Winnipeg Model Railroad Club 60th Anniversary Graffiti Car

Tagged!

2015 marks the 60th anniversary of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club (WMRC). The celebrate the event, the club created a new logo and a decal club members could apply to rolling stock (below).

As a member of the WMRC, it was important to mark this important occasion on the M & M Sub. But how?

Then late one night an unknown tagger furtively came up with a way to help me, and the club, celebrate its special anniversary.

Since the layout is set in the modern era (the early to mid-1990s), it's only appropriate that the best commemoration is one that fits that time: Graffiti.

To make the tag, I used gel pens, a method I have employed with other pieces of rolling stock.

Up close, it doesn't look as convincing as a commercial decal. But using the three-foot rule, it looks just fine (to me, at least).

As for the WMRC itself, the club has been around a long time, but it isn't the oldest model railroad club in Canada. That honour goes to the Model Railroad Club of Toronto, established in 1938.

The second oldest, from what I can tell, is the Model Railroad Association of Montreal, founded in 1950.

(Anyone know of any others in Canada founded before 1955?)

In 2005, the WMRC marked its 50th anniversary with a joint convention with the Canadian Association of Railway Modellers, the NMRA Thousand Lakes Region and the CPR and CN Lines SIGs.

This time around the club is being more low-key, but is celebrating all-the-same.

And now that celebration  includes a tagged car on the M & M Sub.

VIA Rail to Return to CP Tracks Along Lake Superior?

Wouldn't it be great to ride a train here?

VIA Rail might be returning to CP tracks in northern Ontario, according to an article in Railway Age. 

The move is being planned after months of late arrivals due to track congestion on CN’s northern Ontario main line, compounded by slow orders arising from CN’s efforts to recover from two recent derailments. 

One option VIA is exploring is shifting to CP tracks between Winnipeg, and Sudbury, Ontario.

According to Railway Age, this is something Via Rail CEO Yves Desjardins-Siciliano hinted at last year.

In the article, he noted that shifting south to CP tracks would provide passengers on VIA’s iconic passenger train, The Canadian, with a more scenic route closer to the Great Lakes. At the same time, it would serve more communities.

If that happened, VIA passenger trains could leave CN tracks in Winnipeg, using the old CN Pine Falls Sub. (now Central Manitoba Railway) to access CP tracks in Transcona.

The trains could return to CN tracks near Parry Sound, Ont. (where the two railways employ directional running on each other’s tracks).

Interest in the idea is growing in Thunder Bay, which could once again host passenger trains for the first time since 1989, when VIA Rail moved to CN ‘s more northerly route.

But before it could happen, VIA would have to develop an agreement with CP, including training engineers to use the line.

Asked if that could happen this summer, a VIA spokesperson told the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal “at this time it would be premature to answer positively or negatively to this.”

CP won’t say if it is in discussions with VIA about the possibility.

At many levels, this is a long shot. I doubt CP is anxious to host passenger service, and CN may be reluctant to give up the revenue. But from a railfan’s perspective, it would be great to have VIA on CP tracks--it's way more scenic. 

If it happens, maybe VIA would also return to CP tracks through the mountains in Alberta and B.C. 

One can only dream . . . .

More Big Bang Theory, Autism and Model Trains

One of the more popular posts on this blog is about the Big Bang Theory, Autism and Model Trains.

I wrote it two years after first writing about the connection between some people with autism and trains, back in 2009.

I had to think of that Big Bang Theory post while checking the blog's stats today. Although that post appeared in 2011, it was in the top five most-visited posts this week.

(It also comes up near the top of a Google search for autism and model trains.)

I'm no expert on this topic. So I was glad to find another recent post on autism and model trains on the Autism Speaks, a website that advocates for people with autism.

On the site developmental pediatrician Dr. Amanda Bennett address the question: What is it about model trains?

In the post, she notes that “trains certainly seem to be a popular topic for the children we see in our autism clinic.”

As for why that is, she suggests a few reasons.

First, trains have wheels “and this will appeal to those whose sensory interests include watching objects spin. This is certainly common among children with autism.”

Second, “trains can be categorized into different models, types, sizes, etc. For some individuals with ASD, the ability to organize objects into categories is very appealing.”

Third, trains also come with schedules. “This, too, appeals to many people with ASD and is in line with a need for predictability and the inclination to memorize and recite information.”

