From the pages of Canadian Railway Modeller: Morgan Turney, in his own words

Who remembers the Y2K panic? That’s what happened in late 1999 as we looked ahead to the dawn of a new millennium. The fear was that computer clocks, which used a two-digit system (99) wouldn’t be able to handle it when we hit 2000—that they might think it was 1900 and everything would crash. It didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t worried! Morgan mentions this at the start of this Dome Car, noting we all made it. He goes on to mention a frustration over that year’s President’s Choice train set (not available in western Canada), with a nod to how some hobby shop owners were upset about the Great Canadian Superstore infringing on their business. And a CPR C-Liner was available in plastic for the first time!   It looks like we all made it; welcome to the first issue of the year 2000! It promises to be the start of a great century.   Mind you, it's not all good news. We need to adjust some prices due to increased publishing costs. That's not really new, though; e...

  My turn to write a Dome Car again! This time, I give readers a peek behind the editing curtain by answering questions about articles. Questions like why it takes so long to publish them, and why we edit them at all. And I proclaim the advantage of e-mail, still a relatively new technology back then. (We were still getting a lot of articles sent to us on disks.) And I let readers know about their chance to see, for the very first time, the great Waterloo Region Model Railway Club layout. (In the pages of CRM.) These days, we get to see it often online. But back then, CRM was the only way people across the country could learn about it—another great reason why the magazine was such a good thing for Canadian modellers.   One of the questions we get asked most frequently is: "When will my article be published?" As a freelance author myself, I know how hard it is to wait to see if an article is accepted by a publication, and then wait to see it in print. But the truth is th...

  And we’re talking about GMD-1s again! Morgan saw two brass GMD-1s at a train show. He noted they garnered a lot of interest. It made him wonder if any brave Canadian company might make one in plastic. Seventeen years later, Rapido Trains did just that! Morgan also talks about changes to railfanning in this Dome Car, noting that in the old days there were a lot more trains to watch. In 1999, when this was written, trains were already fewer and longer. And then there’s mention of this favourite railfan location at Rennie, MB, one of two places in the province where the CP and CN transcontinental mainlines crossed each other. (The other is a Portage la Prairie, at grade.) And don’t miss the novel way he chose a raffle winner; it involves postcards, a bucket, a fast-moving train and that bridge!   We have a winning contestant from our 50th issue contest. First though, you may ask, "How' d you determine the winner?" That part was easy. We took all of the eligible post ca...

  It may be hard for some younger modellers to believe, but there was a time when you really couldn’t get quality models of Canadian prototypes. Like the GMD 1, which has been manufactured by Rapido Trains. But in this issue of the Dome Car—number 50—Morgan is excited to share there will soon be an article about how to scratchbuild a GMD 1. (The loco was made available in brass in the 1970s, I think, but models were hard to find later and expensive.) And speaking of issue number 50, Morgan expresses the wish that CMR will be around for 50 more. He just made that mark, publishing 52 more issues before closing it down. Issue number 50 has finally arrived! The cover photo for this edition is the winning photo from our Modellers' Photo contest (run over the past two issues.) It's fitting that Pierre Dion, who has contributed his time and talents to the magazine over the last number of years with his fine model photos and articles, has the winning photo on the cover. The remai...

  As Morgan noted in this Dome Car, CRM was approaching a milestone: the 50 th issue. That might not seem like a big deal for magazines like Model Railroader, which was founded in 1934. But for a little Canadian magazine, it was a very big deal—and Morgan wanted to mark that occasion with a special give-away to readers. This issue also commemorated the death of Nicholas Morant, famous for taking photos of CPR trains at what became known as “Morant’s Curve.” Morgan took time to note his passing, too.   As most of our readers know, Canadian Railway Modeller magazine is quickly approaching some major milestones.   The issue after this one will be our 50th and, in appreciation of that fact, we have been offered a very unique gift that we have chosen to give away to one of our many readers. While attending the annual Toronto Train Show this year, I had the pleasure of meeting David Oram, one of Canada's newest artists. David has produced a beautiful painting of CNR 6258 a...

