The NMRA's No. 1 Northern Division's third annual train meet

   The NMRA's No. 1 Northern Division held their third annual train meet on Saturday, November 2 at Whyte Ridge Baptist Church in Winnipeg. This year, the group focused on "hands-on" clinics and demonstrations. Winnipeg Model Railroad Club President Larry Leavens showed how to make static grass by using an improvised hand held bug zapper that you could buy at any home improvement store for under ten dollars (genuine static grass makers usually sell for well over ten times that much).

   WMRC acting program director and Canadian Railway Modeller publisher Morgan Turney demonstrated how to make realistic rock faces with ceiling tile. No. 1 Northern superintendent Dennis Rietze conducted a clinic on DCC. A workshop on how to ballast a track was conducted, with a prize of a gift certificate from a local hobby shop for who did the best job.

   Members could also compete for a hobby shop gift certificate using a John Allen Style "time-saver" module to see who could shunt freight cars to their assigned destination the fastest. The winner was the No.1 Northern's youngest member, 10 year old Michael leader, who beat most of our veteran members by a very wide margin!

    Below is the first in a series of photos taken at this event. Others will be published in future posts.

    

 Larry Leavens shows Ian Plett how to transform an inexpensive bug zapper into a static grass maker.

Larry Leavens shows Morgan Turney how to rewire the bug zapper.

Michael Leader tries his hand with Larry's DIY static grass maker.