MOROP is a European association that federates national associations of
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
and
model railroad enthusiasts.
MOROP was founded in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
by
Italo Briano in 1954, and now has its headquarters in
Bern
Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. In 2006, MOROP federated 22 national associations from 17 European countries, with a total of more than 30,000 members. The term "MOROP" is a
portmanteau
In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together. derived from "''MOdellbahn''" (German for "model railway") and EuROPe.
The most important activity of MOROP is to define and maintain the ''
Normen Europäischer Modellbahnen'' (NEM) ("European Standards for Railway Modelling") standards for model railroads. Since 1994, close ties have been established with the
National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) which defines model railroad standards for the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. For example, the NEM standards for
Digital Command Control (DCC) have been defined by working with the NMRA.
The NEM standards and other official documents of MOROP are published in
French and
German. Some NEM standards have been translated into
English, but these translations are not currently normative.
MOROP holds annual public conventions
usually held in September, in changing European locations.
References
External links
MOROP websiteMOROP article in DCC WikiNMRA website
Rail transport modelling associations
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