On the first anniversary of Morgan's death, a few words of reflection and remembrance.  In journalism parlance, a character is someone with a distinctive personality, someone who stands out, who is memorable. Maybe even has rough edges, rubbing others the wrong way. But he (and it’s usually a he) is very good at their job.   In that respect, Morgan Turney was a character.   Morgan, who died a year ago today, Feb. 6, had a large personality — and a large vision to go along with it. He knew what he wanted, and he knew how to get it. Morgan and I got along, despite our differences. He was more conservative, I was more progressive. I was churchgoing, that wasn't his thing. He was forceful, I was more laid back. We were a bit of yin and yang—opposites who needed each other and helped each other along the way.   In my case, what I brought were my journalistic abilities. Morgan was a good writer, but his grammar wasn’t the best. At first, I volunteered to help him b...

  Once again, I am showing my age when I talk about how we used to take photos of our layouts. Digital cameras existed in 1999, when this Dome Car was written (link below), but they didn’t take off as an inexpensive consumer item until the early 2000s. Until then, if you wanted to take a photo of your layout you used an SLR film camera, bracketing your shots by modifying the lighting (you needed portable lights, too!) and aperture settings in the hope that one would turn out. After taking the photos, it was off to a developer and then wait a few days or more to see the results. Nothing like today, with our phone cameras which do a great job of model photography! Anyway, that’s all just an introduction to this month’s Dome Car, where Morgan explains the CRM photo contest.   Readers will notice an article in this issue about taking modelling photos. I asked Bob Winterton to do it for us, in support of the Modeller' s Photo contest we have running right now.   Since ...

  It’s hard to believe now, since DCC is so common, that there was a time just 27 years ago when the technology was relatively new and people were wondering if it was right for them. That’s the topic I addressed in this Dome Car. As it turned out, I never adopted it, preferring block control even though I had a large double-deck layout and over 40 locomotives. (And I still use DC on my current layout, the Gateway Spur.) Anyone else out there still using only DC? To DCC or not to DCC? That's the question William Shakespeare might have asked if he were a model railroader.   On the one hand, Digital Command Control offers freedom: No more blocks to throw, no more "Who's got my train?" being yelled across the layout room.   On the other hand, there's the cost of the units, throttles and decoders for the locomotives. It can add up pretty quickly, even for a small layout.   And there's the rub, to stay with our Shakespearean theme: Because of the freedom it ...

  Who remembers the President’s Choice CPR camelback steam locomotive? And who knew it had a 24-karat gold plated bell? (Not me.) If you have one, maybe you might want to see how much that bell is worth today! Of course, the CPR never had any camelbacks. But a kid waking up to a train set under the Christmas tree wouldn’t care—and that was the point Morgan was making in this Dome Car as he praised President’s Choice trainset creator Boris Polakow for his contribution to the hobby in Canada. Anyone still have that set?   You know Christmas is just around the corner when you see the President's Choice annual train set appear in grocery supermarkets across Canada! It's like seeing next year's calendars.   Yes indeed, Boris Polakow, Vice President of Canadian Sales Development for Loblaws Private Label has done it again—he's produced the sixth collector series of President's Choice train sets.   This year's set is a 2-6-0 Canadian Pacific 'Camelback' l...

    In this Dome Car, Morgan excitedly announces that the NMRA will hold its annual convention in Toronto in 2003. Anyone remember it? It was called the Maple Leaf. (The NMRA has held its convention in Canada six times going back to 1953: In Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and, in 1983, right here in Winnipeg where I live.) That 2003 convention was severely impacted by the SARs epidemic in Toronto that year, putting a huge dent in attendance from the U.S. But I still went and had a good time. Anyone else attend that convention?   Here's a BIG news flash: The NMRA National Convention is coming to Canada in the year 2003! The Maple Leaf 2003 NMRA National Convention, to be hosted by the Niagara Frontier Region of the NMRA (NFR/NMRA), will be held in Toronto, with dates to be announced later.   Now, that may seem like a long way off, but from my experience—and I'm sure yours too—it will be here before we know it.   Our sincere congratulations to the...