Ron Einarson and Morgan Turney winners of Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's model contest structures category

Long time WMRC member Ron Einarson won first place in the club's annual model contest in the structures category for his HO scale model of Weezer's Motorcycle repair shop. Ron is a highly skilled modeller who specializes in structures, and has won numerous awards for his work over the years.The structures category is where the work of our members really shine! 

 WMRC Program Director Morgan Turney won second place in the model contest's structures category for his HO scale model of the mile 34 snow shed. 

 Aaron Woloshyn won third place in the model contest's structures category for his HO scale model of a signal gantry. Aaron is a highly skilled and prolific modeller who has won seven awards in this year's competition alone!

Gino Kost won honourable mention for his G scale model of a watchman's tower. Gino is no stranger to building structures, whether they're HO, G scale or prototype. He was the guy who coordinated the building of the structure that now houses the WMRC's Gateway Western HO scale railway in the Winnipeg Railway Museum!

Larry Leavens and Richard Mikolayenko win revenue freight category in Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's annual model contest

 WMRC President Larry Leavens won first place in the WMRC's annual model contest in the revenue freight category for his model of a Sands of Iowa hopper. Richard Mikolayenko took second and third place for his N scale model of a Gotham Stock Express stock car (complete with miniature cattle) and an O gauge model of a B&O radio car with a WMRC 60th anniversary logo. Congratulations, guys! You both did a great job!

More scenes from the Winnipeg Model railroad Club's 2016 open house

 Does this scene look familiar? It's where the CP tracks cross under the CN mainline at Rennie, Manitoba. It's been modelled by Morgan Turney and his crew on the Kildonan Short Lines.

WMRC Program Director Morgan Turney sent us several images from the club's 2016 spring open house. Some of them were so unique that we just had to post them! Enjoy!

 This is a model of a model railroad on a model railroad! The mind boggles at this creation!

 

 Check out the exquisite detail of this model of a corral!

 

The show wouldn't be complete without Paul Ullrich, "The Giraffe Car Man" and his layout!

Aaron Woloshyn and Paul Ullrich win Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's model contest locomotive awards

Aaron Woloshyn won first prize in the Winnipeg Model railroad Club's annual model contest in the locomotive division for his model of an HO gauge  CN C44-9 diesel. It is only one of seven awards this talented modeller won at this year's competition.

Paul Ullrich won second place for his model of an O gauge Via Rail F40PH Kool-Aid locomotive. There were no O gauge decals available for this model, so he had to make them himself from images captured on Photoshop.

Tommy and James South win Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's junior awards

 Brothers Tommy and James South are this winners of the WMRC's junior model railroader awards. Tommy won first place for his model of a weathered Frisco boxcar, which he built from a "shake a box" kit. He also included the club's 60th anniversary logo on the car.

 James South won second place for his model of an Armour reefer, which he also built from a kit and included the WMRC 60th anniversary logo.Congratulations to both of two of our youngest members of our club for their sterling efforts in this year's modelling competitions!

Suzanne Lemon's photos of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's 2016 spring open house

Who says the younger set aren't interested in model railroading? Tommy, Frances and James South take over the Kildonan Short Lines modular railway while WMRC Program Director Morgan Turney takes a well deserved break.

WMRC spring open house coordinator Suzanne Lemon sent in these great candid photos of our last open house, Held on April 2 and 3 at the Charleswood Legion. Suzanne is a professionally trained, award winning photographer who was also the editor of Railfan Canada magazine. Enjoy!

Jane and Godfrey South on duty at the canteen, serving hot dogs, donuts, coffee, pop and chips to our many hungry guests. 

What are John Sinclair discussing? The meaning life? Einstein's theory of relativity? What to order at Santa Lucia's next Friday? The club was very pleased to have John display some of his marvellous collection of G gauge trains for the first time in 23 years.

Tardis spotted on the Kildonan Short Lines! This was one of two Tardises displayed on layouts by the Doctor Who fans of the club.

Suzanne Lemon wins Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's model contest special event

 WMRC photo contest chair and spring open house coordinator Suzanne Lemon won the club's special event in their annual model contest for her model of a Woodside frame boxcar. The special event's theme for 2016 was to build a "shake a box kit" manufactured by Athearn or a similar model manufacturer. Extra points were given if the WMRC 60th anniversary logo was included on the model.

   What made Suzanne's submission unique and outstanding was that she modelled the inside of the car, as well as the outside! Congratulations Suzanne, for a job well done! Second place went to Morgan Turney for his model of a CP boxcar with graffiti. Third place went to Aaron Woloshyn for his model of a PROX tank car.

Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's open house makes headline news

This image of Bob Wheeler and Morgan Turney, taken by Canstar Community Correspondent Amanda Thorsteinsson, has been posted in the Canstar Community News website. 

We are pleased to announce that the WMRC's last open house has garnered some very nice publicity from Canstar Community News, publishers of the Headliner, Herald, Lance, Sou'wester and the Times. A big thank you goes out to Canstar Community Correspondent Amanda Thorsteinsson, who came to our show and wrote the article.

