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. 

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At the height of mining, smelting and cattle ranching, nine railroads served the Verde Valley. 
Miles of track crisscrossed the valley, connecting mines to smelters in Clarkdale and Clemenceau
and from the smelters to markets across the nation.

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The diorama has been completely built from scratch, 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, "Old Town" Cottonwood, and the surrounding ranches. 

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.

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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.