Desert Ops 2026

 Last week I attended the biannual Desert Ops event in the Phoenix, Arizona area. This is a delightful time of year there, with mild, sunny days, and I think everyone enjoyed the weekend. As I understood from meet organizers, this was the twelfth edition of this event (to see my comments on previous Desert Op weekends, use those words as the search term in the search box at right).

This year I was assigned four layouts, the first of them as an “outlaw” layout visit (not meaning “illegal” but outside the regular program, usually the day prior to the start of the event). This time it was Rick Watson’s compact but intense Exeter Branch layout, where I had operated several times before and always found to be great fun. This time I switched Reedley-Dinuba, which certainly holds one’s attention.

 Note above Rick’s remarkably effective scenic technique: all relevant buildings are present, but terrain is simply painted brown, with roads indicated. It is simple, durable, and impressively convincing.

That evening, I operated at David Doiron’s huge Arizona layout, the “Lost Dutchman,” where, again, I had operated several times before and always enjoyed it. It is located in a basement like no other in size, and gradually the layout is inhabiting all of it. Below at left is my 18-car train to Peterson leaving Tempe yard.

The following day I operated again at Rick Watson’s, but this time on his relatively new and immense Los Angeles Division of the SP, set in 1979–1984. The sheer size and scope of it is close to overwhelming, with three decks in places (staging is either above or below). Here’s an overview of one side. That’s Michael Mang and Scott Chatfield in the distance. You can see the lower-deck staging at left. 

I got to work the Burbank Local, a train I rode (in the caboose) as a teenager — not in the ’80s. It is all by SP SPINS numbers, a very prototypical style. Shown below are just two of the spots, the Glendale house track and team track. My train is beyond, including a Skybox for Lockheed in Burbank.

I loved this; as a teenager, I often rode my bike to the Glendale depot to watch trains, and climb on box cars on the team track. The only time an employee noticed, he just said, ”Be careful up there.” Another age.

Returning from the job, my train terminated in Taylor Yard. Rick has created a large and credible version of this iconic SP yard, as you see below.  My just-yarded train is the one at lower right, with the orange-door box car. Coast staging is above. You can see here the remarkably light-looking steel benchwork.

On the last day, I operated at the model railroad club in Gilbert, Arizona. It is an high-quality layout, as clubs go, and their operating scheme was pretty good and very workable. Shown below is Mesa yard, which was my job in this session. 

This was a typically fun, interesting, and engaging weekend. If you have never been to an event like this, I urge you to seek one out. The easiest way to do so is to consult the calendar of these events on the OpSIG site (at: https://www.opsig.org/files/event_calendar.pdf ; you do need to be an OpSIG member, only ten bucks), which will also tell you if it’s open to all, or invitational, and if the former, you can request a slot. I believe you would find it a lot of fun.

Tony Thompson