You can get a free digital copy of Model Railroader magazine from the Winnipeg Public Library

This is no April Fool's joke. If you live in Winnipeg and have a library card, you can get a free digital copy of Model Railroader magazine. But you can't keep it forever. After three weeks it vanishes. We don't know why, it just happens. But you can read a copy of  Model Railroader magazine in three weeks, can't you? It's  a pretty good deal, and that's the usual time you're allowed to take out almost anything else from the library.

Here's what you have to do to get your free copy: 

Open your account, then log out.
The window for “Winnipeg Public Library’s Search Catalogue” shows up.
Click on Digital Library guide
Scroll down to quick links
Click on DIY and Learning guides  
Scroll down to hobbies and crafts, click to open.
Click on “more hobbies”
Scroll down to “books and eMagazines for Hobbies”
Scroll down to find Model Railroader magazine
Click on image or where it says  Overdrive - Model Railroader - eMagazine
Click on borrow.
A window will show up that says success. Click on “Read now in Browser” and it will show up. It’s yours for three weeks.
Click on the hand on the window to turn the pages.
When you’re finished reading, just close it. If you want to read it again, go to “My account” and click on “Loans” . It will show up again. Just click on “read now on browser”.
When you log out, you can just log in again, go to checkouts, click on digital checkouts and it will be there.

In the “More hobbies” window you can also scroll down to “Hobbies in our collections”.
There will be a link for “Model Trains”.

You’’ll find a list of 31 books (real books, no digital ones) about model railroading that you can place on hold. You can request that they be sent to your local library and you will be notified by phone or email when they arrive. Here's the link:

https://guides.wpl.winnipeg.ca/DIY
 

Winnipeg's mystery model train manufacturer

One of the followers of the WMRC Facebook page discovered this unusual brass locomotive. He also sent an image of the cover of a price list that came with it. The locomotive was manufactured in Winnipeg in 1934 by The Miniature Locomotive works. It was located at 635 Garfield Street, and the name of the contact person is M.G. Winslow. 

A Google search of the property shows that there is a 1 1/2 Story house built in 1913 at that address, which leads us to assume that this was a cottage industry. Another Google search found M.G. Winslow as a member of the Winnipeg branch of the International Brotherhood of Live Steamers in 1953. The gauge is difficult to discern as there isn't any other object to compare it to in these images. Does anyone have any other information about this mysterious Winnipeg model railroad manufacturer?

WinNtrak to display their N scale modular railway at Grant Park Shopping Centre from March 24 to March 26

Got the March blues? Does it seem like the Manitoba winter will never end? Then head to Grant Park Shopping Centre this coming weekend, for WinNtrak will be running trains on their spectacular N gauge modular railway!

They'll be operating their layout for three big days, starting on Friday, March 24 and ending on Sunday, March 26. WinNtrak's head honcho Felix Lesiuk tells us that there you will even be able to enjoy an overhead view of the rail action, as they're setting up where the upper level of the shopping centre meets the lower level.

WinNtrak will be running trains at Grant Park Shopping Centre from 10AM to 8PM on Friday, March 24, from 10AM to 6PM on Saturday, March 25, and from 12PM to 5PM on Sunday, March 26. Grant Park Shopping Centre is located at 1120 Grant Avenue in Winnipeg.