About Us, our history and this web site Our Mission: We are a not for profit social club whose theme is N scale model railroading. We enjoy the model train hobby and as a club we are actively participating in it and promoting it. Part of the participation aspect is sharing our accomplishments with the community, encouraging public rail crossing safety and railfanning safety along with respect for the railroad property we are obseving. Our History: Our roots as a club reach back to the early 90's when N Scale was a practical joke. The club was named the Feather River N Gineer's. We modeled the California based Western Pacific. The club layout was based out of Davis Montham AFB located in Tucson, AZ. It was an informal bunch of model railroaders who were brought together by word of mouth and by the personal at Arizona Trains Hobby Shop (now closed). A layout was being constructed by a member named Art. He was very good at modeling but not so good at building layouts and bench work. Art was building this layout out of a rental home garage off Broadway and Campbell. As the Feather River N Ginner's began to grow, one of the members, who worked at DM AFB thought that he could talk to some people and get the club moved in to a more noticeable area. He talked with the base commander and convinced him that a model railroad would be good for the moral and rec center. They gave us an old store room which was about 15'x30'. We started expanding on Art's good sized layout. In the room we built a wall to allow access to the back of the storage area and put in a 4x8 Plexiglas viewing window so the layout could be viewed by anyone to help make it known. A few years later he convinced the rec center director that the utility room next door could be gutted of the old unused equipment which gained the club another 15'x20' extension. The layout was operating on DC aristo crat throttles and then in the last years it was converted to early Digitrax DCC systems. With DCC being a 'new' concept, the layout was wired for both DC and DCC systems. The hope of the layout was to attract base personnel as well as other people on the base. The club was advertised in the base paper every week. We never got too many enlisted to join but numerous retired did. That was the problem. After making it through two base commanders over the years, the last wouldn't budge. The next commander did not see why he should support it when there was no benefit to the base because of the fact that no active Air Force personal were in the club. The layout was dismantled with some sections preserved for the next layout (in 2001). Many of the members split and others just lost interest in the hobby. After Davis Montham, the club met at a member's house to help him build a layout and try to hold together the remaining members of what was left of the Feather River N Gineer's. During this time, fall of 2000, a decision was made to consider N-Trak layout modeling. This decision was firmed up, but not final, when one member donated four corner modules. In early 2001, a temporary layout location was offered at 620 Lazy J, which is off of Speedway Blvd and Houghton Rd. The location was accepted and soon became a permanent layout location until spring of 2005. This layout was constructed with some of the saved section from DM AFB. It still operated with the same DC and DCC controls. The layout was built in a 'E' shaped formation. During this time we attended our first Great American Train Show in 2002. The club participated with a 12ft x 24ft layout. It was successful and soon convinced the club that N-Trak was a viable and worthwhile approach to N scale modeling. This is how Tucson Ntrak became part of the Arizona & Southwest Model Railroad Society name. From that show on, the ASWMRRS & Tucson Ntrak began attending the Tucson GATS shows at the Pima County Fair Grounds. This event would become an annual show for the club. In May of 2005, the 620 Lazy J location was no longer available due to the fact that the owners were moving out. So the club once again found themselves in a situation all to familiar. We dismantled the layout and put some of the good sections in storage along with our big collection of N trak modules. The club is now thinking about becoming a N trak travel type club. We have been attending some of the most local events and some far away. To keep members together we are meeting at another member's house on the weekends to work on modules and conducting business meetings at the local library. We are hopeful that a new location will open up for the club. Information courtesy of Jim Kueneman, Jim Jones, Stuart Draper, Gary Coupus. This Web Site: We are working to promote our club and Nscale model railroading in Tucson, AZ with the content and information provided on this web site. Another purpose is placing collected knowledge, achievements and accolades at a central source where any and all club members and easily access it. Anyone who is interested in our content is, of course, welcome to browse it. To provide flexibilty in presentation, all of the web pages are edited without webpage design aids. Not a better way, just our way.