Winnipeg Railway Museum signs 25 year lease with Via Rail

Great news! The Midwestern Railway Association has signed a 25 year lease with VIA Rail to allow the Winnipeg Railway Museum to stay in their current location at Union Station in Winnipeg. Now that the lease has been secured the museum will be looking at getting grants to upgrade the building to meet code requirements for an occupancy permit. 

This may involve some structural changes to the Gateway to meet code. At this point there are no details on what has to be done. As the museum is still under renovations, there is no access to the club’s Gateway Western Railway at this time.

The closing of the Winnipeg Railway Museum puts the future of the Gateway Western Railway in jeopardy

On November 5 Via Rail served notice to the Winnipeg Railway Museum that the part of Union Station they use will no longer be available. Their last day of operation will be December 31, 2021.

Via states that tracks one and two need to be brought up to safety standards. The station is undergoing extensive renovations to its exterior wall. The museum occupies 37,500 square feet in the station. Via states that they will continue to house the museum’s artifacts and they will be working with the museum to find a new home.

Union Station is a national heritage site. Heritage Canada regulations require Via to keep it in a good state of repair. The west wall of the train shed has been slowly deteriorating for several years.

Construction of the new wall is scheduled to begin in January 2022, at which time the Museum space becomes a designated Construction Zone requiring suitable PPE for all personnel. Only construction personnel will be permitted on site during the construction.

After the new wall is complete, the current Building Code Occupancy Requirements will apply, and the space the museum occupies does not meet these requirements. When the museum was opened in the early 1990's it was in accordance with the occupancy requirements of the building code at that time.

The plywood partition between Tracks 2 & 3 needs to be replaced with metal/concrete/glass, the electrical plant and lighting must be upgraded, the sprinkler system must be replaced, to the tune of $3,000,000 in order to qualify for an occupancy permit.

The museum is home to the Gateway Western Railway, operated by the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club. The contents of the Gateway are the property of the club. The structure that contains the Gateway is owned by the museum. No notice has been given as to whether or when the club will have to remove their display.

It has been a very rough year for Winnipeg’s model railroad and rail fan community. Along with the closing of the museum, the Assiniboine Valley Railway and Cellar Dweller Hobby Supply have also closed this year.

For more information on the closing of the museum, please go to the following links:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/railway-museum-relocate-union-station-via-winnipeg-1.6245828

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/winnipeg-railway-museum-closing-at-end-of-december-1.5660148

https://globalnews.ca/news/8363527/winnipeg-railway-museum-to-close-doors-dec-31-seeks-new-home-for-2022/

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/winnipeg-railway-museum-to-shutter-at-end-of-year-575720112.html

 

Watch the history of Winnipeg's Union Station

This year marks the 110th anniversary of the opening of Winnipeg's Union Station. Ten years ago, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) produced a 15 minute documentary retrospective to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the station. The film played on a loop in a special display at the station to celebrate its anniversary and its recent refurbishment. You can view the film by clicking here. 
 

Gateway Western Railway reopens with restrictions

 Please follow Larry's example and practice social distancing when at the Gateway Western.

The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club’s Gateway Western Railway has reopened, coinciding with the reopening of the Winnipeg Railway Museum. The Gateway will be open to people who are both members of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club and the Winnipeg Railway Museum during museum hours only.

As the Via Rail Station now closes at 6:00PM, it is no longer possible to hold the Tuesday night sessions. The museum is open from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm every day.

If you do plan on going to the Gateway you MUST follow the same rules that are in place to visit Union Station and the Railway Museum. When inside the Gateway you MUST follow safe distance rules. If you are using any equipment you need to wipe it down with an appropriate sanitizing solution after use. This also applies everything you touch when inside the Gateway, such as filing cabinets, desk tops, table tops, chairs and tools.

Gateway Western Railway closed until further notice

Tuesday nights are no longer Gateway nights for members of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club or the Winnipeg Railway Museum. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all operations at the Gateway have been suspended until further notice. The Winnipeg Railway Museum is also closed due to the pandemic.

The Gateway Western is almost as old as the WMRC itself. There have been several Gateway layouts in different locations for well over a half a century. The first one was on the main floor of Winnipeg's Union Station. That layout was torn down to make room for a larger bathroom for the station.

Its next incarnation was at Gooch's hobbies in its Sherbrook street location. This layout was taken apart and stored in a local warehouse when Gooch's hobbies moved their store to Portage Avenue.

Thanks to the combined efforts of the WMRC and the Winnipeg Railway Museum, the Gateway was once again resurrected and returned to its original location at Union Station. A tireless band of volunteers assembled an insulated, heated structure within the museum that houses what is now the largest permanent layout in the province.

When the health crisis has abated, the Gateway and the Winnipeg Railway Museum will reopen. Notices of the reopening will be posted on this site and on the club's Facebook page.

The Gateway Western keeps on growing

    TH&B consist makes for the tunnels on the Gateway Western layout during Railway Days at the Winnipeg Railway Museum. All photos by Morgan Turney. 