For parents with a child with autism, model trains can offer a “an enjoyable opportunity to engage with your child – whether it involves talking about a favorite Thomas the Tank Engine video or a recent family trip to a local train depot,” she says.

This connection is one of the reasons a show like Thomas the Tank Engine is popular with some children with autism. 

Not only are there trains, but the locomotives and cars have clear facial expressions when conveying emotion, and the show itself proceeds at an easy-to-follow pace. 

I don't have a child with autism, but I know parents who do. I have had some of them over to see my layout and run the trains. It's a small, but (for me) special way I can be of some little assistance to them.

Maybe you are a parent of a child with autism who loves trains. If that's the case, I hope these few posts and links might be of assistance to you, too.

And if you are a model railroader, or belong to a club, and know of a family with an autistic child, perhaps you can ask whether they'd like to come see the trains. 

It might make a huge difference in a child's life--and for their parents. too.

A Great Place to Live (Close to the Tracks)

The tracks are behind the house.

Changes to the M & M Sub, required me to move the only house on the layout to another location.

Before the changes, the house was right beside the tracks; now it is perched on a hill above the tracks.

The trains can't be seen, but I'm sure they can be heard (and felt) by the occupants!

The house can just be seen through
the trees above the train.

The location of the house made me wonder how many other houses have unique locations beside railway tracks in real life.

Where the house is located on the layout.

I'm not thinking of the houses that back on to mainlines in almost any major town or city, but ones that occupy special places.

It would be like the house below, located beside the Altoona, PA locomotive shop, which I photographed about five years ago.

The view from the house.

It would also be like these residences in Hanoi, Vietnam. Now that's close to the tracks!

I think I would prefer the setting below, to be honest. That looks like a great place to live! Unfortunately, I don't know where it is. Does anyone know?

The house below in Toronto would be cool, too.

Of course, we model railroaders are a peculiar lot; most people would avoid a house by the tracks.

And if we can't have one in real life, we can always have one on our layouts.

Wheel Report for Operations on the M & M Sub.

Two SW9s use the Wheel Report system to
switch cars in Fort Frances.

Model Railroaders use different systems to govern operations. I use a variation of the Wheel Report system on the CP Mail M & M Sub.

I first learned about the Wheel Report idea from an article by Jim Hediger in 1984 in Model Railroader. I like it because it requires no waybills, car cards or computer-generated switch lists.

A Wheel Report basically lets the operator do whatever he wants, while maintaining a semblance of realism.

In a Wheel Report system, there is only one piece of paper for each train. It tells operators how many cars are in each train, and blocks them by destination.

Another view.

The simplicity of the system lies in how it doesn't specify where cars go once they arrive at that destination. (That’s what waybills are for.)

The only rule of the Wheel Report is that the operator needs to pick up as many cars as are dropped off.

A typical Wheel Report for M & M Sub. mainline trains looks like this.

TRAIN: WPG-DULMX (Winnipeg-Duluth Mixed Freight)

LOCOMOTIVES: CP Rail 6027, 6023

NUMBER OF CARS: 18

BLOCKS: 1-13 Duluth, 14-17 Thunder Bay, 18 local.

At Fort Frances, five cars are dropped and five cars are picked up. Then the train makes its way off to Duluth (staging).

For locals, it would look like this.

TRAIN: Fort Frances Turn

LOCOMOTIVES: CP Rail 6027, 6023

NUMBER OF CARS: 8

STATIONS: 1 Ritchie, 5 Nance, 1 Turney.

Like what happens with mainline trains, the rule is to pick up as many cars as are dropped off. Which industry each car goes to is left up to the operator. 

(Common sense helps with the decision; a tank car would go to a refinery, and a hopper to a grain elevator.)

A local passes through Ritchie.

Whit Towers, of Alturas & Lone Pine model railroad fame (1917-1999), was one of the first model railroaders to operate his layout in a realistic fashion. He called the Wheel Report the “thinking man’s” car-forwarding system. I like that description.

For operational purists, this is far from perfect. In fact, it's probably down-right irritating. But for me it provides a relaxing, simple and paper-free way to operate trains in a semi-realistic manner.  

Read more about the Wheel Report system on the Gateway NMRA website. Got to the chapter titled Realistic Operations Phase 5.

Learn how the Little Rock Line, an N scale layout, uses Wheel Reports for car routing, including automating them with Excel. Examples of Wheel Report lists are included.