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Winnipeg Free Press

3 hours ago

Long before today's buy-Canadian movement in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats, Winnipegger Morgan Turney was flying the flag and promoting all things Canadian in Canadian Railway Modeller (CRM), his model railroad magazine.
Turney developed his love of trains early in life, as he revealed in an interview conducted before his death from cancer on Feb. 6 at the age of 77.
'I grew up four houses away from the tracks,' he said of growing up in Hamilton, Ont. 'As a youngster, I was lulled to sleep at night by the distant sounds of steam whistles and diesel horns as trains made their way to and from the Niagara Peninsula. My love of trains goes back a long way.'
Morgan Turney was a member of the Winnipeg Model Railway Club. (Mike Deal / Free Press files)
But it was a visit to a local model railroader's basement mode train layout when he was eight that sparked a lifelong passion for model railroading.
'My dad took me to see it. When I saw the trains running through scenic rock cuts and disappearing into tunnels, I was hooked. I got the model railroading bug.'
Before that bug turned into CRM, Turney joined the Royal Canadian Artillery Apprentice Training program in Shilo in 1964 where he trained as a gunner apprentice. The program provided young men like Turney, aged 16 and up, a two-year course to finish high school while learning gunnery. It was intended to help young men start a career in the military.
One day, on the gunnery range, Turney decided against becoming a soldier when he realized that, in real-life combat, there would be human beings at the other end where his shells landed. 'I decided that wasn't for me,' he said.
Turney returned home to Hamilton and entered the grocery business, where he worked for Maple Leaf Mills as a representative. In 1984, he married Carol after meeting her at a singles dance in Sarnia two years earlier.
Canadian Railway Modeller magazine(Supplied)
True to form, some of the wedding pictures were taken in front of CNR 'Bullet Nose Betty' steam locomotive #6069 in Centennial Park in Sarnia.
In 1987, Maple Leaf asked Turney if he would be willing to transfer to Winnipeg. 'It wasn't a hard decision to make,' he said of deciding to move to Winnipeg with Carol and Leighann, his daughter from his first marriage. 'From my time in the military, I liked Manitoba. It was easy to make a life here.'
But soon after the couple relocated, Maple Leaf Mills was sold and his job was eliminated. The following year was hard. 'I had a few no-name jobs for a couple of years, including selling men's suits, before I got the idea to start the magazine,' he said.
That idea came to him after perusing some American model railroad magazines at a local hobby shop and finding no Canadian content. 'That's when a light went on,' he recalled. 'I asked myself, 'Why don't I start a Canadian model railroad magazine?'
The weekend he launched the magazine, 600 hundred people subscribed. 'It showed me there was a hunger for a magazine that specialized in Canadian trains and modelling,' he said.
Morgan Turney worked on Canadian Railway Modeller magazine in his home office. (Supplied)
From that small start, the magazine went on to have about 3,800 subscribers at its peak. 'It was never huge, but it was enough to keep the business afloat,' he said.
His goal from the start was to showcase the work of Canadian model railroaders — people who would likely never have a chance to see their layouts or models appear in the bigger U.S. publications. 'I received some excellent articles about some amazing modelling,' he said.
Turney also wanted to show the big American companies, the main manufacturers of model railroad items, that there was a market for Canadian products. 'Before I started, there were hardly any products for Canadian railways available,' he said. 'It was hard to find locomotives or rolling stock painted in Canadian schemes.'
Today, things are different. Now people who model Canadian railways have a rich variety of products to choose from — including from Canadian model railroad companies that didn't exist before the magazine was created.
'I like to think the magazine played a key role seeing all that happen,' Turney said of the growth in Canadian model railroad products and companies after he launched CRM.
Morgan and Carol Turney on their wedding day in 1984. (Supplied)
In addition to the magazine, Turney published books like the Canadian Railway Heritage Guide, which provided information about Canada's railway museums and attractions, and Railfan Canada, a prototype magazine that ran for three years. He also founded Winnipeg's fall train show, back in the early 1990s; today it is known as Mega Trains.
Turney hoped the magazine could continue with a new publisher when it was time for him to retire. But the Internet, with its easy and free access to information about model railroading, coupled with a decline in subscribers and drop in advertising, meant CRM was no longer sustainable. The final issue appeared in summer, 2017. It was a remarkable 27-year run.
His daughter Leighann remembers Turney as a loving father with many hobbies and passions. 'His positive love and good nature made me who I am today,' she said, adding she is grateful for how, as a single father, 'he fought for me. Every night when he tucked me into bed, he read to me and told me he loved me.'
She also remembers the many hours spent trackside while he waited for a train to show up so he could take that perfect photo. 'We had a true father-daughter bond,' she said.
In December, Turney was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Soon after, he was put on oxygen to aid in breathing. Hooked up to the oxygen tank, his mobility limited by the length of the oxygen tube, he liked to say he was 'confined to barracks' — those old military days came back.
Morgan Turney shows his love for the Hamilton Tiger Cats, his hometown team, at a Winnipeg Blue Bombers game. (Supplied)
In early February, his condition worsened and Turney entered palliative care at Riverview. His wish was to hang on long enough to see Leighann one last time. She arrived in Winnipeg from Australia a day before he died.
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'It's OK, dad,' she told him on his last night. 'I'm here. You can let go now.'
Of his life in trains, Turney said 'It took me and the whole Canadian model railroad community to heights we never would have dreamed reachable as Canadian modellers. It put Canadian railway modelling on the model railway map in North America.'
It was hard work, he said, and took a lot of effort. 'But it was also a lot of fun. I met some wonderful people and made many good friends across the country. I have no regrets.'
Turney is deeply missed by his wife, Carol; daughter Leighann Marshall and her sons Liam and Aidan in Australia; his son Jay in Ontario; and friends in Winnipeg and across Canada. Donations in his memory can be made to Riverview Health Centre or to CancerCare Manitoba.
Morgan Turney places an engine on the track of the Winnipeg Model Railway Club Gateway Western Railroad in the basement of Gooch's. (Mike Deal / Free Press files)
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John LonghurstFaith reporter
John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg's faith pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the U.S., and blogs about the media, marketing and communications at Making the News.
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