Estevan Saskatchewan - Kelly Tytlandsvik's 30 years of dedication to complete a locomotive steam engine have paid off.
 
Tytlandsvik had the locomotive on display this past weekend at the Estevan Model Engineer Show.
 
It's an event that he organizes each year, and is now the longest-running event of its kind in North America.
 
The name of the locomotive reflects the amount of time he put into the project.
 
Number 8717 represents the year he started working on it back in 1987, and the year it was finished in 2017.
 
"I'm relieved to have it finished," Tytlandsvik told Lifestyles.
 
"After 30 years of working on it, off and on, for many years, the project is done. It's nice to have it done, and off the bench in the shop."
 
The locomotive proved to be quite the attraction for those who attended the show.
 
"Everybody has asked me for many years, when are you going to have it done? When are you going to have it done?" he said.
 
"I never had a deadline. I just determined last winter I had to get it finished and get it done. So I went at it. I got a few little details done last year, and finished painting and got the lettering done."
 
The people who saw the locomotive were quite impressed with the finished product, he said.
 
Some had seen it in his shop or at the show in various stages of completion over the years.
 
"Maybe it would be just the wheels or the undercarriage, or with the boiler on it, but not decorated and finished," said Tytlandsvik.
 
The engine is a model of a 4-8-4 Northern locomotive built to three-quarter inch scale.
 
A tender with "Canadian Pacific" painted on the side is attached to the engine.
 
It measure seven feet long and about 10 inches high.
 
"Every part has been machined or hand-worked in one way or another," said Tytlandsvik.
 
"The casting kit was available, but you only had the cylinders and the wheels in it pretty much, and they were all a rough casting and need to be machined to final specifications and fitting, and what not, to run."
 
The side connecting rods on the engine are all milled out of ordinary flat iron, he said.
 
Tytlandsvik noted that the locomotive runs on 80 pounds of steam.
 
It's propane-fired and it will haul up to three rail cars behind it.
 
"These rivets are actually real iron rivets," said Tytlandsvik.
 
"There are 1,064 rivets that are 3/64th of an inch in diameter. And it will haul its own water supply along with it to run the engine on."
 
He needed 30 years to complete the 8717 because of all the work and detail that was required.
 
He was also busy with family commitments, as he and his wife Gale spent a lot of time at their children's hockey tournaments, swim meets, dance recitals, and other activities.
 
And Tytlandsvik had other model engineer projects he wanted to complete.
 
"You'd get tired of working on it, so you'd work on another engine, and complete another engine," said Tytlandsvik.
 
Those projects included a full-sized vehicle restoration, tractor restorations, other gas engines, and steam engines.
 
There was one three-year or four-year stretch when he didn't work on the locomotive.
 
There were frustrating times as well, but he wanted to complete the engine.
 
"If you look at a locomotive, there are countless components to it, and if you look at all of them at one time, you can get overwhelmed pretty quick. But if you look at it one component at a time, and if you do one at a time, and if you get overwhelmed, just take a step back... it will all come together," said Tytlandsvik.
 
Now that 8717 is finished, Tytlandsvik will move onto his next project, a Root and Vandervoort Gas Engine that he is working on.
 
David Willberg.