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The setting is February 2000. Chuck Gollatz is sitting at a dinner table
across from two other gentlemen. The
room was silent as he looked up at them.
With a serious look in his eye, he asked them a question that has now
become infamous.
“How would you like to have a lot of
fun and not make any money at all?” With those famous words being emitted, a
business partnership was born.
Ed Langfeldt, owner of “Ed’s Rail Yard” in Plymouth, had decided to get out of the o-scale model train business. Although he enjoyed the model train business, he had other business interests that required more of his time. Chuck, a customer of Ed’s and being recently retired as a schoolteacher, was intrigued by the idea of owning a model train business, which just so happened to coincide with his hobby of o-scale model trains. However, he was not too familiar with running a business of such. Not wanting to take on the task by himself, he searched out the help of two other gentlemen: Bill and Jeff Myers, two friends of Chuck’s and a father and son who also shared the love of trains. However, because the three of them really didn’t have much business ownership experience, it became very clear early on that they would need some additional help. One Sunday morning at Church, a friend of the three, Jim LaBelle, approached them to volunteer his services if they should need him. He too had a love for trains and was very interested in the business. Instantly Jim was made a partner. So the four of them set out to Plymouth to acquire the business. With some wheeling and dealing with Ed (plus many “business meetings” at the local Dairy Queen in Plymouth) “Ed’s Rail Yard” soon became “Mishawaka Rail Yard” and was promptly moved to the Kamm’s Brewery/100 Center Complex in Mishawaka, Indiana. The four gentlemen worked hard at the new place throughout the remainder of February and March, readying it for the grand opening. Shelves were built, walls were painted, the floor was cleaned, and an in-store layout was started. Finally, on April 1, 2000 (which happened to also be April Fool’s Day - could there be a connection?), the grand event was unleashed. Mishawaka Rail Yard opened its doors for the first time to the public. |
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Mishawaka Rail Yard opened its doors for the first time back in April
2000 at the Kamm’s Brewery/100 Center Complex in Mishawaka, Indiana.
However after being open for a year, our inventory and customer
base grew steadily. It soon
became clearer each day that we were outgrowing our present location.
An expansion project in early 2001 added a bit more space to the
location, yet proved to be not enough.
Knowing that we didn’t want to put ourselves into a situation
where we just couldn’t serve the customer as well as we would like, we
decided it was time to look for a bigger location.
So what better location to choose than the old New York Central
Freight Depot located in downtown Mishawaka?
After meeting with the owner of the old depot, we arranged to
move the store into the office end of the depot on the West side/Spring
Street end of the building. Construction
and remodeling promptly began in June of 2001.
Lots of bloods, sweat, tears and paint!
The resulting store incorporated the original office end of the
building for the checkout/in-store layout area with the first
freight-loading bay for our inventory shelf items.
The larger space offered us the ability to carry more inventory
while making it more accessible to the customer.
The space also offered an in-store layout twice as big as the one
built at the 100 Center location.
So what’s the best thing about the location?
We are roughly a few yards away from the Norfolk Southern
railroad tracks! Now if you
have never experienced a train up close, you have to come visit our
store. You can stand out on
the original boxcar-loading platform of the depot and not only hear and
see the train go by, you can feel it!
Make sure you wave “hello” to the engineer as the train
passes. You may even want
to bring your camera and get a great shot of a train coming down the
tracks at you. And not to
worry about cold weather or rain. Train
watching can be done in our enclosed entryway, complete with three very
large picture glass windows for your viewing pleasure.
We now have the space available to showcase many train-related
items, memorabilia and photos donated to us for display from the Hannah
Lindal Children’s Museum in Mishawaka as well as from our many
customers. So come down to the depot and see us. . Here’s
a hint for you too — Saturday mornings there’s free coffee and
doughnuts!
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