Model Trains
The Clemenceau Museum's Model Train Room is a moving
history lesson and a model railroader's dream come true.
A passion for trains has attracted a group of committed railroad buffs who formed the Museum's Railroad Committee. Together, they've recreated the heyday of the rails in the Verde Valley and keep the trains running on schedule.
- United Verde Smelter -
(Clarkdale)
- Hopewell Transfer Station for United Verde Mine -
(Clarkdale)
Between 1895 and the present, nine railroads have served the Verde Valley.
In the early 20th century, miles of railroad track crisscrossed the valley, connecting the United Verde and United Verde Extension (UVX) mines to smelters in Clarkdale and Clemenceau, and from the smelters to markets across the nation.
Begun in the 1990s, the museum's railroad diorama was built by volunteers, using old photographs of landscape, buildings and equipment to make it as authentic as possible. Included in the diorama are Jerome, Jerome Junction (now Chino Valley), Clarkdale, Hopewell Junction, Clemenceau, and "Old Town" Cottonwood, as well as some surrounding ranches which exemplify early Anglo settlement.
- Verde Valley ranch scene -
- Clarkdale, AZ -
Attention to detail enhances the diorama, making it great fun to study. Women hang out laundry, men work forklifts and take lunch breaks, playing checkers outside a machine shop, a man peeps from a manhole in Clarkdale, pack mules wend their way along a hillside, bears threaten campers, and vintage autos and trucks dot the roads.
- Wedding at St. Cecilia's Church -
- Cottonwood, AZ -
Recent work on the diorama includes adding a Marion 300 steam-powered shovel used to load railroad cars with ore and a drive-in movie theater.
- Marion 300 -