Admittedly, unlike Howard, since leaving the hobby business years ago, I have no interest in making money off the hobby. So I see little benefit to me in promoting the hobby to others…just like those of you who think the NMRA should prove its worth before you pay your money…
My 7 year old grandson has an on and off interest in trains. A few weeks ago he and I had a great time at Strasburg, and Saturday we are going to the Greenburg show.
If he stays interested I will teach him everything I know…
But if trains fade from his interest, I promise you, I will not be disappointed, upset, or loose one minute of sleep over the issue.
I don’t like being told “what to like, or what I should be interested in”, I did not do it raising six children, and I won’t do it to him, or anyone else.
I think one of the things that troubles many making these comments is that it’s all about me. Me is a likeable enough character, but when me is the main motivation for joining, me may be disappointed.
Why?
Like many associations, the NMRA is about us. Us is sometimes hard to locate, but generally consists of people who want to participate with others, contributing what one can while gaining from the contributions of others.
If you just need me in your life, then getting to know us is kind of difficult.
But we are out there.
Locally, our division – the Illinois Terminal Division of the Midwest Region – covers a large area with a relatively small membership of almost two dozen. We have had a booth at the Lincoln Square Mall Train Show every spring for about the last decade, thanks to the generorisity of the club that has operated the show for decades. The local club is getting up there in years and, frankly, the local division isn’t a lot younger. The club was considering that 2019’s upcoming show might be the last. In the NMRA, we do have a range of ages among us, from the mid-20s on up, and not wanting to see our area go without its biggest model railroading event, we are working with the current group to organize next year’s show. Then it’s on us to continue this community legacy.
We also helped a neighboring division, the Illinois Valley Division, bring their modular layout to the Monticello Railroad Days event this year at the Monticello RR Museum. It’s a work in progress they acquired from a club, but it will be at several shows around the region in the future as they rework the scenery and maintain the track, etc. Our goal at RR Days was simple – let kids operate. It was a great experience and when there weren’t kids under 18 in line, we let kids over 18 operate, too.
One boy, in particular, had his grandparents bring him to the show and was just totally focused on
I took over as superintendent of the dormant Southeastern Region’s Atlantic Division for a bit over a year. That division stretches from north of Myrtle Beach, SC to south of Savannah, GA, and is roughly fifty miles wide along the Atlantic coast.
We attended most of the train shows in the area during that time, setting up a table and banner with freebie reading materials from the NMRA. Other than that I also have not seen much of the NMRA at train shows.
Howard, would you know if the current owners of the Timonium show are open to having the NMRA set up a display? I’m now a member of the MidEast Region (NJ Division), and if so will ask around the divisions and region about setting up some sort of informational table.
DCC is intended to control locos via communication across the rails.
LCC is intended to control the layout. It uses a separate bus to communicate between nodes that sense block occupancy and turnout positions, and control turnouts and signals, among other things.
LCC also has a (wireless) spec for controlling locos that is separate from the bus controlling the layout.
unlike existing approaches which have some master communicating with various nodes on the layout, the LCC nodes are configured to communicate with one another. For example, a node detecting block occupancy will send messages to nodes that need to know that information in order to set signals, for example.
existing approaches using a master requires that the master poll each node. With a large number of nodes, response times will suffer.
The intelligence of the layout is distributed within the LCC nodes. I believe JMRI can be used for this.
the issue with having no master is that multiple devices may send messages at the same time, causing collisions. But CAN devices can quickly recognize a collision of a bit and immediately suspend transmission allowing the other messages to get thru. This maximizes use of available bandwidth
CAN devices are a more involved that simpler serial transmission that is common today (e.g. RS-485) that do not support collision detection and suspension of transmission at the bit level.
I have been told that LCC succeeds on larger layouts with (100s) of node where other approaches have had problems. This is what LCC is designed for, layouts with many nodes.
while LCC can certainly be used for even the smallest layout … in my opinion, it would be overkill. But many modelers like to incorporate technology into their layouts.
LCC expands DCC from controlling trains and track to everything else that can be remotely or automatically controlled. Lighting, sound, signals, etc. Some has been covered as add-ons to the original DCC concept already, but the capacity of DCC alone is pushed to the limits in terms of what the bus can handle with many larger or more complex layouts. LCC is a way to add capacity, complexity, and functionality to the basic core of DCC to accomodate current and future needs.
My point about promoting to the manufacturers, vendors, etc. is that they have much deeper pockets than your basic modeler/hobbyist running around in a train room and fiddling with his/her layout. The NMRA could be a natural conduit for promoting the hobby and they also have the marketing expertise to suggest how to do it effectively and cost effectively. It is in their best interests to keep the hobby expanding and moving forward.
Manufacturers/venders deep pockets? Surely you jest.
If this industry had deep pockets, trains would actually exist before they were advertized for sale, stores would have “inventory”, manufacturers and venders alike would not have “clearance sales” on product less than 24 months old, etc.
Rather they would work to hold the value of their products by not dumping them cheap to generate cash for thd next container load…
“As not what the NMRA can do for you, ask what you can do for the NMRA.”
For anyone complaining about the NMRA, why don’t you do something about it? Start a chapter and run it the way you think it should be run. Stop sitting around and telling others what they should be doing and do it yourself…or stop complaining.
