It's always a pleasure listening to Tony Koester and it sounds like some exciting things on the way from the NMRA!  Definitely adding value to NMRA membership.

Just have to say, great job covering the show.  Really appreciate the hard work that goes into doing the interviews and produsing the videos.  Even a CPR flyby!

Kudos MRH team!

Well, maybe not jumping-up-and-down exciting, but I'm, for the first time, a bit excited about the NMRA.  Of special interest are Tony's comments in segment two of the interview, where he talks about the value of NMRA to the modeler, and the future direction of NMRA.

I've evaluated the cost/benefit of NMRA membership about every decade since I started in the hobby, and always came to the conclusion that my severely limited budget was best served by what it put on the layout table.  

The future direction of NMRA, in providing resources, and creating a VP position to reach out the the local level, is changing my past reasoning about the efficacy of membership.

That was a great interview.  Thanks much, MRH, and thanks to Tony Koester.

The value of the NMRA to N-scalers hasn't been good and I doubt it will be for the near future. However, the oraganization does have the ability to do something none of the other N-Scale organizations have been able to achieve and that is the establishment of basic requirements for inter-operability. Thus we are able to get Kato, Atlasm Bahcxman and what-have-you stuff to ru on uniform track widths. However ther are still problems when it comes to certain things. There is no uniformity in getting Atlas track to connect with Kato unitrack (for example) and this is something only an organization like the NMRA can achieve. So why hasn't it been done? Look at the membership of the NMRA. IT is made up up overwhelmingly of HO Scalers and thus their needs are going to take precedence whenever anything needs to be done. So how do we get this to chage we N-Scalers need to join the organization and we need to do in suficient strength to make ourselves heard. That doesn't mean we need to take over the organization. It does mean that we need to make ourselves counted and th eonly way that can happen is by having our N-Scale clubs join the local region. Now I am not saying that we need to form our own regions because that won't help anyone. What it does mean is that when a region puts on a show we are entlted to be represented so that anyone who wants to get state din this hobby of ours will see that having basement much smaller than the local baseball of football stadium isn't s problem.

Irv

I've evaluated the cost/benefit of NMRA membership about every decade since I started in the hobby, and always came to the conclusion that my severely limited budget was best served by what it put on the layout table. 

That is the same process I have gone through every time I considered becoming a member.  This news has made me take notice.  Perhaps it's time to reconsider?

Irv,

I'd be surprised if Bachmann and Kato unitrak in *HO* scale mate with each other.

But Atlas, Shinohara, Peco, Micro Engineering, etc flex track can be interconnected. But then, can't Atlas, ME, and Peco flex track be interconnected in N? And DCC systems will work in N with any brand of decoders in any brand of locomotive...

Since you feel so strongly about unitrak, perhaps you should join the NMRA, become a member of the standards department, engage the manufacturers and create the standards you seek.

Regards,

Charlie

Kato makes a conversion piece of track (part #20-045) that allows you to connect Atlas snap track to Kato Unitrack.  Realistically, though, Kato's Unitrack, Bachmann's EZ Track Atlas' True Track and other roadbed on track systems are are proprietary track systems and had no intention of being interoperable, nor should they be in my view.   Its like Sargents and Kadees - not compatible together but have little point in being compatible.  The incompatibility has nothing to do with standards by the NMRA or the influence of N scale in the NMRA.

You know, I don't get it.

Passionate N scale modelers complain that the NMRA is HO-biased and doesn't care about N. They complain that the organization is made up of mostly HO modelers and is not giving N scale the attention that it needs.

What's wrong with this picture?

You don't get an HO-biased organization to care more about N scale by severely beating the HO guys about the head and shoulders! You get an organization to have more passion about N scale by having passionate N scale modelers getting involved and changing the mix!

DUH.

If you want the NMRA to be more passionate about N scale, then some of you passionate N scalers need to join and make it happen.

Just complaining about the "HO guys" in the NMRA not getting it won't solve anything.

Remember, the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. If you want the NMRA's attitude about N scale to change, then change your approach. Stop complaining and start working to get passionate N scalers in the organization's groups and committees. Ideally, if you're a passionate N scaler, then YOU join and change it.

If you say that won't help, then how do you know that? Has it been tried and failed?

SO I was at the NMRA site today and my wife looks over my shoulder......

wife..."Is that a train site or a porn site?"

me..."train site honey"

wife..."then why does their logo look like a woman's breast?"

um, I think that they missed the mark.....

Yes, the private joke at the convention was that with the new logo, NMRA members need to avoid walking around in pairs ... (wink)

I am a meber of the NMRA and have been since som time in the 1980s. I have made views kjnon but its only recently that the powers tha be have paid any attention to N-Scale and N-Scalers. But there is more to be done including have N-Scalers actually represented as N-Scalers and that requires that teh regions also inlcude N-Scalers. The NMRA needs to consider other scales important as I think we are  growing portion of the hobby which has been overlooked in terms of new stuff and satisfying our desires. The N-Scale organizatio sthat already exist were nevr able to get the NMRA s attention before because of its overwhelming bias for HO-Scale only.

Irv