trendy train model

   We've had an unusual amount of response when our last post about Chris Burden's model railroad sculpture was posted on the WMRC's Facebook page. But the best reply came from our own John Longhurst, who made a post on his own blog, the Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision, about an Canadian visual artist named Kim Adams who also uses model railroading equipment in his art, which was displayed in the Art Gallery of Ontario.

    Whether you agree with his approach or not, he might be on to something, because he was awarded the Gershon Iskowitz prize of $50,000 for his efforts! You can buy a lot of ground foam for that kind of money!

    To see John's post on Kim Adams, click here.  To read more about Kim Adam's 2013 exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario, click here.

   The Gateway Western Railway is housed in its own structure at the Winnipeg Railway Museum, built by volunteers from the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club and the Winnipeg Railway Museum. This photo was taken by John Longhurst, which he used in his blog, the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision, which featured a post about the Gateway Western.

The WMRC and the Winnipeg Railway Museum will once again be participating in Doors Open Winnipeg this weekend. The Gateway Western Railway, which is a joint effort between the WMRC and the museum, will be operating trains as part of the Winnipeg Railway Museum�s contribution to the event from 11 to 5 on Saturday, May 30 and Sunday, May 31. Admission to the museum this weekend is free (although donations will always be cheerfully accepted) and there's plenty of parking available nearby at The Forks. The city is offering two free hours of metered street parking, and free street parking all day on Sunday. 

The museum is located on tracks 1 and 2 on the upper level of the Via Rail Station, which is located at 123 Main Street.

 For more information on Doors Open Winnipeg, go to http://www.doorsopenwinnipeg.ca/

For more information about the Winnipeg Railway Museum, go to:
http://www.wpgrailwaymuseum.com/

    A very young Ken Epp, looking very much like his son Jeremy, working on the first version of the Cougar River Subdivision in the mid-80's.

   WMRC member John Longhurst posted an excellent article about the late Ken Epp's Cougar River Subdivision layout, featuring many vintage photos taken during the years when it was in operation.
Ken's wife lent Ken's photo album to John, who proceeded to take images of the photos with his iPhone, which he posted on his blog site, The CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision, and on his Flickr page. 

    Ken (who was John's brother-in-law) took copious records of the building of his layout. The collection is a fascinating record of the building of one of Manitoba's greatest and most famous model railroads.

     CN's east yards in the 70's. Quite a difference compared to 2015!

   It's been 25 years - an entire generation - since The Forks opened to the public, changing what was once CN's bustling downtown rail yard into Winnipeg's premiere meeting place. The Forks is now home to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Winnipeg Goldeyes, The Winnipeg Children's Museum, and dozens of shops that are housed in some of CN's structures.

     WMRC member John Longhurst takes a nostalgic and informative look back at the CN donwtown east yard in an article he wrote for his blog, The CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Division. Long time WMRC members will recall fondly when we used to meet in the basement of the Via Rail station when the CN yards were still in operation. Later, we held meetings in the Children's Museum after The Forks was established. Now we're back at The Forks, operating the Gateway Western layout in the Winnipeg Railway Museum!

Great news! Due to popular demand, the Assiniboine Valley Railway will be holding two open houses this month! There will be no Christmas lights, but you can ride the trains all you want! They'll be holding their open houses on the weekends of December 20-21 and December 27-28 from 1PM to 4PM.

   To a lot of people, it just wouldn't be Christmas without a ride on the AVR, and we're very pleased to announce the return of this cherished annual event. Just remember to dress warmly! The weather promises to be milder than it was last winter, but it's not going to be as mild as depicted in this image, taken by WMRC member John Longhurst!

   This image, taken by our good friend and WMRC member John Longhurst, now only serves as a sad reminder of what was a wonderful part of Winnipeg's Christmas season that is no more.

     For the second year in a row, the AVR will not be having their Christmas light display. This is because of a lack of resources, manpower, and most significantly, the absence of AVR founder Bill Taylor.

