Late Breaking News

*A fire ban is currently in effect for the
County's park system. Although it may
be acceptable to burn wood in residential
areas, you are not permitted to have
campfires, fire pits or operate charcoal
grills in the parks at this time for
safety reasons. Thank you.

Just a friendly reminder that we will be working tomorrow morning and having our

Just found a bunch of old pictures in the older part of the web site. See if you are there or if you

Been busy today just add over 2000 pictures to different gallerys. Thanks to Greg Gorman and Rick White and others for their

New system maps have been posted....take a look and see how flung Far Flung Flats is!

"Sunday run crews: There are now three party locations: the MLS patio, the museum station, and the covered area north of the AMRS building. This means we could potentially have three parties scheduled the same day all wanting a ride as is the case on March 7th & 14th. Most run days have one and maybe two scheduled crews thus our ability as a club to accommodate the party members in addition to the general public is becoming strained. In simple terms, we need more volunteers especially on those days with multiple parties scheduled. Please look at your personal situation and see if there is any way you can help even if for only a few hours. If you can help on a regular basis, that's great! If nothing else consider being on the extra board so that we can contact you when the need arises. Our public image not to mention donation are at stake thus we need more members to help out. We need Station Masters, Engineers, Conductors and Concession table/information people.

How it works: Bring your own meal and eat with the crowd of fellow MLSers that will be there. Your meal can be home cooked or brought in from some of the local eateries in the area. After eating and having good conversation with the group we will run trains and enjoy the best 1.5 scale track in the world.

Special Program: Fun and fellowship with folks that share the same interests and are members of the premier RR club in the world.

Here are photos of a few rail inspection cars used in the days before speeders. Perhaps our members would like to see these.

New item on the home page! You have been asking for it now you have it! Under the Modified Date
there is a button labled "changes" click on it and a drop down list of what pages we have changed
in the last 10 days - this will be a rolling 10 day window. - - send comments to webmaster@maricopalivesteamers.com

See the new videos from Lori Hatfield of Connor Dahl at Winterfest 2010 - - here is the first one - see the rest in the travel logs or Winterfest 2010 Page

Boy Scouts, Ford Station, Winter fest 2010, West Turntable and more to come. If you have any pictures past or present see

The Co-Chairmen for the Spring Meet are Perry McCully and Bud Waterworth. It is now time to concentrate on our 2010 Spring Meet, March 18th through the 21th. Again we are counting on your help. We are already collecting donations for the Saturday night raffle. Please bring your donations to the clubhouse.
We need volunteers to act as Yardmasters for all four days. There will be sign-up sheet at the clubhouse.
We need someone with a pickup truck each day to empty trash cans, concessions, Club House house keeping.
Please, register for the meet and that includes members. We prepare the nametags from the registration forms.
We are looking forward to seeing all of you at the park having fun.
It is important for all of you to bring food for the Potluck Dinner on Saturday night, so that we can have a successful dinner. Travelers or out of local area people we ask for a $ 5.00 donation to purchase food for the Potluck.
We hope to see you all there.

Perry McCully                                                                                Bud Waterworth
208 La Crescenta                                                                    2134 W. Cactus Wren Drive
Goodyear, AZ 85338-1410                                                   Phoenix, AZ 85021-7725
pmccully3@cox.net                                                               Budwaterworth@cox.net

We need train Crews!!........The latest count for the AZ for Kids event on Saturday, January 30 is about 400 people total (includes kids and adults). Kids will arrive around 11:30 am.

January 23
Field trip is planned June 24-27 Chama NM ...Contact Cliff Fought to sign up

Hidden away in a little-known corner of the southern Rocky Mountains is a precious historic artifact of the American West. Built in 1880 and little changed since, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is the most spectacular example of steam era mountain railroading in North America.

Sunday, January 17, 2010, at the museum,. UP train belongs to Las Vegas member Ron Trovato, passing through a pair of signals

When the Christmas clearance sales start - - please buy as amny as you can afford to donate, LED christmas light srtings where all lights are the same color - - we need them in white, red green and blue - bring them to the park we will store them here.

This is the world's biggest train set which covers 1,150 square meters (12,380 square feet), features almost
six miles of track and is still not complete

Twin brothers Frederick and Gerrit Braun, 41, began work on the 'Miniatur Wunderland' in 2000

The set covers six regions including America , Switzerland , Scandinavia , Germany and the Austrian Alps

The American section features giant models of the Rocky Mountains, Everglades, Grand Canyon ...

It is expected to be finished in 2014, when the train set will cover more than 1,800 square meters (19, 376 sq ft) and feature almost 13 miles of track, by which time detailed models of parts of France, Italy and the UK will have been added

The scenery includes 900 signals, 2,800 buildings, 4,000 cars - many with illuminated headlights.. .

