Arizona man builds backyard railway with nearly 4,000 feet of track

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.