Allan Miller posted:BurlingtonBill posted:So, Allan, if I may be so bold, why hasn't someone started a 3-R S.I.G. under the NMRA umbrella? Have there been past attempts that have failed? I honestly don't know...
I really can't answer that question. I'm an NMRA Life Member and have long been involved in multiple scales: Z, N, HO, O, On30, and Large Scale, so my interests are sufficiently varied to maintain my interest and involvement in the NMRA or just about any other group. I son'tsee any particular reason why there couln't be a 3RS SIG in the lineup. Perhaps everyone is sitting back waiting for someone else to go to the trouble to get the ball rolling.
Our readers will see a superb example of what "3-rail Scale" is in our upcoming October issue (Run 301). If that one isn't 3-rail Scale, I don't know what is.
My opinion is; the NMRA has excellent "standards" for 2-Rail O SCALE, and most/many of those recommended standards can also be used by us 3-Rail SCALE modelers. However, that said, one of the biggest problems in the 3-Rail hobby is, neither Lionel nor MTH make any attempt for follow "standards", let alone NMRA "standards"! Only Sunset/3rd Rail/Golden Gate Depot and Atlas tend to follow O SCALE "standards".