The 250,000 lights are rigged up to a system which mimics night and day by automatically turning them on and off

In total the set has taken 500,000 hours and more than ï¿½8 million to put together, the vast majority of which has come from ticket sales

Gerrit said: "Our idea was to build a world that men, woman, and children can be equally astonished and amazed in"

Frederik added: "Whether gambling in Las Vegas , hiking in the Alps or paddling in Norwegian fjords - in Wunderland everything is possible"
The world's biggest model train set.
TALK ABOUT YOUR SECOND CHILDHOOD--- --
“BOYS” AND THEIR TOYS....
It comprises 700 trains with more than 10,000 carriages and wagons. The longest train is 46 ft long. The scenery includes 900 signals, 2,800 buildings, 4,000 cars - many with illuminated headlights and 160,000 individually designed figures. Thousands of kilograms of steel and wood was used to construct the scenery. The set is on display to the public and is so big that they employ more than 160 people to show visitors around their creation.

New photos posted from the fall meet by Jim Manley and Mike Grant - -See them in the Photo Gallery

The Scout Camporee was a huge success. We had 292 boy scouts and 140 registered adults with the boys. There was also about 20 staff members for a total of 452 Scouts and Scouters we hosted over the weekend. Of the 292 boys 260 of them completed the merit badge. This could not of been done with out he help from the members of MLS, AMRS, AZGRS and Shuaro Central. Over all we had almost 75 volunteers from these organization putting in hundreds of hours to make this happen. I would like to say thank you to all those that help and also on behalf of all the scouts thank you for your help and dedication. We really worked hard and it paid off. I have received numerous complements about the camporee and all of the help that we supplied. One of the real neat things was how well behaved the scouts were upholding the true spirit of scouting. By the time they left Sunday morning you could not tell there had been any type of event.

You may bring this ballot to the November 14th membership meeting or mail it to: Betty Moore,
24633 N. 45th Dr., Glendale, AZ 85310 for delivery by November 14th.

Jerry Grundy's wife Jennifer passed peacefully on Tuesday September 29th at 3pm.
Services will be on Monday October 5th at 11am.
Regency Mortuary 9850 W Thunderbird, Sun City (North East corner of 99th Ave and Thunderbird).

Here is the service information for Dave Harnish.
Burial service will be 10:00 AM Tuesday September 29 at:
National Memorial
Cemetery of Arizona
23029 North Cave Creek Road
Phoenix, AZ 85024
Phone: (480) 513-3600

Funeral service will be 12:00 PM Tuesday September 29 at:
American Lutheran Church
17200 N Del Webb Blvd
Sun City, AZ 85373
(623) 974-2512

Dave Harnish passed away Saturday night. He was killed in a motorcycle-car accident.

Nominations for the 2010 election are open. If you are interested in running for an office or you would like to nominate someone for an office please contact Carlyle Rossow. Click here for a Blank Nomination Form
Email carlylerossow@juno.com

ALL MEMBERS! help is needed for the camporee. Friday from about 4 to 10, guiding troops to sites

WE NEED LOTS of CREWS AND TRAINS for Sat Night. If I Can get All riding cars anybody has that would be great.

Singin' on the train: Rail is a hot new venue for artists

When the last song reached its crescendo and nine young people harmonized the words "Remember a year in the life of friends, remember the love," the strangers crowding the Metro light-rail car exchanged shy smiles, some clapped, a few sang along and others said they "got the shivers."

On a recent Friday, a collection of friends calling themselves the Motion Theatre Company boarded at the Central and Camelback station just after 7 p.m. to sing and perform scenes for students, commuters, downtown diners, family and friends.

They projected their voices over blaring station announcements, whirring air-conditioning and dinging doors. OAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1')

Stephen Schermitzler joins Jesse Mapstead at a Metro light-rail stop before performing some traveling music. Nick Oza/The Arizona Republic

Stephen Schermitzler joins Jesse Mapstead at a Metro light-rail stop before performing some traveling music.

"I think it's wonderful. I love stuff like this," said rider LaChé Lucas, 21, of Ahwatukee. "I want them to keep going. I will stay on if they do."

In a region where many public spaces are empty more than half the year because of climate and urban sprawl, the Valley's light-rail system has come to serve as a popular place for people to gather and perform.

Train performers

In most big cities, parks, plazas and sidewalks are where surprising interactions and occasional theater performances take place. Public trains are lesser venues.

But since the 20 miles of track through Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa opened in December, bands, theater troupes, charity organizations and collections of friends have staged all kinds of events in the system's sleek gray cars.

