Rick / Fred
I guess I should have mentioned that I am a life member of NMRA and three of its regions and served several years as the Assistant Superintendant of the Potomac Division in Eastern Region. I only bash organizations I belong to.
Lest you be confused, I believe we only need two kind of standards for Large Scale in general; track and wheel dimensions, and coupler centerline height. NEM in continental Europe and G1MRA [Gauge One Model Railway Association] in the UK have had reasonably compatible standards for probably close to 40 years. NMRA has persisted in trying to create a different standard that makes them "irrelavent" in this context.
In short:
Track gauge: 44.85 to 45 mm [1.75in] +/-
Wheel set back to back: MIN 40mm [sorry, Mr Polk and your SD-45s] so it fits in the guard rails on pointwork [switches] and crossings
coupler height for 1:29 knuckle couplers: 1.125 in [current Kadee standard]
coupler height for 1:32 knuckle couplers: 1.0625 in [current Kadee standard]
After that, ,everything else is optional. You don't even have to use the above if you don't want to be sure you can play on other people's railroads or exchange rolling stock.
Recommended practices for other track and wheel standards might be nice, and G1MRA has very good ones, but they are not necessary for us to play together.
That's it. Hardly a set of EVIL STANDARDS as one would think of in the NMRA context of standards. I will say that I have been amused [in this light] that as folks grow their equipment rosters to larger [read more prototypically dimensioned], move from LGB 1:22.5 "G" into 1:20.32 "F", or just buy K-37s instead of C-16s, they are faced with major track realignments of radius and especially center to center track spacing. Just suppose someone had already published a set od "standards and recommended practices" on what would be the MINIMUM required to allow all this equipment to operate BEFORE they put down 600 feet of track.
Many folks in the large scale community are rightly of the "do your own thing" mind set. Those of us who favor the existence of "standards and RPs" believe that they represent , for the most part, guidelines that represent either prototype engineering practice reduced to practical limits for a given scale, or practice that represents designs and implementation that will result in sound operational practice and interoperability of infrastructure [ track] and equipment. Those who think that these standards should be "imposed" on anyone are just NUTS!
I believe the "free thinkers" are in fear of the "imposition zealots". My advice [and desire], that the NMRA embrace the current G1MRA standards, add material related to US prototype practice, and publish them. The community will decide on its own over time to adopt those that are pretty much "universally" useful, and ignore anything else that interferes with their interpretation of the hobby.
As I stated at the beginning of this RANT, those items will be a limited set of track and wheel dimemsions, and a standard coupler height. Everything else is NOISE.
I don't even suggest that manufacturers follow this guidance, their egos pretty much prevent it. Too bad.
Cheers
Dr Rivet