model train for hobby

Nick is seen here in 2005 with his lovely wife Frances at a Thanksgiving supper at WMRC member Marcel Blair's cottage near Lac Du Bonnet. Photo by Morgan Turney.  

   A memorial service for long time Winnipeg Model Railroad Club, NMRA and CNRHA member Nick Andrusiak was held today at the Louis Riel School Division Legacy Centre in Winnipeg. The service's theme was a fall supper, for Nick loved Manitoba's long tradition of fall suppers.
 
   The Legacy Centre (which was formerly the Norberry School Gym) was packed. Nick had many friends, not only from his ties with the model railroading community, but also from his long career as a teacher.

   Nick's daughter gave an excellent power point presentation on the life and times of her father. She worked it from her iPad, which the tech-savvy Nick would've approved of. Several people, including long time WMRC and NMRA member Norm Leathers (who knew Nick since their University days) gave personal tributes and several amusing anecdotes about Nick.

   Nick was a Past President of the WMRC. He was a tireless volunteer for every organization to which he belonged. His house was always a hub of activity for every newsletter, bulletin, and publication that these clubs put out. Although he was an avid rail fan and model railroader, he didn't have a layout himself. When someone asked him why he would join a model railroad club when he didn't have a layout, his reply was "it's because model railroaders are neat".

   Nick also worked behind the scenes for every club he joined. If you received a copy of The Lantern, CN Lines, or The Fusee through the mail, it was often Nick's own personal collection of stamps that brought the issue to your door. When Hilt Friesen and Bill Taylor were Presidents of the WMRC, Nick was the ghost writer for the President's message that appeared in every issue of The Lantern during their tenure.

    Nick was also the club's "parliamentarian". He knew the club's constitution backwards and forwards, and he could answer any question and settle any dispute regarding it's rules and regulations.

   When WMRC Webmaster Paul Ullrich was the Convention Director for the 2010 TLR Convention in Winnipeg, Nick came to his rescue by piggy backing that convention with the CNRHA convention, making it the best attended TLR convention in over a decade.

    There were two Nicks - one was the hale and hearty, larger than life man with the big, booming voice. The other was the wheelchair bound man whose voice was reduced to a whisper. Those who knew him long enough loved and admired both of them. His debilitating ailment might've immobilized him, but it never slowed him down. Throughout his entire life, he never stopped volunteering, contributing, creating or giving.

     Long time WMRC members will fondly recall when Nick was one of the auctioneers at the club's annual auction.  Whenever a box of junky snap-track was on the block, Nick always rose to the occasion and rallied the members with a stirring pitch for the forlorn track. Bellowing from the top of his lungs with a voice that could be heard clear as a bell from his home town of Middlebro, he'd shout, "Ladies and gentlemen, the rails of this track is not made of nickel silver, or tin, or copper, but GENUINE BRASS!"

    It got to be such a familiar routine that several members of the club would say it along with him!

     These are just a few samples of the stories and memories of our dear friend Nick. If you have any other stories and memories that you'd like to share, please send them to Frances Andrusiak at f.andrusiak@shaw.ca

All gauges were represented at the Manitoba Mega Train Show, from Z to G and the 1:8 scale train that encircled the whole show! Railfan Canada editor and Winnipeg Model Railroad Club photo contest chair Suzanne Lemon took these shots of the G scale layouts in action.

   One of the highlights of the Manitoba Mega Train Show was the huge Lego club display! It was truly a mind boggling sight to see all of the Lego trains, buildings and scenery. Every single thing on their display was made out of Lego! Winnipeg Model Railroad Club photo contest chair and Railfan Canada editor Suzanne Lemon took these images of their truly spectacular layout.

   1700 happy people can't be wrong! The second annual Manitoba Mega Train Show was Winnipeg's best attended model railroad event since the 1983 NMRA national convention!

  This is the first in a series of images of the event, which were taken by Suzanne Lemon, the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's photo contest chairperson. Suzanne has been the photo contest chair for seven years. She was also the club's only female president, a title which she held for three years. She's also the editor of Railfan Canada.

