I belonged to the NMRA for about 10 years when I was in my late teens, early 20s, and then took a break. I rejoined about 10 years ago strictly because I was so incredibly impressed with the work the DCC committee did in standardizing on a control system format. Add on top of that the ability to participate in the National Conventions, which I have done twice, and intend on doing for the next two conventions.
Because of the efforts of the NMRA, I can take my DCC equipped locomotives over to any of my friends railroads operating with ANY DCC manufacturer's product, and it powers up, does what I tell it to do, and doesn't provide me any "Locomotive not on track" or other nonsense.
JMRI provides for a plethora of additional features that I have yet to delve into.
Is the evolution slow for features like 2 way communication. Sure it is. Do I care? Not one bit. The system, as it presently exists, more than meets my needs.
This from a perspective of an individual that scrapped a preceding command control system (Dynatrol) just so I could avail myself of the features, and compatibility of DCC.
As far as the headquarters move, and activities with the CSRM, it all sounds good to me.
Regards,
Jerry Zeman
