Rewind: York Railway Modellers, a Great Canadian Model Railroad:

As I wrote earlier, this pandemic has got me down. It's hard to work on the layout, or come up with fresh content for the blog. But I have lots of interesting content from years past which could be shared again, like this post from 2012. Enjoy! 

Another great Canadian model railroad I had the pleasure of helping to get published is York Railway Modellers.

The club, which is located in Toronto, started in 1992. The HO scale layout combines CNR and CPR mainline and wayfreight operation in southern Ontario between 1953-57.

The layout is over 1,600 square feet in area and has around 11 scale miles of mainline track. It features two major yards and eight towns. Each yard has three industrial areas plus a roundhouse, turntable and engine facilities.

The single track mainline runs from is set up to run end-to-end from the CPR Lambton Yard (West Toronto) to the CNR London Yard. A total of 25 people are required to operate it properly.

Today the club has finished all the trackwork and 95 percent of the wiring; work on scenery is a continuing project.

York Railway Modellers was featured in Canadian Railway Modeller Train 7 Track 4. Photos from the club’s website and Scott Reid. Click here to visit their website. A few more photos are below.

Not Again! The Canada Central Railway Forced to Move

Four years after having to move to a new location, the Association of Railway Modellers of Montreal—owners of the Canada Central Railway—has to move again.

Founded in 1950, the club was in its former location, a CN warehouse, for 38 years.

After being required to move from that location, the club found a new home and started over.

But now they have to move again; I’m told the building will be turned into a parking garage.

This is beyond sad for the club and its members; the layout, which is under construction, looks great.

And yet it’s a story often told—renting space for a layout puts a club at the whim of a landlord.

Two other signature layouts in Canada found this out the hard way recently; the Model Railroad Club of Toronto had to vacate its old premises after 66 years in the same location, as did the Aberfoyle Junction, which had to leave after 30 years.

Both the Toronto and Aberfoyle clubs found new space; let’s hope the same thing doesn’t happen to them that happened to the Canada Central.

Meantime, here are a few photos of the progress on the Canada Central, courtesy of  Tony Synett. More of Tony's photos of the club can be found here. 

Club Night at the WMRC

Morgan Turney demonstrates making trees.

How many model railroad clubs are still running today?

What with so many service clubs, churches and other groups seeing declining membership, plus the challenge of finding or keeping space for a layout, I wonder how model railroad clubs are doing.

The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club (WMRC) is soldiering on. Now in its 60th year, the Club continues to meet monthly.

Aaron Woloshyn shows how to make wood hydro poles.

Unlike many other clubs, the WMRC doesn't have a layout. Never has, in fact. (Which is why, some long-timers joke, the Club has managed to stay together for so long--fewer fights!)

Monthly meetings often feature a presentation or two about the prototype or some aspect of the hobby, plus a time for socializing over coffee and a 50-50 draw.

Like many other organizations, the WMRC has seen its membership decline. That's no knock on the leadership; it's just the way things are today. And with the Internet, there's no need to go to meetings regularly to get answers to pressing hobby-related questions.

Ian Plett shows how to install decoders.

Even the library, which once was one of the most important selling points for Club membership, isn't as compelling as it once was. If you want to know how to do DCC wiring or lay track, just Google it.

But there's still something about hanging out with real human beings and having a conversation. And that is what the WMRC continues to offer.

Ron Einarson shows how to
 model with wood.

I must confess that, after over 20 years of dedicated participation, my own attendance has slacked off of late. But I went to the most recent meeting and took these photos. It was the annual Klinic Karnival, where members demonstrate hobby techniques.

So here's to the the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club, and to all the other clubs that are still going. May you have many more years of meetings and success.

Frederik and Gerrit Braun, owners and creators of
Hamburg's Miniatur Wunderland, model WMRC 60th
anniversary T-shirts.

A Perfect Fall Day for a Model Railroad Open House (and Bonus Virginia Central Steam Locomotive Info and Photos)

A perfect fall day at the Prairie Dog Central, new home of WinNTrak.