   Today's images will focus on the No. 1 Northern Division's free-mo layout, easily the largest display in the show. It covered a whopping 40' x 50' of floor space! The Division will be holding their third annual division meet on Saturday, November 2.  For more information on this meet, click here.

    Pictured below are No. 1 Northern superintendent Dennis Rietze and WMRC treasurer Gary Stempnick at the layout.

  The Assiniboine Valley Railway's Christmas light display has been cancelled this year. The group is seeking volunteers to help set up their annual Christmas light display for 2014.

   The AVR has always had a small but dedicated number of members who always assisted Bill Taylor in putting up his truly spectacular Christmas Light display, which had over 100,000 lights. It was no exaggeration that his display put Chevy Chase's work in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation to shame!

    But Bill's untimely passing in August has left a nearly irreplaceable gap in the group. Although his team of volunteers worked tirelessly along side of him, Bill did the Lion's share of the work, mostly because he lived there. Every spare minute he had before the holidays were spent stringing lights, replacing bulbs, and chasing away the squirrels who mistook the knobby LED bulbs for acorns!

   This is not just a rail fan or a model railroad thing. This Christmas display was cherished by all Winnipeggers of all faiths. Thousands of people came every year to see the lights. The possible demise of this annual event even made CBC, CTV and Global news!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-christmas-train-ride-light-display-cancelled-1.2251848?cmp=rss

http://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/winnipeg-holiday-tradition-put-on-hold-for-one-year-1.1514942

http://globalnews.ca/news/924609/popular-charleswood-christmas-display-cancelled/

If you can help out for next year, please contact the Assiniboine Valley Railway by going to their website at: http://www.swedenfreezer.com/avr/

This article first appeared in the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's official publication, The Lantern.  In order to attract a broader audience, this website will occasionally post selected articles and images originally published in The Lantern.

By Morgan Turney

   There was a time - during the early 1930s - when the three prairie provinces boasted about 5,750 wooden grain elevators. Every hamlet, village, town and city had at least one grain elevator located on 'Railway Street'. A town's prosperity was measured by the number of grain elevators it had. As the years have gone by these icons of prairie life have been torn down, one at a time. Few are saved: in Manitoba, the only elevators that are safe are the five which have been preserved at Inglis.

   I caught wind that the Paterson elevator at Marquette was undergoing demolition. Railfan friend, Felix Lesiuk, had been out railfanning the Carberry subdivision between Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie on Monday, September 2nd and stopping at Marquette, noticed that the grain annex, metal holding bins and the elevator office were all torn down and the backhoe on site had broken through the centre of the elevator and pulled down most of its interior. That was an obvious clue that likely the following day would see the elevator collapse.

   I arrived at the site around 9:40 the next day and found the backhoe chewing away at the base of the elevator. I asked one of the workers nearby when he thought the structure would collapse. He looked at his watch, glanced up and looked at the backhoe's progress, then looked at his watch again and said, "Oh, in about 8 minutes." And 8 minutes later, down she came!

   I don't need to tell you how sad it is to see these structures disappearing. It's even sadder when you witness one falling. As Felix said after I showed him my photos, "The village of Marquette is now boring."

What a party! 1,700 people showed up at the CanLan Ice Sports Centre to see the show! And what a show it was! There were layouts of virtually every popular scale, from N to G and the 7 1/2" gauge Mega Train that went around the whole show! There was also face painting, balloon animals, and lots of vendors offering lots of deep discounted bargains!

It was very gratifying to see so many young families and children attending the show, and loving every minute of it. It was not uncommon for many families to spend several hours at the show (mostly at their kid's insistence). Everywhere you looked, you saw a happy kid with a painted face holding a Railfan Canada trading card!

There were modular layouts from WinNtrak and the NMRA #1 Northern Division's Free-Mo Group.
Commercial vendors included Warehouse Hobbies, Toad Hall Toys, Spare Time Hobbies, Vector Garden Trains, and representatives from Canadian Railway Modeller and Railfan Canada Magazines.

The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club would like to thank all of its many volunteers for helping out during set up, take down, working at the admissions desk and displaying at the Manitoba Mega Train Show. 

