Achievement Programme

As you may know, the NMRA has an Achievement Programme, or AP in short. The AP is simply said a recognition system for your modeling skills. Sometimes you can enter the fruits of your labour in a contest, and with enough points, you can get a merit award in that particular catagory. Independent judging outside a contest is also possible. The AP has several catagories, among which Motive Power, Cars, Scenery, Civil Engineer, Volunteer etc.

Depending on the catagory, you need several merit awards to complete that particular part of the AP. Should you do this in sufficient catagories, then you can be awarded the title of Master Model Railroader. I have no illusions that I will reach that goal anytime soon, but rather I want to use the AP program to measure my modeling skills. The point scoring system used is a good way of showing what I could improve, and what I may be good at, and it's a fun way to learn new skills. So at present, besides me building on my own model railroad, I am researching several things towards earning merit awards. Currently collecting drawings and data of several locomotives, and freight car types, for future projects in the Motive Power and Cars catagories. For more on the AP, see  The Achievement Programme .