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Mike Engler's first and last HO layout (or: A SWSM Extravaganza- Fourteen Years of Brett's Kits)

I usually finish what I start, but here I am starting another thread even though I haven't finished "Son of Brass and Iron Foundry". I am detailing it now and it already has a reserved place on my first layout which is also near completion. And so will that thread. It is really a compilation of about 12 or 14 SWSM kits I have built starting with the Twin Mills of Deer Creek that I started in 2008. I was inspired by what I saw at the first CSS07 (Craftsman Structure Show) in Mansfield MA, and really became enthralled and engrossed by this art form. It's not just a hobby.

It was here that I witnessed the most fine scale models and the largest gathering of world class RR model builders that were ever assembled under one roof at the same time. I have heard that from many folks that were there, and many who wished that they had been there. It was here that I met and was able to study and learn from many who have become good friends as well as being mentors. I believe there were about 250 or so there- the show was the brainchild of Doug Foscale, Jimmy Deignan, and Scott Mason. Some of the rock stars there were Brett Gallant, Dave Frary, Bob Van Gelder, George Sellios, Dave Revelia, Brian Nolan, Mike Tylick, Dick Ewell, Carl Laskey, Elliott Moore, Hal Reynolds, Brian Bollinger, Bob Mitchell, Russ Greene, Jon Addison, Rich Baubien, and Karl Scholz, and these are just the ones that my tired old memory can come up with. I'm sure I have made significant omissions.

Dave Revelia brought from Florida an entire PODS container full of dioramas and structures, made by he and his buddies and they were incredible. Many of the above are the premier craftsman kit producers of all time, and all of them were displaying their wares, sharing their knowledge, and putting on non-stop clinics, and sold a lot of kits. I took home some and ordered even more. I took home I believe Duluth Co. and ordered a Twin Mills kit. The pilot models alone in the manufacturers room were mind-boggling. The contest room overflowed.

These were the layouts on the tour: Jimmy Deignan's Pennsy Middle Division, built by Dave Frary; Dick Ewell's incredible layout; Bob Van Gelder's open house and layout featuring the pilot models of all of his very successful kits; and the most famous of all- George Sellios' incomparable Franklin & South Manchester. I had met George some 40 years earlier when he was at his first national train convention- the 1969 NMRA convention in Minneapolis, my home town. He had a little table and was building one of his first kits, a little signal tower.

I was fascinated and since George wasn't attracting crowds when he was relatively new, I was able to watch and learn from him for hours during the weekend. I learned we had much in common, (George played minor-league baseball in the Minnesota Twins organization- my team- in nearby Wisconsin Rapids. He later gave it up when he blew out a knee. He is a friend and I have been lucky to visit he and his railroad many times. It helps that I can fly Delta for free. I started with a couple of FSM kits in 1969 and then model building was interrupted for almost 40 years as I started a career, got married and helped raise five kids, played golf 100 times per year (an achievement if you live in Minnesota), moved the family to Chicago, Minneapolis again, San Francisco, St. Louis, and back to Minnesota in 1988.

For the next 20 years I played much more golf, coached a lot of baseball and hockey, worked some, helped raise and put the kids through college, and finally realized that owning your own businesses was the way to go, about 20 years later than I should have. But serious model building didn't come until I was motivated by the CSS07. I met Elliott Moore at the show although I had known him for a year or so through the RRLine forum, an early internet forerunner to this great forum and Facebook, etc. Elliott also ordered one and we decided to do a joint build thread on RRLine. It lasted more than a full year until we both finished. I think I called Brett at least 50 times during the year and also consulted with Elliott of course, and also Karl Scholz- after George my first mentor.

I finally finished after somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 hours of fun. The enjoyment was about 35 cents per hour. The thread was successful and a lot of fun- well over 100,000 views the last time I checked a few years ago. Brett was proud because both models were awarded Best of Show awards at the National Narrow Gauge Conventions in 2009 and 2010, mine in Colorado Springs and Elliott's in St. Louis the next year. I actually drove Elliott to Minneapolis after he won, and he visited us for a few days before he flew home. His daughter and her boy friend drove his model back to northern California. There are a lot of photos of my model in the Gallery section elsewhere on this forum.

So I digressed a little with this auto biography. The 3 x 3.5 ft. sawmill diorama is the first module of the seven modules on my layout. I'll show you how I built the layout the way real railroads did it. I first built all the industry dioramas that were served, and then played the tracks that connected them and there ultimate consumers. All 14 SWSM kits I have built are on the layout, as well as some other dioramas and structures. I have never started a kit or scratch building project that I didn't finish. Many of them are on the layout but many (non SWSM kits) were sold or donated. Dave Frary once told me that you should sell or give away all of your finished models or else you might stand around admiring them instead of building more.

