In September, 1985 the Northwest lowa Model Railroad Club was established. Local train enthusiasts were invited to the Sibley Iowa Public Library to discuss the formation of a Model Railroad Club. Richard Engler and Denny Davids set displays of model trains in the basement of the open class building at Osceola County Fairgrounds. This preempted the idea of a club. This display was static. Rich and Denny had their own home layouts. This meeting was attended by 12 interested persons. At that time Scott Huisenga, Dennis Jurgens, DelRoy Heidebrink, Paul Mouw, Brad Seivert. Ed Kleinwolterink, Verlyn Smidt, Dan Wills, Torn Welch, Harold Curtis, and Shawn Davids decided to be members.
1986
The Osceola County Fair Board gave approval to the Club to construct a layout. The name selected was "THE OTTER VALLEY RR'. This name was transferred from Denny's home layout that had existed since 1979. The Club elected Officers; Rich Engler, President; Denny Davids, Vice-president, Brad Seivert, Treasurer; Paul Mouw, secretary. These would be the Board of Directors. We received an IRS number in the fall of 1986. The winter, spring, summer, and fall saw a lot of framing for a loop. Denny drew plans for the South room of the basement. The Fair board and Secretary Romanus Monier gave us a stipulation that we could not charge admission. Heating of the basement that 1st winter was with a Nipco heater and caused many bloodshot eyes.
1987
Through the winter of 1986 and 1987 much was accomplished. Three main lines of track were laid, a control panel was constructed on the west end on a platform. Some hydrocal was put in place. This work made it before the fair started. The plan for the Layout was to resemble a mountainous semi-arid landscape.
The visitors at the Fair gave a thumbs up to our efforts. A few of our members dropped out. We picked up new members, Larry and Luke Pedley, Larry Rogers, Nick Greene and Neil Cross. Dues were set at $10 per month. Most of the material was scavenged lumber from contractors. Denny became a dealer through JMC, A Chicago wholesaler. The dealers name would go under D&D, dba THE TRAIN DEPOT. Dennis Jurgens lead the construction of insulating and placement of the ceiling. Rich did much of the rewiring. The club decided to extend the layout on the east side to accommodate a mountain. The old main would tie into the new main at Jurgy JCT. Denny, Scott, Nick and his son Ryan, and Brad went on trip to rail fan in Kansas and Kansas City.
1988
Changes in membership of the club were happening. We lost 6 members. Work continued on scenery and improvements. Our first furnace was scavanged from a torn down home. It was a wall unit with a propane tank, and worked much better than the electric heater and Nipco. We constructed a small layout on a 4x8 for an open house in the Richter building downtown. This was part of Sibley's Christmas event. We were open for 3 weekends. We met Fred Grandy, gopher from the Love Boat, a honorary member of the club. Grandy was our US Congressman for our District. Fred drew the winning name from our lottery for the train layout.
1989
The Prairie Lakes/TLR/NMRA awarded the club to host a fall Train Show. Several 100 pound bags of hydrocal plaster were used. The fair goers praised the work we were accomplishing. Neil was in charge of the meet, and, the Sibley High School Commons was approved to hold the meet in September. The PLD was started in 1986 and Denny was a charter member. The meet was excellent. Scott, Brad and Denny took a trip to Topeka, Melvern, KS.
1990
Dave Spitler joined Club. The layout was mostly complete with hydrocal, most of the work consisted of scenery. We put in another wall mount heater to replace the old one which much more efficient and warmer. The fair again was very good to us.
1991
The year was running trains and tweeking the layout (fun time). Darrell Teerink and Larry Harper joined the club. We lost a couple of members. We raised our dues to $15 a month. Denny was selling locomotives, rolling stock to club members at cost. Denny, Rich, and Scott tore their home layouts down and donated them to the club. Shawn made over 200 rock castings for mountains and portals. We screwed ceiling tile to the blandex ceiling.
1992
Conversation began about cleaning and expanding into the north room and a yard. Discussion was had about a large staging yard. Denny went to work drawing up a preliminary plan. The fall was very wet and progress was slow due to water in areas of floor. We decided to call the staging area Sol Yard in memory of Ken Sol, a long time O scaler and High School instructor who was revered by of us who had him as a teacher. Not much except cleaning areas.