No, I’m not an NMRA member, but then I don’t complain about it, either. My local chapter (Hub Division) does quite well, and they are putting on their large train show this very weekend in Marlboro, MA. It’s the 2nd biggest train show in Massachusetts (behind the Big E in West Springfield, of course).
I can talk because I have been a member. In fact i tried to become a life member before there were none. They refused to comunicate for over 6 months, then emailed me that the program had ended but it was alive when I tried to join. They must have gotten all those emails to finally get back to me that that was done. As for the standards, the manufactures got together for more profit as lone wolves in manufacturing tend to get picked off. Now this was not true back in the begining. Also alot of standards were set by companys that got adaped by other companys. The NMRA had nothing to do (that I can see) about the coupler standard we use today, Kadee’s or their clones. What has made that the standard is Kadee’s patents running out.
I can think of at least three reasons why the NMRA is (or seems) less central to the hobby than ever. First there is the proliferation of scale specific groups in N, O and S, and narrow gauge, that have their own organizations, magazines, and conventions. And some are very well attended and are great conventions. Magazine editors and NMRA officials repeat the mantra that “everything we do is equally useful in every scale” but even with the most open mind in the world I think that simply is not the case. Not everything. And the more involved and specific the project is, it is less and less the case. So the NMRA has lost out for those who have a comparable specific interest organization to belong to.
Second, most of the various railroad historical societies now have modeling elements to their activities and conventions, and some are excellent. I think this tends to siphon off activity that could otherwise be NMRA activity. I think it also played a role in the diminished number of model magazines. If you want quality information for railroad A, then the modeling side of its historical society is ALWAYS going to have something for you although not always your era perhaps, whereas the NMRA and its conventions and magazine, in common with MR and RMC, and in days past Mainline Modeler, Prototype Modeler, Model Railroading, Rail Model Journal, and so on, might not ever get around to doing even one thing about your favorite railroad.
Third, and this is related to the point immediately above, I think the growth and strength of prototype modeling has created some serious splits in the hobby in terms of the usefulness of conventions, trade shows, clinics, magazines, and so on. The serious prototype modelers have their own organizations and conventions and meets and shows, again often well attended, and on the theory that you can only “do” so many train shows a year that involve travel and overnight stays and restaur
It’s so high level a summary as to be almost pointless. You can’t even tell how much money they receive in dues from members. They even say they say that “Detail beyond here is considered either Business Confidential (confidential contract details) or divulges Personal information (salaries and benefits)”
Business Confidential??? - what, they have a competitor who might gain some kind of competitive advantage?
And how much they receive in dues from the members is “confidential contract details” - really???
There was a time when the organization was open about its finances, but not now. If it weren’t for the importance of the standards, I would cease being a member.
Yeah, the article would have to be the way to go. Expensive? You’ve got to be kidding!!! How about over $430,000 for a half page b/w. I feel it would quite work well for promoting the hobby, but the cost?
Still our hobby and us get little repect from the non-model railroad community. My pike is fairly well know and I get many visitors each year from “unwashed” civilians. I do possess the ability to hear words between spoken words, even though most if not all are quite positive. But in most civilians minds and thoughts…“Is this guy nuts!!” Then around this time every year, there is always a visitor who asks if I set up for Christmas and take it down in January. Our hobby is well known and promoted OK…but only within the hobby. Here is where work is needed if we are to grow. NMRA…where are you?
It would seem logical rather than spend money on expensive ads, spend it on a **** good public relations firm or person who knows how to get free multi-media coverage. This is how we grew our train show from 90 tables and 7000 sq. feet to over 900 tables and 166,000 square feet.
I was an NASG member for many years and tired of their active promotion of the scale and hobby. They promoted very heavily but TO THEMSELVES! Duh! Maybe it’s changed now but I don’t know. Quite similar to what you guys are hashing out…again.
It’s an audited financial statement. It has to meet certain requirments to be that, which is actually important, even if the details don’t get down to the level you want. I’ll bet if you asked a specific question that you’d likely get an answer if it isn’t covered by the exceptions.
I’d venture what you’re looking for is found in the first two lines under “NMRA Income” where Operations and Magazine are listed. You don’t have to get the magazine, although it’s part of the dues structure. But if you add the two figures, you can then divide by $75 and come up with a value of somewhere around 13700. That is very roughly about how many yearly dues paying members the NMRA has. The Life members and others add to that total. I think the actual number is around 17000+ but I couldn’t locate things to be more specific with the time I have right now.
Business Confidential and Personal Information are widely accepted exceptions in such audits and the NMRA is simply sticking to accepted practices here. What is it you think is being “hidden”? They have 2 full time and 2 part time employees, so there’s not much that can be hidden anyway under those exceptions. I prefer to look at how well the organization meets its budget goals. In this case, they were within $30000 on a total income of almost $2 million. Better yet was that expenses, allocated at $1.8 million, came in almost $300000 lower, pretty darn good cost control when it’s roughly 15% lower than projections.
As for mfg’s “deep pockets” I think that is assuming a whole lot. However, the growing NMRA Partnership Program with various hobby vendors offers substantial discounts to members from about 3 dozen hobby vendors, with several more added every month.