WRP - Mike Schafer

Mike Schafer

    Author/Editor/Graphic Artist
White River Productions (East Switch), PO Box 129, Lee, IL 60530-0129
email: WhiteRiverSchaf@aol.com

    White River Productions, Bucklin, Mo., 2005-present
    With other firms, working as author/editor/artist: 35 years

    Employment History: White River Productions, Bucklin, Mo., 2005-present
Editorial and art director, White River Productions. Provides editorial, art and production direction for publications of White River Productions, Bucklin, Mo., both internal and for clients of WRP. Includes editorship of The Diamond, quarterly magazine, for the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society, and The Milwaukee Railroader, quarterly magazine for the Milwaukee Road Historical Association, plus overall layout and design for The Flyer, bi-annual magazine for the Illinois Traction Society, and the GM&O News for the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Historical Society.
    Andover Junction Publications, 1991-2005. Editorial and art director, part owner, Andover Junction Publications (offices in New Jersey, Wisconsin and Illinois). Provided editorial, art and production services for all publications published by AJP as well as those published by clients.
    PTJ Publishing/Interurban Press, 1979-1990. Editorial and art director for Midwest branch office of Interurban Press, Glendale, Calif. Provided editorial, art and production services for all publications handled by Midwestern office. NOTE: Interurban Press purchased company for which I had previously worked. Editorial and art director for PTJ Publishing, Park Forest and Homewood, Ill. Provided editorial, art and production services for all publications, both internal and for clients.
    Kalmbach, 1971–1979. Associate editor for Kalmbach Books, a department of Kalmbach Publishing Co., Milwaukee, Wis. Managed individual book projects from raw manuscript form to finished product. Production involved manuscript editing and rewrite; caption-writing; proofreading; photo and illustration editing. Also assisted in Kalmbach's art department, providing book layout and production and drawing technical illustrations and maps.
    Columbia Studio, 1967-1971. Darkroom technician for Columbia Studio, Mid-West Studio, Wernick Studio and Carlson Commercial Photography, all of Rockford, Ill., while individual was working his way through college.

Specific Job Duties
    1994: Art director and associate editor, The Milwaukee Railroader, then under editorship of Wallace W. Abbey.
    1994–present: Editor and art director, The Milwaukee Railroader, published quarterly by the Milwaukee Road Historical Association through White River Productions.
    2002–present: Editor and art director, The Diamond magazine, published quarterly by the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society through White River Productions.
    2004–2005: Editorial & art director, Remember The Rock magazine, with Jim Neubauer serving as editor since the first issue, to serve the legion of aficionados and historians of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad.
    2001–present: Art director, GM&OHS News, published by the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Historical Society, Joliet, Ill. Art production and printing handled through White River Productions.
    1980–1983: Art director, Passenger Train Journal magazine, then under editorship of Kevin P. Keefe, PTJ Publishing, Park Forest, Ill.
    1983–1990: Editor and art director, Passenger Train Journal, PTJ Publishing, Park Forest and Homewood, Ill., and Interurban Press, Glendale, Calif.
    1982–1990: Editor/senior editor, Prototype Modeler magazine, PTJ Publishing, Park Forest and Homewood, Ill., purchased by Interurban Press, Glendale, Calif., in 1987.
    1981: Editor, NMRA Bulletin, published by the National Model Railroad Association and edited and produced through PTJ Publishing, Park Forest, Ill.

Books authored by Mike Schafer (*denotes also designed by Mike)
For Railpace Company
    All Aboard Amtrak*, 1991
For Motorbooks International/MBI Publishing
    Classic American Railroads*, 1995
    Railroad Color History: Pennsylvania Railroad* (with Brian Solomon), 1997
    Classic American Streamliners* (with Joe Welsh), 1997
    Caboose (a.k.a, The Railroad Caboose), 1997
    Classic American Railroads Calendar 1998
    Roller Coasters (with Scott Rutherford), 1998
    Vintage Diesel Locomotives, 1998
    Railroad Color History: New York Central* (with Brian Solomon), 1999
    Streamliner Memories, 1999
    Freight Train Cars (with Mike McBride), 1999
    More Classic American Railroads*, 2000
    The American Passenger Train*, 2001
    Classic American Railroads, Vol. 3*, 2003
For Barnes & Noble/Metro Books
    The Art of the Streamliner* (with Bob Johnston and Joe Welsh), 2001
For Andover Junction Publications
    Railroad Photography: How To Shoot Like the Pros* (with Mike Blaszak), 1993
For the Milwaukee Road Historical Association
    The Milwaukee Road in Milwaukee* (with Ed Spitzbarth), 2000

