As many here may be aware, 2025 marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of the National Model Railroad Association.
I was wondering how many forum members are also NMRA members.
I’m also wondering about your reasoning either for or against.
We’ve had a few stories as the year winds down about people’s experience with the NMRA, and I’d be curious to learn about yours.
Eric
I’ve been an NMRA member - with a few gaps - since the early 80’s. One the NMRA does that I like is you can get their magazine (I still call it the Bulletin) as either a print version or digital…and the membership with the digital is cheaper! Always surprised so many magazines charge more for the digital than the printed one, or only allow you to get the digital (at additional cost) if you already get the printed one.
I’m neither yay or nay. I have never joined because I feel I am not as interested in building individual models as the NMRA tends to promote.
Hi Eric, I was a member of the NMRA BR for a couple of years, but my main or only link was the magazine.
Whilst this was of good quality, the Editor wanted to start including all overseas Railways and in the UK, we already had the Peco publication ‘Continental Modeller’.
I was (am) only interested in USA models and Railroads and digging-out my Sept-Oct 2019 copy just now - I’m (still) not interested in the ‘Trans-Siberian Express’ - so I let my membership lapse.
Also, I was not too keen on the ‘BoD’ thing or earning Brownie-points for the ‘Achievement Program’.
I don’t know what the NMRA BR is like today, but I’ve got my Trains.com membership.
Regards, Paul.
Nope, not with the prices they’re charging for dues these days. Plus, if you want to join a club that uses them for insurance you got that plus what the club charges for dues. Not happenin’ brah.
I agree, dues are too high for what you get accounting for inflation the dues should be no higher than $30.00 a year. Also I don’t like to be forced to join a Division where I don’t know anyone just because I barely live in another County and the County line determines what division I am in.
Rick Jesionowski
Yay
Didn’t know there was a membership
I would… but I ain’t got enough money! Same with the TCA, for that matter.
I’ve been a member for 16 some odd years. I think it’s worth the dues for the magazine and the local “Divisions”. Ours (Nutmeg in Connecticut - https://nutmegdivision.org/) meets every other month with lectures and demos and then visits to layouts. It has a tool loan program and givaways! It’s a great way to meet other modelers and learn from them. The magazine is well written and produced - I look forward to every issue!
I’ve been a member since 1968…
I find all the reasons not to join very interesting.
I belong because they do good work in the hobby. I don’t have the personal time or motivation to help with that work, but I can financially support those who do.
They established the standards for this hobby years ago. Particularly the ones that made present day HO and N scale possible with wide range interchangeability between brands.
And it seems many people are still unaware of the Data Sheet program, tons of prototype and model technical and historic information to help with your modeling. In 1968 they came in printed form with your membership - I still have mine. Now they are digital on the web site and have been expanded and updated.
I have never been to a convention, regional or national. Traveling long distances for that sort of thing has never been convenient, and timing has been bad when such events were close to home. And the whole convention environment is not really my thing.
If the price of dues is more than you are comfortable with, fine. But considering what I spend on this hobby, they are insignificant. If you are busy “measuring” the value of every little benefit, than no organization like this will seem like a good value for you.
In my 14 or so years on this forum, I have answered hundreds of questions whose answers came right from the NMRA Standards, Recommended Practices, and Data Sheets.
The Achievement Program - I don’t have any interest, but I respect those who do. Some of the finest modelers I have known during my 57 years in this hobby were/are Master Model Railroaders. The NMRA does not “push” the Achievement Program, they simply offer it to those who are interested. It is a more excusive club than the US Senate, there have only been 810 recipients since the program began in 1961.
These days I’m busy building my new layout, not real concerned about what the rest of you are doing, or not.
Proud to be an NMRA member, thankful for all the great modelers who taught me this hobby and for those who built this hobby over the years.
Sheldon
It seems that the only real benefit of joining the NMRA is the magazine. I’ve attended a couple local meets as a non-member.
I believe many modelers really enjoy magazines, reading them from cover to cover regardless of their content. I was told the NMRA had a so-so magazine. However the first issue i received had an articles on a club that would block certain tracks to support different types of operation: TT&TO vs CTC. But subsequent issues were disappointing, rehashing topics that have been in magazines for decades.
Joe Fugate has said that there are probably ~10x as many people reading Model RR Hobbyist than participating in forums. Forums are like interactive magazines where questions are responded to almost immediately, you’ll get many responses and more than enough from people with the background to answer the question.
As an EE, I feel that I am sharing more information than getting help. I feel that participating in forums exposes you to so much more of the hobby.
In particular, it seems that all publications shy away from technology topics because today’s editors, unlike Linn Westcott, are not technology savvy.
the hobby has long been reliant on electronics for train control (DCC) and signaling which the vast majority of modelers are less knowledgeable about. And the hobby is expanding to incorporate 3d-printing.
it might be different is the NMRA magazine focused on where the hobby is going rather than where it has been.
Well Greg, I guess that depends on what you consider a real benefit.
So what direction is the hobby going and what should the NMRA be doing? You are not the first person to say that and the NMRA leadership has been working on that for years.
The fact is the hobby, especially the smaller scales, has become extremely diverse and splintered over the last 25 years or so compared to decades before then.
So please tell us where the hobby is going? If the model train police could compel me to do the hobby the way it appears to be going, I would sell it all in a heart beat.
Maybe that is why I value both the past and the present benefits of the NMRA.
And just to be clear, if I have to choose, the modeling is more important than the socializing.