1993
Heavy snows and record rains caused flooding at west side of Sibley. The layout suffered with 8" of water on the floor. We were unable to have the layout open at fair time due to water and cleanup. After the water receded and cleanup was made, we did have our annual Christmas open house. Things were getting back to normal.
1994
Alliant Energy installed natural gas to the building. Larry donated a furnace from the Ohm Shack. Plans were finalized for the expansion in the north room. Dallas Brown joined club. It was nice to have layout open again for Fair, had a wonderful turnout and gifts. Continued to clean North room. Started studding walls with plastic behind them, Rich spear headed the project. Insulated the walls between studs. Curtis Stover joined club.
1995
Wet summer again, water on floor but nothing like 1993. Rich and Larry rewired layout. Denny got Terry Gregg to furnish insulation from the Conveyor building addition. We filled the ceiling rafters with the batting. We laid out a floor plan out using chalk and string line to mark out area of expansion. We cut our 1/2" plywood radius for curves, a minimum of 36". The fair was excellent, with people enthused about the additions. Larry displayed his N scale snow diarama at Sioux Falls and in the window of the Ohm Shack, it was very nice. Luke needs to take a log of credit too. Laid out Sol Yard on west end of room, designed for continuous running out of the staging yard. Denny got all the needed items thru The Train Depot.
1996
The Club held the 1996 PLD Fall Meet at the Senior Center in October. We made up a special OV Locomotive(U30B) and a caboose for commemorating our 10th year. The club chose the official colors of grey and orange. Layout work was put on hold until next year due to the sheet rocking, wiring and other construction. The PLD meet turned out real well. Many remarks how nice it is to have furnace.
1997
March turned bad for Denny, as he had small heart attack and stent put in. We were working on north room assembling bench thus it became named Cardiac Flats. Finished walls and video room. The Fair was excellent again. We worked hard in fall and winter on meshwork. Rich found some modular bench work that was used in the expansion. Much of the bench work was installed by end of year and track configuration risers were started.
1998
Larry and Luke made up a Website. It was a very busy winter and spring to get enough work done to get trains running by fair time. Larry and Dallas planned N scale out on layout. They took charge of that portion. Public was wowed by the expansion even if it wasn't scenic yet. We did have severe humidity problems during the fair. The fall got us going again. We bought seven 100 pound bags of hydrocal for the north room. We opened the layout at Christmas for the Sibley-Ocheydan Ben Franklin Elementary School. We gave out treats and decided to do this every 3 to 4 years. Ken Berghorst and Dave Kooiman joined club. Curtis moved to Fort Dodge. Diane and I took Amtrak from
Kansas City to Flagstaff on the Southwest Chief, and visited her brother and his wife in Tempe.
1999
The club was authorized to hold another PLD meet in the fall of 2000. Denny was on the PLD Board and was the Contest Director. We continued to scenic areas with trees. Rich devised a tree making jig and made up many trees. The biggest endeavor was removing the old control panel and making a new one. Larry and Rich designed it. The surface of the panel was painted yellow with line striping for each main. Larry furnished the toggles for blocking. It was decided we should put in Tortoise switch machines. This was big undertaking in that we had to drill from bottom of the roadbed to the bottom of the existing turnouts without damaging the turnout. There were some turnouts that needed to be replaced. Larry and Rich rewired the wiring into the new panel which was a huge project. The tortoise machines were wired into the panel with semaphores on the Layout to indicate open or closed turnouts. We tried a train command system, Zero One, and did not likeit. We looked into other control systems and decided to purchase the Aristo-Craft Train Engineeri System. The open house at Christmas time was well attended.
2000
One of first things we did was to raise dues to $ 20 per month to offset cost of items. Members of Club: Rich, Denny, Scott, Larry, Dallas, Darrell, Dave, Ken and new member John Galstad. Finished laying cork, track, and wiring on main 1 north, main 2, and sidings in the north room. Finished track work in Sol Yard, which was approximately 500' of track. The items purchased were through THE TRAIN DEPOT. We moved the mainline in the south room to the north room and referred it as the by-pass main. This was a very good year to get a lot accomplished. The Club hosted the PLD Meet again at the Senior Center. Great turnout. Rich had major heart problems and had open heart surgery. The Christmas open house was cancelled due to bad weather. Denny, Diane, Larry and Aileen took an Amtrak trip from Omaha to Grand Jct. Colorado. Jeff Zarr, Superintendent of the PLD passed away June 7 during open heart surgery. He will be missed.