The jewel in the crown of the WMRC is the Gateway Western Railway. It has seen several incarnations since its early days on the main floor of Winnipeg's Union Station, but the latest version in the Winnipeg Railway Museum is the greatest one yet! A dedicated band of volunteers, led by long time member Gino Kost,  built the structure in which its housed in the middle of a very cold Winnipeg winter. The state of the art layout inside the building has been growing ever since!

These images were taken at Railway Days, which is hosted by the Winnipeg Railway Museum. It was held this year on September 19 and 20, 2015. Attendance was brisk and there were several displays to be seen, including the Gateway Western Railway. Railway Days is held each year on the third weekend in September at the Winnipeg Railway Museum, located at the VIA Rail station, 123 Main Street.

Youngster love to watch the trains through the windows of the Gateway Western!

A scale model of the famous Napa Valley Wine Train rolls down the tracks of  the Gateway Western.

Photos of the original Gateway Western in the 70's and 80's

    Mark Perry, who is one of the WMRC's Facebook friends, has shared these wonderful photos of the original Gateway Western Railway on the club's FB page.

   The first Gateway Western was in its own room on the main floor of Winnipeg's Union Station, long before Via Rail took the building over. It was a landmark for decades until the club was forced to demolish it to make way for a new bathroom.

   Since then, it has been revived first as a modular group, then as a permanent display at Gooch's Hobbies, and no finally back to its original place (albeit one floor above) back at the station in the Winnipeg Railway Museum!

    The image above was taken in the 70's.  Bob Whitehouse is seen on the left, bending over the layout as Lindsey Fuller looks on.

    The image below was taken in the 80's. Jim Jenkins is seen in the back, while Dave Kyliuk switches out one of the industry tracks on the layout.

The Gateway Westen meets this Tuesday night

Hungry to do some model railroading?

   Are you like this guy, who's chomping at the bit (in this case, the compressor hose) to do some real model railroading? Feeling housebound from the polar vortex? Is cabin fever setting in? Can you even remember the last time went outside except to shovel the snow?

    Then come on down to the Gateway Western this Tuesday, February 4, at 7:00 PM! They meet at the  Winnipeg Railway Museum, which is located at Via Rail's Union Station at 123 Main street. You're more than welcome to pitch in and help build a great looking model railroad. No experience is necessary, and the lessons are free! The structure is heated, so you can work in comfort!

The making of the Gateway Western: Part one

By Morgan Turney

   The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's  'Gateway Western Railway'  began in CN's Union Station. It was moved to Gooch's Hobbies and is now being resurrected at the Winnipeg Railway Museum, ironically, back at what is now VIA Rail's Union Station. This is the story of the building of the Gateway Western, which will be Winnipeg's crowning model railroad empire, as told in the photo captions.

   The layout is being built though the financial efforts of both the Winnipeg Railway Museum and the WMRC. There are six to eight regular volunteers who meet once every week to do the work. Upwards of 15 different volunteers show up periodically when they can. Everyone involved is learning the skills needed to built a model train layout and what's best of all - it's so much fun!

   So join us as we follow the building of the Gateway Western Railway. We'll post our progress at regular intervals on this site. Here we go!

The area for the Gateway building and layout was occupied by the former Renegade HO modular layout. 
It was dismantled to make room for the new building.

It all begins with the delivery of materials by McDiarmid Lumber though the west entrance of the WRM on 
December 19, 2012. Temperature that day? Oh, somewhere around minus 25 or so!

 Walling material is off-loaded and stored for the layout building.

 Materials are loaded on the flat cars that line the Museum's display area - no heat there, either!

 Happy, smiling faces of some of the many volunteers.

   Photos by Morgan Turney, Suzanne Lemon, Larry Leavens and others.

Construction crew night at the Gateway Western on Tuesday, December 10

   Want to work on a really big model railroad? Well, here's your chance! The Gateway Western needs you! Come on over to the Winnipeg Railway Museum, located at Winnipeg's historic Via Rail Union Station (located at 123 Main Street) at 7:00 PM (that's 19:00 railway time) and pitch in!

   Come out and give us a hand, because even one more person helping out will make a real difference. If you've never been there before, it'll be a great opportunity to make some new friends. If you have been there already, it'll be an excellent opportunity to renew some old acquaintances.

   The museum is located at the second level of the station. If you're entering through the front entrance, walk straight through the rotunda . The entrance will be the first door on your right. If you're coming through the station's back entrance, then walk through the corridor until you're almost reach the rotunda.  The entrance will be on your left.

    The Gateway Western is in it's own heated enclosure inside the museum, so you'll be roasty toasty warm was you're helping to build what is promising to be one of the finest layouts in the city.

    The Gateway is the jewel in the crown of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club. It's latest incarnation (and it's had almost as many regenerations as Doctor Who) brings it right back to Union Station, where the very first Gateway Western layout was assembled, maintained and operated by the WMRC until 1995, when it was replaced by a bathroom on the main floor.

    Don't worry about your lack of skill, or even if you've never picked up a hammer. There's no experience necessary, as the crew will provide in house training!