Sirrine had been interested in model railways from a long time (Photo: All About Mesa AZ. Image enhanced by AI)
An Arizona businessman who made his name in homebuilding and design spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars turning his backyard into one of the largest private garden railways in the United States.
Dennis Sirrine, began building the Palo Verde & Southwestern Railroad in January 2004. The project eventually featured nearly 4,000 feet of railway track and a collection of hundreds of model train cars.According to the PBS programme Tracks Ahead, Sirrine used his experience in construction to develop the large outdoor railway. The layout included winding tracks, artificial mountains, lakes and rivers, with sections raised several feet above the ground to make the trains easier to see.Sirrine had been interested in model railways from a long time. During his years as a general contractor, he sometimes incorporated railway layouts into the houses he designed. These involved installing wooden shelves near ceiling height, laying tracks on them and allowing model trains to travel through several rooms.His backyard railway, however, was a much larger undertaking. What began as an empty piece of land required extensive construction, repeated modifications and a complicated operating system.
Sirrine told PBS that some parts of the railway had to be built more than once before he was satisfied with the results.
How an empty backyard became a railway
When construction began in January 2004, Sirrine's backyard was largely flat, with no existing railway infrastructure. After studying garden railways elsewhere in the country, he decided that an elevated layout would provide a better viewing experience than tracks placed directly on the ground.The railway was therefore constructed at heights ranging from 30 inches to six feet. According to Sirrine, approximately 1,000 cubic yards of soil were brought onto the property to raise different sections of the layout.The raised tracks allowed visitors to watch the trains without having to bend down or kneel. Sirrine also designed the surrounding landscape to resemble real railway routes, incorporating changes in elevation, curves, lakes and rivers.His previous construction experience helped him undertake the project, but it did not prevent problems. Sirrine said he had worked in the construction industry for 17 years and understood the building process. Even so, several sections did not turn out as planned.He estimated that nearly half the layout had to be removed and rebuilt because of construction problems or incorrect advice about particular methods.
Repeating completed work became one of the project's biggest challenges.
Electrical problems led to a different operating system
Building the tracks was only part of the work. Sirrine also had to develop a system that could operate different types of model locomotives across the extensive railway.The original electrical arrangements involved approximately 1,000 feet of wire and 10,000 feet of conduit. Looking back, Sirrine said he would have preferred battery-powered trains from the beginning.The railway eventually used a combination of battery power and electricity supplied through the tracks. This arrangement also allowed visitors who owned electrically powered locomotives to operate their trains on his layout.Another major challenge involved the turnouts, or switches, which allow trains to move between different tracks. Sirrine had observed electrical switches developing corrosion and operational problems on other garden railways.Concerned about their reliability in Arizona's climate, he chose air-powered switches manufactured by the California and Oregon Coast Railway company in Oregon. The system operated using a compressor rather than relying on electrical switches.Sirrine told PBS that the air-powered system had worked reliably after installation, resolving one of the most difficult operating problems he had faced.
The features Sirrine's most proud of
Despite the project's size, Sirrine identified two particular achievements when discussing his railway with PBS- the accuracy of the tracks and the construction of the artificial mountains.The tracks were laser-levelled to keep them straight and ensure smooth changes in elevation. According to Sirrine, visitors had placed video cameras on flatbed railway cars and recorded their journeys around the layout. They were impressed by how smoothly the trains travelled.Meanwhile, the mountains required a different construction method. Sirrine used flat concrete panels designed to resemble rock, breaking them into sections before arranging, grouting and staining them to create realistic desert formations.The resulting landscape formed part of a railway designed to combine model trains with the appearance of natural terrain.