MASTER MODEL RAILROADERThe Achievement Program

OfNational Model RailroadAssociation

"Model railroaders? Theirjust a bunch of overgrown kidsplaying with their toy trains!"

Have you ever heard acomment like that? If you area model railroader, you no doubthave because for many out-side the hobby, that is a com-mon and unfortunate percep-tion.

Model railroaders are notjust a bunch of overgrown kidsplaying with their toy trains!As a group, model railroadershave, without question, donemore to preserve railroadingin America than any other singlegroup or organization! It isdoubtful that many noted railhistorians take any more timeor put out more effort to ensurethe accuracy of their writtenhistories, than does that of adedicated model railroader whois attempting to recreate inminiature an exact model of aprototype engine, car, facility,or section of rail line. And ifanyone has any doubt of justhow dedicated model railroad-ers are to their task, they neednot look any further that theMaster Model RailroaderAchievement Program of the26, 000+ member National ModelRailroad Association.

The purpose of theAchievement Program is to giverecognition for those NationalModel Railroad Associationmembers who have exhibitedSUPERIOR craftsmanship andfor those how have contrib-uted SUPERIOR service to thehobby and the NMRA.

In order to acknowledgeexceptional achievement in the

many phases of scale modelrailroading, five rigorousachievement categories havebeen established to encompassboth the technical and servicephases of the model railroadhobby.

A. RAILROAD EQUIPMENT1. Master Builder - Motive Power2. Master Builder - CarsB. RAILROAD SETTING3. Master Builder - Structures4. Master Builder - Scenery4A. Master Builder - Prototype

ModelsC. RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION

& OPERATION5. Model Railroad Engineer - Civil6. Model Railroad Engineer -

Electrical7. Chief DispatcherD. SERVICE TO THE HOBBYAND NMRA MEMBER8. Association Official9. Association Volunteer10. Model Railroad AuthorE. MASTER ACHIEVEMENTMASTER MODEL RAILROADER(MMR)

Basic to each Achieve-ment category are specific re-quirements pertinent to thatcategory. Each requirementmust receive specific points asjudged via an NMRA sponsoredcontest or Achievement Pro-gram Merit Award Judging.

Master BuilderMotive Power

In order to complete the re-quirements of this category,the modeler must have builtthree scale models of railroadmotive power, one of whichmust be scratchbuilt.

Master BuilderCars

In order to complete the re-quirements of this category,the modeler must have builteight operable scale models ofrailroad cars. There must beat least four different types ofcars represented in the total ofeight. One of them must be apassenger car, and at leastfour must be scratch built.

Master BuilderScenery

In order to complete the re-quirements of this category,the modeler must have con-structed a completed sectionof a model railroad of at leastsixty square feet in 0 scale, orforty-five square feet in S scale,or thirty-two square feet in HOscale, or twenty-four squarefeet in N scale. The completedsection must contain the nec-essary scenic elements of 1)terrain, 2) structures, 3)background, and 4) lightingas combined to achieve a real-istic effect using applicableNMRA standards in that par-ticular model railroad scene.

Master BuilderPrototype Models

In order to complete the re-quirements of this category,the modeler must have con-structed an animated or staticmodel of a prototype scenecontaining as least six modelsof prototype equipment orstructures. Plans or photo-graphs must be provided toverify the final prototypicalappearance of each model andof the total scene. At least fourdifferent types of models must

be represented. They are: roll-ing stock, railroad structure,a caboose or passenger car,and a model of motive power.Any two of the six models mustbe scratchbuilt.Master Railroad Engineer

CivilIn order to complete the re-quirements of this category,the modeler must:A. Prepare one original scaledrawing of a model railroadtrack plan identifying overallsize, track elevations, curveradii and turnout sizes.B. Construct and demonstratefor Merit Judging, the satis-factory operation of a completedsection of the model railroadand trackwork described in A,containing at least fifty linearfeet of track with appropriateballast, drainage facilities androadbed profile, and trackworkthat has examples of overnineteen different features.C. Construct scratchbuilt scalemodels of any three of a list offifteen different types of trackmechanisms such as cross-overs, turnouts, springswitches,etc.

