new design train model

    WMRC Program Director Morgan Turney took these images of Aaron Woloshyn laying some scenery at the gateway Western. He's using the modeller's best friend, the Topside Creeper, which is available from Micro-Mark. For a big layout like the Gateway, the Topside Creeper is an indispensable tool for getting into those hard to reach spots!

     Tuesday nights are now, still, and always will be Gateway nights. It's a great opportunity for fun, fellowship, and working on the railroad! The crew meets around 7:00 PM at the Winnipeg Railway Museum, located on the second level of the Via Rail station at 123 Main Street.

    Aaron Woloshyn is seen from the outside window of the Gateway, working on the landscaping.

   The Gateway Western Railway is housed in its own structure at the Winnipeg Railway Museum, built by volunteers from the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club and the Winnipeg Railway Museum. This photo was taken by John Longhurst, which he used in his blog, the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision, which featured a post about the Gateway Western.

The WMRC and the Winnipeg Railway Museum will once again be participating in Doors Open Winnipeg this weekend. The Gateway Western Railway, which is a joint effort between the WMRC and the museum, will be operating trains as part of the Winnipeg Railway Museum�s contribution to the event from 11 to 5 on Saturday, May 30 and Sunday, May 31. Admission to the museum this weekend is free (although donations will always be cheerfully accepted) and there's plenty of parking available nearby at The Forks. The city is offering two free hours of metered street parking, and free street parking all day on Sunday. 

The museum is located on tracks 1 and 2 on the upper level of the Via Rail Station, which is located at 123 Main Street.

 For more information on Doors Open Winnipeg, go to http://www.doorsopenwinnipeg.ca/

For more information about the Winnipeg Railway Museum, go to:
http://www.wpgrailwaymuseum.com/

    One of our loyal readers asked us if we could re-post the layout plan of the Gateway Western. Your wish is our command! Post for the Gateway Western have proven to be extremely popular on this blog site, and on our Facebook page as well.

     To further meet this demand, we have put in a Gateway Western index on this site. Scroll down the page and you'll find it on the right hand side. All of the posts about the Gateway Western are there! All you have to do is click on one of the links, and you're there!

    WMRC member Ian Plett took these images of a recent session at the Gateway Western Railway, located in its own structure inside the Winnipeg Railway Museum. As you can see, significant progress is being made on what is going to be the most spectacular model railway in the city!

     The Winnipeg Railway Museum is located on the second level of the Via Rail Station at 123 Main Street. Tuesday Nights are always Gateway nights! That's when the gang gets together around 7:00PM for some modelling, train running, and some good old camaraderie!
   Morgan Turney, completely undisturbed by the pair chatting behind him, concentrates fully on the modelling project at hand. The man is in the zone!

   Tuesday nights are Gateway nights, and the WMRC's layout over at the Winnipeg Railway Museum is coming along just great! We're getting into some might fine landscaping which is making the layout really come alive! Dave Downie, our Vice-President, sent along these images to us to show the remarkable progress they're making on the layout!

    The gang meets tonight at 7:00 PM at the Winnipeg Railway Museum, located on the second level of the Via Rail Station at 123 Main Street. It's really cold outside, but the Gateway is housed in it's own heated building within the museum!

     Former WMRC President Suzanne Lemon modeled this lovely lake for the Gateway Western.

    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 model railroading season really starts to heat up in September! We start off first with the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's first meeting in our new location at the Charleswood Legion, located at 6003 Roblin Boulevard. The meeting will be held in the tank room in the basement of the hall on September 12, and starts at 7:30. The door on the west side of the building provides the best access. Hope to see you all there! You can't miss the building - it's got a tank in front of it!

The next day the Assiniboine Valley Railway holds its monthly open house on September 13 and also on September 14. The hours are from 11 to 5 on Saturday, and from 1 to 5 on Sunday. Rides are $2 per person. Kids under 3 ride for free!

The weekend after that is the Winnipeg Railway Museum's Railway days! The hours are from 10 to 5 on September 20 and 21. Admission is by donation. The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club will be out there in full force, operating the Gateway Western Railway in its own separate structure within the museum. That itself would be worth the price of admission, but there's so much more to see!

Following that is the Manitoba Mega Train Show on September 27 and 28 at the CanLan Ice Sports Complex on 1871 Ellice Avenue. The WMRC is partnered with this event. We'll have members all over the place setting up the 7.5" scale train, working the admissions desk, displaying and selling all sorts of neat model railroading stuff at the vendor's tables! Admission is $5, Children ages 3-12 $3, and kids 2 and under get in for free! Hours are from 9 to 5 on both days.

              Are the meetings at your local model railroading club beginning to look like this?

   There's no doubt about it - model railroading needs more younger members! The greying of our hobby has been happening for a long time, and it's epidemic all across the country. We saw it coming in the 80's and 90's when we saw the younger generation's fascination with video games.

    The baby boomers were the last generation to fully embrace the hobby, mostly because they grew up with model railroads. Attendance in the WMRC spiked and thrived in the 80's when boomers such as Larry Leavens and Ron Einarson joined the club. These members were in their 30'swhen they joined, and they continue to make important contributions to the club. But now these boomers are in their 60's, and there are very few younger members joining. Membership has been declining in every model railroading club.

