I was wondering if anyone has ever helped one of thier local troops to get thier Railroading merit badge. I was asked to be a councilor for one and am glad to do it. The only thing is, I have NO IDEA where to start!
Also, Does anyone know when the UP 2010 BSA Heritage unit will be unveiled?
I’m a member at the Midland Railway in Baldwin City KS. We have had several scout camps every spring/fall for many years. The troops will come out to learn about railroad safety and history then go out to do trackwork, using hand tools only, and then camp at the railroad’s halfway point. At the end of the weekend they will take a test of what they learned and will be given their merit badges. The program is very popular and can be sold out up to a year in advance.
When I grew up, there were only two counselors in the entire community for the railroading merit badge. I probably would have made more points for later in life if I’d chosen the other one (the one I didn’t choose was the section foreman for the C&O in town), but I chose the other one, called him up, he came over to get the requirements out of the way, and we went over to the local model railroad club.
I wouldn’t mind being a counselor for this badge in our town, but I don’t even know where to begin on that. The requirements for the badge (last I checked) hadn’t changed all that much, and I believe the hobby shop in Elmhurst carries the guidebooks for the badge.
Link now ‘clickable’.
Which leads to a worksheet, at -
http://usscouts.org/mb/worksheets/Railroading.pdf
I used to have a 1960’s or so edition of the guide book. But the pages linked above are so far advanced and updated - wow, somebody’s been paying attention there.
I got my badge around 1960. The BS Council in North Jersey at the time had to go out and find a counselor who turned out to be a retired CNJ/Wharton and Northern/Mt. Hope Mineral RR Trainmaster. This was the first time such a badge was sought so no one really knew what was needed beyond the Railroad Merit Badge Book. So he just winged it. Fascinating man and stories. I was really a DL&W afficianado but he made me a CNJ branch line fan for life! Oh, the badge required some basic knowledge of safety hand signals, simple knowledge of the types of cars and locomotives, and simple knowledge of basic train and station crews plus some knowledge of modeling including scale guages, etc. Neither he nor I were into modeling that much, so we concentrated on how the CNJ operated out of HO Jct. to Picatinny Arsenal, Green Pond Jct., the mines at Mt. Hope, and the line through Dover to Hibernia and how the Camelbacks were replaced by RS3’s.
Yes, indeed! These requirements look pretty relevant (and they would have been a challenge in my time as a Scout).
The badge has been changed, too–the old one used to show a locomotive resembling UP’s M-10000 coming at you on a track.
When i earned the RR merit badge in the early 90s, my councelor was a yardmaster in the Baton Rouge KCS yard. It was pretty straight forward since i already had a 4x8 layout underway. He mostly went over the safety and signals and gave me a couple of old SLIC books and such. The rest was just a quiz that i blew through.
A merit badge councilor should go by the requirements in the book, not just make something up. When the scout goes up before the review board they may open the book and ask him questions on what he did to meet the requirements. It would be a diservice to the boy not to have prepared him for by not using the proper reqirements.
You can do extra stuff with the boy, but make sure he does the actual reqirements.
Richard looking at MP 242 while working for the FEC Rwy.
I have been teaching the Boy Scout Merit Badge class for 3 years now here in Cleveland, MS. Click on this website www.boyscouttrail.com and in the left column look up Merit Badges. We have a railroad museum with a O scale layout here in town and they accomplish two of the requirements by utilizing the museum. I use the internet a lot to help illustrate what is in the merit badge book. This makes the class more exciting for the scouts than just sitting through a boring class and it gives them a visual image of various railroads, equipment and crossing safety.
Ron Hill
I used to be a RR merit badge counselor several years ago. I did training on individuals and in groups where we had several counselors working with 50 or more Scouts at a time. When they dropped the model railroading part of the training and requirement, it was the last straw for me. They used a small, select group of counselors to rewrite the book and did not canvas the rest of us for input. Likewise, they ignored any following comments that were made after the new books came out. The beginning of the end for me was that merit badge counselors don’t have to have ID cards like the other committee members and officers and they also were not required to go through the Scout Protection classes to weed out any undesireable and potentially dangerous people. After my repeated questions to both local and national Scouting officers and getting a ‘don’t bother me’ and ‘don’t make waves’ attitude, I gave up my certification as a counselor. Do I miss teaching the young in (all aspects of) railroading? Yes! Will I go back to the Scouts as a counselor in the future? No! Since I am a member of about a dozen railroad-related clubs, museums and organizations, including the oldest model railroad club in our area (began in 1938), I am happy enough to be helping local kids of all ages with learning about railroading.
Ken Rimmel
You need to look into railroad companies that trade in the stock market and look up the executives.
Some times the old senior managers love to teach the kids the love for trains in history and may even
help start a railroad club in your area.
WOW! I’m just now chiming in. I have the railroading merit badge. (First one to earn it in my troop!) You should perhaps get the official BSA book on it. I wish we had some sort of program here in western Indiana that would allow Boy Scouts to see an in depth view of the rail industry. I’m the only one in our troop that cares about trains though. I try to get them interested, but they just aren’t into it.
Good luck!
Hi I hope that this helps. I’m looking into doing thinks with my den as well and found the following information. If you contact railroad museums they often have programs that also help earn them their badge
It’s been a few years since I was a counselor along with another Scout leader counselor on the Railroading merit badge at a local Merit Badge Jamboree. This was generally an all-day event. I remember that we:
Had the merit badge candidates prepare a plan beforehand for a potential layout that they might construct. It was interesting, to say the least, to see the variances as to what extent each of the candidates put into working their layout plans.
We usually had a regional representative from Operation Lifesaver come give a presentation the first thing in the morning. This satisfied the safety requirement.
We showed the candidates the various track gauges for model railroading available, as well as a freight car that matched that gauge.
I had a video from Pentrex, “Workin’ on the Railroad” that I showed the candidates portions of, that illustrates the requirement to show what careers are available working for the railroad.
Wade Rice
Yes - I believe Robert W. Downing of the Burlington Northern (formerly Great Northern, pre-AT&SF merger, natch) is still alive and kicking at age 96 or so in the Spokane, Washington area, and still very interested in his railroad . . . .