Mondel contest awards presented at Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's annual banquet

    Ron Einarson is presented an award certificates from WMRC model contest chair Morgan Turney. Ron received several awards at the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's annual banquet. 

   Every year the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club presents the awards for winners of their model contest at their annual banquet. Long time member Ron Einarson was awarded first place this year in the structures category for his model of the O.H. Wright & company supply. He was also awarded third place for his model of his HO scale Kent Farmers AG & grain supply, and also received the best in show award for his HO scale Renfro lumber rack. Ron also received gold medal awards for all three structures.

     Second place was awarded to Gino Kost for his model of a tall steel trestle bridge. Gino also received the kit award, the gold medal award and the Clark Summers award for this structure.

      Outside of the structures and the special event competition, no other models were submitted. This led WMRC President to comment in his column in the May issue of The Lantern, the official publication of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club:

   "At our club spring open house we had only a handful of members enter models in the model contest. Even the Special Event had a small turn out with only 5 members entering models. I have to wonder, has modeling become passé in model railroading? Should the club continue to have a model contest? We have tried to encourage members to bring out their models to meetings by having the monthly model display with a cash prize. This is awarded in a random draw. The people entering are almost always the same few. An open question to the membership - SHOULD THE CLUB CONTINUE TO HAVE A MODEL CONTEST?"

     This has been a continuing problem, not only for the club, but for model railroading in general. Many of our finest modellers have passed away, and they haven't been replaced by younger members. Model railroaders can now buy structures that are fully assembled and weathered at a very reasonable cost. Quality rolling stock is now usually cheaper than kits. This makes model railroading less labor intensive, but if this trend continues, we run the danger of having all of our model railroad looking exactly the same.

Gino Kost receives an award certificate from WMRC Model Contest Chair Morgan Turney at the club's annual banquet. Gino won several awards for his model of a tall steel trestle bridge.

Raffle prizes galore at the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's annual banquet

    WMRC President Larry Leavens reads out the winning ticket number for the Walthers brick freight house that WMRC model contest chair is holding up. Check out the stash behind Larry! What a haul of model railroading goodies!

    One of the best things about our annual banquet are prizes, prizes and more prizes! We first hold a raffle for several door prizes. Each person attending gets a ticket when they enter. The prizes not only include model railroad stuff, but several of what we call "non-rail" prizes, which include gift cards to such retailers as Home Depot!

    Next comes the elimination draw. Tickets were sold for five dollars for the sole prize of a very nifty HO locomotive, fully equipped with DCC. But in the elimination draw, it's not the first ticket that wins - it's the last! Everyone had lots of fun watching ticket after ticket drawn, waiting in anticipation as to whose name was going to be on that very last ticket!

   Our last draw used "arm's length" tickets. A roll of tickets were sold, the amount of tickets you received for five bucks was measured from the tips of your finger to the bridge of your nose when you turned your head. Yes, you could use a taller friend to substitute for you if you happened to be height challenged. 

    Just about everybody walked away with some sort of prize that night. Some had more prizes than others, but that's the luck of the draw!

One of our youngest members, the lovely Frances South, won this solar mosaic stick light as a door prize. It's going to look just great in her parent's garden!

Marvin Fetch and Vern Gibson's Carson and Cobourg Central Railway debuts at Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's spring layout hop

   Here's a great view of the rail yard in the mountain setting created by Vern Gibson and Marvin Fetch for their Carson and Cobourg Central Railway.

   One of the highlights of the WMRC's spring layout hop was the grand premiere of Marvin Fetch and Vern Gibson's Carson and Cobourg Central Railway. Vern Gibson was a long time member of the club, and was also part owner of the late, great Elmwood Hobbies. He has a well deserved reputation as a great modeller and a model railroader, and club members have been anxiously waiting for a chance to view his newest effort.

     Of course, no one was disappointed at what they saw! The Carson and Cobourg Central Railway was an absolutely spectacular layout. Viewers were dazzled by the amount of detailing that they saw everywhere! Congratulations to Vern Gibson and his model railroading partner Marvin Fetch for creating such a spectacular model railroad! A special treat for Winnipeggers was seeing the popular Bridge Drive In modelled on the layout!

Steam lives on the Carson and Cobourg Central Railway! 
Look at all of that motive power coming out of the roundhouse!

There's some diesel power as well, as a vintage CN switcher makes a stop by a fuel tank.

Could it be? Yes it is! It's the Bridge Drive In! The BDI has been a Winnipeg institution for 55 years and countings. Going there for the creamiest shakes in town is always a treat, and it was also a treat to see it modelled on the Carson and Cobourg Central Railway! But it's not nearly as crowded here on this layout than it is on a hot Sunday summer afternoon in Winnipeg!