Books edited by Mike Schafer (*denotes also designed by Mike)
For Kalmbach Publishing Company
    Journey To Amtrak, 1972
    The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide, 1973
    More Classic Trains, 1973
    The Traction Guidebook, 1974
    N Scale Primer, 1974
    When the Steam Railroads Electrified, 1974
    The Mohawk That Refused to Abdicate, 1975
    Railroads You Can Model, 1976
    How to Operate Your Model Railroad, 1977
    Small Railroads You Can Build, 1978
    More Railroads You Can Model, 1978
    The ABC's of Model Railroading, 1978
    Scratchbuilding and Kitbashing Model Railroad Stations, 1978
    Building Plastic Railroad Models, 1979
    Classic Articles from Model Railroader, 1980
    Painting and Weathering Railroad Models*, 1995
    Diesel Locomotives: The First 50 Years*, 1995
    American Shortline Railway Guide (design only), 1996
For PTJ Publishing (Interurban Press after 1987)
    Never on Wednesday: Rio Grande Zephyr*, 1980
    The "400" Story*, 1982
    VIA Rail Canada: The First Five Years*, 1982
    Duneland Electric, 1983
    Ed Nowak's New York Central, 1983
    Passenger Train Annuals* 1987 through 1990
    New England Alcos in Twilight*, 1984
For Railpace Company
    The New Haven Railroad*, 1992
For Motorbooks International/MBI Publishing
    Railroad Color History: Santa Fe Railway*, 1997
    The American Fire Station, 1998
    Railroad Color History: Southern Pacific, 1999
    The American Toy Train, 1999
    The American Railroad*, 1999
    Railroad Color History: Baltimore & Ohio*, 2000
    The American Roller Coaster*, 2000
    Railroad Color History: Union Pacific*, 2000
    The American Freight Train*, 2001
    The American Amusement Park*, 2001
    Classic American Railroad Terminals*, 2001
    Caboose* (hardcover by John Gruber and Brian Solomon), 2001
    20th Century Limited*, 2002
    Burlington's Zephyrs*, 2004
    Travel by Pullman*, 2004
For Andover Junction Publications
    Guide to Chicago's Rapid Transit*, 1991
    The Steam Era of Lehigh Valley*, 1991
    Chicago's Commuter Railroads: A Guide to the Metra System*, 1992
    Burlington Northern and its Heritage*, 1992
    Pennsylvania Railroad's Elmira Branch*, 1993
    Railroad Photography: How to Shoot Like the Pros*, 1993
    Lake Michigan's Railroad Car Ferries, 1993
    Illinois Central, Monday Mornin' Rail*, 1994
    By Streamliner, New York to Florida, 1994
    New York, Ontario & Western in the Diesel Age*, 1994
For Milwaukee Road Historical Association
    Milwaukee Road's Rib-Side Cabooses*, 1995
    Milwaukee Road's Steel Cabooses*, 1999
    The Milwaukee Road in Milwaukee*, 2000
    Milwaukee Road's Wooden Cabooses*, 2003
    2005 Milwaukee Road Calendar
    2006 Milwaukee Road Calendar
For Barnes & Noble/Metro Books
    The Steam Locomotive: A Century of North American Classics*, 2000
    The Art of the Streamliner*, 2001
For White River Productions
    The Illinois Terminal Railroad: Road of Personalized Services, 2005

In addition, Mike has authored feature articles and/or provided illustration (mostly photos from his collection of 100,000 color slides) published in the following periodicals:
    Model Railroader
    Model Railroad Planning 2005
    Model Railroad Operation
    Layout Design SIG
    Classic Toy Trains
    Trains Magazine
    Railfan & Railroad
    Classic Trains
    Passenger Train Journal
    The Milwaukee Railroader
    The Diamond
    Roller Coaster! magazine
    Zoom-Zoom
    The Milwaukee Sentinel

Interests
    Mike's interests and activities include: railroad history and photo documentation; model railroading; program presentations; publishing-related editing, design and production; roller coasters and amusement parks; ghosts and the paranormal (collects ghost stories but does not dabble in the occult!); roadside Americana; outdoorsy stuff (hiking, etc.); industrial archeology; North American geography; American Flyer toy trains. Co-founded (with Jim Boyd) the North Western Illinois Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in 1969.
Mike's model railroading experience dates from first American Flyer train set at age 4 in 1953. First layout (S gauge) was built in 1961 and expanded and altered through 1965 when switch was made to HO. (Mike would return to collecting American Flyer in 1985.) His model railroading experience enabled him to take on a job as associate editor in 1971 at Kalmbach Publishing Company's newly formed books department. There he worked on numerous model-railroad-related books during his tenure at Kalmbach, which was for nearly all of the 1970s. During that time, he also served as president of the Milwaukee, Racine & Troy, Kalmbach's employee layout; he designed the track plan for the first version of the MR&T, which occupied the 4th floor of Kalmbach's venerable headquarters building at 1027 N. 7th Street in Milwaukee.
    His modeling efforts took a hiatus in 1979 when he formed his first company, Zephyr Graphics & Editorial, and began doing work for a number of clients, chiefly PTJ Publishing. When he bought a house with a basement in 1987 in Waukesha, Wis., he was finally able to build his first "complete," operationally oriented HO layout, the Illinois & St. Louis, a prototype-based fictional railroad that occupied a 750-square-foot area. The railroad quickly became popular with Milwaukee-, Dixon- and Chicago-area operators, including then-Model Railroader editor Andy Sperandeo.
    The original I&StL was torn down in 1997 when Mike built a new house in northern Illinois, primarily to house a much-improved and enlarged I&StL (known as "Illinois & St. Louis--The Sequel"). This new, 1,600-square-foot, double-deck, 1965-era layout was featured in Tony Koester's Model Railroad Planning 2005. As of the end of 2005, the new layout has hosted three operating sessions. Phase II of its construction is expected to be in operation in 2006.

Education
    Bachelor of Science degree in Art/Art Education and Fine and Applied Arts, 1971, Northern Illinois University; minor in English/Journalism. Associate of Arts degree, Rock Valley College, Rockford, Ill., 1969. Courses taken that may apply to current work position: English Composition, Grammar & Contemporary Usage, Creative Writing, Commercial Layout & Design, Oil Painting, Watercolor, Design & Composition, Life Drawing, Color and Calligraphy.