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   Long time WMRC member John Longhurst graciously opened his doors to club members to view his CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision railway at last weekend's layout hop. John had "downsized" his operation, and all who viewed it agreed that his changes were an improvement!

   Gone is "Mount Longhurst", which was in the middle of the room. John completely rebuilt that area and flattened it out, which gives the room a more spacious feeling, but didn't decrease the trackage. John says that it's nice not to have to peer over that mountain anymore. Now he can see his entire layout from anywhere in the room!

    A very young Ken Epp, looking very much like his son Jeremy, working on the first version of the Cougar River Subdivision in the mid-80's.

   WMRC member John Longhurst posted an excellent article about the late Ken Epp's Cougar River Subdivision layout, featuring many vintage photos taken during the years when it was in operation.
Ken's wife lent Ken's photo album to John, who proceeded to take images of the photos with his iPhone, which he posted on his blog site, The CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision, and on his Flickr page. 

    Ken (who was John's brother-in-law) took copious records of the building of his layout. The collection is a fascinating record of the building of one of Manitoba's greatest and most famous model railroads.

     CN's east yards in the 70's. Quite a difference compared to 2015!

   It's been 25 years - an entire generation - since The Forks opened to the public, changing what was once CN's bustling downtown rail yard into Winnipeg's premiere meeting place. The Forks is now home to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Winnipeg Goldeyes, The Winnipeg Children's Museum, and dozens of shops that are housed in some of CN's structures.

     WMRC member John Longhurst takes a nostalgic and informative look back at the CN donwtown east yard in an article he wrote for his blog, The CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Division. Long time WMRC members will recall fondly when we used to meet in the basement of the Via Rail station when the CN yards were still in operation. Later, we held meetings in the Children's Museum after The Forks was established. Now we're back at The Forks, operating the Gateway Western layout in the Winnipeg Railway Museum!

 Ken Epp (L) is seen with John Longhurst at John's layout, the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision. The photo was taken two weeks before Ken's death.

Long time WMRC member John Longhurst wrote a tribute to his brother-in-law Ken Epp in his most recent post on his blog, the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision. It has been mentioned before on a previous post on this site, but it was so moving that it warranted another posting.  The best quote was one from Ken himself, reflecting on his many trips on Via Rail and Amtrak.

�I have to say that sitting in the dome car at night as the train goes across the Canadian Shield, watching the signals get knocked down, seeing the northern lights and the snow on the trees�I don�t know if what heaven is like, but for me, that�s heaven.�

 We can only hope that heaven is as nice a place as that.

Ken's funeral service will be held on Sunday, October 19 at North Kildonan Mennonite Brethren Church, 1315 Gateway Road at 2:30 PM.

    Doors Open Winnipeg is an annual event presented by Heritage Winnipeg, where some of the most unique and historic buildings in Winnipeg are opened up for public viewing. This year one of the features included is the Winnipeg Railway Museum! Feel free to explore the museum from 11:00AM to 5:00PM on Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 1.

    One of the things you can view there is the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club's own Gateway Western Railway, which is housed in it's own structure in the museum. It's worth the trip just to see what progress has been made on what will soon be one of the province's best model railroads!

    Of course, that's just one of the many great attractions you can see at the museum. You've got six hours each day to explore its many wonders, and that still might not be enough time to see everything!

Here it is, folks! The Gateway Western in its new structure at the Winnipeg Railway Museum! Photo by WMRC member John Longhurst, from his blog, the CP Rail Manitoba and Minnesota Subdivision.

    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.