The longest-running model engineer show in North America celebrated a milestone, and many people turned out for the event.
The 30th annual Estevan Model Engineer show attracted 50 exhibitors to the Wylie-Mitchell building on Saturday and Sunday. Event organizer Kelly Tytlandsvik said he counted around 250 engines and projects on display.
“There is a lot of beautiful stuff that people have built,” Tytlandsvik said in an interview with the Mercury. “Some people have been here before many times, and they keep bringing their project back, and you see progress every year.
“And then new people come, too. We had two or three new people this year, which is good to see.”
Tytlandsvik was among those who had a project that had been a work in progress for many years that was now complete. He brought a locomotive that was completed this year after 30 years of work, and it proved to be popular with the exhibitors.
(For more on the locomotive, see this week’s edition of Southeast Lifestyles).
Exhibitors travelled a great distance to showcase their items and to view the projects of others. The Saskatoon Model Engineering Club, the Winnipeg Live Steamers and the South Dakota-based Black Hills Model Engineering Club were all represented at the show.
The show also attracted a lot of individuals who brought their projects, and people who just wanted to see the efforts of others.
“We’ve had everything from locomotives to musical instruments, steam engines, gas engines and machine shop tools,” said Tytlandsvik. “We’ve got it all here.”
Tytlandsvik noted that the exhibitors’ wives bring some items to display each year, and they did a good job this year.
Among the highlights for this year were model jet engines brought by Dave Pape of Edmonton. He performed several demonstrations during the weekend that were popular with the public. Pape was appearing in Estevan for the first time in five years.
“I started construction on them in September of 2000, and I just got them to run in July of this year, so that’s 17 years of working on them,” said Pape.
Pape noted he has been busy with other priorities, including raising his two daughters.
He first had the idea for the jet engines when he worked at the University of Alberta’s mechanical engineering department. A fellow engineers wanted to build a jet engine, which got him started.
“Before that, I was working on a continental engine, so he got me started,” said Pape. “We started building it, and then he got married, and she wanted to move to the States, so he quit the project.”
The model jet engines aren’t how they would normally look. Pape has a background as a graphic designer, so he wanted them to look great. It also meant they took longer to build.
Pape learned computer-aided manufacturing and drafting to make the parts on computer numeric controlled equipment. There is also manual operation on the engine.
“There are literally hundreds of parts in each one, and the only part that is processed is the compressor itself, and of course the two major ball bearings that are in it,” said Pape.
A controller for the engine was brought in from Barcelona.
“The kids really like to push the button and see it spin around, and this explains how a jet engine works in simple terms,” said Pape.
Initially Pape wanted two jet engines, but he wound up with four because he wound up working on it on his own.
Tytlandsvik was pleased to see some young people at the show, taking an interest in the hobby and in hands-on machine work. He believes it is becoming a lost skill. And he was pleased to see the shop teacher from the Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) in attendance.
He believes the show has lasted for so long because of the people who have come back each year.
“The people make the show,” he said adamantly. “I took a picture the other morning when we set tables up and it was just a bunch of white tables. If it wasn’t for people coming to the show, there would be no show.”
