Alternative to the NMRA Master Model Railroader?

[Russ Bellinis]

since my previous post was a "long winded" one, I'll keep this one brief. On the MRH forum, Jack Hamilton, AP program chair for his region and mmr, chimed in. He made a number of interesting points. #1. Using technology is not "cheating. If you can use a cad program to draw up your project parts, a laser cutter to make everything, and just paint and assemble it, that is legal. #2. The AP program is not connected in any way to contest judging. In at least some regions, the AP committee will come to a person's home or make an appointment to meet with an individual to look at and judge a model for AP consideration. Whereas the contests require paperwork filled out multiple times so that each judge can take one piece of the form with him for judging, the model for the AP program can be discussed orally with the AP committee and awards issued. Jack mentioned that in many cases, he has gone to a modeler's layout to judge one item and noticed things on the layout that resulted in other AP certificates being issued, in some cases the individual even achieved enough certificates to qualify for mmr on the spot even though the person only intended to have one item judged.

I don't think I'm really interested in the program even with this new info, but I appreciate that Jack "set the record straight."

By the way, if anyone wants to read the discussion going on over at MRH, here is the link:

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Jack's response is on the 4th page.