trendy train model

    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.

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. 

A band with over 75 members played at the memorial service for our good friend Ken Epp. Ken led an exemplary life of service to others, not only to the model railroading community but to the music and basketball community of Manitoba. He was the executive director of the Manitoba Band Association for 29 years and also served as a referee with the Manitoba Association of Basketball officials.

   Ken worked at many levels of the game, including many high school provincial championships and Canadian national championships at the university level. Under Ken's leadership, music instruction through band programs became available to students across the province, making Manitoba a leader in music education.

   Of course, Ken will always be fondly remembered for organizing the WMRC's Great Canadian Train Show for so many years.

The Winnipeg Free Press covered his memorial service. You can read the article 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.