Gil Stovicek O scale builder

Isn't THAT interesting!?!  Note the Worthington Type BL Feedwater, yet there is an Elesco Feedwater heater bundle/tank mounted on top of the smoke box front (however no Elesco Feedwater pump).

Gil was talented.  I was in contact with him for a short period before he died.  There were a couple artiicles about his work in OSR, the parent magazine of OGR.

My favorite part of his layout was the grade crossing where you could look through the windshield of a Chevy truck ( cab was cut and open) and when that decopod or H8 came rumbling by, it truly was magical!

Hello all thank you for more background and pointing the direction for even more ..

Here are two photos from O Scale Railroading ..found in Jan/Feb 1983 ....  showing Gil and a tail shot of my engine ..describing it as freelance .  Gil had an open house for the O scale convention that year . Very impressive layout with lots of big engines . 

Article mentions another article in MR Feb 1972 ... I'll hunt that down for more insights on the American Central and Gil

Cheers Carey 

I really like that sand facility in the post above! Building mfg take note!

A! So thats the "Wiener" looks a lot better than he describes it in Feb 1972 MR, running since 1947, the article says. It mentions a rebuild, and the three water heaters, and explains he didn't know what they were. It was his first build ,inspired by Paul Gorath. I love it, another great find Carey, you have to tell us the story behind finding it!?      cTr...( Choose the Right )

Hello Steven . thank you from citing from the article .. I have yet to see the MR article ...so this is Gil's first engine he built ? .... wow talent from the start.

The engine was purchased from the Gil Stovicek auction in 2004 .... sounds as if Gil's entire collection  was sold there.    I purchased it from a dealer/ collector who knew Gil and attended the auction...glad he did. 

Currently working on the shelf layout so the engine  will have a place to roam ...

Cheers Carey 

i was lucky enough to get Gil to build me a locomotive. it took over a year of asking him and  finally had to have Charlie Strayer another custom builder from Meadville PA. ask him as he didn't want to build anymore locomotives for anyone. He then told me NO STREAMLINE NOR ARTICULATED. So i told him to build his favorite locomotive i received a Erie Russian Decapod. I will post pics of it after Christmas it is a fantastic piece cab detail removable cab roof and weathered beautifully and runs like a  finely tuned watch.

Pictures from the 70's when I visited his layout, along with Doc Dugan's HO and a huge O gauge layout, I think, it was in Canton, Ohio.   I grew up in Cleveland so got to see some nice layouts.  My mom new Doc Dugan which allowed me to see his layout.  Can't remember how I met Gil.  We're talking 45 years ago!

I had to scan these from a photo album so they are stuck in there, permanently, so sorry for the clarity.

I didn't label these pictures but I'm sure they are Stovicek's layout:

Here's Doc Dugan's (Mayfield, Ohio) layout:

Canton, Ohio huge O gauge layout.  I'm sure I've got the wrong city and someone can fill in the place and name of the layout.  So long ago, I have forgotten his name and location.  He must of had 100-200 engines.

Gil's layout.

I took pictures of the pictures since the above scans are terrible.  Pre-digital age!

I remember he told me that he converted a Lionel 763 (? the one they made in 1937) to 2 rail and he

also had an Atlas IH (?Indiana harbor)  plastic switcher that he fixed up.

The large O gauge layout between Cleveland and Akron.

This guy was pretty old back in the 70's and I think I remember hearing that he died and all the stuff was sold.

Nice pictures of a bygone era of expert model craftsmen.  Even with the availability  of computer printers and CAM equipment today , few people with that kind of mechanical aptitude remain.

samparfitt posted:

The large O gauge layout between Cleveland and Akron.

This guy was pretty old back in the 70's and I think I remember hearing that he died and all the stuff was sold.

looks to me like Mack lowery's layout.... it was on rt8 south of 303.i have the Mr magazine that had a feature story on him ....he owned some kind of men's clothing store..... had some trains in there too. Some of the trains ended up at Quaker square restaurant by the hotel/ old grain silo buildings

Cuyahoga falls would be the city Mack's layout was located....

Thank you very much for posting all the "vintage " photos ....that is a lot of O scale ....  both Mack's and Gil's ....very big collections . 

Cheers Carey 

YEs Thanks again for posting these Vintage layout picture. I love traveling back in time to see what was back then.

Now What I need to now what is this black loco with the white numbers supposed to be?

Thanks for 'jogging' my memory: That's his name: Mack Lowery's layout.

If I recall, he also had some full size railroad cars on his property!

Since I didn't see it mentioned above, there was an article on Gil and his layout in issue #17 of OST, May/June '04;  it included

- a track plan of the layout

- Gil's early days in 0, in his own words

- A basic insight into Gil as a person

I regret I knew Gil for only a few years before his death, but I can certainly attest to his hospitality and generosity to others as mentioned in the article. 

Best regards, SZ 

Thank you SZ ...for pointing me in the direction of the OST article.... great to see the layout diagram and read the details about his first engine..the 2-10-2 .... very happy to have it in my collection ....it will be a test to see if I can get 104 cars around my layout to give the engine a proper load to pull ...

Cheers Carey

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

YEs Thanks again for posting these Vintage layout picture. I love traveling back in time to see what was back then.

Now What I need to now what is this black loco with the white numbers supposed to be?

Looks like it could be an EMD-BL2 built by GM.

Donald

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Now What I need to now what is this black loco with the white numbers supposed to be?

As I recall it's a freelanced C-C.   While most of Gil's diesel roster was more conventional -- AN F's, Kemtron GP's, 2 railed Lionel, CLW, etc -- he did build some diesels [ and I think a GTEL ] from scratch / kitbash;  these were usually "inspired by" some prototype, but were not models of them.  Further, unlike his steam builds*, these were not as highly detailed, and sometimes, as I recall, seemed to have spotting features from more than one builder.

I may have briefly owned the loco in question;   I attended the [ train ] estate auction and I remember buying two C-C's;  either

A.  I had a shopping list from a friend who couldn't attend who had a weakness for A-N diesels, and a C-C was included in one of the A-N lots, or

B.  I was sitting next to a friend and wanted to draw his attention to a conversation between two of "the usual suspects", so I nudged him in the ribs.  He thought I wanted him to bid on the lot then being auctioned, so he did -- and won.   I asked him afterwards why he thought I wouldn't have placed a bid myself if I was interested in it, and he said something like "Well, I thought you were telling me I should buy it".  So naturally I paid for it, and since it had a good drive train [ I think everything Gil built did, of course ] the same fellow for whom I purchased the AN F's gladly took it.

Best regards, SZ

*I never forgot Gil telling me that the PRR J1 he built took second place at an NMRA National -- and that he felt it would have taken first if he had lettered it for the Pennsy instead of the American Central.....

Correction / addenda added 12/31:

After writing the above I found the listing for the train auction.  It mentions an "0-scale Nat. Cov. Dearborn MI in the 80's" for the J1, so perhaps I misremembered what Gil told me.  [ But wasn't the 1980 ( I think ) 0 National at Dearborn held in conjunction w/ the NMRA National......]

Also there is no mention of a GTEL in the auction listing other than a 3 unit MTH one.  I thought I remembered a veranda turbine in AC green, but I am probably wrong, although some of the auction descriptions are sparse and/or somewhat misleading.  However, some of Gil's locos found other homes prior to the auction through bequests, etc.

Hmm that funky looking diesel does look like Sp's hydraulic locomotive. Like an ALCo DH643 to be more precise.