Okay, so I joined NMRA and I see their push to get people certified as Master Modelers. There are quite a few hoops to jump.
What is the rewards/benefits/efforts ratios here? Would you do it again?
Do you have a secret handshake? (Hey, it might make the difference.)
That depends solely upon your attitude. I have two certificates and don’t anticipate getting any more. However, there are several people working on certificates in my division. A couple have made it. In any event they are all good people who have made the choice to go ahead with the certificates to gain their MMR. This include the ones who have made it.
It is your choice in the long run. If you have a interest in it, then I would say go for it. It is interesting that you say a ‘push’ to get more people into the MMR program. I don’t see that ‘push’ myself, so maybe you should make the plunge. 
Could somebody give us a thmb-nail sketch of what the requirements are to become a Master Modeler? Some one mentioned “certificates”, I assume that a certian number of them are required.
I can’t see that it really provides anything more than a certain ‘cache’. Bragging rights, and it would LOOK impressive if you ever get published in any of the magazines. Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter a hoot to me whether a modeler is an MMR or not. It just means they jumped through a lot of hoops to get a piece of wallpaper.
As you’ve probably gathered it requires being very well-rounded in all aspects of this hobby of ours. You know the old saying: Jack of all trades, master of none. You can be a 5 star chef, but can you do me eggs sunny-side up with home fries and bacon?
It’s more of an achievement of self satisfaction and accomplishment to participate in the NMRA’s Achievment Program, improving one’s skills and abilities. And isn’t that what we all want in our hobbies - to grow and learn? Some may be content to buy RTR equipment and run it around in a circle all of their lives, never making any demands on themselves. But others enjoy the craft of model building and learning new abilities and experiences, and sharing their efforts with others. That’s what the AP is all about. It brings out the best in modelers.
There are many certificates that one can work towards to achieve the Master Model Railroader one. They include ones for scenery, cars, structures, motive power, civil and electrical engineer, prototype modeing, and chief dispatcher. Others are for service to the hobby - association volunteer, author and association official. You need 7 certificates to achieve MMR, and they must be from all of the aspects, not just model building.
jackn2mpu wrote the following:
"I can’t see that it really provides anything more than a certain ‘cache’. Bragging rights, and it would LOOK impressive if you ever get published in any of the magazines. Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter a hoot to me whether a modeler is an MMR or not. It just means they jumped through a lot of hoops to get a piece of wallpaper.
As you’ve probably gathered it requires being very well-rounded in all aspects of this hobby of ours. You know the old saying: Jack of all trades, master of none. You can be a 5 star chef, but can you do me eggs sunny-side up with home fries and bacon?"
A “Jack of all trades” sort of does describe the achievement of MMR status - the certificates are not given out, they are earned. For the modeling ones, they r
Chip,
If you’re going to go after MMR, it should only be something you do in conjunction with your own modeling agenda, not as a ‘quest’. I attempted the latter approach back in 2002, and got so frustrated I nearly quit the hobby.
If I’m ever able to retire and have sufficient time to devote to it, I may try it again. The heavy-industry theme of my modeling certainly requires lots of scratchbuilding - I might as well take advantage of it. So far the one certificate I’ve earned is Model Railroad Author.
I have to agreed with Bob 100% its only means something to the person who gets it.Its nothing more then a personal goal that you set for yourself.
I myself was 8yrs old when I got my first MR, which had a layout my a guy named John Allen[bow][bow]and I was hooked. I looked at that issue until it was falling apart,now I have the book which is also falling apart. I told myself that some day I to would have a layout on the cover of MR. So that was my goal I set for myself. I did belong to the NMRA I did look at the MMR award and said nope, I chose to keep working on my goal to be on the cover of MR.
Did I meet my goal? Yes. How did it feel? GREAT! What I guess I am trying to said by setting goals for yourself, and your modeling when you reach that goal you can tell yourself (yes I made it) and you well have a feeling of pride that makes it all worth the time and effort.
I would consider being published just as good.
I have had a kink and a couple of photos published back in the 70’s in MR, and that felt really good, knowing that I had something to contribute to the hobby.