Model Railroad EngineerElectrical

In order to complete the re-quirements of this category,the modeler mustA. Construct and demonstrateon own or club layout, the sat-isfactory operation of an elec-trical control system on a modelrailroad capable of simultaneousand independent control of twomailine trains in either direc-tion that contains six specificelements.B. Wire and demonstrate theelectrical operation of at leastthree types of track mecha-nisms such as crossovers,turnouts, springswitches, etc.C. Wire and demonstrate thesatisfactory operation of at least

three of a list of twenty-onewiring related operations.

Chief DispatcherIn order to complete the re-quirements of this category themodeler must have participatedin the operation of a modelrailroad either home or club,for no less than fifty hours. Aminimum of ten hours eachmust be served in three of thefive categories listed below, oneof which must be 5. Dispatcher.1. Engineer2. Yardmaster3. Hostler4. Towerman5. DispatcherThis experience shall be ac-cumulated on one or more modelrailroads having at least twomainline trains plus yardswitching in simultaneousoperation; some system of freightand passenger train and carmovements, including roadswitching, shall be used forcontrolling train activity.

Association OfficialIn order to complete the re-quirements of this category,the modeler must have servedactively on NMRA committees(National, Region, or Division)long enough to accumulate atleast sixty certified time units.

Model Railroad AuthorIn order to complete the re-quirements of this category,the model railroader must ac-cumulate at least forty-eightpoints in any combination ofmaterials that are printed,published, and/or presentedaccording to a detailed formulaof point awards based on typeof work, type of publication,length, etc.

An NMRA memberqualifies as a Master ModelRailroader when he has ob-tained at least seven of the

Achievement Certificates pro-vided that they shall have earnecat least one Certificate ineach of the four areas of the Regu-lations.

Who said model railroaders are just a bunch oovergrown kids playing

with their toy trains! What we hawpresented in this article iscondensed version of over sixpages of specific requirement,for the MMR. Specific requirements that less than 25(model railroaders have suecessfully completed out of over26,000 NMRA members.

The Frisco RailroacMuseum Inc. is proud to bemember of the Mid-ContinentRegion, Ozark Mountain Divi-sion, of the NMRA. We anequally proud to note thatlarge segment of our FriscoFolks membership are moderailroaders, four of which hawachieved the honored distinction of Master Model RailroaderThey are:Ron Williams MMR #82Tim Kubat MMR #128Richard Napper MMR #196Jan Jester MMR #209

If we have overlookecany museum member that hasachieved their MMR, please leius know.

Oh, by the way, if a moderailroader obtains all elevencertificates they are awardecthe distinction of being a GrancMaster Model Railroader. According to our records, at presentthere are no GMMR's.

FRISCO'S EXECUTIVE FLEET

Frisco Business Car 'Florida," in storage, Springfield West Shops, circa. 1962.

FloridaThe Florida Business car

was built in June, 1896, by theOhio Falls Car Company as a 63ft. composite business car. Whileits original owner is unknown,the car was on the roster of theSt. Louis, Memphis, andSoutheastern Railroad as car1200, when the Frisco acquiredit in July, 1907. The St. L. M. &S. originally operated track andfacilities from Nash to Lilbourn,in Southeast Missouri.

While existing records donot indicate what the interiorarrangement and furnishingswere, chances are it was similarto the 2200 car, (seeAllAboard,Mississippi Car, Summer, 1995),both of which were built by theOhio Falls company withintwelve years of each other.

The car was 68 ft. overall,weighed 186,600 lbs., andcarried the standard Pullmangreen, black roof, and goldlettering color scheme of theexecutive fleet.

In May, 1947, No. 1200was renumbered car No. 6, andin February, 1948, it was againrenumbered No. 11, so that thenumber 3 car (former 1924)could assume the number 6

position on the roster. In June,1954, No. 11 was assigned thename Florida. In May, 1959, thecar was placed in storage and inFebruary, 1965, it was sold to aprivate corporation.