Where would be the best place for a model railroad clubhouse?

Close to the tracks, is my answer. That’s where the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club has its layout, at the downtown VIA station as part of the Winnipeg Railway Museum.

Now another Winnipeg model railroad club is trackside: WinNTrak, Winnipeg's N scale modular group. 

On a perfect Oct. 3 fall afternoon, they held an open house to show off their new clubhouse at the home of the Prairie Dog Central Railway.

The Prairie Dog Central is owned by the Vintage Locomotive Society. It runs regular passenger excursions that are often led by #3, a 4-4-0  steam locomotive built in 1882. It might be the oldest operating steam locomotive in North America.

Other times, the trains are pulled by #4138, built in 1958 for the Grand Trunk Western, or #1685, built in 1957 for the Midland Railway Company of Manitoba (later absorbed by BNSF).

In addition to seeing WinNTrak’s layout, it was a great day to check out the two former Virginia Central steam locomotives that are temporarily parked on the Prairie Dog Central property. (Even if the sun was in the wrong place for good photography.)

The two former CPR 4-6-2s, numbered 1238 (built in 1946) and 1286 (built in 1948), spent over 40 years in Virginia before coming back home to Canada.

They were part of Jack Showalter’s Virginia Central tourist Railroad in Covington, Va., from the 1970s to 1990s. 

After Showalter’s death last year, the locomotives were purchased by an anonymous buyer from Alberta. They made their way to Winnipeg on the CPR's Emerson Sub., as the photo below shows. 

According to a report, the units were purchased to be used in steam excursion operations, although it is not known where. They will be stored in Winnipeg until those plans are settled.

In addition to the two unique steamers, there were other units and rolling stock to see that day.

If you ever get to Winnipeg, make sure to check it out!

Thanks to Train Geek (Steve Boyko) for the photo by Jeff Keddy. See more of Jeff's photos of the steam locomotives in transit on Steve's blog.

Week of Remembrance II: A War Memorial on a Model Railroad Layout

Joe Laroche's cenotaph scene, with roof of
waiting room removed for viewing.

Earlier, I posted about the CPR's "Angel of Victory" memorial, for the 2013 Week of Remembrance. Now for a look at how one modeller has added a cenotaph to a model railroad.

Joe Laroche is a skilled modeller and a member of the Selkirk, Man. model railroad club. He built the station for the club's layout, and added the cenotaph scene outside the station.

His station scene is similar to what the CPR did with its memorial outside of its stations in Vancouver and Winnipeg, and inside its station in Montreal.

Joe used the Walther's Union Station kit to make his flat-style station for the Selkirk club. For the memorial, he used military figures mounted on a plinth.

I have not been able to find examples of other model railroads with war memorials. At least two British manufacturers sell war memorial kits, though.

Train Show!

This is what it's all about at a train show!

What would our hobby be like without train shows?

Here in Winnipeg, the annual fall Winnipeg Model Railroad Club train show marks the beginning of the train season--the weather is turning colder, and now is the time to start thinking about working on the layout.

Good modelling is also on display.

This year the Club combined its show with VecTor Gardens for Manitoba Mega Train. In addition to the vendors, the show featured layouts in various scales--Z, N, HO, O, G and Lego, along with a riding railway.

Paul Ullrich, aka "the giraffe man," always
has a good time.

I didn't expect to buy anything, but you know how it goes--there's always something that calls your name.

One vendor was sitting behind his table putting together older rolling stock kits. "Nobody wants to buy anything that's not ready-to-run," he said. Other vendors confirmed that to be the case.

One sad feature of the show--as it is of many train shows across North America, I expect--was that there were vendors selling off estates. In this case, it was three model railroaders who had died and one entering a nursing home. In three of the four cases, the former owners had never got around to actually building a layout.

One had said about his hobby just two days before he died: "I wish I had ten more years."

Win-N-trak was there . . . 

That comment reminded me about the old adage about the best time to plant a tree: 20 years ago, or now. The same holds true for building a layout.

