The Tyro award is a special presentation given to a member not only for their extraordinary modelling skills, but also because the modeller is a first time recipient of any WMRC modelling award. Given his skills as a modeller we're sure so see many more awards given to him in the future!
At our members-only layout hop last month we dispatched our chief correspondent Murray Brown to investigate Graham Leather's layout, and the results were very impressive! Graham inherited this layout from his father, the late, great Norm Leathers, who was a WMRC members for almost 70 years. Graham has not only maintained the layout but has made several changes and added his own person touch.
Long time fans of Norm's layout will notice the seismic shift from running the Pennsylvania Railroad to Great Northern and . Even the huge UP articulated steamers run great on this layout! WMRC membership has many privileges, and one of them is joining in on the fun on our layout hops. So if you want to see some of Winnipeg's finest layouts in action, then join up!
Felix Lesiuk was the big award winner at the WMRC's annual banquet, held at the Canad Inns Destination Centre Polo Park earlier this month. He won both best in show for his photo, titled "Evening Rain" featuring the Prairie Dog Central, which also graced the cover of the May issue of The Lantern, the official publication of the WMRC.
He also won best in show for his modelling efforts for is diorama, titled "Country Road Trestle over Speeder at Signal". To top it off, he also won the photo contest special event for his photo of a train crossing a bridge in Bismarck, North Dakota. Congratulations, Felix!
Last Sunday's Railway Day in the lobby of the Via Rail station was well attended, and everyone had great time! The WMRC was in full force at the event. President John Bate and past president Larry Leavens manned the John Allen Timesaver switching layout. Past WMRC treasurer and current Winnipeg Railway Museum President Gary Stempnick brought along his portable N Gauge layout.
WMRC secretary Brent Karr and Vice President Marvin Fetch displayed tour newest attraction, the Thomas the Tank Engine interactive layout, WMRC secretary Brent Karr and Vice president Marvin Fetch displayed our newest attraction, the Thomas the Tank Engine interactive layout, which was Brent's idea, and built by Brent, Gino Kost and Larry Leavens. WMRC spring program chair and webmaster Murray Brown brought along his Z scale layout in a steamer trunk and took pictures of everything!
Murray Brown brought in this unique model of a CN “Auto With You” car to the WMRC’s monthly model display at February’s meeting. The prototype was introduced by CN in the 70’s, along with Daynighter coaches and Red, White and Blue fares as an attempt by government owned CN Rail to grow passenger traffic and recoup some of the cost of the service by generating additional revenue.
The service allowed a passenger's car to travel with them on the Super Continental, trains between Toronto and Edmonton. Reservations were required for passengers and their cars. Passengers delivered their cars four hours prior to departure, with the cars made available soon after arrival in Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, or Vancouver.
There were six autos per car. Enclosed auto transporters were painted in CN's passenger colours and were positioned on the rear of the Super Continental. Ramp facilities in Winnipeg were in the east yard at the southwest corner of the Provencher Bridge. The cars were too high to pass through Union Station.
The first year’s services in 1972 were peak summer only, three times per week. In 1973, the service was boosted to daily service. In 1974 it became a year-round service. The cars were fitted with BARCO steam lines. The service ended in 1976 due to lack of patronage.
Murray fitted his model with Walthers Proto trucks, Kadee scale head couplers, Utah Pacific marker lights, Custom Finishing Models BARCO steam heat hoses, Cal Scale UC passenger air brake fitting, Hi-Tech Details air and signal line hoses, He hand fabricated the uncoupling rods, self designed and 3D printed the coupler fit bar brackets and ink jet printed end of car decals.
Trucks were weathered with Tamiya X-21 Flat Base, Vallejo IDF Sand Grey. Vallejo Special FX Rust and Orange Rust were applied to the coupler knuckles and the wheelsets. Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color was used to heighten certain details. AK Terrains concrete acrylic was used to simulate tracks 1 through 6 at Winnipeg’s Union Station.
Colfax, Saskatchewan was a station on the Lewvan Subdivision, running between Regina and Lampman. Located approximately 40 km north of Weyburn, the village was founded in 1911 with the arrival of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, later to become Canadian National Railways. Settled by American immigrants from Iowa, the community was named by B.A. Brown, after Colfax, Iowa. At one time there were three grain elevators: Sask Pool, Searle, and Federal. The Lewvan Subdivision no longer exists but is remembered by Lewvan Street on the south side of Regina.
