Tucson, Piedmont & Sonoran Desert RR

Hi all,

A first post to a new F, Fn3, Fn2 Garden RR blog. The Tucson, Piedmont and Sonoran Desert Railroad is a 3-foot gauge railroad set in South Eastern Arizona in 1925. The models are all 1:20.3 or left-overs from early days. Engines and rolling stock are slowly being converted from 1:22.5 to 1:20.3.

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So here’s an overview of the Cascabel Industrial area on the TP&SD

The three story building (Cascabel Milling) in the center is currently getting a new roof after a wind storm blew it over and rolled it into the fence

I’ve attached a picture of the plan for the TP&SD RR. The house and North are to the right. Don’t count on seeing all of this for several years! (decades )

The layout is about 40′ wide and 60′ long around 200′ of mainline. With two tunnels, 5 Bridges and waterfall, a stream and a mostly dry wash (dry except 3-6PM during the summer Monsoons):

The Dream

Welcome to the Tucson, Piedmont and Sonoran Desert RR a narrow gauge railroad in southeastern Arizona. The year is 1925. The railroad connects Douglas on the Mexican border to Klondyke in the White Mountains. The route follows the Sulfur Springs Valley through several towns to arrive at Cochise Courthouse. It then continues north to finally arrive at Klondyke.
The TP&SD timetable gives a complete list of the towns served by the railroad, and also lists many features that will help you enjoy your trip. Scenic wonders like the Great Lantana Forest, Aloe Verde Canyon, Victory Rock and the Devil’s Crotch dot the right of way. Two water courses provide rafting and fishing for the inhabitants and an active tourist passenger service.
The owners of the TP&SD started construction of the railroad in 1897 with the completion of Lantana Tunnel and the track from Cochise, (then called North Glingenhaben), to Courtland. Construction was delayed several times, first by the great floods of ‘98 and then by the track quakes in July/Aug. of ‘00 and ’01. Finally, the track was completed from Klondyke to Douglas and operations began in May of ‘03. One of the major causes of delays in construction were the frequent incidents of damage caused by the saurians which still roam the forests, plains and right of way in the area. Domesticated dinosaurs are common beasts of burden and transport in the towns along the TP&SD and Lizard cars transport saurians to market, as no cows are harmed by the TP&SD.

The Reality.

The TP&SD is an F-scale (1:20.32) 3’ gauge railroad model which I began building in 1997. Two false starts resulted in completion of the current track plan in 2003. The first false start was a result of mis-calculating the effect the Tucson summer monsoons. We completed the first loops of track in May 1998
ran in June and in mid-July 1998 much of the track was under 2 inches of mud and sand washed in by the monsoons. An extensive re-grading and re-alignment of the right-of way was completed in April of 2000. Numerous attempts to
run the RR over the next two years resulted in the conclusion that aluminum code 250 track may not have been the best choice for Tucson. Some trackage moved as much as 6” between 4 PM and 6 AM the next morning. An extensive program of rail replacement resulted in the current layout using code 250 nickel-silver track.
The buildings and structures on the TP&SD are based on buildings from Tucson and southern Arizona and from the right of way of my favorite NG railroads (notably the EBT, NPC, PCR and D&RGW). The TP&SD also interchanges with the standard gauge Southern Pacific RR through a transfer shed at Double Adobe and dual gauge tracks in Cochise Yard. The engine facilities at Cochise Yard consist of a water tower, sand house and a coal loading facility and a two stall engine house are planned. A “gallows” turntable allows engines to be turned. All of the structures are scratch-built to 1:20.32 using a variety of techniques and materials.

Motive Power

Motive power on the TP&SD consists of small to medium size rod locomotives and geared Shay and Heisler locomotives. Several locomotives are under construction in the railroad’s busy and crowded shops. The TP&SD is a completely RC/battery powered operation. Over the years purchasing used motive power the railroad has obtained a sample of every kind of RC equipment except RCS and the Aircraft style controllers, 3 - Aristocraft 27 and 2 - 75 MHz onboard units, 2 - Locolinc units and an Airwire 900 unit. The railroad also has Soundtraxx, Soundlinc, Phoenix 2k2 and P5, sound systems.
The Rolling stock consists of scratch and kit-built F-Scale models and commercial 1:22.5 scale cars that are waiting replacement with 1:20 scale units.

The TP&SD was designed with eventual operations in mind. Future industries include copper and cala-rock mines, quarries, a lumber camp and sawmill, pepper orchards and factories producing “cala-mine” lotion, pepper jelly, lemon balmbs and Lizard sausage.

I thought I’d show everyone the gallows turntable I built and then destroyed by tripping and falling on it during an open house.

That hurt and I don’t mean the part where my fist smashed into the rocks trying to keep my face away from the rocks.

Fortunately the main damage was to the gallows and truss rod supports I hope to rebuild before next year’s national convention In Chandler. I’ll be open three days Monday, Thursday for the Tucson tours and Sunday after the close. Hope to see some of you then.