     Bill was the Christmas light master of the AVR. There were 100,000 lights on display, which was TEN TIMES the amount Chevy Chase had on his house in the classic movie, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". As the AVR was on his property, he had more time than others to string these lights. He was also the only one who knew the proper electrical schematics for wiring them all together (It's safe to assume that you don't just plug in 100,000 light into an ordinary 110 volt socket, even when they're LEDs).

    It's been a tough year for the AVR, but they managed to hold their usual monthly open houses in 2014. But they weren't able to hold their annual "Dinner Train". Hopefully, the lights will be up again for Christmas in 2015.

In the November issue of The Lantern, the official publication of the WMRC, member John Longhurst authored a moving article about his late brother-in-law Ken Epp's layout, the Cougar River Subdivision. Unfortunately, this publication is only available to members of the WMRC. But you can still view Ken's layout on-line on two links!

The first link is from the Sweden Freezer website. This site was the on-line home of the WMRC until Bill Taylor's passing last year. Bill created and maintained this website for the club, starting at the time when not many of us even had computers, not to mention internet access. The site for his business still exists, but links have been created to re-direct viewers to the new websites for the WMRC and the AVR. However, the link to view Ken's layout still exists! It was last updated in 2003, with several images taken by our own Ron Einarson. View it by clicking here. 

The other site to view Ken's layout is at John Longhurst's own website, the Manitoba and Minnesota subdivision. You can view his tribute to Ken and see several images of his layout by clicking here. 

 Ken Epp (L) is seen with John Longhurst at John's layout, the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision. The photo was taken two weeks before Ken's death.

Long time WMRC member John Longhurst wrote a tribute to his brother-in-law Ken Epp in his most recent post on his blog, the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision. It has been mentioned before on a previous post on this site, but it was so moving that it warranted another posting.  The best quote was one from Ken himself, reflecting on his many trips on Via Rail and Amtrak.

�I have to say that sitting in the dome car at night as the train goes across the Canadian Shield, watching the signals get knocked down, seeing the northern lights and the snow on the trees�I don�t know if what heaven is like, but for me, that�s heaven.�

 We can only hope that heaven is as nice a place as that.

Ken's funeral service will be held on Sunday, October 19 at North Kildonan Mennonite Brethren Church, 1315 Gateway Road at 2:30 PM.

Long time WMRC member Ken Epp passed away yesterday. He was recently diagnosed with cancer of the liver and given just a few weeks to live.

Ken was a long time member of the WMRC. He will be most remembered at the club for organizing the Great Canadian Train Show from 1997 to 2011. This was no easy task. Ken had to deal with dozens and dozens of displayers and vendors, then he had to fit them all into the two levels of the gymnasium space allotted to the club at the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute within the constraints of the fire marshal's regulations.

Ken was the Executive Director of the Manitoba Band Association, a non-profit charitable organization which promotes the growth and development of band in Manitoba through regional and provincial programs and charities. His love for music rubbed off on his son, Jeremy, who held the position of Principal Timpani in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra until he joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra last month.   Ken was also the brother-in-law of long time WMRC member John Longhurst, who also assisted Ken in organizing the club's Great Canadian Train Show for several years.

Ken will also be remembered for his truly unique layout, the HO scale Cougar River Subdivision. Ken managed to combine his desire for a large layout with his family�s need for basement living space. The result was a club-size layout that features a 530-foot mainline run, yet ensured that the rest of the basement is available to the family (a large recreation room, bedroom, full bathroom and utility area).

He accomplished this by using an around-the-walls double and triple deck design. The loop-to-loop layout, with its nine-scale mile run, ran through and around all the basement rooms, but didn't interfere with activities since the shelves in the living areas were only 6 to 12 inches wide. To make the layout compatible with other living areas, Ken finished off the edges with hardboard fascia and was careful to keep wires and other clutter from view. The tracks punched through the walls 19 times! It took 25 minutes for a train to traverse the layout from the lower staging yard to the upper staging yard. Ken's layout was showcased in every major model railroad convention we've had in Winnipeg, and was frequently featured on local television programs.

