Monday, May 29, 2017

Winnipeg's model railroad and rail fan community mourns passing of Gord Hilderman

Former WMRC member Gord Hilderman lost his battle with cancer on May 22. He would've been 61 in June. 

Gord was a CN engineer, photographer, model railroader, model train dealer, and the brains behind cnrphotos.com. He regularly kept us all up to date with the goings on inside the real railroad industry and the railfan and modelling communities in western Canada. He was also a member for the Selkirk Model Railroaders Association. 


Gord, like his Dad, loved trains and was an avid railroader. In his early years Gord worked briefly as an automotive mechanic and a tow truck operator. He then followed his Dad’s footsteps and joined CN, where he worked for 33 years starting as a yard foreman, then as a conductor and finally as a locomotive engineer. 

Sunday, May 28, 2017

See the Gateway Western Railway today!

These kids really enjoyed watching the trains run at the Gateway Western Railway last year!

The Winnipeg Railway Museum is again participating in Doors Open Winnipeg. The WMRC's Gateway Western Railway, which is housed in the museum, will be open to the public today from 11AM to 5:00PM. The Gateway is Manitoba's largest model railroad display, and it's open to the public only twice a year, so don't miss this opportunity to view it! The Winnipeg Railway Museum is located on the second floor of the Via Rail station at 123 Main Street!

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

CP to run special train to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday.

CP has announced that they will be running a train across Canada to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday. The train will be in Winnipeg on Friday, August 4th, from 5:00PM to 8:00PM at the Southdale Community Centre, 254 Lakewood Boulevard. 

The CP F-unit 1401 will lead the train, hauling over 10 CP heritage cars. A highlight at each stop is the opportunity to take part in decorating a special car named the Spirit of Tomorrow. Children can write their hopes for the Canada of tomorrow on a commemorative card. The cards will be attached to the car. This car will be included in CP's 2017 Holiday Train.

Also included in the train is CP's  stage car where Dallas Arcand, champion Aboriginal hoop dancer and Juno award-winning country music singer Dean Brody will be performing.

For more information about the CP Canada 150 train, click here. 

CP has also updated its website to provide a history of the company, which can be accessed by clicking http://cpconnectingcanada.ca/#building-the-railway

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Winnipeg's Rugby Tower dismantled by CP Rail

CP's Rugby tower, a rail fanning favourite for decades, is no more. 

By Morgan Turney

Many fans of this site will know and recognize CPR's Rugby Tower, located at mile 1.9 on CP's Carberry subdivision, just at the west end of CPR's yards off of McPhillips Street, and behind the McPhillips Street Station casino.

Built in 1947 to replace the original wooden structure, Rugby Tower was decommissioned as a control structure for CP trains in and out of Winnipeg on June 1, 2013 and remained standing, but empty. It was a two-story brick building with its' prominent "Rugby" name engraved into the brick and featured a distinctive windsock on a pole that indicated wind direction in case of a hazardous chemical spill in the yards.


On a recent railfanning visit one evening last week to Stanley Knowles Park, which overlooks CP's Weston yards and shops, I noticed that something didn't seem right with the view. That's when I noticed that Rugby Tower was no more! It's gone. Not a brick in sight - only a square of stones where the foundation used to be. Yet another piece of rail history gone forever.

Here's a recent image taken by Morgan Turney of where the Rugby Tower used to stand, taken at almost the same angle as the image above the article. It's ver sad to see that it's not there anymore!

Saturday, May 13, 2017

HO model railroad equipment for sale in Saskatchewan

Roni Evans of Redvers, Saskatchewan has a lot of model railroad equipment to sell.

Her husband, who was a lifelong model railroader, recently passed away. He built a 40’x60’ building to house his hobby. That’s about twice the size of The WMRC’s Gateway Western!

She has found herself in possession of a huge layout and hundreds of pieces of rolling stock and locomotives, many are still in their boxes. There are packing boxes full of all sorts of equipment still in its packages. There are buildings, track, decoders, electronics, almost anything you can imagine! 


If anyone is interested in purchasing any or all of this amazing hoard, her phone number is 306-840-7299, or you can message her on Facebook.

Monday, May 08, 2017

Winnipeg Model Railroad Club to hold annual banquet on May 12

The WMRC is winding up another great season with our Annual General Meeting and Awards Night. This year, it is being held on Friday, May 12, at a new location, at the Canad Inns Polo Park in Alto's Restaurant, which is located at 1405 St. Matthews Avenue. 

Cocktails and dinner (buffet style or order from their menu) will start at 6:00PM, and the AGM will begin at 7:30PM. After the AGM, we’ll have our annual awards presentation.

After the awards presentation, we’ll have plenty of door prizes and “arm's length” raffle ticket prizes (that’s where you buy your arm’s length of tickets) to give out, as well as our now-famous elimination draw! This time the elimination draw will be for an DCC Atlas Classic CPR C424 locomotive with sound and a matching Athearn CPR caboose.

Monday, May 01, 2017

More views of CN's Winnipeg campus

Long time WMRC member Felix Lesiuk took a whole slew of photos of CN's Winnipeg campus when he visited the facility with members of the Winnipeg Railway Museum, which we've posted several times.  But so far, we've only posted images of their model railroad layout. This post features a rare look at many of their other hands-on training tools. Enjoy!