Page 19 - NMRA Roundhouse September October 2020

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PART 19 – The Achievement Program Section 3 – Master Builder - Cars By Alain Kap, MMR
My first contact with the Achievement Program was at the Kansas City Convention in 1998, when I attended a clinic dealing with the subject. I was persuaded that I could achieve one or the other certificate, although living in Europe. I had already earned the Golden Spike Award through my activities in the European FREMO, so the first certificate I intended to attack was Master Builder Cars. I had already proverbially “shaken the box” and assembled and detailed some rolling stock, and thus was very confident I could achieve it in no time at all. You already guessed it. My first attempts failed a year later in the contest room in St. Paul.
As it turned out, “Cars” was the last certificate I earned before becoming Master Model Railroader #526. However, this should not keep you from making it your first.
Definitions
A "Car" is just about anything that runs on rails and is NOT self- propelled (if it is self-propelled, it is Motive Power). This includes freight cars, passenger cars, maintenance of way cars (including equipment such as cranes), cabooses, cable cars, unpowered (dummy) locomotives, etc. Actually, if you have a model which is self-propelled, but is a model of something that was designed to carry something (besides itself), such as a rail car, it can be used as one of the qualifying models for either Motive Power or Cars, BUT NOT BOTH.
To Qualify For This Certificate....
You must build eight operable scale models of railroad cars:
"Operable" means that they must be able to roll on the track, negotiate a curve, be pulled by something, etc. It does not mean that every door, valve, or other moving feature of the car must work as the prototype does. (However, any operating features that you can include in your car are likely to increase your score.)
There must be at least four different types of cars represented in the total of eight. One of these must be a passenger car.
The intent of this requirement is show that you can model a variety of types of cars, not just several variations of the same type. For example: a 40' steel-side box car and a 36' wood side reefer would be different types of cars, but a 40' steel-side box car
Construction (0-40 Points)
and a 50' steel-side box car probably would not (unless you can show that there was a substantial difference in what it took to build them). Similarly, a wood deck flat car and a steel deck flat car would not be considered "different" types of cars, but a regular flat car and a depressed center flat car would, because it is a substantially different type of car to build.
"Passenger cars" include anything that would normally be found in a regular scheduled passenger train including baggage cars, express reefers, business cars, or other passenger carrying cars like drover's cabooses.
Remember, there are only four different types required. You could build a set of five identical passenger coaches, a boxcar, a tank car, and a gondola, and satisfy the requirement.
Each of the eight models must be super-detailed (see the definition for this at https://www.nmra.org/definitions#super), either with commercial or scratch-built parts.
When looking for ways to super-detail your cars, brake wheels, grab irons and ladders are good places to start - particularly by replacing the "molded on" ones that the car came with. That is where many judges start looking. Another area that many judges look for is the under-frame brake gear.
In addition to being super-detailed, at least four of the eight models must be scratch built. The term "scratch built" implies that the modeler has done all of the necessary layout and fabrication that produce the final dimensions, appearance, and operating qualities of the model.
This is a good statement of the intent and spirit of the "scratch built" requirement. Notice that it does NOT say that the use of a few commercial detail parts will disqualify the model as being "scratch built". In general, the same standard applies that in used in contest judging: "Completely Scratch Built" means that 90% or more of the model was scratch built.
The following parts are specifically excluded from the scratch built requirement:
ROUNDHOUSE - September/October 2020 - 75th Anniversary Issue
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