 Ken's funeral service will be held on Sunday, October 19 at North Kildonan Mennonite Brethren Church, 1315 Gateway Road at 2:30 PM.

Below is an image from Ken's Cougar River Subdivision. You can view more of his magnificent layout by clicking here. For a further tribute to Ken, please go to John Longhurst's Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision blog site by clicking here.

 

    Could we see Rod Stewart riding on the AVR this weekend? Who knows?

   Everyone knows that Rod Stewart is not only a legendary world class rocker, but he's also a model railroader! In the model railroading community, he's almost as famous as Ron Einarson or John Longhurst!

   Tonight  Rod will be in concert along with Carlos Santana at the MTS Centre. This man commands large crowds wherever he performs in concert. When he's not performing, he lives year round in Hawaii. So why would he pick this weekend to perform in this mosquito ridden backwater?

   There can be only one answer - he must've heard about the AVR's open house this weekend! Maybe he read this blog for the information!

   We don't know for sure if he's going to be there, but the only way to find out is to go there yourself! It looks like it's going to be a wonderful weekend for riding the trains! The hours for the open house are from 11:00 to 5:00 on Saturday, and from 1:00 to 5:00 on Sunday. It costs a measly two bucks a ride, and kids under three can ride for free. A 12 ride rail pass is available for $20, which is good at any AVR event.

   The Assiniboine Valley Railway is located at 3001 Roblin Boulevard, right next to Assiniboine Park. If you see Rod there, remember that you read it first right here! But even if he isn't there, you're guaranteed a great time riding the rails!

   Please not the the AVR has a new website, which you can reach by clicking here. 

    Long time WMRC member John Longhurst has had his very first article published in the August 2014 issue of Model Railroader. John, who as been a member since the 90's, is well known in the model railroading community as the former Associate Editor for Canadian Railway Modeller, published by our own Morgan Turney.

    John has also had his byline twice in Railroad Model Craftsman, and has been a frequent contributor to the WMRC's official publication, The Lantern, and the Canadian Association of Railway Modeller's publication, The Canadian. He also has an excellent blog, titled the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision. The blog is named after his own world class model railroad, but it covers a wide range of topics concerning model railroading and rail fanning in general.

    John's article is about his use of tree bark as a cheap and effective way of making realistic rock faces, which is his own unique discovery and has been used in many layout across Winnipeg since he introduced it.

     "When I was a kid, I read both Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman." Said John, "I told myself: One day I want to make a model railroad good enough to be in those magazines. My dream has been fulfilled!"

    John has always been an active volunteer for the WMRC. He will always be remembered for bringing the WMRC's Great Canadian train Show over to the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute (along with former WMRC member Ken Epp, who also happens to be John's brother-in-law) and serving as Convention Director for CARM's 2005 convention in Winnipeg, which had the largest attendance of any model railroad convention in the city since the 1983 NMRA national convention, Railway Jamboree '83.

    Besides his editing gig for CMR, John also writes a regular faith column for the Winnipeg Free Press. He also holds down a full time job as Director of Communications and Marketing for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. Where does he find the time?

    As an extra bonus, John's article is even listed on the cover! MR bought the article from John four years ago, which comes close to, but doesn't beat the seven years WMRC Blog Editor Paul Ullrich had to wait for his own article to appear in the September 2013 issue of Trains. Please keep in mind that when submitting to these publications that they have a substantial backlog of articles to publish, and that these wait times are not all that unusual.

     WMRC members have been published all over the place recently. Along with John, Dennis Rietze has had an article about his model railroad published in Canadian Railway Modeller, and WMRC Blog Editor Paul Ullrich has had two articles published in Kalmbach's Classic Toy Trains.

     Congratulations, John! Keep up the good work!

   

    Doors Open Winnipeg is an annual event presented by Heritage Winnipeg, where some of the most unique and historic buildings in Winnipeg are opened up for public viewing. This year one of the features included is the Winnipeg Railway Museum! Feel free to explore the museum from 11:00AM to 5:00PM on Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 1.

