Manitoba Mega-Train Show, 2019 (Plus More Great Modelling from Echo Valley in Regina)

Another Mega-Train show has come and gone.

As weekends go for the show, it was great—cool and rainy. 

When I helped run the show, we always wished for bad weather. It kept people closer to home and away from the cottage or parks, and more likely to attend the show.

Since I had just taken my layout down a couple months earlier, I really wasn’t in the market for anything.

I did consider taking a table to sell off some stuff, but it was too early for that. I’m not ready yet to part with any rolling stock or locomotives. They all still feel like close friends.

And yet, one day I will have to do it. Just not yet. (I did take note of prices for the future, however.)

The show had the usual assortment of good layouts and great sales.

I’m always taken by the tinplate stuff; there is such an amazing history of the hobby in those items!

The prices seemed low to me. But a seller assured me they were appropriately priced.

Apparently, there’s a lot of this stuff coming on the market now as older people, or their kids, dispose of train collections that have been hiding in attics or basements for a long time.

As in the past, I enjoyed the fine modelling of the Echo Valley Guild Free-Mo layout from Regina.

I once again found myself appreciating the simple crossing scene made by club member Jeff Betcher.

Jeff told me he was thinking of adding additional items to the scene. But then he read my post from last year about this clean and simple scene, and how much I liked it, and decided to leave it as is. I’m glad he did!

He did add an abandoned farmhouse nearby, though—something very common on the prairies. It was also a great model.

Another scene on the layout that drew my attention was the burnt-out forest.

Anyone who has traveled in the mountains of B.C. has seen this kind of thing, what with all the recent wildfires.

It reminded me of the realistic scene of a forest killed by pine beetles on the Thunder Creek modular layout from Moose Jaw. (What is it with these great Saskatchewan layouts, anyway?)

Anyway, as usual it was a great show. My thanks goes to the organizers.

Friends

Morgan Turney & Jason Shron visit the M & M Sub.

One of the things I enjoyed best about the M & M Sub. was having visitors over.

While watching trains make their way around the layout, we had many enjoyable conversations.

One thing that was especially gratifying was welcoming friends who didn’t have layouts. Having a chance to run trains with them was always fun.

Some of them brought locomotives to see them run. This provided the M & M Sub. with some interesting visiting power. (See photos in this post.)

One frequent visitor was Morgan Turney, editor and publisher of Canadian Railway Modeller.

He was also the last visitor before the layout became a pile of lumber on the floor.

Which was only appropriate; he was the first person to visit my previous layout, the CP Rail Grimm Valley Sub., back in the early 1990s.

He also made one of the first visits before the M & M Sub. was built.

And now the layout is gone. But the friends I made through it have remained—along with the photos and memories of their visits.

Resto Gare: A Train Lover's Restaurant in Winnipeg

Where better to enjoy a great meal than in a passenger car?

Of course, the best place to do that is on The Canadian, traveling across Canada. But if you can't do it on a real train, you can still do it in a stationary passenger car in Winnipeg at the Resto Gare in St. Boniface.

That's what I recently did with my wife (for our anniversary).

The Resto Gare is located in the former St. Boniface railway station, built in 1913-14 for the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR).

In addition to the renovated station, the restaurant features fine dining in former CNoR passenger car #9647.

Built by Canadian Car & Foundry in 1914, it was acquired by the CNR in 1921. It became sleeping car #1458 “Trenton” in 1953.

It finished its service as CNR mechanical instruction car #15022.

I don’t know how or when it got to Resto Gare, but I do know I always ask to be seated in it when we visit the restaurant.

While sitting there, I find myself wondering who else sat in the car over its many decades of service.

Who were those people? Where were they going? What were their lives like?

In the early years they may have been immigrants, newly arrived in Canada and filled with hope and trepidation as they headed west to new lives in a new land. 

Later, they may have been vacationers, going east and west across the country and enjoying the fine accommodations the railway provided.

And now they are people looking for a fine meal, with some train ambience on the side.

So if you like trains, and find yourself in Winnipeg in need of a fine meal, Resto Gare is a great choice.

Great Canadian Model Railroad: Christopher Balestri’s Etobicoke Central Railway

Christopher Balestri has always been interested in the 1970s and 80s, so it’s no wonder the Etobicoke Central Railways is set in that timeframe.

“I’ve always had such a fascination with that timeframe ever since I was a kid,” says Christopher. “Studying slides and photographs [from that era] is a fascination of mine.”

Christopher traces his interest in trains back to his dad. 

It was enhanced by the large amount of railway activity in west end Toronto, where he was born and raised—places like Lambton Yard, the Junction, the Stock Yards, Kipling and the Obico spur.

“Modelling snippets of those locations truly keeps those memories alive for me,” he says.

Situated in a 16 by 33-foot room, the single-level “protolanced” layout is set in Toronto, mostly from the west end of the city.

“There are portions that are prototypically accurate but are combined with fictional aspects,” says Christopher, explaining the protolance idea.

“The look and style however is consistent and reflective of 1970s-80s Toronto.”

Christopher started construction on the layout in 2013. It’s about 35% complete, “with a long ways to go,” he says.

Railways on the ECR include CN, CP Rail, GO Transit and VIA, with a bit of TH&B as well.

Christopher uses Digitrax Zephyr DCC to operate the trains. 

There is also a PR3-Xtra computer control unit which ties into the Zephyr command station, allowing operation of the layout through JMRI software.

Layout operations are carried out primarily through order cards and occupation lists. The order cards are typed up on an actual typewriter (in keeping with the timeframe) and put into slots near the yard or roundhouse.  

Trains are made up in large yard next to the roundhouse, and locomotives then assigned to the various trains.

He has started experimenting with consist scripts in JMRI recently, which would make organizing trains rosters easier when in relation to detection points.

The time being modelled is late summer-early autumn. Christopher uses commercial products for the majority of his scenery, but also mixes in real materials such as sand and soil to the base layers.

One of the techniques he’s used is sifting and drying real earth in a conventional oven. After baking, the soil is completely dried out, looking similar to sand.

Most buildings on the layout are kits from DPM, Walthers and Atlas. They are slightly modified, with many featuring detailed interior scenes with lighting and figures. 

Each building also has custom signage or markings that are prototypical to Toronto buildings.

Main line track is code 100 code, while secondary routes are code 83. The yard is a combination of code 83 and code 70.

The benchwork is made up of 4 x 4 table frames bolted together. By using bolts and screws, the layout can easily be disassembled and moved, Christopher say, yet it is very stable.

Locomotives are from Athearn, Atlas, and Rapido. There are about 80 of them, and about 300 pieces of rolling stock.

As for the future, Christopher added a new expansion a year ago; he is planning to add an entirely new city section and large passenger terminal.

“I’m excited for the continued expansion plans,” he says, adding “I hope to have the new section fully operational in the next few months.”

You can see more of the Etobicoke Central Railways on YouTube, Instagram or in Off The Tracks, December, 2018 issue.

Watch a video of the layout, and read more, on MetroLinx News.