It was a red letter day for the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club and the Manitoba Mega Train Show when our own Dennis Rietze and Manitoba Mega Train Show organizer Maurice Dorge appeared on City TV's Breakfast Television! The four minute segment featured Dennis' beautiful layout and an interview with Maurice about the Manitoba Mega Train Show. Dennis was also seen operating the layout. It was even aired twice on Breakfast Television! Way to go, guys!

If you missed the segment on TV, you can watch it on YouTube:

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

Margaret Ullrich, the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's public relations person, has noticed an unusual amount of activity on her events blog, Winnipeg is Better than Chocolate, concerning the WMRC's Great Canadian Train Show. Although the WMRC membership is aware that this show is not taking place, the general public may not be.

The Great Canadian Train show has been cancelled indefinitely. The WMRC has partnered this year with the Manitoba Mega Train Show, which will be held October 19 and 20 at the Canlan Ice Sports Centre, 1871 Ellice Avenue. The show's hours are from 9AM to 5PM both Saturday and Sunday. There is no train show at the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute this year. The Manitoba Mega Train Show is the only train show that is happening this fall.

    Make no mistake - this the official site, sanctioned by the board.

    Our website used to be at the Sweden Freezer website, which was operated by long term member Bill Taylor. Due to his untimely and unfortunate death, the club needed a new web presence. Our space on the Sweden Freezer website hadn't been updated since the spring of 2013.

    At our request,  Phil Mendelshon, the AVR's present webmaster,  has taken all information pertaining to the WMRC off the website and provided a link to our new website.

   Now when you Google the "Winnipeg Model Railroad Club" with quote marks, this website shows up first, followed by WMRC webmaster's wife Margaret Ullrich's popular events, blog, Winnipeg is Better than Chocolate.   The CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision, a blog operated by long time WMRC member and Winnipeg Free Press faith columnist John Longhurst, shows up as fifth on the list.

   

Heads up, fellow model railroaders and rail fans! The Winnipeg Model Railroad Club is holding their monthly meeting tonight at 7:30 PM at Westworth United Church, 1750 Grosvenor Avenue in Winnipeg. After our business meeting, we'll have a presentation on the Prairie Dog Central's recent visit to The Forks and the Via Rail station. Of course, there will be the usual fellowship and camaraderie among members old and new, and guests! Guests are always welcome at our meetings, so come on down and see what you've been missing!

There's nothing much on TV tonight anyway. On PBS, you've got Shakespeare's Henry V (spoiler alert - he wins the battle of Agincourt). Sharknado is also on, but there are no trains to be seen in the movie! There's no trains in Henry V either, but that's because it takes place in the early 15th century. So why not come on down and join in on the fun! After the meeting, we'll head out for some pizza at Santa Lucia !

One of the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's greatest supporters is Comics America. Whenever we hold a show the shop's owner, Joe Krolik, not only puts up a poster, but he also inserts mini-posters into every one of his regular customer's comic book bags! Comics America is located at 552 Academy Road in Winnipeg. The store has to be seen to be believed! You can give them a call at 204-489-0580. Better yet, you can friend them on Facebook by going to this link:

http://www.Facebook.com/ComicsAmerica 

Thanks Joe, for helping us promote the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club and the
Manitoba Mega Train Show!

The WMRC's greatest achievement this year has been the resurrection of the Gateway Western layout!
After Gooch's moved to a smaller location, the layout was kept in storage in a local warehouse for several years. Now it is in the Winnipeg Railway Museum in its very own heated structure! A dedicated group of volunteers assembled the structure in the middle of winter and built a brand new layout. Neil, Suzanne and Cliff are pictured in the new building.

Ever wonder how you can join the world's greatest hobby's greatest model railroad club! Of course you have! It's easy! It's simple! Just fill out this form and bring it to the next meeting! Or you can mail it to the address indicated on the form. Join in on all the fun!

If you don't live in Winnipeg, you can still join by being an associate member. You'll receive a PDF of The Lantern (our official publication) emailed to you nine times a year for only $15 CDN!