    One of the things you can view there is the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's own Gateway Western Railway, which is housed in it's own structure in the museum. It's worth the trip just to see what progress has been made on what will soon be one of the province's best model railroads!

    Of course, that's just one of the many great attractions you can see at the museum. You've got six hours each day to explore its many wonders, and that still might not be enough time to see everything!

Here it is, folks! The Gateway Western in its new structure at the Winnipeg Railway Museum! Photo by WMRC member John Longhurst, from his blog, the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision.

   WMRC Blog Editor Paul Ullrich (also known as "the man with the giraffe cars") will again be exhibiting his portable Lionel layout at the club's open house this year. Paul has been displaying Lionel trains at the open houses since 1986, and he's made a total of seven different layouts for the show.
 
    His layouts became more and more kid friendly after one open house, when club member John Longhurst asked him to watch is son while he made the rounds at the show. The kid didn't have anything to do, so Paul invited him to blow the whistle on one of his trains. The next thing he knew, he had a lineup of about a dozen kids waiting to do the same!

    Paul's layout includes four operating dump cars that the kids can operate. It is the only layout in the show that is interactive. This surprises most of the parents, who often shoo away their children when they see them work the dump cars. Paul aways has to explain to the parents that operating the dump cars is not only allowed, but encouraged! (But for safety reasons, Paul is the only one allowed to run the trains)

    The giraffe cars have always been a hit with children and adults alike. Paul started out with one, but through the years his long necked menagerie has grown to six cars! He's just added a car with a bobbing lion's head (but he keeps that lion at a safe distance from the giraffes).

    The WMRC's open house will be held on Saturday, March 15 and Sunday, March16 at Westworth United Church, 1750 Grosvenor Avenue.  Times are from 11:00AM to 4:00 PM on Saturday, and from 1:00PM to 5:00 PM on Sunday. Admission is by donation. A portion of the proceeds from the show will go to support St.Amant.

Some of you might've noticed that we now have an image from a model railroad on our site's masthead.  We surely needed a visual presence there. After all, this is a blog about the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club!

When it came to selecting an image, the choice was obvious - it had to be from Stafford Swain's layout!
Stafford was a true model railroading pioneer. His layout of the CNR Whiteshell Division was a museum quality creation of the real thing. He started building his layout in 1975, when prototype modelling was a rarity, and scenery techniques were pretty basic.

He's had over 80 articles published in magazines such as Model Railroader, Mainline Modeller and Railroad Model Craftsman. He's MMR #98. He helped found the CN Lines SIG (now the Canadian National Railway Historical Association), was president of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club and the TLR, and was the Convention Director for the 1983 NMRA national convention held in Winnipeg.

Sadly, his layout is no more. The layout was dismantled shortly after it's last public showing in 2010 for the TLR's Steam on the Prairies convention in Winnipeg. A glowing tribute to Stafford and his many accomplishments has been published in Canadian railway Modeller, Train 17, Track 3. Besides this site, you can also read about Stafford at WMRC member John Longhurst's Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision blog at http://cprailmmsub.blogspot.com/ 

This site will continue to post further images of Stafford's layout in the future.

    Make no mistake - this the official site, sanctioned by the board.

    Our website used to be at the Sweden Freezer website, which was operated by long term member Bill Taylor. Due to his untimely and unfortunate death, the club needed a new web presence. Our space on the Sweden Freezer website hadn't been updated since the spring of 2013.

    At our request,  Phil Mendelshon, the AVR's present webmaster,  has taken all information pertaining to the WMRC off the website and provided a link to our new website.

   Now when you Google the "Winnipeg Model Railroad Club" with quote marks, this website shows up first, followed by WMRC webmaster's wife Margaret Ullrich's popular events, blog, Winnipeg is Better than Chocolate.   The CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision, a blog operated by long time WMRC member and Winnipeg Free Press faith columnist John Longhurst, shows up as fifth on the list.