Granted I only just started, but the June issue of Scale Rails has an article on page 10 called “Prototype Modeler’s Certificate: Year of the MMR, Part 6”
Geez, and I thought getting my Microsoft Certified System Engineer’s certification involved a lot of work. I figure that by the time I would have completed all the required qualifications I would then have effectively constructed a second entire layout!
Since you weren’t a member at the beginning of the year, you missed the article that explained the magazine would cover a segment of the MMR requirements each month. They aren’t ‘pushing’ anybody; they are simply breaking down the requirements into an article each month so members can gain an understanding of what is required to acheive the MMR.
Don Z.
I have two Certificates already (Official and Volunteer (which I would have never gotten if we had not started our own Division of the NMRA (Div 11 MCR)). I was elected the first Super and that made it easy to get the Certificate for Official!
Hosting a Monthly Meeting once a year and working our Annual Jamboree easily earned the points needed for the Volunteer Cert.
Being a new Division we needed places to hold our meetings and our Local Club held several a year until we gathered enough members to begin meeting in homes (more Volunteer Time).
Now that I have begun building my fairly large home layout I am able to host a yearly January meeting and I also write an article in our Div newsletter each month talking about my personal experiences trying to build and operate a big layout.
This is earning me points towards my Author Cert! And it requires nothing more than sending something to our Div 11 newsletter Editor and it gets published (as everyone assumes that they have nothing to say of interest - when in reality they do but don’t like WRITING)!
I have even put some of the articles on our Club Web page and this also qualifies for Author Points!
At our Annual Jamboree I usually give a clinic or two and this also earns me points for my Author Cert. So I won’t ever have an article published in any National magazine to gain my Author Cert!
With my new layout I am doing a prototypical layout of the Conrail Lowgrade Line from Dubois to East Brady, PA.
I have to scratch build almost all of the signature buildings on my layout. While this is a challenge it is making me a better modeler and I figured if I was going to all of that trouble I might as well enter them for Judging at our Annual Jamboree for Merit Points each year. So this is what I have been doing the past few years and slowly earning my points towards my Structures Cert.
Now as you can see I am not making any extra effort at completing or
Ugh. I hate things like this. I seem to have a bit of an inferiority complex, so failure is a bit magnified in my eyes and so are tasks such as scratch building an entire steam locomotive. It gets me frustrated and upset, and just makes me feel like crap. And I happen to agree that all it is is just jumping through a bunch of hoops. Maybe if I were near a club layout, or had room for a monster layout of my own, I would go for the Civil, Electrical and Dispatcher certificates and go from there. But I don’t. So I don’t see any point in trying something I can’t succeed in for a few years.
As Bob H stated, I too just built models and entered them in NMRA contests. I wasn’t working towards anything, just wanted to participate. Then I discovered the AP, and tallied up my contest awards and used them to apply for the certificates. I guess some modelers could or would work specifically towards earning the certificates, but that’s not how I got mine.
As to the previous posters’ comment “I don’t see any point in trying something I can’t succeed in for a few years.”, most if not all certificate and MMR winners also take many years to get there. They are just enjoying the hobby along the way, learning from their mistakes and improving on them so their models qualify for the awards. I just got my 25 year certificate from the NMRA this year, and I only have 5 certificates.
And one does not need a “monster layout” to participate in the AP; I do my modeling on HO scale modules, have built two 8 foot pairs. The square footage and quality of the scenic features allowed me to get the Master Builder-Scenery award. Getting the award for Civil and Electrical Engineering would be difficult for me, as there isn’t any way that I can include the requirements in my little modules. So I concentrated on areas that I could achieve - Master Builder of Cars, Structures, and Locomotives. Don’t need a big layout (or any!) for these!
I thought a Jack of All Trades was “a Master of None”…
First, I agree that the NMRA is pushing the MMR program this year. I have been a member for over 35 years and have never seen the program promoted/pushed as much as this year. Not saying it’s a bad thing - an organization should promote its programs, after all some of the benefits of membership are the programs. But still they are pushing it.
