01-29-2009, 11:13 AM
This comment is somewhat "off topic", but this topic may have already been run into the ground. Charlie B mentioned the reviews as free ads in the magazines. I had naively thought that the reviews featured objective analysis of the products reviewed by the magazine until I started reading the "new generation" Scale Rails published by the NMRA and edited by Stephan Priest. I was surprised to discover that most of the locomotives and rolling stock that they have tested in the past year FAIL to conform to NMRA standards in at least 1 or 2 of the measurements. This included some pretty expensive models of steam engines as well as diesels. It may not be a big deal to regauge wheel sets on a diesel locomotive to get it to conform to NMRA standards, but regauging a steam engine to make it conform may require requartering as well. When was the last time anyone read of a model tested in any of the model railroad magazines that didn't meet NMRA standards. The standards have nothing to do with how closely the model replicates the prototype. They have everything to do with how well the model will work when put on the model railroad and used in a train or pulling a train. The only standard I've ever seen noted in a model railroad mag test is whether a piece of rolling stock is weighted correctly or not and how hard it would be to add the appropriate weight to the model.