by PowerPoint,” until you get to the last requirement. As an
answer, I looked at the requirement to construct a car or
engine from a kit.
30 Scouts = 30 kits. Hmm. I approached Accurail
about doing a custom boxcar with a Scout logo and BSA-
significant dates for road numbers as a custom car. Ouch –
about $800, and three months lead time. There was no way I
could foot that bill and the Council would not sit still for that
either, plus a three-month lead wasn’t available.
1
1. The Merit Badge Counselor.
Railroading Merit Badge- 2
2
2. The kits lined up, waiting to be built.
So, I went back to Eric Cote of Accurail with another idea. 30 dif-
ferent kits from the tag ends of 30 different Accurail offerings
they had made over the years. Eric came back with a quote of
a 40% discount for the Scouts. I took that price to the council
and it was approved. I put up the money for the kits to allow the
council to reimburse me from entry fees after the fact.
I requested that the Railroading Merit Badge be an afternoon
class. Because I was teaching a different merit badge in an
alternate session that day, I thought that having Scouts carrying
a finished car around during the afternoon class would end up
with damaged cars and disappointed Scouts.
Presenting the basics
On the Internet I found partial PowerPoint presentations
for most of the first six requirements for the Merit Badge. I
melded them together and added a few more pieces to com-
plete a full presentation. (This presentation is available to
anyone requesting it.)
For requirement 7, I put together a handout list of publica-
tions, starting with the list on the Boy Scouts national website
and added MRH. (I took the extra time to forward a request
to National to add MRH to the list). I borrowed from my club
cars in various scales to demonstrate the different scales of
model trains.
MRH-Mar 2014
