Another mega success for the Manitoba Mega Train Show

WMRC member Ian Plett commands the controls of the mega-train at the 2016 Manitoba mega Train Show, held at the Red River Exhibition Park last weekend. Photos by Morgan Turney.

It was another mega-success for the 2016 Manitoba Mega Train Show! Celebrating it's second year at the Red River Exhibition Park, the show just keeps growing and growing! Many volunteers from the WMRC kept the show running smoothly, doing set-up, take-down, manning the admissions desk, holding displays and running the mega-train, of course!

The Red River Exhibition building was well attended throughout the entire weekend.

The Echo Valley Mainliners modular group brought their layout all the way from Regina!

The Kildonan Short Lines HO modular has added a spectacular prairie scene backdrop.

 It's Lego time! The Manitoba Lego Users Group always puts on a spectacular display!

More memories of Manitoba Mega Train

We still have many photos to share of the 2015 Manitoba Mega Train Show! These images come courtesy of our ace photographer, Morgan Turney, who commanded the WMRC helicopter and flew over the crowd as he took these pictures!

Don't believe that one? We didn't think so. The truth is that there was a balcony over the canteen in the building, which is where Morgan took these images. He just pretended that he was in a helicopter by beating his chest with his hands to imitate the sounds of the propeller while he took these pictures. Just look at the crowds we attracted at our new venue at Red River Exhibition Park!

An overhead view was the only way to do justice to this spectacular G scale layout at the show. It was also the only way the entire layout could be fit into the frame!

 The Moose Jaw Thunder Creek Model Railroad Club presented their HO modular layout for the very first time at the Manitoba Mega Train Show. The green cord you see to the left of the photo is an overhead wire. Most of the layouts were electrified from overhead, which meant no more tripping over wires duct taped to the floor!

The canteen was very popular! Visitors could grab a snack or a light lunch while they watched the trains.
 

The 2015 Manitoba Mega Train Show was a resounding success!

A wonderful G gauge modular layout was one of the many displays featured at the 2015 Manitoba Mega Train Show.

3,000 happy people attended the Manitoba Mega Train Show last weekend, with is a record breaking number for any train show held in the city for the past 30 years! The last time any train show in Winnipeg had numbers like that was for the legendary 1983 NMRA national  convention, Railway Jamboree.

Everyone loved our new venue!  The Red River Exhibition Park building was over three times the size of our previous venue. There was over 17,000 square feet of space!

Remember last year when the entire show was kept within the perimeter of the mega-train oval of track? Well, not this time! The mega-train took up just a third of the space this year. But the space inside of the track oval was still put to good use as the "kiddie section", which included two Lionel layouts, the Lego club display, Dan Kollesavich's Morse code demonstration, the face painter, and a balloon animal creator.

There was also another loop of track within the mega-train loop which featured a steam engine just smaller than the mega train. Most of the vendors were placed in one section, and the displays and modular groups were placed in another, which worked out to everyone's satisfaction.

Vendors reported some very impressive sales as well. Gerry Shaw from the Choo Choo Shop came all the way from Chilliwack to sell Lionel trains!!

The show also had out of town displays from the Portage La Prairie model railroad club and the Moose Jaw Thunder Creek Model Railway Club. 

We have plenty of pictures to show you, but they can't fit all in one post, so we're going to stagger them throughout this week, and the next. Enjoy!

Our good friends over at WinNtrak also set up their ever popular modular layout.

Godfrey South and his son Tommy get ready to run the Kildonan Short Lines modular railway.

Manitoba Mega Train Show to be held this weekend at Red River Exhibition Park

This is the big one, folks! The big Kahuna! The biggest and the greatest train show of the year! And it's this weekend, at a new location! Yes, it's the annual Manitoba Mega Train Show at Red River Exhibition Park!

There will be 17 layouts, 9 different displays and over 40 vendors!  They're pretty close to filling up the new location! The WMRC will be there in full force, volunteering, displaying and running the Mega Train itself!

In case you haven't been there before, here's how to get there:

 At the first set of lights just west of the Perimeter turn into Assiniboia Downs. Go past the new MTS IcePlex and into the Downs parking lot.  Just as you enter, there is a building on the left in a fenced in area.  It has a sign that says Red River Exhibition Place. Manitoba Mega Train should be on the sign as well. For those coming from the West, the lights are the last ones you hit just before the perimeter. Entrance will be Gate #2.   For those coming around the North Perimeter, you can access the Downs right off the Perimeter.

The times are from 9 to 5 on both Saturday and Sunday, and there's plenty of free parking for all!

The Manitoba Mega train Show has a new location!

    We are pleased to announce that our good friends at the Manitoba Mega Train Show have a new location for 2015. They're moving to Red River Exhibition Park, which is a much larger venue than their previous location at the CanLan Ice Sports complex.

      Some had doubts that a train show would even be able to fill a space as large as the indoor soccer pitch at CanLan, but the Manitoba Mega train Show has been a victim of its own success! They've packed that venue for the past three years, with attendance increasing dramatically every year!

       The WMRC is partnered with Mega Train, and we receive a portion of the revenues from this event, which is an important revenue source for the club.

     The new venue not only has much more room than the old one, but it has plenty of free parking for everyone! Hope to see you all there in September!