From the Dome Car: Train 5 Track 2 (April-May, 1995)

 

This Dome Car highlights one of Morgan’s interests—prairie skyscrapers, aka wood grain elevators. He made a commitment to photograph as many as he could before they were torn down. Sometimes he took pictures when they were being destroyed. 

We are all feeling the pinch these days economically, what with tariffs and all, but the early 1990s were also a time when people were struggling with finances—as Morgan points out when he talks about the rising price for paper affecting everything from magazines to cereal to coffee. 

And also just like now, he writes about the need to attract more young people to the hobby. In that respect, the 1995 Toronto train show was very encouraging! 

It looks like Canadian railway geography is about to make a big change. I've just finished watching CBC's Venture, where the program discussed the effects on the grain industry once the Crow Rate is gone. I won't go into what the Crow Rate is, but once it disappears, grain farmers will be faced with very high transportation costs to get their products to market, a challenge that will mean the disappearance of the familiar local grain elevator in many towns. 

Not that it isn't already happening, but it's about to happen on a scale like we've not seen happen before. The capacity to load 50 grain cars in one, eight-hour shift will only be accomplished at locations where new, high efficiency grain terminals, the kind that the farmer himself will be investing in to cut his costs, are built. Hundreds of small community elevators will disappear when the new, super-efficient, concrete terminals go up. 

My point is this: get your pictures today—once they are gone, they'll be gone forever. With Walthers new grain elevator kit, along with others, any number of these 'giants-of-the-prairies' can be easily simulated on your layout. 

Well, another Toronto Train Show has come and gone. This year's was significant as we returned to the old site. Many thanks to all who stopped by to say hello and to offer their support and to those that put up with us for a few evenings: in particular the Winterton family, John Selkirk, Bill Needham's family, and of course, my father. 

Again this year, we were very pleased to see a number of new Canadian manufacturers who make it easier for us to model our 'Canadian way' with the use of their new products and ideas. 

The attendance at the show tells us that our hobby is very much alive and doing quite well despite many of the setbacks brought on by today's economic and political challenges. I personally noticed the increasing number of younger people that are getting into our hobby. And that's very encouraging! 

On the magazine end of things, we would like to welcome Doug Barrett to our ranks, a fellow modeller who is no stranger to many of us. Doug will be heading-up our advertising/marketing department in an effort to assist us in getting the publication out on time—which is really an exercise in organization in many respects. The addition of his modelling skills will also enhance our ability to bring you a better magazine. Welcome aboard, Doug! 

And still on the magazine front, no doubt everybody has heard that paper costs, along with commercial postage and plastics, have all increased in price, some with significance. In Canada, paper alone has risen 40% since April of 1994! And it's not going to affect just the magazine industry. Your morning breakfast cereal will cost more—it's packaged in a cardboard box—along with your morning newspaper, a coffee cup, an envelope, a birthday card ... there isn't much that's not going to be affected. We are committed to making every effort to avoid an increase in subscription and counter prices until all efforts to control our magazine costs have failed. 

Please keep this in mind when it comes time for your subscription renewal or when you pick up a copy at your local hobby shop—every copy that's sold is helping to keep our cost down. It's also important, if you contact any of our advertisers, that you let them know where you saw their ad, especially our home-grown ones, as it is through their continued support in using us to market their products that help us keep our costs in line. They play a key role in not only allowing us to continue, but allowing themselves to continue producing the kind of products and items that we want and need in our hobby. It's very interesting how everything seems to fit together. 

Well, that's about it for another issue of CRM. It's getting to be time to again practice 'burning burgers' on the 'ol barbecue so until the next issue, happy modelling.