2001
Scott and Denny did a lot of hydrocaling and added rock molds in north room. Rich continued the tree making. We bought 3 Aristo-Craft walk arounds for Mains 1, 2 and 3. Finished yard track work and #2 main sidings. Number 1 main ties into Sol Yard, We had an excellent fair at times having a full house. Mike MaCumber came into the group and he Dallas would operate the yard. We had our annual Christmas open house. It was a very good year and great Club members.
2002
Darrell, Scott, Denny, and Rich started Saturday morning coffee time. Tim at times would bring some excellent pigs in a blanketfor coffee time. The year was spent on planning and upgrading the layout. Larry made an oil well pump, honeymoon cabins and made some water effects. The summer was hot and humid, and the fair time was a refuge for fair goers. The big event for summer was the IOWA NORTHWESTERN RR. Many of us took the inaugural trip from Orleans to Ocheyedan and back. Miles Rohan joined group on trip. We were bilked out of a tee shirt. Denny was notified that after 15 years of dealership of JMC he was to give proof of being a Hobby Shop. An assumption was that the criteria was established by legitimate store shops and not basement sellers. The Christmas open house wad canceled due to weather. We did squeeze in the 2nd Ben Franklin Elementary day, (K THRU 3. The club got approval to host another PLD meet in 2003.
2003
The year was spent on upgrades and scenery. John Galstad had open heart surgery in August. What is with our club and hearts? We discussed assignments for club members. Ken volunteered to do maintenance on rolling stock and locomotives. We hosted the PLD meet on Sept 27th at the 4H building in the fairgrounds. It was a good meet but no heat in building was a drawback as it was a chilly day. The clinics were by Steve Long on weathering, Ken did a slide show. Larry displayed his Sedona Railroad N scale layout (very nice). The meet including Rich's kitchen turning a nice profit of $228. Approximately 100 attended. At the end of year we started a Christmas get together. What a great diversified group we have in the club, unmatched at any time of our existence.
2004
Dave Finger from KMEG TV joins club. He would put on a blurb every so often about the club, which was a nice promotion. Tim Lynn joins club, Tim is a new comer to model railroading and his interests are in HO steam. The PLD had its meet in Sioux City at the old Milwaukee shops, an excellent time. The fair was excellent, amazed after this time how many love to see layout.
2005
Mike Anderson joins club, he is into N scale. We become dormant this year with not much activity. Dave Finger moved to Texas. Denny missed the fair as he took trip to Los Angelas and railformed. The fair turned out great again. The Union Pacific DD4OX 6936 toured south bound on the Worthington Sub thru Sibley. Denny and Darrell bought a lot of nice items form Jeff Zarr's estate. Plans are being drawn up for 20th anniversary of PLD. lt will be in Esterville where it was founded in 1986.
2006
Plans for the 20th PLD Anniversary are set at Estherville. This will be the last event that our Dick Williams will attend. Dick passed away with battle with cancer. The meet was excellent with a banquet and great production of slides. Our fair was again well received with hot and humid weather. Doug Harding moved to Sibley as the new pastor at the Methodist Church. Doug is heavily involved in the NMRA. A few of us assisted him in setting up his modular layout in the basement of the Parsonage. Doug is the 2nd Methodist pastor to be in involved in model railroading. Neil Cross was also the Methodist Pastor. We hosted the Sibley-Ocheydan Ben Franklin Elementary School for the 3rd time. The teachers had their classes write letters and do art work about the visit, and we had a lot of fun going over them. We had our Holiday party in December and had a great time and food. We were again awarded again hosting the PLD Spring meet for 2007.
2007
A record amount of snow fell March 28 to April 3. A 4 day blizzard with 18" snow, 45 mph winds. We hosted the PLD Spring meet on April 21st, at the Senior Center with the Title "FALLEN FLAGS", John displayed his locomotives, Mike gave presentation on Hobos, A Union Pacific representative from St James gave presentation on Operation Lifesaver. A good show again. We came up with a membership for students; and Brandon Carstensen, Kyle Soat, Lee Smith were added to that roster. We worked on Power plant area and coal pile facility, Rich, John and Denny had tables for Sioux Falls train show Nov. 17 & 18. We bought several scenery items from Dave Swenson from Luverne. We had to cancel the Christmas party until Jan. 2017 because of the weather. Ken asked to hold PLD meet in Ihlen, Minnesota, We are to help as much as possible. The meet was on Oct. 8, 2008, On December 12th, Sibley Sheet metal installed a new furnace.
