Neil Carleton wins best in show model award at the WMRC's annual open house

 Neil Carleton won the best in show award for his model of a camp site and beach in the special event category at the WMRC's annual spring open house and train show. The event was held on April 20 and 21 at the Charleswood Legion. The special event this year was to build a diorama on a picture frame no larger than 9" X 12". Congratulations, Neil!

 

The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's 2024 spring open house is just over a week away!

The WMRC's annual spring open house is just over a week away! This is the only time the club opens its doors to the public, and it's going to be great! We'll have displays, demonstrations, several working layouts in different gauges, photo and model displays, plus hot dogs, donuts, chips and pop! Come on down to the Charleswood Legion at 6003 Roblin Boulevard on Saturday, April 20 between 10 and 5, and on Sunday, April 21 between 10 and 4. Admission by donation. Proceeds go to support St.Amant.
 

Retired railroad engineer Lenny Brentnall will make a presentation about his life on the rails at the WMRC's April meeting

 

Our special guest is Lenny Brentnall, a retired railroad Engineer, who will make a presentation about his lifetime on the rails. will be open. Lenny will share many of his experiences as an engineer from training, working in town, working away from home and some of the challenges and dangers he faced during his career. 

The fun starts on Friday, April 12 at 7:30PM at the Charleswood Legion, 6003 Roblin Boulevard. We'll be holding our usual model and photo displays, a 50/50 draw and the canteen will be open. Guests are always warmly welcomed!

Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's annual open house is coming up on April 21 and 24

Mark your calendars! The WMRC's annual open house is happening on April 20 and 21 at the Charleswood Legion, 6003 Roblin Boulevard! There will be several operating layouts, demonstrations, photo and model displays from the province's best modellers and rail fan photographers, plus trains, trains and more trains!

Hours are from ten to five on Saturday, April 20, and from ten to four on Sunday, April 21. The canteen will be open, serving coffee, pop, chips, donuts and air fried hot dogs. Admission is by donation. Proceeds to support St. Amant.

Regina Railfest is happening on April 27 and 28

The friendly folks over at the Echo Valley Railroad Guild in Regina want you all to know that Regina Railfest is coming up soon! It will be held on Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28 at the Caledonian Curling Club, 2225 Sandra Schmirler Way (which is near the airport).

This is a big show, with over 25,000 square feet of model layouts and exhibits. There will be many model scales on display, including a Lego display. There will be lots of vendor tables offering great deals on all sorts of nifty model railroad equipment.

Hours are from nine to five on Saturday and from nine to four on Sunday. Adult admission is just ten bucks. Youths age 16 and under get in for five bucks. Kids four years old and under get in for free. Family admission (two adults and up to three children) is twenty bucks.

It’s only a six hour drive from Winnipeg. So what are you waiting for? It’s worth the trip! Nothing can be finer than to be there in Regina for the Railfest!
 

Luca Matyas builds a Prairie Dog Central Railway caboose

Luca Maytas submitted this model of the Prairie Dog Central caboose for the model display at the WMRC’s March meeting. The caboose model was originally CPR and didn't really fit in on Luca’s CN layout, but it looked close enough to the Prairie Dog Central Railways caboose number 109.

Other than making the wire handrails, the kit was pretty easy to put together. He mixed a few different colours until he got close enough to the darker green that PDCR uses. Luca hand painted the entire model, and then printed off two PDCR logos for the sides.

Pictured below is the prototype as it appears today. What a great job Luca did on modelling it! 

 

Neil Carleton builds a model of a slide-in truck camper

Neil Carleton submitted this model of a  GC Laser HO-scale truck bed camper kit to the WMRC’s monthly model display at our March meeting.  

The parts were laser cut out of card stock with clear plastic for windows. Curtains were painted on back of the windows. The camper was assembled using white glue and canopy cement. Stripes were added using coloured ink pens.

The camper was painted with a flat clear acrylic. The interior is lit with a warm LED, including a bridge rectifier. The finished model was installed in a Classic Metals Works vintage pickup truck. The truck was weathered with Pan Pastels.

Luca Maytas builds an auxiliary water tender

Luca Maytas submitted a model of an auxiliary water tender at last month’s model display. He made it from an old coal tender from a broken Tyco 4-6-2 locomotive. Luca wanted to have an extra tender to go along with his model of a tourist train, for when steam locomotives ran on the mainline they typically had one or two extra tenders carrying water.

Luca took the shell off and cut out the coal load. Then he cut a piece of plastic card to fit over where the coal load was. Once he had that in place he used a piece of sprue to act as the water hatch. He cut off the draw bar and truck mounted couplers and added a Kadee coupler and coupler box at each end. He painted the tender in glossy black and added some tender decals.

 

Take a virtual tour of MMR Lester Breuer’s Minneapolis and Northland Railroad

Master Model Railroader Lester Breuer will take us on a virtual layout hop via Zoom of his Minneapolis and Northland Railroad, which is located at his home in Plymouth, Minnesota.  

Lester has modelled 50 scenes throughout his layout harkening back to 1955 that tell stories in themselves. You will see railroad workers, industry workers working or on break, people having fun, people enjoying their hobbies such as gardening and even rail fans. Lester will provide background as to why he created these scenes.

The fun starts on Friday, March 8 at 7:30PM at the Charleswood Legion, 6003 Roblin Boulevard. We'll be holding our usual model and photo displays, a 50/50 draw and the canteen will be open. Guests are always warmly welcomed!
 

Richard Mikolayenko builds a cold storage warehouse

Long time WMRC member and prolific modeller Richard Mikolayenko submitted this model of a cold storage warehouse to the clubs monthly model display at our February meeting.

