I’ve confirmed from an inside source that NMRA plans to move to Sacramento.
“The NMRA has decided to move everything except HQ ladies to Sacramento just as soon as Museum can get funding from State of CA. The home office will also move out of the building and into rental space in downtown Chattanooga. The building will be sold if possible. The ladies will not move until that sale is final. No telling when the move to CA will take place. Hopefully in next 5 years.”
Mark
If they’re waiting for funding from the State of California, they’ll be lucky to make it in 10 years.
I can just see the headlines now - California Spends Big Bucks for Toy Trains, More Teacher Layoffs Coming.
Oh yeah!
Enjoy
Paul
Paul, maybe you don’t understand California politics.
Regardless, if I “connect the dots” correctly, NMRA’s sale of its headquarters building would be a funding source for the layout.
Mark
Man oh man, Mark, if this were indeed to be true then I can see a major membership battle on the horizon. The NMRA has had some financial difficulties in the past which resulted in the feeling that they should consider selling off the big HQ building to assist with their finances, likewise the library. The Howell Day Model Railroad Museum funded by membership dues was dropped as a concept some years ago and was supposed to be funded strictly by donations, which I’m unaware ever amounted to much of anything.
Now we have this announcement of putting up perhaps $750,000 for a project the membership was totally against just a couple of years ago. I was a member of the NMRA for many, many years, but bailed on the them, as many others did at the time, when they had financial irregularities about 5-6 years ago. I came back for the past two years, but never heard a thing about these latest developments. Guess maybe it’s time to head for the doors once again!
Has any other NMRA member here actually heard anything about this being presented to the membership before the announcement was made?
CNJ831
I jumped off the caboose several years ago when the NMRA began increasing their yearly dues by leaps and bounds.
With practically everyone today seeking instant gratification and kits disappearing from dealer shelves in favor of RTR products from China, the NMRA seems to have lost its relevance to the hobby. Moving to California will not salvage anything.
I’m not following why RTR and instant gratification would be a blow to the NMRA’s relevance. There are still a great many facets of the hobby which are not RTR and to me, the backbone of the organization is still the local chapters where we meet and share ideas, techniques and stories. The NMRA still works with manufacturers on standards and recommended practices. If it fades it will becuase of the attitudes that plague many organizations, “what’s in it for me?”. Whether or not you believe they are still relevant, they have had an impact on what is available now, more accurate, detailed, better running, and wider variety of models that we’ve ever had.
Ricky
Mark, I’m sure I don’t understand California politics - does anyone[(-D]
I’ve been a member of the NMRA for over 35 years, but I do well to get to the odd Division meet. So I don’t know what the leadership is thinking. But since I don’t live in Tennessee, it really doesn’t matter to me where the HQ is. If they can sell the building and save some operating costs, then I’m all for it. I just can’t see the state of California with its budget woes providing funding - but as you say, I don’t understand California.[:D]
Enjoy
Paul.
I guess we’re not lucky enough to have the entire California state legislature relocated to Chattanooga in exchange, are we?
Andre
The link to the announcement was provided in Dana Kawala’s sticky that was up at the top of pg. 1 for a couple of days.
Tom
Now, what did Chattanooga ever do to deserve THAT?
Assuming this is true, I, personally, will be happy to visit NMRA headquarters (and the Kalmbach library) once the move takes place. It will be a lot more accessible to me than its present location ever was, even when I was living in Nashville.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
There have been editorials about what a wonderful world it would be if somehow the NMRA and the California museum could work together over the last year or so in Scale Rails. But as far as I know nothing has been officially offered to the membership to vote on. Nor has anyone provided a cost benefit analysis, ROI or anything such as that. Kind of seems like there’s been a behind the scenes effort going on.
