new design train model

Sixty years ago, on April 1,1955, a small group of model railroaders met at St. John's Hobby Shop to discuss the possibility of forming a model railroad club in the city of Winnipeg. Agreement was reached and the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club was formed. The first formal meeting was held later in the month.

Over the years the WMRC has had hundreds of members, men, women and children who share the love of the hobby of model railroading. WMRC members have gone on to become Master Model Railroaders, served on the NMRA and TLR Boards, and have hosted regional and national conventions. The WMRC's founding fathers would be proud.

On April 10, 2015, we will celebrate the WMRC's 60th Birthday with a birthday cake, a special guest and a group photo. We will be having a special presentation of digital images that were converted from vintage photographs and slides from the rich and wonderful history of the club.
We're asking everyone to dress up by wearing a 60th anniversary T Shirt. If you don't have one, we will be selling them at the meeting!

The meeting starts at 7:30PM in the Tank Room, located in basement of the Charleswood Legion, 6003 Roblin Boulevard. Please enter on the west side of the building. Not a member? No problem! Visitors are always welcome!

   We at the WMRC all hope that you're having as good a Christmas as this little tyke pictured here, who got his very first Marx electric train set on Christmas day - exactly 60 years ago today! We understand that he still has this train, and has picked up a few others in the past six decades. No one knows what happened to the spiffy race car in the foreground!

    Here's to having a Merry Christmas full of trains, trains and more trains, plus a New Year with more of the same!

The WMRC has started taking orders for their 60th anniversary T-shirt. The shirt is powder blue with the 60th anniversary logo, designed by WMRC blog editor Paul Ullrich, printed in the middle. Orders have been taken at the last WMRC meeting, and will continue to be taken at our next meeting on October 10. Please note that the price will be determined on how many T-shirts will be in the order. We don't require anyone to give us any money yet. All we need to know is how many people are interested in purchasing one of these T-shirts, and what size should be ordered.

Neil Carlton runs a freight train on the No. 1 Northern Division's Free-Mo modular group layout at the WMRC's open house. Photo by Paul Ullrich

   The NMRA's No. 1 Northern Division's Free-Mo modular group displayed once again at the WMRC's annual open house. The layout was a bit smaller than last year's, mostly because there were so many other displays, and only so much space to go around! Still, there was enough room to have some really long trains do some really long runs.

    The two loops the group constructed were funded by a grant from the NMRA's Thousand lakes Region (TLR). The No. 1 Northern Division thanks the TLR for their generosity in helping complete this project.

A BN freight rolls down the straightaway, heading for the next loop which will bring it back. Photo by Suzanne Lemon.

   Ron Einarson has done it again! Is there no stopping this man? For the sake of the hobby, we hope not! Pictured above is his second of three entries he submitted for the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's February model display. God bless him, he even provided his own copy on how he built it, saving the blog editor a bit of time and effort!

By Ron Einarson

   The model started out as Old Time Coal Conveyors kit # 933-3520 from Walthers. I painted the parts flat green right on the sprues. I was able to clamp them in an upright position to dry. After trimming the parts from the sprues, I touched up the areas that were missing paint.

   I followed the instructions included in the kit and the construction went well. The only thing I would suggest is to use �Krazy� Gel Glue to put it together, as I found styrene glue took to long to dry. I find �Krazy� Gel Glue sets up faster and harder, and my hand doesn�t cramp holding it in line!

   A couple of days after it had dried, I dusted the pieces with black chalk dust to give it a well used appearance. This new addition will look great with the coal trestle display I constructed and displayed at a recent model display at the WMRC.

   Every once in a while, WMRC blog editor Paul Ullrich contributes a cartoon to The Lantern, the official publication of the club, and to The Fusee, the official publication of the TLR. This cartoon has appeared in the February issue of The Lantern, and will also appear in the next issue of The Fusee (it's supposed to be the spring issue, but who are we kidding?).

    This is definitely a seasonal cartoon, but all you have to do is look out the window, or even (gasp) dare to go outside to know that winter is far from over (and that seems to go for the whole continent).

    There's a wind chill warning in effect in Winnipeg today. Water pipes are bursting all over the city. Everyone's yard is buried in three, four, and even five feet of snow! But it's a great time for model railroaders, so get down to the basement and get working on that model railroad project you've been putting off, because spring isn't happening yet!

Margaret Ullrich, the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's public relations person, has noticed an unusual amount of activity on her events blog, Winnipeg is Better than Chocolate, concerning the WMRC's Great Canadian Train Show. Although the WMRC membership is aware that this show is not taking place, the general public may not be.

The Great Canadian Train show has been cancelled indefinitely. The WMRC has partnered this year with the Manitoba Mega Train Show, which will be held October 19 and 20 at the Canlan Ice Sports Centre, 1871 Ellice Avenue. The show's hours are from 9AM to 5PM both Saturday and Sunday. There is no train show at the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute this year. The Manitoba Mega Train Show is the only train show that is happening this fall.

The WMRC's greatest achievement this year has been the resurrection of the Gateway Western layout!
After Gooch's moved to a smaller location, the layout was kept in storage in a local warehouse for several years. Now it is in the Winnipeg Railway Museum in its very own heated structure! A dedicated group of volunteers assembled the structure in the middle of winter and built a brand new layout. Neil, Suzanne and Cliff are pictured in the new building.