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!