Merry Christmas from the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club

The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club wishes all of their members and their many readers and followers a joyous holiday season and a New Year filled with many happy model railroading and rail fanning experiences. Have a wonderful Christmas and a great 2026. Keep 'em on the rails!
 

A Winnipeg Model Railroad Club Christmas Story, in honour of Morgan Turney

This story was originally posted on December 23, 2013. It is being reposted in honour of the late Morgan Turney, who passed away earlier this year, who is prominently featured in this story. This really happened. It's all true.

 
By Paul Ullrich, WMRC Blog Editor
 A homeless man visited our meeting on a chilly December night in 2006. He came into the church right after I did. He was a slender man in his early thirties, with dark brown shoulder length hair and a full beard. He wasn't wearing a winter coat, but was dressed in over a half dozen sweaters and scarves. I watched him as he took most of them off and put them in a neat pile on the floor, leaving on two sweaters.  One of those sweaters almost came down to his knees.

 It was -20 outside. He obviously came in to warm himself up, and I certainly wasn't going to deny him that. I asked him to take off his shoes, as the church wanted to keep the wooden gym floor from being marred by wet winter boots. He nodded and smiled at me. He smiled as many homeless men do,  keeping his mouth closed to hide what few deteriorating teeth he had left.

He took off his shoes and followed me into the gym. As I was the one who let him in, I kept an eye on him in case there was any trouble. But as it turned out,  I didn't need to do that. He walked quietly around the gym, observing people setting up their displays and clinics.
  
As quiet as he was, you couldn't help but notice that he smelled bad. He reeked so badly that he parted groups of people like Moses parting the Red Sea whenever he came near. When he lifted his arm, it was enough make your eyes water. 
   
He sat down right in front when the business meeting was called. He listened intently to the proceedings, paying more attention than most of the members. It was as if he was so starved for human contact that even something as boring as a club business meeting was somehow sustaining him.   
 
 After the business meeting, he had our usual break. That December was the first year that we had our annual Christmas hot dog dinner. A homeless man is most often a hungry man. There were people all around him eating hot dogs, and he didn't have a dime to his name to pay for one. Morgan Turney, our president at the time, took pity and brought a him a plate brimming with food.
  
 "Thanks, man!" He said, as he took the plate. Those were the only two words he spoke to anyone that night. 
   
After the break, he walked about the gym, silently viewing the clinics and the displays with genuine interest. He sat down in front again for the evening presentation, never taking his eyes off the screen.  When the meeting was over, he went back to the church foyer, put his many layers of sweaters back on, and left without saying a word.
  
 As I was driving home, it suddenly hit me.
  
 A thin man, in his early thirties.
  
 Long, dark, shoulder length hair and a full beard.
   
In a church.
  
 I don't know why I didn't see it before, but at that moment I realized that he bore a remarkable resemblance to someone whose birthday we were about to celebrate on the 25th of December. 
 
 Could it be?
 
 Nah.
  
But could it?
 
 I contacted Morgan the next day. He said that after the meeting, he drove around the neighbourhood looking for the man, but he was nowhere to be found. It was if he'd vanished into thin air!
  
 Westworth United Church, where held that meeting, is in a suburban area of Winnipeg far from downtown. It's not on any main road, and the area is seldom, if ever,  frequented the homeless. 
  
Oh, boy.

The man who was pictured hanging on a cross in the very church we were in once said, "Whatever you did to the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

I hope we did all right by him.

New member Darrell Brownlee makes a great first impression with his 3D models

Darrell Brownlee made this lighted model of the building at 138 Portage Avenue with a 3D printer.

Darrell Brownlee, our newest member, is also one of our most talented members. At our November meeting, he wowed everyone with his lighted model of the historic Keewayden / Crowley building at 138 Portage Avenue East, which he created with his 3D printer. He also designed and 3D printed a Digitrax battery cover.

At our December meeting he held his first clinic for the club’s Clinic Carnival, where he set up his 3D printer and made some models. He also brought in two N gauge structures he created with Fusion 360 software and his 3D printer. The structures were  based on two buildings in the Exchange District. The restaurant, whose prototype is located at 95 Arthur Street, was printed using a resin printer. 

