with the GADSDEN PACIFIC TOY TRAIN OPERATING MUSEUM, we are currently in the process of building this project, which is located here at the museum grounds in Tucson. Work sessions are on Saturday mornings usually around
8:00am to noon. For more information, or to volunteer, contact Jeff Swanson (cell #) 520-310-1392 GPD Riding RR Rules [PDF] The Golden Spike Ceremony was December 1st 2012
A little history: With actual railroads having 4'-8 1/2" between the rails, if we were true to scale, the gauge of our layout should be 7-1/16" instead of 7-1/2". But years ago, someone on the West Coast decided to build a layout with 7-1/2" between the rails. This happened while hobbyists on the East Coast were building layouts with 7-1/4" gauge. Obviously both are wrong and they are not interchangeable. It's way too late for the hobby to adjust as 100's if not 1,000's of miles of track has been laid and countless engines and cars have been manufactured to both gauges. At any rate, we are building 7-1/2" gauge because that's what all of the other tracks this side of the Mississippi are. If builders are interested in doing narrow gauge modeling with 7-1/2" gauge track, the scale increases to 2-1/2" (3' gauge) or 3-3/4" (2' gauge). Engines modeled in these large scales can be ridden "in" as opposed to "on" although they can weigh in excess of a ton and are very "tipsy" on the narrower track.
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