Model Railroading Industry Trade Association

I would first like to say hi, and welcome to all my readers. This post is going to be about the model railroading’s industry trade association the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA). This is an assignment in my Business Storytelling and Brand Development class at Full Sail University. This is meant to get me in touch with my current industry’s trade association, and to understand my market. Since my business is making model railroad how to videos the only place that I could really think about that best fit my business was the NMRA. There are other trade associations that cover model railroading like the Hobby Manufacturers Association (HMA) that hold the I Hobby Expo. They cover the companies that make, and sell toy trains. I think that the best one for me is the NMRA because they are the association that sets the standards for the manufactures to make the toys, and other materials needed to build a layout.

The NMRA is a world wide non-profit organization that is meant to help advance the model railroader through education, and fellowship with like-minded individuals. They have also worked hard to insure that hobby product manufacturers make products that can be interchangeable with each other according to a specific scale. There are a number of different scales in the hobby of model railroading; such as O, HO, N, S, Z, and On3 just to name a few. HO 1:87 being the most popular of all the scales. So as I said the NMRA have standard rules for manufacturers to build their products in specific scales. For example with HO 1:87 scale all products can be used on a layout together. This doesn’t mean that modelers don’t use other scales with HO for different purposes. An example of that is using N scale trains in the background of an HO layout for the purpose of forced perspective.

The NMRA has 15 regions in North America that cover the United States, and Canada. The region that I live in would be the North Central Region this region covers parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. In each region there are different divisions. My division is Division 1 in Toledo, Ohio. Each region, and division has officers that run the day-to-day operations of the organization. The NMRA have a magazine publication that you can subscribe to with your membership that lets you know about news, and events that pertain to model railroading/rail fanning. The NCR also has a newsletter for their specific region with more of the same. Their newsletter is called the HotBox, and the local division has one called Train Order. These publications have ads for products, news, dates for events, pictures of trains, pictures of model layouts, and articles written by members of the clubs on how to do different aspects of model railroading.

There are a number of things that you have access to by being a member of the NMRA. One for my area is if you are a member of the NMRA you are automatically a member of the NCR, and Division 1 model railroad club in Toledo, Ohio. The best thing is that you are entitled to get insurance on all of your model railroad products through an issuance company that works with the NMRA. You can be protected incase of fire, theft, and loss in an accident travelling with your model railroad products plus a lot more. The NMRA also has a program to get modelers to become the best they can. This is called the NMRA Achievement Program. A modeler must do different tasks that are model railroad related, and have them judged by their piers to earn points to get awards. There is an advanced achievement award called a Master Model Railroader that means you really know your stuff. I hope to get that title one day myself. So if you are not a member you should look into becoming one. The organization is meant to benefit the hobby as a whole, and you can reap a number of rewards from being a member too.

You can join the NMRA Here.

Thanks for stopping by I will see you all again soon.

Robert Reynolds

 Trackage Video