Module 7 is under way and it features O'Neill's Fabrication's, the Brass and Iron Foundry, and the Riverfront- a wharf scene that will ship all the products from the mines, sawmill, and other industries. So stay tuned this will take a while. The nice thing about a great forum like Brett's is that you can say a little or a lot, but the other nice thing is you don't have to read any of it if you don't like it or aren't entertained. So here goes- some photos of how the Renner City and Western got started and where it went. A diagram tomorrow. The seven modules are all separate dioramas, easily transported and are lightweight. Five of the seven are 2x4 ft. All seven of them could be removed from our lower level and loaded into a rental truck by two people in two or three hours. So it's going somewhere so I can start my On30 layout.

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Comments

  • Mike...a very entertaining biography...thanks for sharing with us...one portion of your story which tapped a vein with me was how “life “ got in the way for many decades of your participating in this great “art form”... same-o, same-o with me.
    Thanks again for sharing. I look forward to future installments of this thread
    BTW...I’ve admired your modeling skills ever since I’ve been a member of Brett’s forum
    Terry
  • Wow, what a wonderful intro with a lot of memories and people I love and admire. This is going to be such a treat to see your layout here. (Even though I have seen it in person!) I know forum members will appreciate seeing your fantastic work. I was lucky enough to visit Mike's layout while attending the Minneapolis Narrow Gauge Convention. His layout is an exceptional example of how to create a massive diorama brimming with detail and character. Looking forward to more!
  • i'm pretty sure we all are.
  • Hey Mike, great to hear from you and wonderful memories of CSS07 !! If I'm not mistaken, along with all the wonderful modeling and extremely talented folks there to learn from, we were able to continue the dialog well into the evening as I recall closing the bar with you and others.

    So looking forward to your thread here and following along with your continued modeling journey.
    All the best and be well !!
    --Paul
  • Mike, thanks for doing this. I have always admired your work and it was a thrill to meet you at the FSM convention in 2016. You are doing what I had dreamed about but will not be able to pull off. Your autobiography highlights what I was talking to Brett about this week. This is a hobby (or obsession) where the talented crafters are not afraid of sharing their various techniques and tricks. We all need to work together to keep new modelers coming into the hobby. The only way to do this is to freely share our work. Phil
  • Hey Mike a great story. I remember meeting you and a whole lot more people at that 1st show.

    A great show wonderful people and to think after 13 years we still all communicate with each other.

    Jerry
  • Having visited your layout at the Minneapolis Narrow Gauge Convention and admiring your great work, I am looking forward to following your thread.

    I too had a lapse of time where life got in the way of modeling. I started a Campbell Brett's Brewery kit and then got busy. It sat on my workbench for 20 years. Finally after I retired I dusted it off and completed it. That reignited the spark to keep building! And I have been going strong ever since.
  • Wow! What a great story.
  • Hi Mike, This is going to be interesting to see what you do with your Sierra West kits. I am in the same situation on my layout with my sawmill area as I am in the process of laying the structures out and doing the scenery. Your work is always so fantastic.
  • Thanks for sharing your story and I look forward to your future posts.
  • Wow! Thanks for all the great comments. Makes me sad I take these long sabbaticals away from modeling and catching up with you guys. PaulS I remember the bar scene like I remember the Star Wars bar scene! Actually I remember that closing the bar was hard to do because the Holiday Inn in Mansfield was clever enough to have one bartender and no server for about one hundred or so clinic presenters and attendees, and all the vendors and customers who spilled out of our show about 9 pm. If I had a car there I would have driven to the nearest liquor store and filled it with several cases of beer and taken it back to the pool area and resold it and would have made enough to afford a few more kits.

    I also remember at a subsequent show what a treat it was to see Paul's fabulous work on his layout at his home! I met so many long-time good friends at that 2007 show. Usually have only been able to see them once a year or so but that in many cases has been 12 or more times! That's why when you are as old as we are you hope this stupid virus will be reigned in some day soon.

    Since there is some interest here I am scurrying around trying to piece a few of my thousands of photos together to make a presentable story. I just spent some time trying to convert a PDF file of my layout diagram to a jpeg file that I can post. I am fairly low tech so we will see. Some photos and a track plan will follow in a day or so. Thanks again to all of you.

