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

  The previous issue, with its feature article about Dave Winter’s G scale layout, prompted a lot of feedback about that scale—something Morgan notes in this Dome Car. And he also notes that CRM is coming near the end of its tenth year, which he is looking forward to celebrating. One thing that caught him by surprise was the number of subscribers from other countries who model Canadian railways. That was unexpected! We were able to feature a couple of them in the magazine.   We had some very positive feedback to the article about Dave Winter's G scale layout in Train 10 Track 3. It seems there are a lot more G scalers out there than we had anticipated. One fellow called to tell me that the entire back yard of his home is one great big outdoor layout. Now that would be something to see! He told me that it frees up his basement, something his wife is happy about.   It's not surprising that outdoor railroading is so popular. The nice thing about it is that it gets one ou...

  One thing that was certain about Morgan: He was an evangelist for the hobby of model railroading. He was constantly encouraging modellers to talk about the hobby and take kids to train shows. Of course, he had a commercial reason for being so enthusiastic: If there were no new modellers, the future of CRM was dim. But it also came from a genuine place in his heart. He loved the hobby and he loved to promote it.   Most model railroaders tell me that there's nothing like going to the local train show. It's a safe bet that we've all been to at least one over the past year. I'm no exception; I like going to them too. I've attended four this yea—three as an exhibitor and one as a visitor. Which one did I enjoy the most? Well, the one where I didn't have to work, of course!   As a visitor to the Mid-Canada Hobby and Toy Show, held in Winnipeg each October, I was free to enjoy each aspect of the exhibits and displays. But the most fun is watching the parents and ...

  Ti-Cat boxcars; that’s a new one for me! Morgan writes about that as an aside in this issue's Dome Car, describing the unique yellow and black TH & B boxcars that were inspired by his beloved Hamilton Tiger Cats football uniforms. He mentioned that while praising the role of special interest groups (SIGs) like the TH&B Historical Society.   And he marks the passing of John Rendall of JR Scale Models of Bracebridge, Ont. Anyone still have one of those kits?   Somebody once asked me if I thought that the prototype special interest groups and their publications served any useful purpose for the modeller. My answer was a resounding "Yes!"   Recently, I received my copy of the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Rail way 'Focus', the official publication of the TH&B Historical Society. Inside was an extensive article of some 15 pages on the history of the TH&B box car by Lance Brown. His well researched and documented article covered the time period b...

  Not only do I get to write the Dome Car again, I also have an article and photos in the issue about my late brother-in-law’s layout , the Cougar River Sub. Ken Epp’s spectacular layout was on three levels, with a fourth level for a staging yard hanging a foot from the basement ceiling. It traversed the entire basement, going through all the rooms. It was a must-see during conventions! I also write in this Dome Car about a new feature I helped arrange with Ian Wilson about transition-era railways. That was fun, working with him on that! It was all part of our effort to make CRM as relevant as possible to readers. And I could write about my own layout, too, the CP Rail Manitoba & Minnesota Sub. We were writing out of our experience as model railroaders for the magazine, and we hoped that it showed. People who model the ever-popular transition era have some unique challenges. For example: What was the proportion of home-road to other railway's cars in 1957? What colour were ...

  What is the most unique model railroad club you’ve ever heard of? How about in a war zone? That’s what Morgan wrote about in this Dome Car, when he shared about Canadian peacekeepers in Kosovo who created a club to help them pass the time.   We recently learned about a new Canadian model railway club that's different than most. It has no constitution or politics, no membership dues, no newsletter, no club hats or vests, no annual meeting and will cease to exist by June. Oh, and one other thing: It meets almost every night in an army tent in the backwoods of war-torn Kosovo. It's probably the most heavily armed model railway club around!   The club calls itself the KFOR RR Club and is made up of three Canadian soldiers from the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group, deployed to Kosovo in December, 1999 for a six-month tour with NATO.   Corporal Andrew Baird of Grand Falls, Newfoundland is a Radio Operator with 23 Engineer Squadron (com'bat en...

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...