Larry Leavens presents the second part of his presentation on modelling the Oak River bridge at the WMRC's November meeting

In the second part of his presentation on modelling the CN Bridge over Oak River, Larry Leavens will show his progress on this section of his layout. It's rather small as railway bridges go, it does have some interesting aspects. 

In the 1980’s the Government of Canada said that CN would double track its mainline from Winnipeg to Edmonton. Some roadbed grading was done along with some short sections that were double tracked, but the bulk of the line remained single tracked. The bridge at Oak River was part of this project.

A new bridge was built on the alignment of the new track and the old bridge was dismantled with the track curving to swing the track over to this new alignment. Larry did not intend to build an exact copy or a contest quality model of the bridge, but he did want to capture the flavour of it. The scenery had been roughed in and the basic bridge built in Part one. Now it's time to finish the scenery and bridge. Along the way he changed his mind on some of the details. See what he did differently from his original idea.

Please note that the WMRC's November meeting will be held a week earlier than usual, on Friday, November 3, at 7:30PM at the Charleswood Legion, 6003 Roblin Boulevard. The canteen will be open, and we will also be holding our monthly model and photo displays.
 

 

Images from the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's visit to the Portage Model Railroad Club

WMRC program director Ian Plett took these photos of the Portage Model Railroad Club during our October 14 meeting, which was held at the CP station in Portage la Prairie. Everyone had a great time visiting the club and viewing their layouts, which included large HO and O gauge layouts and an O gauge shelf layout running around the perimeter of the room!

Dannele Hueging is the winner of theThomas the Tank Engine train set door prize at the Manitoba Mega Train Show

The lucky winner of the Manitoba Mega Train Show door prize was Dannele Hueging, whose nephew John will be the excited recipient of the Thomas the Tank Engine train set. Congratulations to Dannele and John!

WMRC president John Bate dropped off the set at Dannele's place. Dannele sent us these two images of herself and of her nephew at the Manitoba Mega Train Show. 

Dannele wrote, "After chatting with John Bate I'm sending a photo of our nephew John and I at the train show. He will be the lucky recipient of this set. He is an avid train enthusiast, and has a couple different sets on the go with his dad. But not this one yet, he will be thrilled!"

 

 

WMRC will hold its October meeting at the CP rail station in Portage La Prairie on Saturday, October 14

And now for something completely different! We're holding our October meeting in Portage La Prairie with the Portage Model Railway Club at the Portage CP station! Come see their great renovated station with all of their layouts and displays, and get in some rail fanning with the beautiful fall foliage! It's worth the trip! 

The meeting will be held on Saturday, October 14, at 1:00 PM. There will be no meeting on Friday, October 13. The station is located at 251 3rd. street NE in Portage La Prairie. Please bring a lawn chair, as there are a limited number of seats at the station.

October 14 is also the day of the partial eclipse. The weather report predicts a cloudy day, but if it's clear enough to view the eclipse, please bring proper eye protection. The eclipse begins about 10:30 AM and reaches its peak at about 11:42 AM, and will be over by meeting time.

Portage is a great place for rail fanning, and its even been listed as one of the top rail fanning sites by Trains magazine. The CN and CPKC mainlines run closer to each other than almost anywhere in the country, so come early and stay late for lots of fall rail action! Please remember that crossing tracks other than at designated road crossings is illegal and dangerous.