While in service, theFlorida car was assigned toAssistant General Manager L.B.Clary and Assistant ChiefEngineer E.L. Anderson.

Rare photo of Frisco Business Car No. 11 taking on ice for its ice-activated air conditioning system, Springfield, MO, circa. 1952.

In the hey day of steampowered locomotives haulingpassenger trains into St. LouisUnion Station, none were morebeautiful than those of the Frisco.Their conformation, colorscheme, and cleanliness setthem apart. And their ef-ficiency and quietness wassecond to none. They werein oil and came from theround house gleaming inthe bright yard lights atnight or the daytime sun-light of arrival at UnionStation. Most of the trainscoming in from the east,north, and southeast werecoal burners and passen-gers had to be careful abouttouching anything on theoutside of the coaches. Notso on the Frisco!

By the time I gradu-ated from high school atChaffee, MO, the depres-sion was beginning to ebba bit, and my dad, a train-man on the River Division,was getting more work, evenable to hold an occasionalregular run on one of amyriad of branch lines theFrisco had in the delta areaof Southeast Missouri andNortheast Arkansas. I wasstill living at home and oneday, swearing me to secrecy,my dad told me the assistantsuperintendent, Mr. Olsen, hadquietly revealed to him plansto hire some young trainmen.I did not know Mr. Olsen andasked my dad how I could identifyhim. His description was, "thefirst man you see around theFrisco office that can stand

flat footed and step in a boxcar is Mr. Olsen!"

Armed with this infor-mation I waylaid this man whoI hoped would change my life.As he made his Sunday morn-ing walk from his office to the

yard shanty, I introduced my-self and stated my purpose.Could I believe my ears whenhe turned and said, "come upto my office." He had diffi-culty, even had to call the chiefclerk at home to find an ap-plication blank, for it had beeneight years since a trainmanwas hired on the River Division.

uniform.

So my seniority datesfrom September 21, 1937,but frequently there werelayoffs. Then I would go toone of the Western, Eastand West roads which wereseeing an increase in trans-continental traffic due toworld wide concern overGerman and Japanesemilitary build up. Also moreperishable fruits and veg-etable were coming east outof Mexico and off our westcoast. I was registered forthe military draft and drewnumber 52, a low one. Eventhough experienced rail-roaders were exempted byrequest as being essentialto the war effort, I did notrequest deferment. I wasworking on the Rio GrandeDivision of the SouthernPacific between Tucson andEl Paso. One day I cameinto Douglas Arizona on aMallet engine, cab over

pilot, tunnel type, and as soonas I turned the engine over tothe engine herder, was sum-moned to the Trainmaster'soffice. I was told to report tomy draft board back in Mis-souri. He asked if I would lethim request a deferment forme and when I declined that,asked me to fire the 10th sec-tion of a troop movement back

Frisco 1517, with 'Memphian" consist in tow, arriving St. Louis, MO, March14, 1936. H.E. Leath photo

to Tucson, ready on a westbound track, except for a fire-man. I agreed I would, and wewere wearing the green for yetanother section. That was thelast civilian pay check I drewfor more than five years.

The ensuing globalconflict would become knownas World War II, to which theUnited States would commitmore than twelve million troops.Railroaders would be deployedto many places over the world.

I was assigned to the730th Railway Operation Bat-talion sponsored by the Penn-sylvania Railroad, to be part ofan operation, along with the711th sponsored by the Mis-souri Pacific, and the 762ndsponsored by Santa Fe, to helpthe Russians on their South-ern Front. They were repellingthe four German Armies, twoof these Panzer, with whichHitler was driving for theCaucases oil fields, the warmports of the Persian Gulf, anda geophysical link up with theJapanese in India. Our rollingstock included several Alcosand American steamers, alongwith fifty thousand freight cars.

