Photos for Windows: Another Set of Buildings Done, and Elmwood Hobby Works Lives Again

The finished block with its windows.

Earlier, I posted about how I use photos of real windows in real buildings to make windows in my model buildings--and how I think this is an easy way to make realistic looking windows.

(As I pointed out in that post, on a sunny day you can't see more than three feet or so inside a building, so why worry about creating interiors? Plus, the prototype supplies everything we need if you have a camera and make glossy prints.)

In that post, I had started the process of adding windows to a block of buildings in "downtown" Ritchie. It's done now, as these photos show.

One change from the earlier post is that I decided to resurrect Elmwood Hobby Works, my hometown hobby shop which recently closed. I not only used its windows, but its door, too. Appropriately, the sign on the door says "closed."

Well, it may be gone for real, but it lives on on the M & Sub.!

That car could use a cleaning . . . .

The photo from which the windows & door were made.

Video: Cab Ride on the Prairie Dog Central Railway 4-4-0 #3

Actors in period costume re-enact the arrival of dignitaries  in
1913 to open the Hotel Fort Garry. Winnipeg Free Press photo.

As part of its 100th anniversary celebrations, Winnipeg's historic Hotel Fort Garry arranged for the equally historic Prairie Dog Central Railway (one of North America's oldest operating steam railways) to be part of a re-enactment at the also historic VIA station across the street.

 

Earlier this week, the Prairie Dog brought a trainload of actors dressed up in turn-of-the-century clothing to re-enact the 1913 arrival of dignitaries to open the hotel.

 

Included in the cast of characters was an actor playing the role of Dr. F. W. Bergman, general manager of the hotels operated by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, which commissioned the construction of hotel in 1911. The Hotel Fort Garry officially opened two years later.

 

A reporter from the Winnipeg Free Press took a ride in the cab of Prairie Dog Central's vintage 4-4-0 #3, built in 1882. Click here to see a video of that ride.

The newspaper was also on hand to record the arrival of the train, and the re-enactment. Click here to watch that video.

Click here to read the Free Press story about the event.

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.

Starting Over: Would I Do It Again?

A switching layout like Glendale--that's
what I might build next time.

I have sometimes been asked: If I had to start over, would I build the same layout again?

The answer is no. Not because I don't like my layout, or that I wouldn't enjoy another big one. I just don't think I have the energy, drive and determination to do it again.

Truth is, it's a lot of work to build a layout--any layout, but especially one the size of the Manitoba & Minnesota Subdivision (double-deck, 17 by 21 feet). Some days I can't believe I was able to actually do it.

Next year is its 20th anniversary, and there are still thing to finish up (even without my taking down part of it to start again). I never have got around to ballasting and finishing the ground cover and background in one corner of the Fort Francis yard.

If I have to start again, which I will have to do someday (we won't live in this house forever), I think I might want to build a small switching layout--something like Glendale, featured in the photos in this post.

Glendale, which features railroading in Canada, was built by British model railroader Roger Nicholls. For me, the 9 foot by 1 1/2 foot layout shows the best of what a small layout can be.

For the British, with their lack of space, portable layouts like Glendale are common. But they will likely have greater appeal in North America, too, as people move into condos or move more for their jobs.

Or for people like me who, having built their "dream" layout, want something smaller to stay active in the hobby.

Glendale trackplan.

For another example of a really small layout in a really unique space, check out Ian Plett's layout in his long distance truck cab.