And so was the #1 Northern Division Free-Mo.

At some estate tables, items were still in the original boxes, unopened and unused. Some of those boxes were 40 to 50 years or more old. (People who loved old wood kits were in luck.) See a few examples below.

When my stuff goes up for sale at a train show, it will have some kilometres on it, or show that it has been enjoyed. Will your stuff look that way, too?

A train show is also a great place to work on a layout.

 . .

Winnipeg's Gateway Western Model Railroad Back Home After 17 Years

Gateway Western III inside the Winnipeg
Railway Museum.

After 17 years, the Gateway Western is back home in Winnipeg's VIA Station.

For many years, the Gateway Western version I, owned and operated by members of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club (WMRC), occupied a corner near the rotunda in the historic station.

That layout, which featured a meandering single track mainline that ducked into multiple tunnels and over bridges, was a highlight for many visitors to the station, including passengers de-training during a brief stopover in Winnipeg.

(It was even featured in a 1989 travel article in the New York Times. Said the writer: "With an hour to while away . . . most of us gathered in one corner of the massive hall where the Gateway Western Railway, operating division of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club, was running its HO scale line through tunnel-riddled mountainous terrain.")

A view from inside.

That layout was dismantled at the request of VIA Rail in 1996. In its place is now a men's washroom; yes, you can now urinate where the tracks once ran.

Soon after, some club members built Gateway Western II, a portable and sectional layout. That layout was sold to a private individual in 2000. When I discovered he had never actually put it back together in his basement, as he intended, I helped arrange for the WMRC to buy it back.

In 2004, it was resurrected in the basement of Gooch's Hobby Shop. It resided there until 2009, when the hobby shop relocated. After that, it was put into storage, with the hope it might one day find a new home.

Another inside view.

That never happened. Last year the WMRC received a request from Winnipeg Railway Museum to build a new layout inside their facility.

The Museum, which occupies two of the former tracks in the historic train shed at the VIA Station, is a great place for a layout. Unfortunately, it isn't heated or air conditioned, the roof sometimes leaks, and birds sometimes find their way into the Museum (doing what birds do).

Kids enjoyed watching the trains.

Prior to the new layout being built, the Museum had bought another portable layout from the Renegades Model Railroad Club; it wasn't long before that layout deteriorated under those conditions.

That won't happen to the new Gateway Western. WMRC members didn't just build a model railroad--they built a building to put it in, too.

And so did adults.

The layout is in a climate-controlled building inside the train shed. The building is done, but right now the layout is only partially finished; club members were able to complete two-thirds of the line before the Sept. 21-22 Railway Days at the Museum--enough to entertain visitors. Over the winter, the rest will be finished.

Eventually, visitors will be able to push a button and make trains run even when no club members are there.

Meantime, it's quite a set up--congrats to everyone who built it! And if you are passing through Winnipeg, by train or any other mode of transportation, make sure to stop by to see the new Gateway in its new home.

BNSF Manitoba 2748 was also on display
during Railway Days, with the new Canadian Museum
of Human Rights in the background.

Greeley Freight Station Museum Safe From Recent Colorado Flooding

In the grand scheme of things, losing a model railroad--even one as fantastic as the Greeley Freight Station Museum--pales in comparison to the thousands whose homes were destroyed or damaged in the recent flooding in Colorado.

At the same time, I was happy to learn that the Museum did not suffer any damage from the floods, although some members of the Museum did experience losses.

"Some of our own volunteers suffered damages and losses, but luckily so far the losses are restricted to material items," the Museum posted on its website.

"It will take time to clean up and rebuild and we wish everyone the strength needed to get through these hard times."

I think we all join them in hoping that people in the area will soon be able to recover and rebuild.

Earlier this year one of those volunteers, Bill Botkin, sent me some of his photos of the Museum's layout. Fortunately, his home did not sustain any damage.

P.S. This post is my 500th on this blog. I can't think of a better one for this milestone than about a layout I want to visit one day . . . .

Layout overview from Museum website.