2008
Tom Spalding passes away in Texas, a real loss to everyone. Rails are being removed from Allendorf to Lake Park. Miles and Denny went through the inventory of the Tom Spalding collection. We held our winter pary on Jan 2nd, again with lots of great food with Mike's Rueben Casserole being the best. John picked up some track lighting from Worthington, and We installed it in the north room. The PLD was moved to Jasper, Minnesota on Oct 6. Ken did great job in lining up meet. The tour of old Great Northern yard at Ihlen was exceptional. The Fair Board installed new doors and siding on building. John had an OTTER VALLEY banner made up. We decided to lower dues to $15 per month. A big loss occurred in the region in that the great Sisseton Rail Road layout in Fairmont was torn down. What a loss.
2009
Ed Wheeler joins the club. We had our party on Jan 7th. The food gets better and better. Rich made shrimp and wings, John chili, Mike Rueben casserole and a lot more. Scott and Larry couldn't make it We hosted the Sibley-Ocheydan Elementary School on Jan 9th. Mike moved to Wisconsin. Heavy rains in July brought flooding again, with water on floor in areas. We were ok by fair time. Weather was cool at fair time with temps 70's Pierson- Huisenga donated some items from the Iron Horse Restaurant in Sheldon. John made shelves for their display. We have become dormant on work. Ken and Denny went to Fairmont and Ken purchased the loading dock from Wayne Quade of the Fairmont club.
2010
Plans for Otter Valley's 25th Anniversary are set. Ordered were 48 40' Accurail box cars, 24 3bay hoppers, and 24 50' box cars from Boone Hobby, The cars are data only in mineral red, oxide red and gray. The cars were decaled from sets that John had custom made for the club. John, Denny, Ken, and Dave decaled the cars. The club in conjunction with the PLD will hold the PLD meet at the American Legion building in Sibley. The time was spent on scenery and updating the buildings. The PLD meet was well attended. Rich had more surgery and made it to meet for a while. Denny bought Fairmont Plastic Plant building at the meet from Dean Gulbranson, past Fairmont member. Time was spent on updating Sol Yard with buildings that Denny had at home. John made a car shop. The club went to Sanborn, Iowa and dismantled Henry(?) layout. A lot of nice additions and work this year. Denny and Diane were out in LA over the holidays and got word that Linda Berghorst had passed away.
2011
We reworked the track ladder into engine house in Sol Yard. Plans were to have the 25th anniversary of the PLD in Cherokee. We didn't get to have party until Feb 5th. John was sick. Denny had an emergency apendectomy. Many of the projects got started but not finished. Fair continues to he great. Had annual Christmas open house.
2012
We reviewed areas of upgrading, the elevator area and town area became priorities. Cindy(?) Robinson talked to Denny about dismantling her Dad's layout. Robert Robinson was a past teacher and high school principal at Sibley. Caroline Robinson and Denny lined up dates to remove the layout. January was unusually wrm temp hit 60 on Jan 5th. Held the club party on Feb 4th, started to have on Saturdays. Rich and John were sick. We only had seven at the party. Found out that a group from Le Mars was starting a model railroad club. Fair was hot 90s. We had David Hoffman, State Fair Board member visit the layout and was impressed. We had our annual open house on Dec 1st. Denny and John purchased a crossing signal and spike puller at an auction. Harry Blau made a frame and the city of Sibley put in 4" cast iron pipe for mounting signal. John repaired the broken lights and Tim worked on the electrical hookup. Fun project. The quarry area is still a project that needs help.
2013
We held our annual party on Feb. 2nd. We invited the Le Mars club (FLOYD VALLEY RR) members to join us. We reworked the cross overs on mains 1, 2, &3. The area had a bad ice storm in April. The PLD meet was on April 20th in Spirit Lake and Tim was the main front man.