Sheldon
Eric I am and find the information valuable, the fellowship helpful and the professional approach to our hobby refreshing. I returned to the hobby about four years ago after being away for some 50 years. I had to learn all about DCC and nickel silver track, the NMRA website and local division grou[quote=“EricW, post:1, topic:417478, full:true”]
As many here may be aware, 2025 marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of the National Model Railroad Association.
I was wondering how many forum members are also NMRA members.
I’m also wondering about your reasoning either for or against.
We’ve had a few stories as the year winds down about people’s experience with the NMRA, and I’d be curious to learn about yours.
Eric
[/quote]
ps helped me with that. I have visited other division meetings and been welcomed repeatedly. My 9 year old grandson and I are building a layout that hopefully he will continue to use, enjoy and expand as time goes on. In my limited exposure to the NMRA I think they have brought consistent standards and open the dialogue across the international borders. I learn something from each clinic I attend and regional conventions, each article I read in the NMRA magazine (and Model Railroader). I am a firm believer that no matter what organization you belong to, you get out of it what you put into it. NMRA would not be able to do the things they do without the dues. Thanks for asking Eric.
Interesting about what MRH said about magazine subscription vs forum participation. I’ve gotten to the point to where I don’t read magazines at all and would rather interact in the forums. My interests are so different that I get little reward from participating in anything other than a few you tube channels.
Most information in this hobby is not geared to my interests. Which is modern short lines in the SE USA post 2010. With a lot of operations focus. Only lance mindheim and tom klimoski publish the stuff I get energized to read.
Going to the LHS, train shows, nmra gatherings I assume; will consist of folks having the same conversations about the same fallen flags they’ve had for 20 years when I’m interested in what happened just last year. It’s like going to a party where everybody in the room is having a great time talking about the same stuff, then I ask a question and the room goes silent, stunned, as if I’m talking Martian. My question acts like a buzz kill.
I can’t imagine the NMRA being much different as far as type and genre of railroading and models they focus on. Whether it’s clinics, publications, or just meetings of the members.
Why is it interesting? Very little of the act of model railroading is era-specific. Not planning techniques, not benchwork construction, note laying track, not wiring and electronics, not scenery, not scratch building with various materials, not detailing, painting and decaling locomotives and rolling stock. Allowing the era/scale/whatever of the modeler to dictate whether or not an article is read closes off potential learning opportunities.
I’ve been in the hobby over 40 years and built 4 layouts embarking on my 5th. All of those things you’ve mentioned I’ve done. I’ve done them with techniques that are satisfactory to me.
I’m not really interested in reading about or debating laying track with caulk vs nails. Then have the convo change over to how much better fasttracks is. It’s all personal preference and I’ve figured out what I like a long time ago.
When I listen to convos about the PRR, or the ATSF, etc. I feel like I’ve heard it before. Because I have. Staring about 25 years ago.
If the NMRA will talk about how the Florida central has acquired a new GP15 and painted it into an ACL heritage scheme, I might listen. My guess that 95% of their members have no knowledge of it and 97% don’t care. And are proud for not caring about it as they go back to talking about their tunnel motors on the SP back in the 1970s that they talked about last meeting. Athearn has announced a model of that GP15, so at least they get there is a fairly big interest in stuff like that.
I do enjoy talking about layout planning and ops. As long as it excludes turntables and reversing loops.
But NVM, maybe I should keep my curmudgeonly comments to myself.
Speaking of interesting, I find your final sentence in your most recent post very interesting.
I have both a turntable and four reversing sections on my layout. Why do you dislike them?
Rich
Some interesting replies here, and I’m glad to see there’s discussion going on. There are a few things that stood out to me that I think might be misconceptions.
One is about divisions. Yes, you get assigned to your geographic division, but you’re a member of the national organization. I know of plenty of people who are assigned to division X, but attend meetings and socialize with people in division Y because that’s where their friends are, or they just like the people in a different division better. No one should chase you away because of that. It’s not like you have to apply for a change of membership!
Another thing is the idea that the NMRA is stuck in the past. The current NMRA president, Gordy Robinson, is a tech-oriented guy. In my conversation with him at the NMRA convention in Novi, Mich., he was very excited about the possibilities of adapting AI models to operation, as well as working on how to make power-on-board (his term for dead rail) more accessible to folks. I attended clinics about 3D printing and battery power projects, and learned that using tech doesn’t disqualify you from being considered a scratchbuilder.
Yes, in Michigan, there were lots of people who wanted to talk about the Ann Arbor, Detroit, Toledo & Ironton, Pere Marquette, C&O and NYC, but there were also discussions about modern shortlines. There were about 1,000 people signed up to attend, so I’m sure you could find people who shared an interest with you, whatever that might be.
Gordy is working to build a more robust online presence for the organization, and there are plenty of things you can participate in even if big social gatherings aren’t your thing. The main thing I found was that most people were open and welcoming, and that’s been my experience at conventions both national and regional.
And as Sheldon said, the NMRA is what made this hobby possible, and as Gordy Robinson says, it’s not done helping sort out best practices to set standards for interoperability even as the application of technology races forward.
Bottom line, the NMRA has made my enjoyment of the hobby more fun, and that’s the main reason I do this.
Eric
Appreciate the comment Eric. If the SE district of the NMRA has finally stopped talking about the ACL SCL SOUTHERN and CofG it would be helpful.
Also. I have respect for the Piedmont Division of the NMRA as they host a great train show and have home layout tours in the ATL area in the past. The members are very gracious. Of course of the 30 or so layouts that are on a tour any given year, I don’t think there was one modern short line layout.