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EduTRAIN

NMRA EduTRAIN® is several things

  • It is a program intended to help the NMRA better fulfill its charter objective of providing education and training for model railroaders.
  • It is intended to provide another reason for model railroaders of all skill levels to join the NMRA and consider participating in the AP Program.  Toward that end, many of the EduTRAIN® Clinics will focus on skills needed to complete various categories in the AP Program (e.g., Structures, Scenery, Cars, Motive Power, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Chief Dispatcher.)
  • Additionally, the EduTRAIN® re-usable turnkey clinics will cover other common aspects of model railroading including layout planning/design, layout construction, track laying, adding power, weathering, etc.
  • NMRA EduTRAIN® clinics will include traditional presentations as well as demo labs and hands on (Make and Take) workshops where the primary objective is to teach a skill or technique.  Each EduTRAIN® Clinic will be developed using the Microsoft Power Point® Program and will contain detailed enough speaker notes to allow persons other than the author to present the clinics at their Division and Region levels.
  • EduTRAIN® will also include clinics to train model railroaders to become more comfortable and proficient at creating and delivering presentations (Train the Trainers).
  • Once a clinic has been accepted into the EduTRAIN® Program, it will be posted on the “members-only” side of the NMRA website where will be available to Regions and Divisions for presentation at official NMRA events. NMRA EduTRAIN® does not include or replace other informational clinics such as layout tours, travelogues, or general information on railroad practices at NMRA events. If you have a favorite clinic, NMRA EduTRAIN® does not render it obsolete. But if you have a clinic that does a particularly good job of teaching other modelers how to do something related to model railroading as detailed above, AND you are willing to consider some rework to the speaker notes to make it usable by others, we would like to talk to you.  You can send an e-mail to the EduTRAIN® Coordinator at edutrain [at] nmra.org , or to the Education Department Manager at educate [at] nmra.org