Hello Im Peter I would like to get started in model railroading but I have a few questions. I am a beginner and am only 14. My main question is: What is a modelers License, as I have read about people useing them in the MRR Mag? Also if anyone has advice for beginners, that would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.
Modeler’s License is just a term used as the modeler, you have the license to change, alter or build as you see fit for your needs. Some may be reproducing a model of a prototype and actually want to have it resemble the origional as close as possible, however, if changes are needed to be practical in the actual building you are using modeler’s license.
Modeler’s License let’s you take a prototype and tweek it.
Modeler’s License allowed me to put Reading Bee Line logo on some C424s, even though, in real life Reading only applied to its C630s, SD45s, adn U30Cs. And to paint a Soo Line SW1500 in Candy Apple Red, when really they were retired before the Candy Apple Red scheme came around.
Nick
It’s just an expression to say that you’re giving yourself permission to bend the “modeling rules” to make a model suit your needs.
It allows me to have all four seasons on the same layout and to have wormholes so I can go from Southern Minnesota to New Mexico to Montana to Arizona in a span of 20 feet. One of the giants expressed this by saying he does not have a model railroad but a miniture railroad. It means you should build what you want, which may or may not include exact replicas of something. This comes from the guy who put both Yosemite falls and Yellowstone falls in Bryce Canyon. That is modelers licence.
Modelers License is a thing that allows you to model something that may not have happened. My layout that I’m planning is loosely based on the Norfolk Southern Pokey sub. But becuase I like single track its not, While at the same time I model modern day Norfolk Southern, I’m gonna have a trio on unpatched SP SD40T-2s(Too good looking to pass up) and some ATSF FP45s and a Mixed bag on patched and UNpatched Conrail locos. And it also will allow me to have some Southern and N&W stuff on my layout. My theory behind my layout is I can have any RR that runs through the monutains, in any Era.Some days i might run only NS power, Others i might run the SP and ATSF power. Then I might go back in time and model PreNS and have SOU and N&W.
Modeling license? Modeling license?
You mean to tell me that I have to get a LICENSE to model now? Good grief! I thought it was bad enough that Massachusetts made me get an ELEVATOR license when I worked in a warehouse!! Even had to take a TEST!! LOL!
Peter, welcome to a lifelong hobby! As you get started, you may be tempted to buy a train set from Wal-Mart or a similar store to save money. That could prove to be a bad choice! Find a hobby store (referred to as LHS - Local Hobby Shop) that stocks trains. Get to know the people who work there. Most shops are glad to answer questions and give you good advice. If they suggest that you buy engines and rolling stock separately, they are giving you time-honored good advice!
They should also recommend some books that offer advice to the new model railroader. You can buy the books and often your local library will have copies you can borrow. If the library doesn’t have any on hand, ask if they can get them. Libraries have lending programs with each other. The books will give you some good reading material and help get you started.
The most valuable resource you can have for modeling is this forum (okay, there are other forums, but this one usually has someone knowledgable to answer your questions in a timely manner). Don’t be afraid to ask ANY question. The saying around here is: “the ONLY dumb question is one that ISN’T asked!” Most true, most true!
Glad to have you here. Have fun!
Darrell, quiet…for now
Everybody is WRONG!
Modeling License is granted by your parents allowing you to build your own world.
They will give you a Contractors License when you start to build.
Then you get your Building License when you start making strustures
And last they give you an Engineers License so you can run the trains.
Each license has a FEE just like in the real world. That FEE may be chores, grades in school or just asking you to help them with something.
It is ALL GOOD and will help you in life.
[#welcome]
I can not remeber back to 14.
I have a poetic license!!
I saw a peanut stand;
I heard a rubber band;
I saw a needle that winked its eye;
But I think I will have seen everything;
When I see an elephant fly. - From Dumbo
Actually, there is considerable flexibility in modeling and model railroading - there are, to be sure, certain hard factors of technology you will have to follow if you are going to get your railroad to run without problems but “modelers license” allows you to slap “Pennsylvania” on the flank of a 2-8-4 Berkshire - such a thing may cause sever gastric distress to Pennsylvania Railroad modelers but there’s technologically nothing wrong with it.
I have no idea whatsoever what I am talking about and I am sure you will shortly hear from those informing you of that fact!!!
Awhile back someone made up a “Modelers License” certificate and offered to email it to interested members of the forum.
An even more likely example when you’re just starting out. My locomotives are from B&M, PennCentral, Amtrak, M&StL, Sante Fe and Union Pacific with some loaned equiptment from Pennsy and Burlington. Obviously, they all never met in one flat rural place. They didn’t all exactly co-exist in time either. Still, they run and for me, for now, it’s all good. When I make the investment in DCC it will be all undecorated and I’ll be naming my line then. On the other hand, license is most used for space. Moving two small cities closer together or as we read in MR a bunch of issues back, the horseshoe curve was modeled but the model’s curvature was much tighter than the real location. It’s the look and feel that is more important than the exactness of the model. If you want it to be a copy of real life, you’d have to measure each tree along the way as well. The PM guys don’t like my layout, yet, but it is MINE as yours will be yours.
A long time ago I read about a fellow who built a layout with only track and a few RR structures. He had an operating hump yard. Purely operational layout. Other people go for very real looking scenery, weathering everything, even putting litter on the tracks at the stations. Find your calling.
HAVE FUN! Don’t throw anything.(hi Ken!)
That would be me! I still have the license if anyone would like one. It’s completely free. It requires that you have Microsoft Word to open it, add your name, and then print it. Just email me and I’ll be glad to send you one.
Everyone needs their own license, thus no one can argue or nit-pick any of your choices in designing your own MR kingdom. [;)]
Yeah, I got one of those modeler’s licenses from you. It’s framed and hanging on my layout room wall.
Looks really good there.
i’ll bet you could sell them in the classifieds in the back of MR or on ebay [:D]
Sell the modeler’s license? Naw, that’d be work! This is supposed to be fun. [:)]
Hey, if you email me via the forum to obtain a license please include your email address. The forum system hides your address and doesn’t allow a “reply” function.
By the way, these licenses may not be admissible in court, confer no real authority, batteries are not included and may not be used as legal tender except for the fireplace.
I emailed you just before [:D] (off board)
Modelers license is very useful, even companies Like BLI and Tower 55 use it, with their Fantasy loco’s! so it isn’t just reserved to us “common” folk [:D]
An example of it would be my track. I hand lay it, I glue on the rails etc etc. I don’t put in spikes though. Other then that, most people like my track and rarely mention the spikes 
That’s modelers license. Make it as good as you are comfortable doing it. And it is done 