VecTor Trains and Hobbies is now a Walther's dealer

 Great news! VecTor Trains and Hobbies, the folks who also bring you the Manitoba Mega Train Show, are now Walthers dealers. In this age where hobby shops are closing all over the place, it’s wonderful to see that one of them is expanding!

They will be placing an order next Friday, February 4. If there is anything you might be interested in, please contact them by 5pm on Wednesday, February 2, which will give them a couple of days to get a quote, confirm your price, and check if it is in stock.  Any orders received after this time will be placed on their next order on Feb 18. 

Their plan is to place an order every two weeks to take advantage of bulk buying power and share the shipping costs, as well as to stock turnouts & track in N, HO & G.  Other items can be ordered as required.

 Let them know manufacturer/product number and they will give you a quote. Check out the Walthers online catalogue at https://www.walthers.com/

When you look at the catalogue, you will see Walther's public price, but buying through VecTor, they can get you a better price, except for sale items that they can match. You can contact them at vectormb@mymts.net

Richard Mikolayenko models in one of the smallest model railroading scales

                  Richard Mikolayenko did a great job repainting this Marklin Z scale locomotive.

Long time WMRC member Richard Mikolayenko recently brought in a Marklin Z scale locomotive that he has been working on to our monthly model display.

Yes, Z scale. It was introduced by Marlklin in 1972. Its scale  is 1:220, with a track gauge of 6.5 mm, or .256 inches. To put that into perspective, N scale is 1:144, and HO scale is a gigantic 1:87. Believe it or not, there is an even smaller scale than Z called T scale, which is 1:450.

Richard repainted the shell of a Marklin Mini-Club locomotive. He painted the body black and the grab irons white with a brush (you can get away with that in Z scale) and spray painted the roof.
 

Norm Leathers is alive and well and is still a very active model railroader

 Norm Leathers is the WMRC’s longest standing member. He joined the club shortly after it was formed in 1955, and has held many positions in the club, including President. He turned 86 this month. He still attends meetings on a regular basis and he is still a very active model railroader.

He recently brought in a model he has been working on for the club’s monthly model display. Norm, who exclusively models the Pennsylvania Railroad, displayed a Pennsylvania E-44 electric engine. It consisted of a Hallmark unpaired brass body and a chassis whose running qualities he didn’t like.

Bachmann had marketed an E-33 locomotive which was a much better runner.  Norm modified the body of the Hallmark model and the chassis of the Bachmann model so that they could be joined together to make a much better running locomotive. He installed a Digitrax decoder and had former WMRC member John Morris paint and decal it.

Long may your E-44 run, and long may your run, Norm!

Spend a night at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum with the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club on January 14

Ken Beuhler, Executive Director of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, is seen in front of Union       Pacific's Big Boy, which made a stop in Duluth at the museum in 2019.

The WMRC having a night at the museum! Ken Beuhler, Executive Director of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum is going to conduct a tour of  this spectacular museum just for us! The museum was founded in the late 1960s and gained traction with the preservation of the Northern Pacific's Union Depot in downtown Duluth by the Museum's founders. They saved the building and created an Arts Culture and History Center. It made the front cover of TIME magazine when it opened. USA Today voted the Museum the "Best Transportation Museum in America." The museum has become one of the major tourist attractions in the Duluth Superior Region. In 2019, it hosted the Union Pacific’s “Big Boy”, which attracted 12,000 rail fans.

Dave MacLean, long time member and past president of the Model Railroad Club of Toronto, will showcase his club, one of the oldest in North America. Having forced to move in 2013 from its former 67 year run in a former WW2 era munitions factory, the Club is now in its fourth home. Since 2013, Club members have been building a new 3500 square foot layout featuring multiple deck construction, mushroom design concepts, soaring bridges over aisles, and walk in design to all areas. The Club  embraces traditional and new technology such as DCC/JMRI/WiThrottle to allow use of handheld devices for control of trains and turnouts. Recently 3D printing has been adopted. The layout features a mainline length of over 8 scale miles with full staging yards, with two major terminals to allow transition era Canadian railroad operations, with walk-along timetable passenger and waybill freight operations. The layout is fully signaled according to the 1960 Canadian Railway Operating Rules with full dispatcher functionality. 

The meeting takes place on Friday, January 14 at 7:00 PM. Due to COVID concerns, this will be an on-line only meeting on Zoom. We will be holding our member’s monthly model display. All members have received a Zoom link for this meeting. If you are not a member and wish to receive a link, email us at wmrc.train club@gmail.com and we will send you a link.

      An O scale CP passenger rounds the corner at the Model Railroad Club of Toronto's layout.