While getting our over-seas railroad outfit together atFt. Wayne, IN, not long afterthe start of the war, the Friscowas getting delivery on the 4500'sfrom the manufacturer and theywere deadheaded in freightsthrough Ft. Wayne to St. Louis.A crowd always gathered aroundone of these engines that wasdestined to pull the Texas Specialand Bluebonnet between St.Louis and San Antonio.

It was in the order ofevents, that even though arailroader, I went around theworld during my military serviceof five plus years. Much of thistime was on large steampowered ships, including the

Ile De France - I always madefriends with the engine crewsand spent lots of time in theengine room. The realizationcame to me that the Scotchwere excellent steam people.In later years it dawned on methat somebody in the Friscohierarchy had preceded myobservation and had hired manyScotchmen in supervisory andother work in the mechanicaldivision of the Frisco. Hencethe superior designs and reli-ability of the Frisco steam lo-comotive.

To illustrate that reli-ability, (and the need for op-erating capital), during thedepression the Frisco ran"Baseball Specials" from S.E.Missouri and N.E. Arkansas,on Sundays, twenty-two carseach, of three trains. The fare,round trip, was one dollar togo see the Cardinals play athome in St. Louis. One ofthese trains ran as far southas Blytheville, AR. One Sun-day, two of these three enginesof the 4000 class freight weredisabled in highway crossingaccidents. The three trains,loaded with thousands of fans,were consolidated and a sixty-

six car passenger was broughtinto Chaffee with one 4000engine. The track was leveland the 4000's had boosters,but how many people have seena sixty-six car passenger trainwith two or three heads stickingout of each window?

The 1517 was one oftwenty-five of the 1500 classengines the Frisco bought topower medium heavy passen-ger trains of twelve to fifteencars over the grades that everydivision seemed to have. Inthose days the coaches were ofvery heavy steel and there wereno roller bearings - on the RiverDivision the grades were fromCrystal City to St. Louis, andthe Mississippi River bridgeapproach at Memphis. Everymorning about 7:50 a 1500would blast the late sleepersaround Lemay Hill in south St.Louis out of bed.

The "Memphian" trains805 and 806 between St. Louisand Memphis left each city at11:15 pm headed up with a1500. It's consist after thewar was at least one Pullman,a first class Club Buffet carwhere meals and drinks wereserved, a couple of chair cars,several mail and baggage and

very often private cars on therear. On train 806 I once hadcoffee with President Kennedy'sfather, Joseph F. Kennedy, inhis private car in early morn-ing between Cape Girardeauand Festus. Train 805 had amail car set out at CapeGirardeau and occasionally onefor Blytheville, AR. Train crews,that is conductor, flagman, andporter, worked all the waythrough (305 miles), while enginecrews changed at Chaffee. Theportion of the line from Chaffeeto Turrell, AR, where we joinedthe Southern Division, was notsignaled but was double trackedfrom a few miles south ofTurrellto the Memphis Bridge.

Tragedy struck 806 justafter midnight, July 23, 1948,after a normal departure fromCentral Station in Memphis.The engineer Ike Woods andfireman Fred Surman, with theirtin suit cases and clearance,came up the platform past whereI was loading passengers. Ikewas noted for staying on theschedule, and just makingconversation, I said to him,"Ike, are we going to Chaffeeon time?" His reply was pro-phetic. "BB, if she stays onthe rail, we'll be there on time!"The engine crew both lived inChaffee as did I. The conduc-tor, Jeff Johnson, lived in St.Louis and the porter, HerbertSims, lived in Cape Girardeau.I have long been the only livingmember of the five man crew.I did not personally know anyof the baggage, express, or mailmen, and I do not recall howmany of them were killed thatnight.

The right leg of the wyeleading from the Central Sta-tion of Memphis, out to themain line spring switch, wasabout three train lengths. We

completed the required braketest and I signaled Ike, bothwith lantern and train cord.As we straightened out on themain, right at the river bridgeend, I saw train 836, a fastmerchandise with it's 4000engine, panting to take up ourtrail as soon as it's ten min-utes was up. By the time wewent on double track at thewest end of the bridge ramp,Ike had the 1517 fluttering ata good 70. The order board atTurrell was clear where webranched onto the non auto-matic signaled River Division.

