On Saturday November 19 2016 The Superstition Mountain Lost Dutchman Museum held it’s SMM Model Railroad Dedication. More than an hour before the announced 9 am start time the crowds began to arrive. Excited kids dragging parents, parents dragging kids, locals and out of towners, they came eager to see the train.
You cannot beat the fantastic scenery. As you walk past John the Blacksmith hammering away on a horseshoe and head through the Apacheland Barn you see this amazing, huge, outdoor train set with the incredible Stamp Mill towering behind it, the majestic Superstition sitting in command of it all. Add in the history these buildings hold and it’s almost overwhelming.
The train is a gift to all of us from some of the nicest people roaming the planet. Just imagine for a minute, take your own money and years of your life buying, creating, setting up and maintaining a huge train set then, give it away to the museum, reset it up with hundreds of your hours of volunteered hard work, outside, in the desert, just for everyone else to enjoy for free?
Yes, that’s what they did.
The train set is huge and filled with fun detail that stays true to size and era minus a little fun here and there. The engine itself truly mesmerizes as it travels past you. I wanted to run after it like I was five-year-old boy and I am a forty-seven-year-old woman. At one point, I was so caught up in watching it I lost all sense and wanted to take the controller from the conductor’s hand so I could run the train!
Thankfully they know this is a common response and have made sure the controls won’t end up in untrained hands. But guess what? They will take volunteers and train them. I couldn’t say yes fast enough.
It rained last night and I woke up worried. The train needs an outdoor cover to protect it. The little towns and people and sets can’t possibly withstand too many seasons of our extreme weather. A great Thank You for this incredibly generous gift would be for all of us to now find a way to cover, shield and protect our train from getting destroyed by the brutal Arizona weather so it can continue delighting everyone for years to come.
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