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786 Main Street
This rendering was done by Tom Andrich in 1999, with sponsorship by Take Pride Winnipeg. On September 23, 2017 the Mural was painted over for a new Mural- even though the original Mural was still in excellent condition.
Original notes follow:
This Mural is a tribute to the Railroad Train, past and present, and acknowledges the
importance of the railway in Winnipeg's rich history. The wide-funnelled wood burning
locomotive on the left is artist Tom Andrich's rendering of the Countess of Dufferin.
Named in honour of the wife of the Governor General of Canada, it was transported by
barge down the Red River where it arrived in St. Boniface October 8, 1877. It played a
key role in the building of whole sections of the east-west Canadian Pacific Railway line,
as well as the construction of the Pembina Branch.
Take Pride Winnipeg contacted Tom Andrich about a Mural design for this wall.
Andrich: "Tom Ethans (TPW's Executive Director) called me and said he had a guy who
wanted a train on his wall. I said 'OK how about the Countess of Dufferin?' The
Countess of Dufferin represented trains and that's why this hotel was built! The Countess
of Dufferin was a very famous train it used to be in front of the CPR building I used to
climb on it when I was a kid. Now it's in the Winnipeg Railway Museum. I went to the
Winnipeg Railway Museum and took photographs of the Countess of Dufferin and got
approval from Tom to go ahead. So I did it, and it was pretty much all finished and then
the client says 'Oh, that's not the train I was thinking of, and showed me a picture of a
diesel!'
Whoops. The artwork of the 'Countess' was great and Tom had already invested many
man-hours in its rendering, honestly unaware that it wasn't the right train. The decision
was reached between Andrich and the client to extend the painting across the whole wall
to somehow include this Diesel. Andrich: "So I just extended the painting that's how the
Mural grew to the whole length of the wall. I had the Countess coming straight at you
and then I put the diesel in, starting with the Countess and I could bring it around the
curve like this and then ended up putting it in a mountain scene that's really nice. Then I
painted the bricks grey and followed the indentation of the actual bricks and put the black
in between the bricks. The client seemed happy with the result."
Tom Ethans called me and said he had a guy who wanted a train on his wall. I said OK
how about the Countess of Dufferin? The Countess of Dufferin represented trains and
that's why this hotel was built! The Countess of Dufferin was a very famous train it used
to be in front of the CPR building I used to climb on it when I was a kid. Now it's in the
Winnipeg Railway Museum. I went to the Winnipeg Railway Museum and took
photographs of the Countess of Dufferin and approval from Tom to go ahead. So I did
that was pretty much all finished and then the client says 'Oh, that's not the train I was
thinking of, and showed me a picture of a diesel!' And I said Oh, OK. And he wanted
the painting longer on the wall so I just extended the painting that's how the Mural grew
to the whole length of the wall. I had the Countess coming straight at you and then I put
the diesel starting with the Countess and it can bring it around the curve and putting a
mountain scene in that's really nice. Then I painted the bricks grey and followed the
indentation of the actual bricks and put the black in between the bricks. The client
seemed happy with the result."
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