The four story structure is a compressed model of the building at 91 Albert Street. The building, roof and floor insert were printed with a filament printer. The doors and windows were printed separately using a resin printer ands will be installed separately. Darrell also created an insert which will have wiring going up to the centre to power LED’s own each floor.

We can’t wait to see what Darrell’s going to bring to next month’s meeting!

Darrell designed and 3D printed this Digitrax hand held battery cover.

Darrell 3D printed Scale replicas of the buildings on 95 and 91 Albert Street.

Darrell printed the windows for the structures pictured above, which will be installed separately. 

 

A good time was had by all at the WMRC's annual Clinic Carnival and Christmas hot dog banquet

Darrell Brownlee (left)  demonstrates how to make model with his 3D computer. John Bate, sitting behind him, conducted a clinician how to use 3D printing software.

Everybody had a great time at last week's clinic carnival and annual Christmas hot dog banquet. We even had a few guests! 

For the first time at our annual clinic carnival we had two tag team demonstrations. We had a 3D printing clinic by Darrell Brownlee with a software tutorial on how to set it up by John Bate. 

Murray Brown showed us how to make your own decals, while MMR Fred Headon showed us how to apply them. Marvin Fetch was on hand showing us his many structure building techniques.

And of course, there was the hot dog banquet! Everyone enjoyed the air fried hot dogs expertly prepared by our master chef, canteen operator Mark McLennan.

Murray Brown shows Graham Leathers (R) and Gary Stempnick (L) how to make decals.

After Murray Brown showed you how to make your own decals, you could mosey on over to MMR Fred Headon's table to learn how to apply them.

Marvin Fetch shares some of his expert structure building techniques with long time member Allan Graham (L) and WMRC Past President Bob Harrison (R).

The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club launches its own website

 The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club has a great new website, just created and launched by our own Murray Brown! It's chock full of information about our club, plus it has all our forms that you can download, many of our newsletters, and a store where you can buy WMRC themed merchandise. Check it out at https://www.wmrctrainclub.ca

Portage Model Railroad Club to hold holiday train day

The Portage Model Railroad club is holding a holiday train day on Saturday, December 13. The club, located in the historic renovated CPR station, is open to the public just a few days each year, so don't miss out on this opportunity to visit them! 

They have several spectacular layouts, and they're right next to the CPKC mainline, so there's opportunities abound to see lots of model and prototype trains! They're open from 10 AM to 3PM on Saturday, December 13 at the CPR station, 3rd. street northeast in Portage La Prairie. Admission is just five bucks, and kids under 12 get in for free.

Neil Carleton uses 3D printing to make replacement gears

          The Samhongsa gas electric combine Neil Carleton bought needed gear replacements.            

By Neil Carleton

This article originally appeared in The Lantern, the official publication of the WMRC.

I bought a brass Samhongsa gas electric combine from the estate of Morgan Turney. It was sold as “needing work” but it was such a well made model that I had to buy it. On the track it would go about 3 inches and stop, when reversed, 3 inches back.

The model has one powered truck with a universal connected to the motor. When disconnected the motor ran smoothly with no issues. On removal of the bottom cover plate and opening the gear tower I found three plastic gears meshing to brass gears. On close inspection, all three were cracked, and they jammed when the crack rolled around. The gears are quite small and two different sized axels. 

NorthWest Shortline has hundreds of replacement gears and some they recommended, but would not let me send the damaged ones to make sure. Each new gear was over US$30 and not easily returnable. A friend who is not an active model railroader wondered if 3-D printing was a solution.

I contacted Darrell Brownlee, who has printed some vehicles and some other items for me. He said he knew what to do, so I got the cracked gears to him. In short order he returned new gears, with lots of spares. I fit them in and they worked! 

Then I realized I could not tighten the gear tower sufficiently to remove some gear slop when going forward, causing excess noise.

It appeared that the machine screws were bottoming out so I spoke to Darrell and with the measurements I sent him, he was able to print extremely small washers. The washers were various thicknesses but the winner was two about the thickness of paper.

Gas electric now runs smoothly in both directions. Next step is to add DCC and then paint and decal the model.

Close up of the gear tower with the nylon gears removed.

The original nylon gears, which were cracked.

The 3D printed replacement gears and washers made by Darrell Brownleee.