    Engler modules 02 copy
  • After my sawmill diorama got home from an extended road trip (it went to Winnipeg, Manitoba; Iowa City; Colorado Springs; Milwaukee; and many short trips around Minneapolis- St. Paul) from 2008 through 2010 my patient wife Joanne decided it was tired and needed a more or less permanent home. I estimate it went up and down from our lower level at least 30 round trips while it was being built and later when it was out competing.

    My long time friend Jack Bergan lives across the street and we have been close friends for over fifty years. Jack is an avid model railroader and like me specializes in structure building and he has an incredible layout in his lower level. He and I carried the Twin Mills of Deer Creek most of those trips between floors- not a difficult feat as it is only 3 x 3.5 sq. ft. and only weighs about 20 pounds.

    Like all my dioramas it has a base of half-inch gatorboard with layers of half-inch pink insulation on top depending on the scenic requirements. The sawmill is the only one of the seven modules that had two pieces of gatorboard laminated together as a base. I never have had any warpage or breakdowns in 20 years, but year-round climate control helps a lot. This is Minnesota.

    Most of the 2x4 sections are relatively flat and have a layer of half-inch homasote on top to make hand laying track and sound control easier. My wife has unwillingly been on way more layout tours than the law allows and she made tedious notes as to what my layout could or could not have. Sheet-rocked walls, a dropped ceiling with adequate dimmable lighting that can be aimed in all directions, carpet-panels flooring, many extra electrical outlets as extension cords are not desirable, etc.

    But the biggest taboo would be sliding curtains on rods to try and hide the tons of logistic stuff stored beneath the layouts she had observed. I cleverly came up with the idea of kitchen cabinets (I had actually seen them on a couple of the fabulous narrow gauge layouts in St. Louis) and after researching many cabinet-makers I found one who had what he called "seconds", or rather a custom order that went sour.

    Not wanting to store them he sold the four units to me for $80. A good bargain, but they were somewhat labor intensive as the superintendent required they be sanded, varnished, sanded again (to bring out the grain-in a layout room-seen by only a few cronies each year) and a final coat of varnish. This was accomplished in our garage over several weeks, or about the time it takes to build a nice kit. The cabinets are the bases for all of the modules, which are bolted in place so that they can be moved around (or out).

    It took the better part of a year to get everything ready for painting the walls sky blue (maybe tried about 20 shades of blue paint chips first). The backdrops are photos I will describe later. I admit I was the helper on my BIL's crew on the finishing project. An electrical-contractor fellow modeler supervised me on the wiring which has a couple of circuits and seven two-way outlets along the three walls.

    The lower level of our townhome has two bedrooms and a large family room for future expansion (of the layout- not family). Our local grandchildren love sleepovers here (and work sessions on the layout when grandpa is mixing hydrocal, molding plaster, or epoxy resin for the mill ponds. Our California kids also visit a few times a year and they pretty much take the place over.

    The first photo is a rough sketch of the track plan, and it has been refined from this and I will introduce them later. The second shows you the room after the cabinets and benchwork were in place and Modules 1 and 2 were in position temporarily. These first two dioramas won Best-of-Show awards in the 2009 and 2014 National Narrow Gauge Conventions in Colorado Springs and Kansas City respectively.

    On the far left is Module 7 where you can see O'Neill's and where the Brass and Iron Foundry, the River Landing wharf area and an ore dock will go. Part of the river and a few barges for cut-lumber from the sawmill and ore from the Deer Creek Mine will complete that last module. Since the sawmill is entirely the Twin Mills of Deer Creek on Module 1, here are some photos of the mill. There are a lot of mini-scenes and at one time I think 53 Little People. Some of them have hitch-hiked to newer modules. I hope some of the pics are not on the Gallery pages. A few more next time.

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    JaimeZepedaPinoGrande 001_2

    Sawmill 1

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  • I'm in awe......Rick
  • Great memories in seeing that the first time.

    Loving this story Mike.

    Jerry
  • Mike, really enjoying your telling of the backstory behind your layout and all that went into building it along with the wonderful pictures of your modeling.
    Great stuff and I'll be following along,
    --Paul
  • What a super achievement ! This is really a fantastic layout. Bravo !
  • Here is a quote from last time when I talked about the nice cabinets that I obtained to be the bases for all my benchwork. "the superintendent required they be sanded, varnished, sanded again (to bring out the grain-in a layout room-seen by only a few cronies each year)" and then varnished a final time.

    Several years later I was Chairman of the 2018 NNGC here in Minneapolis and we had an open house for the layout and the cabinets drew many compliments. We had over 300 sign our guest book during the two days we were open. Joanne said "See, I told you so. They came too see the nice cabinets!"

