A Winnipeg model railroader has been named a member of the Order of Canada

John Longhurst has been named a member of the Order of Canada in December. He is one of 88 Canadians who've received the honour in 2024. He joins more than 8,000 Canadians who have received the country's highest civilian honour.

John, who has been the faith page columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press since 2023 and is also a religion reporter for Canadian Affairs,  won the award for his contributions to the country's religious and spiritual media, his efforts to promote positive interdenominational relations, to reduce hate and to help readers see the humanity in every person. 

But John has always been very well known for his outstanding contributions to the hobby and to Winnipeg's model railroading community. John was the associate editor of Canadian Railway Modeller magazine for many years. He was an active member of the WMRC, where he served as the club's publicity director. He has a model railroad blog, titled the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision, which has had over one million viewers. 

In 1998, John and his brother-in-law, the late Ken Epp, founded the Great Canadian Train Show, which became Manitoba's largest train show, and ran until 2012. He was the convention director for the 2005 Canadian Association of Railway Modellers annual national convention, titled Golden Rails, which was the only the second time the city had hosted a national model railroad convention. 

 

John Longhurst invites you to take a virtual layout hop

It has been a tradition at the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club to have a spring layout hop, where members were invited to tour some of the layouts around town. Unfortunately, this was not going to happen this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But long time WMRC member John Longhurst has come up with a unique alternative. He's put together a virtual layout hop using posts he selected from his blog, the CP Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision. 

John's blog, which has had well over one million views, has dutifully posted features about the finest layouts in Winnipeg for many years. Some of these layouts have been torn down, and some of the owners of the layouts have passed away, but they have been preserved online thanks to John's diligence. With a virtual layout hop, there is no driving between layouts, or trying to choose which ones to see based on time available. 

You'll see some great layouts by Arnie Walker, Stafford Swain, Ken Epp, George Meyer, Ron Loewen, and take a virtual ride on the Assiniboine Valley Railway! All you have to do is click here. 

John Longhurst makes his first million

Congratulations to long time WMRC member John Longhurst for making his first million! No, he didn't win the 649 or Powerball. His popular model railroading blog, The Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision, has reached one million views!

John has been a club member for over 20 years. He was the Associate Editor for Canadian Railway Modeller for many years, and he was also the WMRC's publicity director. In 1997, he and his brother-in-law the late Ken Epp took over the responsibilities of running the Winnipeg Railway Fair from Morgan Turney and Peter Lacey. In 1998, they moved the location to the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute and renamed it the Great Canadian Train Show, which ran until 2012.

John organized the 2005 Golden Rails convention in Winnipeg for the Canadian Association of Railway Modellers.  Kudos to John for reaching this remarkable milepost! Check out his blog at: http://cprailmmsub.blogspot.ca/

Winnipeg Model Railroad Club member John Longhurst displays at the Manitoba Mega Train Show

Long time WMRC member John Longhurst proudly displayed his latest modelling effort, an N scale version of the Thompson River Canyon, at last month's Manitoba Mega Train Show. It took him six weeks to construct the two foot by seven foot layout, and it looks great!

Thanks to the size of N scale, he was able to display it on a tabletop at the show, which is something you couldn't do very easily in a bigger gauge. John constructed the layout in the memory of the late Ken Epp, who died in October 2014.

John and Ken were brothers-in-law who shared a keen interest in model railroading. Ken was a long time and very active member of the WMRC. He and John founded The Great Canadian Train Show, the predecessor of the Manitoba Mega Train Show. Ken was able to attend the Mega Train Show in 2014 just before he passed away.

John has made two videos about this layout. The first was about the layout's construction, which can be viewed here. You can also see a video of the layout in operation by clicking here. 

John has also made several posts on the construction of the layout, on his blog, The CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivsion. You can read all of his posts about his Thompson River Canyon layout by clicking here. 

 The layout in action at the Manitoba Mega Train Show.

 A close up of the N gauge CP diesel coming out of the tunnel.

Memories of Ken Epp's Cougar River Subdivison layout

    A very young Ken Epp, looking very much like his son Jeremy, working on the first version of the Cougar River Subdivision in the mid-80's.

   WMRC member John Longhurst posted an excellent article about the late Ken Epp's Cougar River Subdivision layout, featuring many vintage photos taken during the years when it was in operation.
Ken's wife lent Ken's photo album to John, who proceeded to take images of the photos with his iPhone, which he posted on his blog site, The CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision, and on his Flickr page. 

    Ken (who was John's brother-in-law) took copious records of the building of his layout. The collection is a fascinating record of the building of one of Manitoba's greatest and most famous model railroads.

