We were asked to post this short obituary for hobbyist Mike Pfulb. This was written by Jim Noel. Our condolences go out to Mike’s family.
Mike Pfulb owner of Mike’s Backshop and a stalwart in the model railroad world of Southern California, passed away quietly February 7, 2015 at the age of 67. Mike was a founding member of the San Diego Garden Railroad Society, the California South Coast Modular On30 Group, and the Dead Rail Society. He designed and built many model railroad layouts indoors and out, primarily in Southern California. He was instrumental in the introduction of battery powered, radio controlled locomotives to the area beginning with large scale models more than 25 years ago, and moved into his final interest doing the same in On30 and HO scales. His skill and artistry in the installation of model railroad equipment was widely recognized. He was responsible for a large number of people becoming enthusiastic model railroaders and later in battery power and remote control.
Mike leaves me with wonderful memories of him at train shows and the way in which he reacted to children and strangers. While too many of us are leary of handing over control of our trains to a child, it was not unusual for Mike to spot a youngster, show them how to use the throttle, hand it to them and stand back to watch, or as was common with him, get in a conversation with someone else while the youngster continued to happily run the train. The conversation was often to answer a question, and no one ever asked him a dumb one. He believed all questions were sincere and deserved an answer.