What do you think about Model Railroad News performing conformance testing on certain specific rolling stock products for the NMRA?
First, before you answer that, let’s understand the rules. When Model Railroad News does a review of a product, we generally perform various tests of one sort or another, in any event. If we review a building, we measure doors and windows to get a sense of whether or not the structure is in scale. When we review freight or passenger cars, most of our reviewers actually check the items tested in the NRMA Conformance Testing, whether or not we specifically mention that testing.
Second, this is NOT our own By-The-Numbers testing which we perform on locomotives. That is specific to Model Railroad News, though many manufacturers have adopted variations on the theme for their own purposes. At this stage of the game, the NMRA does not have specific tests for power operation of locomotives, so we’ve gone off on our own with our By-The-Numbers process.
So what, specifically, does NMRA Conformance Inspection look at and offer to warrant? Here is what they and we would report:
An NMRA Conformance Inspection was done on this product: ______________________
Std. S-2, Coupler Height: Passed (or failed)
Std. S-4, Wheel Spacing: Passed (or failed)
Std. S-7, Clearance: Passed (or failed)
The product has been awarded NMRA Conformance Warrant # 2008-1234
(or, The product was not awarded a conformance warrant)
For the record, a product has to pass all three tests in order to gain a conformance warrant. We would recommend that warrant, and the NMRA would take that recommendation under advisement and issue it subject to their approval, giving it a warrant number.
Now why would NMRA bother to resort to a commercial magazine for testing and reporting when it has a magazine of its own and a very good one by the name of Scale Rails that also provides this service?
In a nutshell — and these are my words not those of the NMRA — this allows more products to be tested and reported than would be possible otherwise. There are plenty of products coming onto the market all the time, and not just NMRA members would like to know if these new products pass muster on these fundamental issues. Coupler Height, Wheel Spacing, and Clearance can have a profound impact upon a product’s operation depending upon whether they meet these standards or not.
Is there some danger that the NMRA is diluting the value of their marque in this manner? We have discussed this issue at length and we have NMRA Master Model Railroaders on our writing faculty who will be consulting with us and performing liason with the NMRA to make sure we conform in our testing and reporting. No one at Model Railroad News takes this lightly. We consider this to be a great honor.
Does this endanger the reputation for independence that Model Railroad News has worked so hard to create? Actually, no, since the National Model Railroad Association is equally independent. It doesn’t accept sponsorships and cannot be bought any more than we can. Our writers remain independent of us, meaning they don’t have to perform conformance testing if they don’t wish. However, if they wish to do conformance testing, they must either be an NMRA Master Model Railroader or they must receive specific instruction on exactly how to conduct the testing suite from one on our faculty.
This process also reflects the high regard we hold for the NMRA. As the magazine’s editor, I personally believe this association strives to work toward the betterment of model railroading by setting and maintaining standards and goals within our hobby. Is the organization perfect? No. Its membership is made up of some of the most dedicated model railroaders in the hobby. They would be better with more members, but would they be better with more members who weren’t as dedicated? Good question.
Most of the positions of leadership are held by volunteers, a worthy statement about each one, that they give up so much of themselves and get little more than pride of accomplishment in return. Would the association be improved if it enjoyed a big-buck budget and hired top dollar executives who could steamroller dynamic decisions without time-wasting committee processes? Sounds sort of like Enron, doesn’t it?
So while there are those who complain about the way the NMRA works, I think it works just fi ne the way it is and attempts to streamline it would be dangerous if not done carefully. It is a large and complex organization that has an arduous and complicated job, and yet it off ers so much to interested model railroaders.
That, of course, leads us back to what we are doing here at Model Railroad News. We will be making progress slowly at first, feeling our way in and being certain we are maintaining a comfort level for our friends at NMRA. Don’t expect to see a flurry of conformance reports on products right away. We have one coming up in this issue by Pete Birdsong who is one of our NMRA Master Model Railroaders. This is an On30 track cleaning car, and I’ll let you read the results for yourself.
One other hope we at Model Railroad News have for this program of NMRA Conformance Testing. We would like for the large number of our readers who are new to the model railroad hobby to see the role NMRA takes within the hobby, look it up on the organization’s interesting web site, and possibly consider joining. The NMRA offers lots of membership pluses and activities as well as access to all of its resources, so you get quite a lot for your dues.
To get the pitch directly from the organization, please drop in to their web site at www.nmra.org or talk to members of the NMRA located near you.