View Ken Epp's Cougar River Subdivision on-line

In the November issue of The Lantern, the official publication of the WMRC, member John Longhurst authored a moving article about his late brother-in-law Ken Epp's layout, the Cougar River Subdivision. Unfortunately, this publication is only available to members of the WMRC. But you can still view Ken's layout on-line on two links!

The first link is from the Sweden Freezer website. This site was the on-line home of the WMRC until Bill Taylor's passing last year. Bill created and maintained this website for the club, starting at the time when not many of us even had computers, not to mention internet access. The site for his business still exists, but links have been created to re-direct viewers to the new websites for the WMRC and the AVR. However, the link to view Ken's layout still exists! It was last updated in 2003, with several images taken by our own Ron Einarson. View it by clicking here. 

The other site to view Ken's layout is at John Longhurst's own website, the Manitoba and Minnesota subdivision. You can view his tribute to Ken and see several images of his layout by clicking here. 

Ken Epp's memorial service well attended

A band with over 75 members played at the memorial service for our good friend Ken Epp. Ken led an exemplary life of service to others, not only to the model railroading community but to the music and basketball community of Manitoba. He was the executive director of the Manitoba Band Association for 29 years and also served as a referee with the Manitoba Association of Basketball officials.

   Ken worked at many levels of the game, including many high school provincial championships and Canadian national championships at the university level. Under Ken's leadership, music instruction through band programs became available to students across the province, making Manitoba a leader in music education.

   Of course, Ken will always be fondly remembered for organizing the WMRC's Great Canadian Train Show for so many years.

The Winnipeg Free Press covered his memorial service. You can read the article by clicking here.

John Longhurst's tribute to Ken Epp

 Ken Epp (L) is seen with John Longhurst at John's layout, the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision. The photo was taken two weeks before Ken's death.

Long time WMRC member John Longhurst wrote a tribute to his brother-in-law Ken Epp in his most recent post on his blog, the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision. It has been mentioned before on a previous post on this site, but it was so moving that it warranted another posting.  The best quote was one from Ken himself, reflecting on his many trips on Via Rail and Amtrak.

“I have to say that sitting in the dome car at night as the train goes across the Canadian Shield, watching the signals get knocked down, seeing the northern lights and the snow on the trees—I don’t know if what heaven is like, but for me, that’s heaven.”

 We can only hope that heaven is as nice a place as that.

Ken's funeral service will be held on Sunday, October 19 at North Kildonan Mennonite Brethren Church, 1315 Gateway Road at 2:30 PM.

Winnipeg Model Railroad Club mourns passing of Ken Epp

Long time WMRC member Ken Epp passed away yesterday. He was recently diagnosed with cancer of the liver and given just a few weeks to live.

Ken was a long time member of the WMRC. He will be most remembered at the club for organizing the Great Canadian Train Show from 1997 to 2011. This was no easy task. Ken had to deal with dozens and dozens of displayers and vendors, then he had to fit them all into the two levels of the gymnasium space allotted to the club at the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute within the constraints of the fire marshal's regulations.

Ken was the Executive Director of the Manitoba Band Association, a non-profit charitable organization which promotes the growth and development of band in Manitoba through regional and provincial programs and charities. His love for music rubbed off on his son, Jeremy, who held the position of Principal Timpani in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra until he joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra last month.   Ken was also the brother-in-law of long time WMRC member John Longhurst, who also assisted Ken in organizing the club's Great Canadian Train Show for several years.

Ken will also be remembered for his truly unique layout, the HO scale Cougar River Subdivision. Ken managed to combine his desire for a large layout with his family’s need for basement living space. The result was a club-size layout that features a 530-foot mainline run, yet ensured that the rest of the basement is available to the family (a large recreation room, bedroom, full bathroom and utility area).

He accomplished this by using an around-the-walls double and triple deck design. The loop-to-loop layout, with its nine-scale mile run, ran through and around all the basement rooms, but didn't interfere with activities since the shelves in the living areas were only 6 to 12 inches wide. To make the layout compatible with other living areas, Ken finished off the edges with hardboard fascia and was careful to keep wires and other clutter from view. The tracks punched through the walls 19 times! It took 25 minutes for a train to traverse the layout from the lower staging yard to the upper staging yard. Ken's layout was showcased in every major model railroad convention we've had in Winnipeg, and was frequently featured on local television programs.

 Ken's funeral service will be held on Sunday, October 19 at North Kildonan Mennonite Brethren Church, 1315 Gateway Road at 2:30 PM.

Below is an image from Ken's Cougar River Subdivision. You can view more of his magnificent layout by clicking here. For a further tribute to Ken, please go to John Longhurst's Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision blog site by clicking here.