This model is completely 3D printed, with 52 pieces painted with Vallejo acrylic paints and AK Concrete acrylic diorama terrain. All assembly was with Liquitex Matte Medium. Decals were printed on inkjet waterslide decal paper. A final coating of Mr. Super Smooth Clear Matte finishing spray was applied.
You’ll see this model station in April 2026 at the WMRC Spring Show, as part of an entry for the Special Event!
Do want to be a fashion plate? Do you want to be a trend-setter? Do you want to be a babe magnet? You can't afford an Armani suit? Then come to the WMRC's next meeting and buy one of our spiffy new 70th anniversary T-shirts at our next meeting! They're on sale for just $25 each, and there's a limited supply, so come on down to 6003 Roblin Boulevard at on January 9 at 7:30PM, buy a T-shirt and join all of the beautiful people pictured here showing off their WMRC T-shirts!
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.
Come one, come all to the WMRC’s annual clinic carnival and Christmas hot dog banquet! Please note that we’re having our meeting on Friday, December 5, a week earlier than usual.
We have an exciting roster of some of Winnipeg’s best modellers sharing their skills this year, including Murray Brown, who’ll show you how to make your own decals, and Fred Headon, who’ll show you how to apply them. John Bate will have a simple 3D CAD program running, capable of producing the files needed to drive 3D printers. People can see how this part of 3D printing is done, and try it for themselves. Darrell Brownlee will show you how to complete the task using 3D printing.
While you’re soaking in on all of these great modelling hints, feast on gourmet air fried hot dogs prepared by our own master chef Mark McLennan, along with pop, chips, donuts and cookies!
The fun begins at 7:30PM on Friday, December 5 in the Tank Room at the Charleswood Legion, 6003 Roblin Boulevard. We’ll he having our usual model and photo display, as well as the 50-50 draw. Don’t forget to bring a tin for the bin! Every donation helps the less fortunate.
(This article originally appeared in The Lantern, the official publication of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club.)
My Railway has a Funicular
by Bart Hasselfield
Author's Note: Pushing the boundaries of what constitutes a “model railroad” as a member of the
Winnipeg Model Railroad Club was not my intent in building this. It falls within the boundaries: it is a
model, it has rails.
The idea came to me after a really enjoyable discussion at last year's MegaTrain show. Partnered at the
entrance gate with a pair of pretty smart guys, Murray Brown and Tommy Kucera, somehow the
word, “funicular” entered the conversation.
From Wikipedia:
A funicular, or funicular railway, is a type of cable railway system that connects points along
a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced
carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite ends of a haulage
cable, which is looped over a pulley at the upper end of the track. The result of such a
configuration is that the two carriages move synchronously. As one ascends, the other
descends at an equal speed. This feature distinguishes funiculars from inclined elevators,
which have a single car that is hauled uphill.
Tommy's lifelong interest in music came to the forefront recounting to us the story of the song
“Funiculi Funicula” which was written for the inauguration of the first funicular in Italy on Mount
Vesuvius in 1880. (Winnipeggers will know this song as the theme for pizza commercials for Pizza Place in the1960s and 1970’s.) I joined in the conversation with some recollections of funiculars (“ascensors”) that I had seen, ridden in, and photographed on a trip to Valparaiso Chile a few years ago.
On returning home after the show, I started looking at some websites, with lots from Chile and some really recent ones from Britain.
So the germ was planted. Most of my construction on my model railroad is based on proof of
concept.... I visualize an idea, then scrape together the materials and courage to put it together. I have
no background in architecture, art, carpentry, construction, electronics or railroading. So it's quite a
miracle when something that I put together actually works, and doesn't burn or electrocute someone. I’ve
often hooked up batteries to circuits to “let the smoke come out.” (thanks Sean.)
But I did need to build a funicular once I'd thought about it. There was a space on a corner of
my layout where a tunnel met an ugly stairway, and it needed some immediate scenic assistance. So I
took out my trusty yardstick and measured the angle and the base and decided that the job must be done.
This type of construction is a lot easier nowadays than it used to be. I am pretty handy with
shopping by computer (is this a skillset?), so I headed over to my laptop and made a list of materials:
1. a motor
2. a wheel to hook onto the motor
3. some pulley wheels to run the cable over
4. some electrical switches to reverse the motor
5. track
6. cars
7. something to make the cars look horizontal
8. wood and screws.
