Manufacturer of the Month
Sierra Valley Enterprises

In January of 1993 I was asked by the owner of our now defunct local hobby shop if I would build him a string of log cars to run in the shop behind his LGB mogul. He had an elevated loop around the entire shop and had seen my log cars and thought that the proposed log train would stimulate interest in large-scale products. Well it did just that and by February of 1993 I formed Sierra Valley Enterprises and already had backorders for over 20 cars.

In January 1995 I had expanded my 1:20.3 scale line to include a Carter Brothers 28' fat car, a 2 board and 3 board gondola and a 24' box car. Business was going very well and I was having a lot of trouble keeping up with customer demands for custom built cars and working a full time job as a Production Manager and Project Engineer for a major food processor. It became clear that I was going to have to retire from my regular job as soon as I could but that would be sometime down the line. I would just have to hope that my customers would understand and for the most part they did. I had orders that in some cases got to be three years old before I could get to them but I had very few cancellations.

About March of 1995 I was considering manufacturing my own metal wheel sets. All the metal wheel sets that were on the market at that time had oversized flanges and did not do justice to true 1:20.3 scale cars. Bob Hartford of Hartford Products, Inc. and Jeff Saxton of Saxton Car and Foundry encouraged me to produce these wheel sets since they were also doing true scale 1:20.3 kits for the model railroad hobby. By June of 1995 I was supplying Bob, Jeff and myself with 24" diameter wheel sets in 1:20.3 scale. I now have five wheel sizes in three different finishes in 1:20.3 scale.

In January of 1996 I introduced a little 1:20.3 scale 9' ore car to the hobby. Jeff Saxton and I developed the design and he laser cut the major body components and cast the white metal detail parts for me. This was the beginning of a line I refer to as the "Munger Mining Co." series. Munger is my wife's maiden name. This line now offers 10 different cars and a locomotive. So far I have built over 400 cars and 2 dozen locomotives in this series and I still have backorders.

The SEC 7/8" Scale Oil Drum Car

In June of 1998 Bob Hartford and I decided to develop a 7/8n2 line of industrial cars based on the 1:20.3 scale "Munger Mining Co." series. We called this joint venture the "Seven Eighths Consortium" or the SEC for short. By then I was producing 20" diameter wheel sets for Steven King in 1:13.7 scale for his Maine 2 foot trucks. I added an 18" diameter wheel set to the line for our industrial cars and we started off with a little 9' flat car. Bob was to supply the kits and I was to supply the custom built up cars. We now have 6 different cars in this series and I offer 6 different wheel sizes in 3 different finishes with or without holes in the wheel face.

In November of 1999 I retired from my "full time job" and I'm now working at building and developing model trains in 1:20.3 and 1:13.7 scales full time. With any luck I will get caught up with orders by the end of this year and I will be able to spend some time with my own outside railroad. I originally hand spiked the track to 1:20.3 standards. My intentions are to rebuild my Sierra Valley Central Railway to 1:13.7 scale and to rename it the Sierra Excavation Co. Railway.

Sierra Valley Enterprises is now offering its first 1:13.7 scale locomotive shown in the above photo by Russ Reinberg.

It is a model of a little 3 ton Plymouth gas/mechanical critter that was built in 1930 and still exists today. This first model is going to be a limited to 40 engines and 32 have already been reserved. I hope to have all of these engines built and to my customers by the middle of this summer.

Gary Watkins