Abandoning the AP

So for those who do not follow the various model railroading podcasts for the last few months I have been debating my involvement in the NMRA. I know that people will say that the NMRA is like a gym membership and what you get out of it depends on what you put into it, but the same can be said for a sewer. 

To be quite honest I was given my initial NMRA membership as a gift and only renewed it because the club I joined is a 100 percent club. Since my involvement in the club is on a year to year/month to month basis due to my work situation, I honestly feel that when my relationship with this club ends so will my relationship with the NMRA.

This outlook may change if I move to a region that holds events closer to my location, but in my current region these events are held too far away to make it a quick day trip and they are held on weekends, which I am presently finding difficult to get time off of work for. But this is not supposed to be a tirade about the NMRA, but rather a narrative of how I came to the decision to abondon the Achievement Program (AP), atleast for the time being.

When I began this journey I was a newly minted NMRA member and was in awe of the Master Model Railroaders. I wanted so badly to be one and following the advice on the NMRA website I set out on planning the layout with the various criteria in mind. Fast forward a few years and after months of being a slave to the AP atleast as far as layout design and planning is concerned, I have come to the decision that at this point in my life the AP is not for me.

There are several reasons for this decision, first and foremost being I re-examined what is important to me in the hobby.  The title of Master Model Railroader (MMR) is nice but do I really need this title to be happy with myself in the hobby? The answer is no, I got into this hobby for fun not to be a slave to a title. I do not feel I need others to ordain me a great modeler; personally I feel my skills are slightly above average and while I have done some really nice work at times, everything I have done is good enough for me.

I also found it interesting some famous model railroaders are missing from the MMR list.  Tony Koester is not on the list, does that mean the lessons he has to impart are any less important? I think not.  I would rather be better known for being an expert on my subject matter than for my modeling, and more importantly my friends go to guy for all information SP.  Two of my inspirations in this hobby are John Signor and Tony Thompson, both are very accomplished modelers but they are better known as historians and authors.

The second is that as discussed in a previous post some of the requirements are a bit archaic and steam centric.  While an engine facility in the steam era required a separate track/stall for each locomotive, multiple diesels can be serviced on the same track. A service facility in the diesel era can be as small as a siding for a tank truck to pull up and deliver fuel and sand can be loaded by bucket.   A diesel locomotive  does not require turning at the end of its run. Diesel locomotives are also not as labor intensive as steam locomotives and have a greater range,  leading to the elimination of many intermediate servicing facilities in favor of centralized maintenance facilities.  that is if the railroad did not contract their locomotive maintenance to one of the big railroads.  This means a diesel era modeler may not need an engine terminal on the modeled portion of their layout, just as they might not need a caboose track in their yard.

The requirements also slant to favor the freelancer over the prototype modeler. A freelancer can build an engine facility that is tailor made to fullfill the AP requirements, where as the prototype modeler is limited if they want to stay true to their prototype.

The excessive scratchbuilding requirements are another aspect that drained the fun out of the AP for me. I personally feel that repurposing a part from another source can be just as impressive as something that is 90 percent scratchbuilt.  One of the reasons that a side project I have been working on for my dad has stalled is that I was so focused on scratchbuilding everything to fit the requirements that I was reinventing the wheel so to speak. In that situation a repurposed part from a readily available Walthers kit would one, be more realistic than anything I scratchbuilt and two, the build process would be dramatically sped up.

The scratchbuilt locomotive is another sticking point. Modeling the diesel era requires truck sideframes, a repurposed and possibly superdetailed Athearn or Atlas side frame would definately be more convincing than anything I could do. Also I dont think that using Canon parts falls under the scratchbuilt category atleast as far as a literal interpretation of the requirements go. So I would be forced to build a fantasy locomotive that I dont even need, possibly in another scale. This begs the question, from a financial and time perspective, which is more important becoming a MMR or finishing the layout, I vote for finishing the layout.

Finally most of the layout building certificates such as prototype scene and scenery require a backdrop. This rules out freemo modules as they must be operable from both sides.  Some of this layout such as the Yuma area is being designed with the same concept in mind. Infact using the TOMA approach also makes it difficult to utilize a backdrop until the layout is finalized for continuity reasons, but that may just be a personal opinion.

Now that I think about it the final nail in coffin so to speak was all the required paperwork involved.  Its not that I am lazy and this blog should be evidence that I am capable of writing atleast one coherant sentence. The big issue is I spend so much time at my job on documentation and justifying my actions that the last thing I want to do in my off time is fill out more paperwork.

Anyway I hope this gives some insight into my decision to abandon the AP.  Maybe when I finally become part of the NMRA's key demographic my thoughts will change and perhaps by then some of the requirements will be tweaked.

I tried to keep the content to actual modeling and leave out how I think the service to the hobby certificate should be either abolished  or completely revamped as two of the three categories are more related to your connections in the hobby and the third is rather limited considering the advances in technology in the last decade.  Also there does not seem to be a provision, and someone please correct me if I am wrong, for showing layouts outside of sanctioned NMRA events such as the county fair.  Shouldn't showing outsiders how fun our hobby can be fall under service to the hobby? But I digress.

I am not saying there is no value to the AP, there are many things I find valuable but have small personal issues with.  My main point is that at this point attempting to pursue the AP was taking all the fun out of the hobby for me and whats the point on continuing on the journey if I am not having fun.