There are several major suppliers on the internet for items 1 to 4 – DigiKey in the US, Mouser
in the US, Amazon in US or Canada, and the hobbyist favourite – AliExpress in China. I ended up
ordering the parts from Amazon.
First – wood and screws. Easily found in the pile of scraps under my bench. I chopped two
1x2s at the precisely estimated angle, tied them together with a third piece and then tested the structure
at the space on my layout. Perfect fit! Back on the workbench, I cut and glued some cork roadbed and nailed down the two strips of track to carry the cars up and down.
I dug up an old passenger car from the 19th century or sometime.. measured it, and then cut it in
half. (no respect here, kids) Then cut the ends off another car and glued them onto the cut ends. Then I
took some scrap plastic and made benches for my little passengers to sit on. Then went online and
bought something really cool – acrylic paint markers. I used these to paint the cars in bright colours
(like the cars I had seen in Chile) and to touch up some of the details on my passengers.
So the next problem was how to support the cars horizontally as they go up and down the
incline. My first thought was to build an elegant soldered brass structure with ball bearing wheel sets and braking systems. This thought was soon brought to rest when I found a piece of 2x4 which could
be cut at the same angle as the track incline, and glued to the bottom of the car, thus rendering the passengers an authentic horizontal experience.
I screwed a set of trucks from a freight car (which had fallen off my layout) into the middle of the wood, and it was soon looking pretty good. I painted the wood in a dark colour which would look authentic from 3 feet away (advice given by the late Norm Leathers), and justified the design with reference to a water driven prototype currently operating in England.
Next was the scientific part. We would connect the cars by cable (tiny) to a pulley system and
loop the cable around a motorized large wheel and then run it back over the other pulley to the other car.
One car could go up. The other could go down. So the scientific method began, how fast does
the motor turn, and how big was the wheel so that the cars go up and down S L O W L Y . I forget what
numbers I came up with, but they were the right ones, and I found a 3.5 inch wheel which fit onto a 20
RPM motor and after converting my order to metric, sent the order away, and went up for coffee.
Several weeks later, everything arrived. In the interim, I had also chanced upon a switch system
with a rheostat to drive the 12 volt system and could now put the thing together for testing on my work
bench.
So I wired all the electrics together, hooked it up to my 12 volt supply (former desktop part) and got every thing turning. One more problem – I needed a tiny cable. Something strong, very strong.
I didn't have any fishing line. Thread wasn’t strong enough. Must be flexible. Waxed. Waxed? I went
back upstairs. Judy (my highly educated and very smart wife) suggested Dental Tape. Dental tape, the strongest rope known to mankind!! So now I was able to hook up the two cars on the track, run the
cable over the pulleys down to the wheel and get it running. And it ran. And ran. Up. Down. Up and
down!
Next I took the structure and wires over to the layout. In the next few weeks I made a slot for the
“ramp” so it could be moved out for repairs in the future. I covered the wood with cardboard and
plaster cloth to make an authentic mountainside, and then I painted the whole thing in glorious dirt
colours. Added trees, added some LED streetlights. Wired them up. Built a little shack at the bottom
for the cars to slide into.
Am thinking about the shack on the top now...
The parts:
From Amazon.ca:
1. DC Motor Speed Controller (PWM)
2. 12 V Reversible High Turbo Worm Reduction Electric Motor 20 RPM
3. Small pulley block wheels
4. Harfington Single Groove Pulley 6mm fixed bore 60mm Outer diameter etc
5. 38 Colors Dual Tipped Acrylic Markers
From my basement floor:
1. Wood scraps
2. Screws
3. 12 V and 5 V power supplies
4. Random wires
5. Plaster cloth and cardboard held together with staples and gun glue.
6. Trucks from a broken model car
7. An old passenger car and some plastic.
Resources on the internet:
A Google search will show many funiculars in Canada, Chile and the UK. There's a pretty readable site
called, “All the Funiculars” https://columbia.edu/~brennan/fun which is all about the ones in the UK.
The photographs are amazing!
For the Chilean ones, there are a large number of great videos on Youtube. Search “Valparaiso
Ascencores” on Google. Don't be afraid of the Spanish, the videos are amazing. We went up and down
quite a few of the ones in Valparaiso when we were there in 2006/7. Valparaiso should be a sister city
to Winnipeg - both cities suffered similar fates with the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914.