— John Sipple
First, before you answer that, let’s understand the rules. When Model Railroad News does a review of a product, we generally perform various tests of one sort or another, in any event. If we review a building, we measure doors and windows to get a sense of whether or not the structure is in scale. When we review freight or passenger cars, most of our reviewers actually check the items tested in the NRMA Conformance Testing, whether or not we specifically mention that testing.
Second, this is NOT our own By-The-Numbers testing which we perform on locomotives. That is specific to Model Railroad News, though many manufacturers have adopted variations on the theme for their own purposes. At this stage of the game, the NMRA does not have specific tests for power operation of locomotives, so we’ve gone off on our own with our By-The-Numbers process.
So what, specifically, does NMRA Conformance Inspection look at and offer to warrant? Here is what they and we would report:
An NMRA Conformance Inspection was done on this product: ______________________
Std. S-2, Coupler Height: Passed (or failed)
Std. S-4, Wheel Spacing: Passed (or failed)
Std. S-7, Clearance: Passed (or failed)
The product has been awarded NMRA Conformance Warrant # 2008-1234
(or, The product was not awarded a conformance warrant)
For the record, a product has to pass all three tests in order to gain a conformance warrant. We would recommend that warrant, and the NMRA would take that recommendation under advisement and issue it subject to their approval, giving it a warrant number.
Now why would NMRA bother to resort to a commercial magazine for testing and reporting when it has a magazine of its own and a very good one by the name of Scale Rails that also provides this service?
In a nutshell — and these are my words not those of the NMRA — this allows more products to be tested and reported than would be possible otherwise. There are plenty of products coming onto the market all the time, and not just NMRA members would like to know if these new products pass muster on these fundamental issues. Coupler Height, Wheel Spacing, and Clearance can have a profound impact upon a product’s operation depending upon whether they meet these standards or not.
Is there some danger that the NMRA is diluting the value of their marque in this manner? We have discussed this issue at length and we have NMRA Master Model Railroaders on our writing faculty who will be consulting with us and performing liason with the NMRA to make sure we conform in our testing and reporting. No one at Model Railroad News takes this lightly. We consider this to be a great honor.
Does this endanger the reputation for independence that Model Railroad News has worked so hard to create? Actually, no, since the National Model Railroad Association is equally independent. It doesn’t accept sponsorships and cannot be bought any more than we can. Our writers remain independent of us, meaning they don’t have to perform conformance testing if they don’t wish. However, if they wish to do conformance testing, they must either be an NMRA Master Model Railroader or they must receive specific instruction on exactly how to conduct the testing suite from one on our faculty.
This process also reflects the high regard we hold for the NMRA. As the magazine’s editor, I personally believe this association strives to work toward the betterment of model railroading by setting and maintaining standards and goals within our hobby. Is the organization perfect? No. Its membership is made up of some of the most dedicated model railroaders in the hobby. They would be better with more members, but would they be better with more members who weren’t as dedicated? Good question.
Most of the positions of leadership are held by volunteers, a worthy statement about each one, that they give up so much of themselves and get little more than pride of accomplishment in return. Would the association be improved if it enjoyed a big-buck budget and hired top dollar executives who could steamroller dynamic decisions without time-wasting committee processes? Sounds sort of like Enron, doesn’t it?
So while there are those who complain about the way the NMRA works, I think it works just fi ne the way it is and attempts to streamline it would be dangerous if not done carefully. It is a large and complex organization that has an arduous and complicated job, and yet it off ers so much to interested model railroaders.
That, of course, leads us back to what we are doing here at Model Railroad News. We will be making progress slowly at first, feeling our way in and being certain we are maintaining a comfort level for our friends at NMRA. Don’t expect to see a flurry of conformance reports on products right away. We have one coming up in this issue by Pete Birdsong who is one of our NMRA Master Model Railroaders. This is an On30 track cleaning car, and I’ll let you read the results for yourself.
One other hope we at Model Railroad News have for this program of NMRA Conformance Testing. We would like for the large number of our readers who are new to the model railroad hobby to see the role NMRA takes within the hobby, look it up on the organization’s interesting web site, and possibly consider joining. The NMRA offers lots of membership pluses and activities as well as access to all of its resources, so you get quite a lot for your dues.
To get the pitch directly from the organization, please drop in to their web site at www.nmra.org or talk to members of the NMRA located near you.
— John Sipple