Since February, more than 23 local bands have performed acoustic sets, entertaining riders with wooden blocks, guitars, saxophones and violins as a part of Train Tracks, a weekly live-music initiative. (Videos are posted at thetraintracks.org, getting thousands of views and inspiring bands from other cities to apply to perform.)

In January, about 100 people calling themselves Improv Everywhere staged an act of guerrilla theater, riding in their underwear through Tempe and Phoenix.

In the fall, Arizona State University staged a scavenger hunt between its downtown and Tempe campuses to encourage students to use light rail.

Groups have hosted charity bar crawls and progressive dinners along the lines. Friends have used the cars as meeting places for nights out, dressed as brides, superheroes and 1980s-era tennis pros - minishorts, sweat bands and all.

"I don't care if you live in Mesa, Phoenix or Tempe, there's a community that's being built around light rail," said Tempe's Nick Bastian, who has run the blog rail life.com since mid-2007.

He was one of nine Valley bloggers, organizations and civic leaders who coordinated the late-night ride July 31. Using Twitter updates, blog posts and Internet videos, organizers encouraged more than 100 people to meet at bars adjacent to light-rail stations and ride the trains.

Ken Clark, a 30-something Realtor, also rallied riders for the night via his downtown social group, Get Your Phx. He's fascinated by people's enthusiasm for light rail.

"It resonates with people because we've gone so many years with this disconnected sense of the city because of the freeways," he said. "But now, we have this new shared space, and it's a moving shared space, and that gets people's imaginations going."

Trains fill a void

There are several reasons for light rail's growing popularity for events.

The Valley is dotted with city parks, but many lack sufficient shade and water, according to Carlton Yoshioka, director of park and recreation management at Arizona State University's School of Community Resources and Development. And they're just too hot half the year.

"We are a little bit different; there's somewhat of a challenge for a lot of people to use our parks," he said.

Another issue is low population density. Because of urban sprawl, much of metro Phoenix lacks the critical mass necessary to make public spaces feel safe and well-used by all kinds of people, not just by transients, according to Nan Ellin, planning-program director at ASU's School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.

Instead, people made do with a public-private mix of hiking trails, malls, and the courtyards, playgrounds and fountains of open-air malls.

"All people need a public realm. These are like community living rooms," Ellin said. "Part of the need for the public realm is to have a stage where we can be spectators . . . and the reverse, where we can be spectacles."

She said the new stations and trains are the perfect stages because they're brightly lit, beautifully designed and the seats inside cars force riders to look at each other.

"This is a need people have that has gone unsatisfied in Phoenix," Ellin said. "And now, the people who do like to make themselves a spectacle, who make up the magic of a big city, who might otherwise leave, maybe this will help retain them and other members of our creative class."

Perfect venue

Mark Jacobson, 19, of Phoenix, back home from the University of Southern California, got together with friends in June to see if they would consider performing on the light rail, ambushing fellow passengers with art, as he put it.

Jacobson saw the train cars as the perfect venue: free to use, requiring no costumes, air-conditioning was provided and they had a built-in audience.

By the last week of July, high-school and college students were ready to do scenes from "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "The Odd Couple" and songs from the musicals "Little Shop of Horrors" and "The Last Five Years." "Seasons of Love" from "Rent" was the last song of the night.

"We wanted to do it on light rail because there's a lot of good culture in the city that people don't always explore, and I wanted to spark interest in that," Jacobson said. "I thought the light rail was a really cool thing, and maybe with things like this and Train Tracks, people can come to expect more of an experience than they normally would."

On the train, North Canyon High School student Alex Rivera, 17, sang and played Felix Ungar from "The Odd Couple."

Rivera said performing on Phoenix's light rail was totally different from when he did a monologue on New York City's subway as part of a theater-class trip.

"In Phoenix, people respond, they clap or they share an opinion in some way," he said. "In New York, they act like they can't see you, like you're not there. They look at the floor. And there, you feel like one of a million.

"Here, you feel like you're making a difference."

And he's right, Ellin said.

"The public realm can be life-affirming," she said. "These kinds of interactions are things that make our lives much, much richer."

Reach the reporter at megan.finnerty@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8770.

1. Slow order for Far Flung from Josha Jct. this is Dark Country and track around the balloon is still settleing adjust your speed !!!!

Cliff, Dewey and Jim Z gets "LOST in TEXAS" At

The Comanche & Indian Gap "Spring Fling"

Pete Guy's photos CLICK HERE

Bob Vanderkarr photos CLICK HERE

Singin' on the train: Rail is a hot new venue for artists

Train performers

Trains fill a void

Perfect venue