Spring was lousy with 5" snow on May 1st. The bad weather hampered our dismantling of Robinson layout. We did get it out in May. Robbie was an excellent modeler and we were able to use many of the structures on our layout, thank you Caroline. We have a new member, Jim Borden. The Fair was somewhat down this year. We had problems with yard controllers, and we replaced power pack. Dallas, Mike M, Jim, and Dave kept the trains running. Tim was busy on an area near the town site, John was busy working on the elevator area. Scott was busy in Sol Yard Area. Tim wired up the signal, John painted it and repaired the lens. Tim mounted a sequence light controller and presto, we had a flashing signal on the east side of the building. The annual open house did not yield many but we had a great time operating. Mike MaCumber becomes official member after helping for many years. He is the yard master at fair time. We started our periodic suppers at Pizza Ranch. Ken's idea, nice time.
2014
The year started out with motor on the furnace on a minus 20 degree day in January. Rick Stanton replaced it the same night. Decided to make some upgradesto bathroom. Darrell cut out some concrete, Rich and Darrell did the pluming. Dennis Jurgens furnished floor tile. To concrete the floor and set the the toilet, the water had to be shut off and the pipes froze in the street. We had no water until spring. Miles Rohan joins club. Miles was always part of the group but now is an official member. We had an excellent fair. We were accepted to hold the PLD 2015 Meet in conjunction with our 30th anniversary. John Schneider joins club. John has been part of club and like Miles is now official. Jim came up with very energetic plan to construct a logging railroad on South Mountain, This plan, talked about for several years, would now will become reality. We spent the fall and winter in its construction. Jim made the awesome trestles. Scott, Darrell and Denny did the hydrocalling. Darrell and Jim laid track. Tim and Rich revised town areas. John built new elevators and worked on the ag area. A very good year. Finished bathroom area. Held annual holiday open house with nice attendance. Denny secures from Church Council the Trinity Lutheran Church for PLD Meet. Also in memory of Janice Galstad.
2015
We continued to finish the logging line. Tim and Miles wired it and we put installed an Aristo-craft controller. Denny finished the saw mill and other structures (Woodland Scenic Kits). Jim finished a large trestle bridge that was in the awe of the members. Rich gave report on club and we are solvent. Members; Rich, Denny, Scott, Larry, Dallas, Darrell, Dave, Ken, John G., Kyle, Tim, Mike M., Jim, Miles, John S, and new but old member, Dennis Jurgens. Dennis took some time off and was a charter member of club in 1985. I have used first names to save much of the spelling. The PLD Meet was in September and again a very nice meet. The Church worked out very well. John had shelves for hobbyists to display items. Rich Wilkinson gave power point presentation. We had nice vendors and club operation. We hosted the Sibley-Ocheydan Elementary School before Christmas and had over 300 people attending.
Summary:
2016 has started with plans for the quarry area and N scale extension. This should be a very good year for the club as we have rejuvenated spirits in making the layout better. There may be some irregularities and errors in this report. There are many stories that we can tell about the past 30 years but this Chronology was just a sample of what I recorded in ledgers and memories. The many Rail fan trips, the 261 excursion, the PLD, PLR and train shows, the ups and downs, and countless conversations have made this club a body of one. We are blessed our Faith that each and every one of us are equal Thanks for the show.
Denny
I made a big blunder in not including Cory De Noble being a member. Cory joined the club in 2013 Gary, sorry for the mistake and thank you for all you do. Another area was calling the Le Mars Club the Sioux Valley Model RR Club. I believe they call it the Floyd Valley Model RR. Correct me John if this still isn't correct. I mentioned that there were some mistakes, if any of you notice anything please correct me.
The Years 2017-2019
This three year period has been one that has included many accomplishments and frustrations. Several improvements to the track work had been needed and planned for several years. The quarry area has had track added, and some modifications to the number three main track were also made. The locomotive servicing area, car shops, and some industry in the yard of the number one main track were reorganized. This involved repositioning several buildings and laying new track. When this area is completed, it should be more realistic and also more attractive to the viewing public. The low ceiling has created a long term lighting problem, and some different attempts have been made to make the lighting more effective. A decision was made to install recessed ceiling lighting, which meant replacing ceiling tile in the area of the main yard with sheet rock. The reduced glare, and increased overall brightness has been a welcomed improvement. Other layout improvements have included upgrades to some backdrops, as well as adding some trees and other scenery. An attempt to add a historical perspective for the viewing public has been made. Actual railroad items have been displayed with story boards to explain their purpose. Several items have been displayed in a new display case. A number of historical pictures have been framed and displayed. A collection local depot pictures has been assembled, framed, and displayed.