    At one time we had these luminaries at our house at the same time: Johnny Graybeal, Robin Peel, Fred Headon, Pete Magoun, Bob Brown, Ted and Joyce Van Pelt, Charlie Getz, Sam Furukawa, Jimmy Booth, Tim and Kathy Godfrey, Karl Allison, Brett Gallant, and Jon Addison. Rock stars all.

    Here are a few more photos of the Twin Mills of Deer Creek- no doubt its swan song in threads like this.

    First one shows the island where the sawmill was placed- before that happened it was a storage place for some of the structures and dioramas that didn't make the cut for this layout as they didn't fit the logging and mining theme. Almost all have found homes somewhere on other local layouts.

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    2009review01






  • edited September 2020
    And some more:

    NMRA2009 113

    Sundancebacks01

    DSC_3334_2 copy
  • And last ones:

    FlyerSawmill

    outside100409 063 copy


  • No words to describe your work. Glad so many have been able to see it in person......Rick
  • Superb, what a beautiful layout and quite the inspiration.
  • Mike,

    I have always enjoyed looking at your models. Contest winning dioramas give us all something to aspire to.

    Did you use Kadee disconnects on your sawmill diorama?

    Did a picture of Carl Laskey's sawmill slip into your 12:04 PM posting?
  • Great layout!
  • Thanks for the nice comments.

    This is embarrassing. MitchN, you are absolutely right. The first photo under "and some more." above was indeed taken by me of my good friend Carl Laskey's version of Brett's sawmill. I took the above photo at the national NMRA convention in Hartford in 2009 where it won first place in displays and dioramas. I can only say my mistake for including it here was because it was not only late at night, but I also have thousands of photos I should edit (but it is so boring).

    But the big reason is that three of my good friends also have built this kit, and all were spectacular and won First Place and Best of Show awards at national conventions. I have many, many photos of all of them included in my Photos section. Somewhere I have one of Carl Laskey, the late and great Elliott Moore, Bill Obenauf, and myself standing together admiring one of the builds.

    So here is one I don't think anyone but my wife and I have seen of the interior of the new mill; and then a good overhead shot of one I am certain is my Twin Mills taken by another good friend, Jaime Zepeda. Jaime has been the official photographer of many conventions including the NNGC in Minneapolis two years ago. Much of his work has been in the "Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette" and too many internet forums to even count.

    daylight015

    Jaime 1

  • I love it when Ed serves up that off-speed pitch on a platter. Brett's (and my friend as well as one of the best kit designer and producers ever) is Roger Malinowski who produces Stony Creek Designs, check them out at http://www.stoneycreekdesigns.com
    I intend to build his O scale "J&L Mining" kit when I do my On30 layout, one of only a few unbuilt kits I have. Also a few of his great street of stores that I have.

    The scrapyard Ed mentions was my first O scale kit and now I have built seven of them waiting to pounce onto the new layout. This one is the Stoney Creek Designs Scrapyard, based on a design by Nick Ogden of the UK. I named my build "Ogden Salvage Co." after Sir Nick-O who became a good friend that I met while hanging out with Brett at some trade shows. Google Nick Ogden and you will find some dynamite build threads here and on RR Line etc.

    I built this onto a 12x12 of course and it won a first place at one of the CSS or Expo shows. Here are a couple of pics of it and a dark and fuzzy one of Brett surprising Roger with a free kit at a long ago show. One of the photos shows a couple of piles of rusty sheet metal stacked in front of the front door. These were printed from a website called "Texture images". Size them to any scale you want, print, cut out, paste several in a stack and dust on a little pastel chalk powder and you have a nice detail.

    Also a shot of my O scale kits. Building Brett's Tool Shed from his O Scale "Dueling Shacks" kit made me a convert to O scale. As you know the detail is incredible.

    So this is the little break before I go on to Module 2 next time. It takes some prep for Module 2 as there are 25 or 26 structures on it. We are celebrating in the family tonight as the Twins won the division title and our kids and families favorites are the Twins, Padres, Brewers, and Cubs, all of whom made the playoffs. Fun couple of weeks ahead as in this family we are all baseball crazy.

    Ogden critter side 900

    Ogden sign side 900

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    Brett and Roger copy

    O scale builds 900
  • Love the commentary and great modeling. Keep it coming....Rick
  • You've been around in the kit building world for some time. It shows. Such fine builds. Thanks for the story and pics.
  • yes, please.
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