Master Model Railroader

"An NMRA member qualifies as a Master Model Railroader when he or she has obtained at least seven of the eleven Achievement Certificates provided that he or she has earned at least one Achievement Certificate in each of the four areas of the Regulations. Earning the title of Master Model Railroader is the ultimate goal for many participants in the Achievement Program."

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Master Builder Cars - First efforts

The first certificate that I started to build models for was Master Builder Cars back in 1999. That was the time I was persuaded that this would be the easiest certificate of all (!!). Ha!

I modified an Athearn Santa Fe cupola caboose or waycar to stay with Santa Fe lingo. I installed brake gear, new ladders, window screens, marker lights etc and was very proud of the outcome, because I followed a construction article from Andy Sperandeo from Model Railroader Magazine









I submitted my model at the NMRA concention in Minneapolis/St. Paul in 1999.
Although the judges certified me a throughout good job, it nevertheless earned only 64 points out of 125.


Construction: 18/40
Detail: 9/20
Conformity: 21/25
Finish: 14/25
Scratchbuilding: 2/15
This judgement made me aware of the fact that I probably had not the required knowledge yet to succeed in this certificate.

I then put cars on the backseat and continued with structures instead.



In the meantime I tried my hand on scratchbuilding a simple flatcar and entered for merit award judging in 2003 or 2004 at the British Region convention.


I probably did not do enough research and although it was almost completely scratchbuild except for the trucks and couplers it only earned 68 points.

Construction: 20/40
Detail: 12/20
Conformity: 13/25
Finish: 10/25
Scratchbuilding: 13/15

That's when I laid cars completely aside for a couple of years and it would only be my last certifcate that I completed before MMR.

More on this in another post.



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