ESTEVAN — The 34th edition of the Estevan Model Engineering Show – the oldest event of its kind in North America – attracted 37 participants, who displayed 155 model engines and other handmade projects at the Wylie-Mitchell Hall on Saturday and Sunday.
Hobby engineers brought many new projects this year, which Estevan has never seen before, as well as some beloved pieces. With a couple of newcomers to the show, Kelly Tytlandsvik, who's been organizing the event throughout all these years, added new pins to the event map, showing how the event draws interest from all over North America.
Several participants' wives also brought their hobbies – including quilting and sewing, canning, felting, geological rock collecting, diamond painting and more – and had them on display.
Hundreds of people stopped by to check out the exhibits and visit with the participants, who were eager to share stories of their latest creations.
One of the participants, Ed Drachenberg from Humboldt, brought his latest piece – Henry Ford's first-ever automobile model. He created a real-size replica of the 1896 Ford Quadricycle Runabout in the 2000s and recently decided to reproduce its one-fifth scale miniature.
"I built a full-size run about 15 years ago. I didn't want to put bicycle wheels on, so I made my own out of wood," Drachenberg said, noting that the project cost him $1,400, of which $400 was used to make a nice velvet seat, and he and his wife now drive that vehicle in parades.
It took two winters to build a full-size model, and the same amount of time to build the miniature.
"Even though it's small, it's sometimes harder," Drachenberg said.
He added that through building these models, he wanted to understand how Ford was thinking when inventing his automobiles. And he indeed learned quite a bit.
"He was a scrounger," Drachenberg said. "The reason why you used bicycle wheels was because his friend had a bicycle shop, so he probably could get them for free. And he worked for Thomas Edison, so he built his car in his shop because he didn't have a shop. And he used the telephone batteries, telephone coil, and telephone parts for his invention."
Engineering has always been a part of his life, and the model engineering hobby came just as a natural continuation of his interests later in life when there were fewer obligations and more time.
A tool and die maker, Drachenberg was Saskatchewan's first apprentice machinist under the government plan.
"I started in 1963," Drachenberg recalled.
Since then, he worked in different industries, built prototypes of different kinds, wrote programs and did research.
Drachenberg said in their hobby, one of the most difficult and time-consuming parts is often finding the information, the specifications and drawings. For his latest creation, he had to acquire information from The Henry Ford Museum. He had blueprints for this and other projects on display and up for grabs at the show as well.
For his miniature, everything but sparkplugs was made by hand. One of his nieces, who is a glass artist, made glass bubbles for oil. And another niece did upholstery.
Drachenberg noted that he also really enjoys building guns and has built a Gatling gun and canons. He makes parts by hand and also creates machines to help with that. He had some of his hand-built equipment on display at the show as well.
"The reason why I built this equipment was so I can build a skeleton clock, and I was going to build a clock in the last couple of years, but I got sidetracked building [the miniature Ford vehicle] instead," Drachenberg said, noting he still hopes to have the clock built within the next few years.
Drachenberg is a member of the Saskatoon Model Engineering Society, which draws people from Saskatoon and the surrounding area and welcomes anyone interested in the hobby.
Saturday's part of the exhibition wrapped up with a traditional supper for the participants at the Royal Canadian Legion's Estevan branch. On Sunday, several participants kept their projects on display at the Wylie-Mitchell for those guests who couldn't make it Saturday.