I’ve been a member for several years, but haven’t been to a convention since the early 90s. The cost to travel is too much for me. I belong for the same reason I belong to professional organizations, coach soccer, and lead cub scouts – you pay back those who came before by passing it on to the future. I’d like to be involved more in NMRA, but live in a rural area and haven’t come across others within a reasonable driving distance.
My concern with the move, is not the move itself, but I’d like to see the cost benefit, ROI, and analysis of alternatives. Should it move? Is California the right choice? We need that information.
Correct me if I’m wrong but California is broke? Their even worse then we are here in New Jersey. It’s been all over the news how they are paying with IOU’s
Some how unless the Terminator Gov. likes to play with toy trains I think funding for something like this would be on the very bottom of the list.
Oh goody.
An announcment that the NMRA might be moving out here sets off another spate of California-Bashing. I love these little excuses from some of you people—NOT!
If the rest of you guys want to see how healthy the hobby is, come out here to the erstwhile land of the “Fruits and Nuts” and visit one of the local train shows. The last one here in the ‘town’ of Roseville filled the entire Roseville Fairgrounds and was so packed that you could hardly find a place to stand. And this is a medium-sized city in Northern California.
And if you want to visit two very healthy hobby shops both within 10 miles of each other and stocked with nothing but model railroading supplies in just about all scales, come visit Bruce’s Trains and Railroad Hobbies. The stock will drop your collective jaws and the guys there will actually HELP you. What a Concept! [:O]
And if you want to visit some of the most active model railroading clubs in the country, start in San Diego and just work your way north. By the time you get up here to the Central Valley, your eyeballs will be just bloody exhausted from popping out of your heads.
The NMRA convention will be here in Sacramento in 2011. In case some of you never cracked a history book in high school because all of those nasty dates confused you, Sacramento is the spot where the western half of the Transcontinental railroad started in 1863. It’s very much a town of MAJOR railroad history, and still remains so. It’s 10 miles west or Roseville, which is one of the largest railroad yards west of the Mississippi. And it contains one of the finest Railroad Museums in the world. And it’s the starting point for one of the most active and successful rail passenger transit systems this side of the Northeast Corridor.
We’re no more Broke than any other st
If location of the NMRA is to be based on MAJOR railroad history, I believe there are a few spots in the eastern/mid-western parts of the country which would equal or beat California in that respect.
However, the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento is the best railroad museum I have visited. It is almost Disneyesque(positive term referring to creativity) in presentation starting with the entrance into the displays continuing with the Pullman display.
If this feel can be carried over to model railroading and one of the aspects to this happening is moving the HQ of the NMRA to Sacramento, I say go for it.
I do not believe Chattanooga’s unemployment percent will rise too much if the NMRA leaves town. However it may be bad for the two or three employees not wanting to relocate.
Jay
This reminds me suspiciously like an incident which I encountered at Danang, Republic of Vietnam in 1969.
The Marines let a controlled burn get out of hand and the fire spread into the bomb dump. One of the bombs which exploded was a phosphorous bomb which started a number of structure fires. A small fragment of Willie Peter landed in the grass near our GCA site; the Control Tower notified the GCA people that they had a grass fire outside and the personnel there bailed out of the van fire extinguishers in hand. One of the individuals managed to contract a CO2 burn on his thumb in the process of extinguishing this small fire.
Every time a report of this incident got passed up the line it got more sinister. About an hour later my CO, a dimwit Light Colonel by the name of Singleton, came barrelling into NCMO where I was on duty ranting about an individual out at the GCA site who had third degree burns over 75% of his body and why in the h*** did he always have to get information like this from the installation commander and why had he been saddled with such a sorry lot of NCOs and somebody was going to get Courts Martialed over this and . . . . . . . . . .
Reminded me of that old game of “Telephone” . . . . . . . . . . the one where a message is whispered around a circle and the last person to get it has to repeat the message; there is seldom much intelligence left by the time it makes the rounds.
The NMRA is moving to Sacramento! I wonder how many people this had to pass through!
