Winnipeg Model Railroad Club to hold its 2019 open house on April 6 & 7

This is the biggest model railroading event of the season! Come to the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's annual open house! We've been throwing this annual party for many decades, and everyone's guaranteed to have a great time! We'll have several great layouts in action, including the NMRA No. 1 Northern Division's Free-Mo layout and the whimsical Lionel giraffe train, which is always a kid favorite!

There will also be plenty of displays and demonstrations, including our award winning annual model contest and photo contest entries. The canteen will be serving gourmet hot dogs, chips, pop, donuts and coffee.

It all happens in the Tank Room at the Charleswood Legion, 6003 Roblin Boulevard from 10 to 5 on Saturday, April 6, and from 10 to 4 0n Sunday, April 7. Wheelchair accessible. Admission by donation. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to support St. Amant. Hope to see you all there!

A sneak preview of Denniz Rietze's new layout

The most prominent feature of Dennis Rietze's new model railroad is a peninsula supported by long carriage bolts attached to the frame of the layout. The support pillar underneath will not be needed once the layout has been installed in his apartment.

Former WMRC treasurer Dennis Rietze sent us some images of his new layout, the Twisted Creek Railway. Dennis is one of the most creative and inventive model railroader in the hobby. He’s well known for building an amazing layout in the crawl space of his split level house. He is having his new layout custom built to fit in the spare bedroom of he new apartment that he and his wife LuElla had moved into recently.

The plan is a modified version of one that appeared in Model Railroader magazine. As it is in an apartment, the layout has been designed to be free standing so none of the walls will be drilled into or damaged. It is supported by a series of pillars, which allows for wheelchair accessibility. As it is built in several lightweight sections using framed Styrofoam boards, it can be taken down and moved without much difficulty.

All of the backdrops are attached to the back side of the layout. The most outstanding feature of the layout is something that literally is outstanding! It’s a large free standing peninsula, supported by several very long carriage bolts that are anchored to the frame of the layout.

Dennis has also recycled several structures from his previous layout. His free standing peninsula will feature a modern grain elevator depot. Dennis, who was never shy about embracing new technology, has plans to put in a street with moving vehicles.

The layout uses pillars for support, which allows wheelchair access.

An inside view of the carriage bolts which will support the peninsula.

 Seen here is the street, which will feature high-tech moving automobiles.

The peninsula will feature a modern grain elevator depot.

 

 

Northwest Short Line is closing their doors

We are saddened to report that the Northwest Short Line is going out of business. Established in 1959, they offered a wide selection of quality model railroad upgrade and repair products. For 60 years they had been a premier manufacturer of wheel sets, gearboxes, replacement motors, tools, and other products for the advanced railroad modeller. Northwest Short Line operated out of Hamilton, Montana.

They will continue to fill orders for in-stock products until July 1, 2019. On their Facebook Page, they stated that the closure is for personal reasons. Sale of the business is not anticipated, but they will consider any and all reasonable proposals.

You can access their website at http://www.nwsl.com/

Union Pacific releases its Big Boy summer schedule

Union Pacific has just announced its schedule for their legendary 4-8-8-4 steamer, also known as "Big Boy". There have been occasions where the mighty brute has traveled as close to Winnipeg as Fargo, North Dakota. Unfortunately, it won't be getting that close this year, as its main destination is Ogden, Utah, where it will participate in the 150 anniversary celebrations of the golden spike in May.

The Big Boy will travel from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Ogden and back, with stops in Rock Springs, Rawlins, Laramie and Evanston. For more information, you can go to the Union Pacific website by clicking here.

Felix Lesiuk's winter grafitti gallery

Our prolific rail photographer Felix Lesiuk took another rail fanning trip with Louis Lenz on March 7. They headed West on a Thursday to try to catch the VIA Canadian, since both the east and westbounds run on Thursday. But both were many hours late.  They made it as far West as Moffat. Traffic was light on CN, but they saw more CP trains than normal.

But what Felix did catch was an amazing array of graffiti on some of the rolling stock, which is what we’re featuring on this post. Some of the work is very intricate, and quite fascinating. It’s amazing how the graffiti taggers manage to do what must be very time consuming work without getting caught!

Learn all about Arduinos and 3D printing at Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's March meet

The WMRC two great clinics lined up for our March 2019 meeting. For our first clinic, Tyler Fedoroshyn will demonstrate building mainline signalling from scratch using an Arduino. Tyler is building a home layout and he'll explain what his signals can do, how they detect trains, what it takes to install them and he'll provide a high level rundown of the computer code used to program the Arduino.

Tyler will also provide a quick glimpse into three other unique Arduino projects he's done,  such as an automatic defect detector, a belt pack throttle, and his latest simulator project.

For our second clinic, Kent Hurley will conduct a demonstration about 3D printing using a 3D home printer.  This clinic was also presented at the 2018 NMRA National Convention. Learn what 3D printing can do for you and see how easy it can be to get started.

The meeting starts at 7:30PM on Friday, March 8, in the Tank Room at the Charleswood Legion, 6003 Roblin Boulevard. Wheelchair accessible. The canteen will be open, and we'll have a 50/50 draw and our monthly model display. Not a member? Not a problem! Guests are always warmly welcomed!