new design train model

The WMRC's Dennis Rietze's amazing layout in a crawl space is featured in the latest issue of Canadian Railway Modeller. Dennis made a great looking layout, and his sheer inventiveness and ingenuity should be applauded for building it in a space that's only a claustrophobic 42" high! Dennis' layout was also featured in a spot on Breakfast Television last fall, as a promotion for the second annual Manitoba Mega Train Show.

    We will be running Dennis' article from Canadian Railway Modeller in two parts on Sunday, May 4 and Tuesday, May 6, which is being reprinted with the permission of the publisher.  You can still see the Breakfast Television video on You Tube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMzyXizUqqI

    Model Power, one of the oldest and largest model railroad and hobby manufacturers in North America, has announced that they are going out of business. As of April 24, they have stopped accepting new retail orders and customer service requests. The corporations stated that they will do their best to resolve all existing issues, returns and repairs that are currently in house.

     Their closing is a reflection of the sad state of the hobby industry, which has been gradually losing its client base over the past decades. As fewer and fewer people have taken up model railroading as a hobby, the once strong base of customers companies like Model Power depended on to sustain their business has been steadily eroding away.  As hobby shops continue to close, their distribution base has crumbled.

    Many model railroaders think of manufacturers of model railroad equipment as big businesses, but they are no more than cottage industries. As the actual manufacturing is now done overseas, companies like Model Power have been reduced to being small staffed distributors with extremely small profit margins.

     If Model Power can go out of business, who's next? Atlas? Athearn? Bachmann? Lionel?

     For more information on the closing of Model Power, please go to their link by clicking here.

  Our good friends at the Selkirk Model Railroad Association have granted us permission to reprint an article from their excellent quarterly publication, Rail Ties. The article was written by SMRA member Joe Laroche, and it titled At the Top of the Hill. It's the story of the farm scene on the freelance HO layout of the SMRA. Enjoy!

   What was by far the most unique and compact layout at the WMRC open house was Jim Spiers' triple decker Lionel display! He managed to set up three complete loops on a space no larger than a typical banquet table! His totally original design featured modified laminated counter tops bolted together with pipes. The finished result resembled a wedding cake with trains.

    Jim featured Lionel's Columbia style steamers, which were plastic engines that had a 2-4-2 configuration. These were also known as Lionel's "Scout" engines, which were packaged in their lower priced train sets. Jim was modelling a specific year - 1960, when Lionel produced a proliferation of Scout sets in their catalogue. Most of the rolling stock was vintage, with a few reproduction pieces to fill in the gaps of the consist.

   If you ever wanted a layout, but never built one because you thought that you had no room, then take a look at Jim did!
 

   We have been contacted by Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains Model Railroad Club through Facebook! By George, we've gone international! This interweb stuff really works!

   The Endless Mountains Model Railroad Club is an organization very much like our own, operating out of  Dimock, Pennsylvania, which is just north of Scranton, home of Steamtown and the fictional  Dunder Mifflin Paper company from the TV sitcom, The Office.

   They're planning a fundraiser for next year to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Tunkhannock Creek Viaduct, and they're considering selling an HO boxcar to honour the event. A portion of the proceeds would go to the Nicholson Heritage Association. They're trying to gauge interest in such a model among model railroaders outside of their area.  The model is not yet available, and the design is not finalized.

   If you're interested in purchasing this fine looking boxcar, please contact the Endless Mountains Model Railroad Club by clicking here.

   Coming soon to a t-shirt near you! For the WMRC's 60th anniversary next year, the executive had their friendly neighbourhood WMRC blog editor and Facebook moderator Paul Ullrich to design a special logo. After a dozen or so variations, this was the design chosen by the board.

    Both light and dark coloured shirts will be used to print this logo. A special decal set is also being planned with an updated version of the traditional WMRC logo with the lantern in the centre. This new design will be posted in the near future.

    WMRC President Larry Leavens took this picture of WMRC blog editor Paul Ullrich and Comics America proprietor Joe Krolik operating the O gauge layout at the Selkirk Model Railroad Association's spring open house held last weekend.
 
    Dennis Fitzpatrick, who was operating the layout, took a much needed break, and Paul and Joe took over - for almost two hours! Do you think they'll give those kids a chance to run the trains too?

    Unfortunately, the turnout for the event wasn't quite up to expectations. Who ever expected a snowstorm on April 12? But everybody who attended had a great time watching (and operating) the three spectacular layouts in three different gauges!