Message for twhite: I attended the national in San Mateo in '81 and again in San Jose in '00. I am looking forward to Sacramento in '11. You people may have some looney politics but you have one of the most fantastic model railroading environments on the planet!
Whoa, now, let’s backtrack for just a minute here.
While I would agree that no direct statement has been made by the NMRA in the recent announcement about moving their HQ to CA, just what purpose would it serve to keep the NMRA’s offices in Chattanooga if their library and historical materials are all moved elsewhere and the HQ building sold?
Firstly, the formal announcement has been made of a Memorandum of Understanding between the museum and the NMRA that the latter’s historical collection will go to the museum and a display for same will be funded by the NMRA to the tune of $500,000 to $750,000. Likewise, it appears under consideration to move the NMRA’s library to the museum as well. The original release for publication was made jointly by the Sacramento Railroad Museum and the NMRA. It officially appears in full on the Museum’s website.
Then, Mark P., whom I would regard as probably more informed and more reliable than most forum members, posts that he’s been informed by a source inside the NMRA that the plan is to move everything to CA. He also says that sale of the current NMRA HQ in contemplated…and given the NMRA’s finances, this would be the ONLY practical way the association could fund the display in CA.
So, where does the conclusion of a total move of the NMRA to CA relate to the distortions of the old telephone game?
What troubles me far more is that it seems outside of a few asides in Scale Rails, no one seems able to indicate that the membership has even been approached for their opinion about an
Oh goody.
An announcment that the NMRA might be moving out here sets off another spate of California-Bashing. I love these little excuses from some of you people—NOT!
If the rest of you guys want to see how healthy the hobby is, come out here to the erstwhile land of the “Fruits and Nuts” and visit one of the local train shows. The last one here in the ‘town’ of Roseville filled the entire Roseville Fairgrounds and was so packed that you could hardly find a place to stand. And this is a medium-sized city in Northern California.
And if you want to visit two very healthy hobby shops both within 10 miles of each other and stocked with nothing but model railroading supplies in just about all scales, come visit Bruce’s Trains and Railroad Hobbies. The stock will drop your collective jaws and the guys there will actually HELP you. What a Concept! 
Whoa, Tom, why don’t you tell them what you really think?
Welcome to California. Now Go Home!
If they’d gone home or stayed home, California wouldn’t have a population greater than Canada. and LA county wouldn’t have a population greater than Michigan.
Oh wait a minute. That would be a GOOD thing.
Andre
.
If it fades it will becuase of the attitudes that plague many organizations, “what’s in it for me?”
Ricky
No. if it fades it is because of bad leadership in the Higher up! Kevin
I’m sorry! It appears as if this information started with a fellow who lives in Fargo, North Dakota. He got it from the cousin of a fellow he works with who got the word from a girlfriend who lives in Patterson, New Jersey who knows a guy who resides in Columbia, South Carolina whos father has an uncle whos lives across the street from a model railroader who knows a guy who lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee who occasionally is called upon to work on the telephone system at the NMRA Headquarters who was told by a secretary there that she planned on moving to Sacramento, California next year.
So in reality the NMRA is moving to Fargo, North Dakota . . . . . . . . . . or is it Patterson, New Jersey ? . . . . . . . . . . or perhaps Columbia, South Carolina? . . . . . . . . . . they might even stay in Chattanooga . . . . . . . . . .
Sounds like “Telephone” to me!
Please take them !! And we don’t care where they are relocated to, and it would be a disservice to the fine people of eastern Tennessee to put the California politicians there.
That said, all please READ this:
It says the NMRA is funding the endeavor - not California. The Museum is providing space, and that appears to be all.
I am not a member of the NMRA, though many years ago - long before DCC - I was for one year. To be an effective member takes time that I did not, and still unfortunately do not have. That is the only way to stay on top of what the ______ (fill in the blank) on the board are doing (or not doing). Like CNN and others keep on top of the politicians.