Our first scheduled stopwas Blytheville, AR. It took usabout twelve or fourteen minutesto handle the passengers,baggage, express, and mail atthe station, and as we werepulling by I could see theheadlight of 836 south of townshinning on our back door. Soat the north yard limit board Icracked a ten minute fussee,for that train seldom did a pickup or set out at Blytheville.Our next scheduled stop wasHayti about twenty-seven miles,with a possible flag for St. Louispassengers at Steele just tenmiles. Only seven miles aheadof us was Holland, a very smalltown that played a large partin our tragedy that night. Moreon that later.

There was a siding atHolland with the south switchon an inside curve bearing eastfor north bound trains. A checkof my watch, and from the soundstransmitted to a train crewman'sears, told me we were cruisingat 70. In an instant I wascatapulted from the rear doorof the Pullman to the frontdoor. As I was getting up,checking for broken bones,people were tumbling from bed

in their night clothes, fast fill-ing the aisle. Some werescreaming and crying but Inoticed a couple of calm menwho had boarded with Friscopasses. I asked them to standby to assist me, sending oneman to see what condition theolder conductor was in and totell him I would protect against836, the fast freight followingus. My kingdom for a radio!

Running down the backsteps with torpedoes andfussees, the Mars Oscillatinglight revealed that we were thirtyor forty feet past the sidingswitch, but not clear of themain line and that the switchlock had been sawed. I sentthe second man to give con-ductor Johnson this informa-tion, then started running backdown the track to flag 836.

About a half mile back Icame to a dirt road crossingand placed torpedoes on therails. There was no obstruc-tion between me and my Marslight and I could see it was stillfunctioning, but no head lightfrom 836. However a nervousmiddle aged man dressed as afarmer was on the crossing,and there was the dim outlineof a small farm house aboutone hundred yards along theroad. This man proved to bethe father of the boy who sawedthe switch lock and thrownthe switch against us.

Meanwhile, the conductorhad sent the porter across thecotton field, with fussees, toflag down a motorist on High-way 61 that paralleled therailroad about a quarter mileaway, to take him to Blythevillestation and telegraph office tonotify officials and medicalpersonnel.

By some miracle 836 hadbeen delayed in Blytheville andsomebody brought me a

protecting order after daylight.The man on the crossing hadreturned to his house severaltimes adding to my suspicions.An older teenager came out ofthe house and after asking whathad happened, took off towardthe wreck. Back at the crimescene I reported to Tiny Evans,Frisco Special Agent, about theman on the crossing and pointedout the boy. Tiny, (so calledbecause he was a huge man)and other law men watchedthe boy's actions among theliterally thousands of specta-tors, fingered him, and tookhim to the bedside of firemanSurman in the BlythevilleHospital, who was barely holdingonto life, severely scalded andburned, surrounded by hispraying family. Before noon,the officers has a confession.Ike Woods was not even thislucky, for his body was flat-

tened beyond recognition be-neath the 1517 and had to bedug out. He is buried at CapeGirardeau.

Murder, yes! Hard timepenalty, no!

Tiny and I drove backand forth to the trial atCaruthersville together. Sup-posedly the seventeen year oldhad been up at the Steele moviehouse and seen how the socalled "Dalton Gang" hadwrecked and robbed trains inthe old west. He had decidedto see if it would work on aFrisco train. Unfortunately, itworked in disastrous propor-tion, and the boy went free!

The 1517, as did herrunner, died an indignant andindecent death in that muddycotton field at Holland, MO. Inever saw her again and I wouldguess that due to changingeconomics on the railroad she

was not rebuilt. The last soundshe made was not an attack onLemay Hill to get her consistinto Union Station on time,but one mingled with thefireman's screams, escapingsteam, and drivers still turn-ing as she lay on her side inthat cotton field, July 23, 1948.

Frisco Folk Walt Evans provides us with a rare photo of the museum's caboose 1139 (inset),in service at Pittsburg, KS, May 9, 1970.