As to being worth it. Well, if you like the challenge of completing a set of requirements that lead to an official certificate of recognition then this program may well be satisfying to you. It’s like the BSA merit badge program, if you enjoyed that program then this may may be fun for you also. (BTW I earned 20 merit badges and Life rank so I’m not trying to denigrate the AP just provide a framework for comparison).
One thing to note about the requirements is that it is very oriented towards building - 7 out of 11 Achievement Certificates are for building, and 5 of these require scratchbuilding. Secondarily it rewards service to the hobby - 3 out of 11. And finally there is 1 for actually running trains. To get MMR you can avoid the one for running trains, but you will have to do at least 3 building ones.
While you can certainly work on the requirements as part of building a layout, you will need to plan your layout to include the requirements. Otherwise you could have a nice layout, but not have completed the requirements for a single Achievement Certificate.
Finally, one observation. Based on the few contests I have seen, the judges are pretty tough on handing out the 87.5 points needed for a model to qualify for the certificate.
Enjoy
Paul
I don’t intend to belittle those who have received this honor since I’m sure they are highly skilled modelers. I just think this country gets too infatuated with awards. WWWWAAAAYYYYY too much importance is placed on awards of all types whether it be the famous ones like the Heisman Trophy, Oscars, Grammys, etc. to less famous awards. Too many people look upon receiving awards as an achievement in itself instead of them being simply recognition of real achievements. You often hear talk about “winning” awards. No one wins an award. An award is something that is given to you. Getting one is not an achievement.
As for the question about whether the Master Modeler’s certificate is worth the effort, no one can answer that but you. If it is important to you to get such an award, than it probably would be worth the effort to get it. As for me, it doesn’t seem like anything I would get too excited about. I’m in this hobby for the satisfaction I get from creating something from my imagination. Whether or not that impresses anybody else doesn’t matter at all to me.
Hey Chip!
First off take a look at and earn the Golden Spike Award. It is not a certificate like those used for MMR but is really an introduction to the program. I earned that a year ago and it has inspired me to work on several of the certificates. Last night I received an e-mail from the Niagra Frontier Division AP Manager letting me know that he had approved the paperwork for the Model Railroad Engineer - Electrical Certificate I have been working on. It is now on its way to National Office for final approval. For me at least it gave me a great sense of accomplishment.
In completing the Golden Spike Award, I met with and got suggestions (and praise) from MMR Harold W. Russell who “inspected” my work for it. Working on this will lead you to some wonderful people in this hobby who have gone before. I have now met 3 MMRs and have found each of them to be great resources for helping and inspiring me to do better work (and have more fun) with this hobby. Many of the requirements of the certificates are indeed hard (as they should be), but can really challenge you with your own skills. I look at the certificates as benchmarks upon which I can improve my personal abilities not something to get bragging rights, or as a way in which I can see my progress as a hobbyist rather than a wayto think I’m somehow better than other MRs. I think a lot of how valuable this AP can be to you depends very much on how you aproach it and how it helps you to achieve your own goals. The comparison to the Boy Scout Merit Badge Program with Eagle as the highest goal is a good one. And just like the Eagle, Master Model Railroaders take a pledge to help others along the road to achieving the most they can in the hobby.
Information regarding the NMRA AP can be found here: http://www.nmra.org/education/achievement/
I’d say start with the Golden Spike (you have a lo
Chip,
The MMR Certificate is something ‘attainable’ by most modelers who want to ‘build’ something. The ‘Service’ part of the requirement can be attained through national/regional/divisional work. Myself, I have never really tried to qualify. I am now qualified for the ‘Official’ certificate. I may be close on the ‘Volunteer’ certificate as well. This has not been a ‘quest’ or an ego trip on my part. It just has not been important to me so far. I have 3 close friends who have attained their MMR in the past 5 years. Their modeling, layouts, and service to the hobby have been outstanding.
As others have mentioned, get your ‘Golden Spike’ certificate and start compiling your points in each area. The really hard work is documentation/paperwork - as usual!
Jim Bernier