new design train model

    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!

   For reasons that can't be explained, the WMRC blog post about Ron Einarson's old time coal conveyor has consistently been one of the top posts of this site. Hoping that lighting will strike twice, this post features his latest effort in modeling a few more old time coal conveyors, submitted at the model display at November's meeting.

    Ron found three more Walthers kits hanging around in his place (also for reasons that can't be explained). He painted them right on the sprues so he could easily clamp in an upright position to dry. Then he trimmed the sprues and touched up any areas that were missing paint.

    He used "Krazy" Glue (Cyanoacrylate), as it dries much faster than styrene glue. After letting everything dry fro a day or two, he gave the models a dusting of black chalk dust to give them a used appearance. They're a perfect compliment to the coal trestle display he exhibited at last year's model contest at the WMRC open house last March!

   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.

   Winnipeg Model Railroad Club President Larry Leavens also had an entry in the monthly model display. He built a Walthers Ontario Carbonate tank car and added a few extra finishing touches.

   To weight the model, he added lead shot in a white glue matrix, according to NMRA recommended practice. He replaced the horn hook couplers with Kadees and replaced the plastic wheels with metal ones from Intermountain Railway.

   Plastic stanchions were replaced with metal ones from an Athearn diesel. The end railings had a stand-off support added to the middle, as per the prototype.  The safety bar along the side had standoffs added mid-way between the end sill and the ladder. The safety rails were brush painted with stencil white.

   The faces of the wheels were painted a dirty rust colour and the side frames were painted with grimy black.

    The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's monthly model display is held at every meeting by the No. 1 Northern Division of the NMRA. To qualify for the monthly prize, you must show that you've done some assembly or weathering. Each entry must include a short write-up describing the work that has been finished to date.