   Mind you, there's still a lot of life in the old codgers. The rebuilding of the Gateway Western, which included building a vary large structure to house the railway, was mostly done by members of the WMRC and the Winnipeg Railway Museum who were in their 60's, and even in their 70's!

    The WMRC has younger members, such as Ian Plett and Suzanne Lemon, who have done wonders for the club. Their enthusiasm has truly revitalized and inspired us. We need more just like them!

    Attendance the Manitoba Mega Train Show and the WMRC's spring open house has showed us that interest in model railroading is still very strong. We get many young families in to view the trains. But they're not joining!

   Our only hope for survival is to have more younger members. But where are we going to get them?

    Our intrepid correspondent Dave Downie (not to be confused with the infamous horse rustling Downeys) took some great photos of the visitors who viewed the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's Gateway Western layout at the Winnipeg Railway Museum during the Doors Open Winnipeg celebration last weekend. The expressions on their faces tells it all!

   WMRC member Ian Plett took this panoramic view of the Gateway Western with his iphone last week. There is no doubt that this layout is going to become every model railroader's dream! It's hard to believe that  just a little over a year ago the Gateway Western was nothing but a pile of lumber on top of a flat bed truck and a collection of dreams. This shows what a dedicated staff of volunteers can do when they put their hearts and minds into completing something!

   But as you can see, the Gateway is still under construction, and volunteers are still welcome to help finish the job. It's a great way to gain all sorts of experience in skills such as carpentry, wiring, track laying and landscaping. No experience is necessary! All you need is a desire to help out and learn!

    The crew meets every Tuesday evening at 7:00 PM at the Winnipeg Railway Museum, located at the second level of the Via Rail station at 123 Main Street.

  And now a few words from Gino 

   First off, I would like to thank all of the volunteers that have participated in the construction of the Gateway Western at the Winnipeg Railway Museum. Currently there is a temporary loop that has been set up so that we can fulfill our obligation to have trains running at the museum. We are getting very close to completing another section of the layout that will greatly increase the ability to run longer trains.

   It has come to my attention that there are a few members of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club that have been running trains on the existing portion of the layout and I�m glad to see their enthusiasm. However, I would like to take this opportunity to remind all of the members of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club that in order to have the privilege of running trains on the Gateway Western that you must also possess a valid membership with the Winnipeg Railway Museum.

   This requirement was part of the negotiated settlement between the two organizations that allowed the WMRC to construct and to operate the Gateway Western as our home layout even though it was located within the confines of the Winnipeg Railway Museum. In order to maintain our good standing relationship with the Winnipeg Railway Museum, please comply with what was negotiated between the two clubs.
 
   If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please contact me or one of the committee members: Larry Leavens and Gary Stempnick from the WMRC or Norm Leathers, Barrie Laycock, and Peter Lacey from the Winnipeg Railway Museum, that have been assigned to the project. Thanks in advance for your cooperation on this matter.

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!

    What you're witnessing here is a cruel practical joke played on Morgan Turney.

    There's only one thing Morgan loves more than model railroading, and that's seafood. He never without a tin of oysters in his pocket, and once a month Ed Mulholland bakes him an eel pie. Every Tuesday when he's at the Gateway, he orders a bucket of calamari from KFC (That's Kanye's Fresh Calamari) but he never shares it! Morgan can be very shellfish when it comes to his seafood.

    Someone switched glasses on him and shouted, "The Calamari's here!" and handed him the hose. Morgan likes his calamari rubbery, so he didn't notice the difference. He was so famished that he bit right through the hose and swallowed so much compressed air that he blew up like a beach ball and floated around the room for a while. Fortunately, Dave Downey caught him and squeezed all of the air out of him before he could do any damage to the layout. It's a good thing that the roof was finished, or else he'd be floating somewhere around Kleefeld by now!

   As you might have guessed, this post is a complete fabrication. WMRC Past President and Photo Contest Chair Suzanne Lemon submitted this photo, with the challenge to come up with an equally silly caption to go with it. 

   The Gateway Western MOW crew will be meeting this Tuesday, January 28 at 7:00 PM at the Winnipeg Railway Museum, which is located on the second level of Via Rail's Union Station at 123 Main Street. There won't be any Calamari served, but if you'd like to pitch in an help put together a great model railroad, you're more than welcome to join! The structure is heated and insulated, so you'll be able to help work on the railway in comfort.

   The Gateway Western has consistently been one of this sites most popular posts! The name itself has been synonymous with the Winnipeg Model railroad club since the 60's, and it represents everything the club strives for: Model railroading, teamwork, fellowship, community outreach, and just plain fun!
Below are some more images of the building of the Gateway.

   Building the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's Gateway Western has easily got to be the most commendable and astonishing feat that any model railroad club has done anywhere, bar none!

   Not only did this dedicated group of volunteers build a model railroad, they actually built the structure to house it! Talk about scratch building! And they did most of the construction during one of Winnipeg's legendary cold and bitter winters! They asked nothing in return for their efforts, except for a place to warm up once in a while in between tasks.

    No one could ever accuse these guys of being armchair model railroaders! Putting up a structure the size of a two car garage is no easy task, especially during the winter. In part one of this series we saw the materials being hauled into the Winnipeg Railway Museum. Now we'll get down to the actual construction of the building!

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!

   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!