I was on a short road trip this past weekend with a community band I play in and one of our stops was a small zoo called Bearizona in Williams, AZ. Inside the main gift shop, there is a once magnificent HO scale layout of the Grand Canyon line of the Santa Fe railroad. The layout includes a nearly true to scale version of the South Rim terminus at one end of the layout and a similar depiction of the Williams depot area at the other end. The center of the layout includes a rather convoluted and compressed representation of the line between the two terminus locations. All of the various structures which include the El Tovar Hotel, the Grand Canyon Depot, the Harvey House, the Williams Depot and several other important structures were scratch built with a rather high degree of skill and talent. Although desert scenery isn't everyone's cup of tea, the high desert landscape was also well represented.
Unfortunately, the layout hasn't received any kind of maintenance in a lloooonnnngg time and is looking rather sad. Worse yet is the fact that management seems to be so embarrassed by the layout's condition that they are trying to hide it by placing retail displays right up against the layout perimeter. You have to wedge yourself between the various retail kiosks just to read the various plaques explaining the different structure models. Further salt in the wound was the fact that most of the trains aren't even on the tracks. Many of the trains are just laying on their sides adjacent to the tracks. Oh wait, the PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD steamer was indeed carefully placed on the tracks!!! What it was doing on this Santa Fe layout, I don't know.
Anyway, I was thinking that the restoration of this layout might make a good public service project for one or more of the local model train clubs and/or individual modelers in the Williams/Flagstaff (even Phoenix?) area. Aside from a few track and scenery repairs, the layout really just needs a little TLC to bring it back to its former glory. A little volunteer work to clean this layout up might merit a new plaque thanking those involved in the restoration. If I lived closer to Williams, I know I'd be interested in helping out!
Hornblower
Hello All,
This might be a great project for an Eagle Scout candidate, especially with the S.T.E.M. connection.
Have you reached out to any local B.S.O.A. chapters?
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
What about a local hobby shop or the local model train chapter? I found one here: https://flagmrrc.org/
How about the Arizona Railway Museum in Chandler? It's a museum of full size trains, but the main building might be a place for a nice model railroad.
York1 John
What I can't help but wonder is whether the owner or manager of the gift shop wants to restore the layout to its former self.
Hornblower, did you by chance talk to the owner or manager about such a project?
As for volunteers, there could be a lot of time and money involved to restore the layout. Is this a retail, for profit, operation? Or, is Bearizona some part of a National Park, not for profit, operation. It appears from what I can find that Bearizona is privately owned and not owned by the Federal government. If so, that might make a big difference in stepping forward and offering to restore the layout.
Rich
Alton Junction
Apparently, Bearizona has been in business for some time. The layout used to be the main focus of the gift shop as it sits right in the middle of the retail floor space with permanent railings around its perimeter. The gift shop staff, mostly young kids, didn't know much about the layout nor who might know more then they did.
As far as what a restoration effort would require, it would mostly entail freshening up the scenery with a little track work in the Williams Depot area. As it is desert scenery, we're not talking about a lot of expensive or time consuming trees. I think that Pelle Soeberg's method for desert scenery published in MR a few years ago would be perfect.
I also don't know whether the layout is powered using DC or DCC or how it was meant to operate. My guess is that it is still DC powered. As I was on a bus tour, I did not have more time to look into the matter.
Has a layout rescue of a private, publicly displayed, layout ever happened?
-Kevin
Living the dream.
It's a 160-acre 'wildlife park' owned by two brothers. The principal focus appears to be on 'the animals', so there might well be interest in a well-planned 'resurrection' followed by operating support help.
Here is their contact information:
Bearizona Wildlife Park (928) 635-2289 info@bearizona.com 1500 E. Route 66, Williams, AZ 86046
and here is their online contact form, where you could at least gauge interest:
https://bearizona.com/contact-us/