Global news also did a very nice piece on the WMRC open house, which ran on Saturday, April 2. Having it run on Saturday was guaranteed to boost the gate on Sunday! The WMRC would like to thank Public Relations Director Margaret Ullrich for her efforts in bringing attention to the media for this and so many other events we've held.

You can read the article by clicking here. 

Lane Collins' images of the Winnipeg Model railroad Club's spring open house

Lane Collins, who is one of our followers on the WMRC's Facebook page, sent us these images that he took during his visit to the club's recent open house. They're very unique and moody images taken at extreme close up of scenes from the modular groups that were displaying at the show.  Thanks for sharing these images with us, Lane!

More memories of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's 2016 spring open house

 We proudly accept all types and gauges of model railroads in our club, even Lego! Tommy South, one of our youngest members, built this fine Lego MOW inspection vehicle, which is displayed on WMRC Blog Editor Paul Ullrich's O gauge Lionel portable layout.

 Long time WMRC member and retired CN engineer Marcel Blair displayed some G scale trains at the show. They're bigger than most model railroad gauges, but still small than the ones he was used to handling when he was at work!

 One of the most popular displays at the show was the Women of Model Railroading exhibit, showcasing the amazing talents of our club's female modellers.

Right behind Marcel Blair's massive G scale display was Suzanne Lemon's Z scale layout, which is by far the smallest model railroad gauge commercially available. 

Jack Hykaway presents Rails of the Red River Basin at Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's April meeting

At our next meeting, Jack Hykaway will present "Rails of the Red River Basin". This will include shots from the Sprague Sub (Navin, Floodway Bridge, Lorette, Dufresne), the Redditt Sub (Brereton Lake, MP 184.5, Elma), CP's Keewatin Sub (Tunnel Island), BNSF Manitoba, BNSF's Staples Sub (Bridges near Hawley, MN), BNSF's KO Sub and BNSF's Prosper Sub. Jack Hykaway is a very talented railway video photographer. He's been interested in video since a teenager and he does remarkable work!

The fun begins on Friday, April 8 at 7:30PM in the Tank Room of the Charleswood Legion, 6003 Roblin Boulevard.We'll have our monthly model display, a 50-50 draw and the canteen will be open! Hope to see you all there!

Brandon Hills Model Railroad Club to hold open house on Saturday

It's worth the trip to Brandon this weekend, as the Brandon Hills Model Railroad Club will host an Open House on April 16, 2016 at 19 - 9th Street in Brandon, Manitoba. The hours are from from 10:00AM to 4:00PM. Come and see their large HO scale work-in-progress layout as well as other layouts of different scales!

For information, contact Tony Devlieger at: devliegere@goinet.ca

Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's 2016 spring open house was a great success!

The expression on James South's face says it all! Everyone had a terrific time at the WMRC's spring open house held last weekend. It was the most successful open house we've had in over 15 years, and we'd like to extend a big THANK YOU to everyone who visited and everyone who displayed!

 No. 1 Northern Division's Free-Mo Group Superintendent Ian Plett made sure everything ran smoothly on their layout this past weekend.

 The Assiniboine Valley Railway's President Len LaRue displayed three of the group's magnificent custom made cars at the show, including this woodside caboose built by the late, great Peter Abel.

WMRC Secretary Cliff Davidson displayed this nifty N gauge layout that he built on a 2" thick piece of blue styrofoam.

Winnipeg Model Railroad club celebrates Norm Leathers' bicentennial

The WMRC honoured long time member Norm Leathers at their annual spring open house, celebrating 200 years of his life and his devotion to rail fanning.  Norm developed his love of trains in 1830 at just 14 years of age when he hitched a ride on Peter Cooper's "Tom Thumb". Unfortunately, there is no proof of his ride, as the camera hadn't been invented yet!

When a Canadian citizen reaches the 100 year mark, Buckingham Palace sends that person a letter of congratulations. Norm is the only person in the history of the British Empire to have received two of these letters - one from Queen Elizabeth II and another from her grandfather, George V!

Below is a photo gallery of Norm's greatest accomplishments during the past two centuries.

Norm was at the signing of Confederation at Charlottetown in 1867. It was at this meeting that he whispered in John A. MacDonald's ear, "Hey, why don't you build a railroad from coast to coast?"

On November 7, 1885, when he was a mere lad of 69, he witnessed Donald Smith drive the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Craigellachie. Norm was working as a herder for Smiths' collection of buffalos in Silver Heights at the time. 

Norm is pictured here with Wilbur Wright. Norm was a pilot of the RCAF and flew in WW1, WW2 and Korea. He developed his love for aviation when he worked in Orville and Wilbur Wright's bicycle shop in Ohio. One day he said to Wilbur, "If we put some wings on this frame and put a gasoline engine on it, I bet it would fly!" 

By the way, if you haven't already guessed:

It's a little late this year, our annual spring open house was this weekend, and we didn't want to confuse anyone who might be looking for information about the show. We'd like to thank Norm leathers, who graciously gave his consent to be the subject of this year's April Fools post. When asked if he'd like to know how he was going to be lampooned, he simply said, "Surprise me!"