Richard modified a Walthers N scale kit. The second floor was added and the windows, roof, trim and vents were painted. A scratch-built roof sign was added, the foundation was raised to accommodate the entry of a low box car and lights were applied at the roof level.


 

WinNtrak to exhibit at Grant Park Shopping Centre this weekend

The friendly folk at WinNtrak, those fellows with the big hearts and the teeny tiny trains, will be exhibiting at Grant Park Shopping Centre all this weekend, starting today, February 23! You can see them from 10AM to 8PM today, from 10AM to 6PM on Saturday, and from 12 PM to 5PM on Sunday. Grant Park Shopping Centre is located at 1120 Grant Avenue in Winnipeg.
 

Rob Sarna changes paint schemes of former BNSF locomotives

We are delighted to welcome back Rob Sarna to the WMRC. Rob, once a long time member, had moved back from southern Ontario a while back and rejoined the club this month.
 
Rob submitted two HO Scale GP 9's to the club’s model display at our February meeting. He changed the paint schemes of the Geeps to the Huron & Yale Northern (HYN) railway.
 
The NYN is a freelance short line rail line operating 394 miles from Huron, S.D. to Appleton, MN. It was formerly a DMÈ BNSF branch line. On unit 1800 he used his own mix called Imperial Purple and was painted with Microscale. VTRR stripe decals were added. Unit 1802 Microscale generic lettering and Herald King BN stripes were used.


 

Gino builds a retro bus depot

Long time member and WMRC Manitoba Mega Train Show chair Gino Kost surprised us at our February meeting with his scratch built model of a bus depot. Gino submitted this model for the club's monthly model display.

Gino built this model entirely out of spare pieces that he had in his parts bin. The brick walls were scratch built. Gino says that it's a work in progress, but it looks pretty good just as it is right now!
 

NMRA Thousand Lakes Region President Art Suel to make a special presentation at the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's February meeting

Our special guest is for our February meeting is Art Suel, President of the Thousand Lakes Region of the NMRA. Art will make a special presentation via Zoom as he welcomes the WMRC to the NMRA and tells us all about the special benefits of the NMRA and TLR membership.

Then Ian Plett will showcase some fascinating railroad sights from his travels, from massive rail yards to converted roundhouses and trains in the middle of parking lots.

The fun begins at the Charleswood Legion, 6003 Roblin Boulevard on Friday, February 9 at 7:30PM. We'll be holding our usual model and photo displays, a 50/50 draw and the canteen will be open. Guests are always warmly welcomed!

 

Doug Ritter models Bridgewater, Nova Scotia CN station

At our January meeting Doug Ritter brought in a scratch built model of the CN station in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia to our monthly model display. Using just photos over 40 years old as a reference, he modelled the exterior and the interior with painstaking precision.

He cut the walls and roof out of Styrene using a Cricut machine. Doors and windows were Tichy 3D printed. Stone cladding is from Chooch Express. Interior details were 3D printed. 

The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club is now 100% NMRA

 As of January 1, 2024, the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club has become 100% NMRA. The members voted to join the NMRA at their meeting in September 2023. This initiative was the sole effort of WMRC President John Bate, who has been an active member in both the WMRC and the NMRA. When the motion to become 100% NMRA was brought before the membership, the vote was unanimous. 

For a ten dollar increase in the dues to $40CDN, every WMRC member became an NMRA member. Members of the NMRA in the No. 1 Northern Division who are not members of the WMRC can remain outside of the club at their choosing. 

The No.1 Northern Division will remain as a separate entity, with Ian Plett and Paul Ullrich serving as Superintendent and vice-superintendent respectively. The WMRC, along with the No.1 Northern Division’s Free-Mo group, are parts of the No.1 Northern Division, operating autonomously under their own executive.

 

Patrick Letourneau gave an impressive presentation on 3D modelling and printing at the WMRC's January meeting

A sample of some of the 3D models Patrick Letourneau brought to the WMRC's January meeting.

Patrick Letourneau wowed the club with his presentation on how he creates and 3D prints models of existing Manitoba’s derelict structures at our January meeting. If you’re interested in purchasing some of his models or hiring him to create a custom 3D printed models you can contact him at Polygons.ca or email him at Patrick@polygons.ca 

 

Patrick Letorneau showcases 3D scructures, and member's model railroad items will be for sale at WMRC's January meeting

At our January meeting Patrick Letourneau will make a presentation on his novel digital process to create centimeter-accurate replicas of prairie structures using 3D scanning and ultra-large-format resin 3D printing. See how he takes3-D scans of actual structures and makes a 3-D printed copy of them. 

Do you have any model railroad equipment that you want to sell? WMRC is starting a members "Railway Interchange" to be held before and after the business portion of our General Meetings.  We will allow two members per meeting to participate by displaying Railroad related items they wish to sell on tables set aside for this purpose.  

If you are interested in participating in this program, please email us at wmrc.trainclub@gmail.com.  Tables will be assigned on a first come first served basis for our January and future meetings.   Any additional inquiries can be added to a wait list for a future meeting. If you are interested in buying any of these items for sale, then arrive early with cash in hand! 

The fun starts at on January 12 at 7:30PM at the Charleswood Legion, 6003 Roblin Boulevard. We'll be holding our usual model and photo displays, a 50/50 draw and the canteen will be open. Guests are always warmly welcomed!  Feel free to arrive early to chat and help set up the room. The room should be open by 6:30 pm.

 

The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club is all about fellowship

We're going to start the New Year with one of our favourite pictures, taken at our most recent meeting in December 2023. Luca Maytas (L), one of our youngest members,  is 17. Norm Leathers, one of our oldest members, is 87.  They met at one of the WMRC's monthly meetings. Seventy years separate them, yet they have become good friends and have developed a unique bond solely through their love of model railroading. The WMRC is all about fellowship!