Oh yes! She is very understanding or I would be on the street. Since I have been retired a couple of years, she understands the need for me to have something to occupy my time and she knows my love of trains from a previous run I had in MR. She does help me some on the layout, but is more excited by my enthusiasm with the hobby. I took her with me to a district train show in October. We went in and I started talking to some of the fellows I knew, but when I turned around to introduce her, she was clear across the Center going from one layout to the other. I finally lost her and had to get a missing child announcement. [:D]
Everyone loves Trains!
REX
Well let’s see, we go to a train show. Look at the stuff for sale and we leave with stuff. She’s carrying the trains she bought and I’m walking along side empty handed.
When I was really into trains years and years ago she was not understanding, lets say she ignored it all and unless I got too involved and over the top she stayed out of the way. She did like steam locomotives though and if I was out taking photos of steam she would pick up a spare camera and shott some photos from different angles than I was. In 95 during it’s final months we shot Tenesssee Pass and she loved the scenery so she picked up a camera and shot a few from different angles. Beyond that it was too much.
Now that I have been away from the hobby she is not afraid to voice likes for aspects of it for fear of being “recruited” and having to hear even more about trains. She enjoys a ride on the narrow gauge or ski train. She has expressed an interest in nice model scenery and nicely built and weathered buildings and might try her hand at it sometme knowing I only have a passing interest now and she won’t get overwhelmed.
Well I guess I’m one of the more lucky ones. My wife buys her own trains, her own buildings, buys me track and says “I want you to make the track go this way (diagram provided)”. That was true in HO and N scales, now that we have moved out to the garden it is hard to determine just who “owns” the GRR. All structures have been B-day/Xmas/Fathers day/any excuse presents from her. I will admit that since she is a gardener (by occupation) I have willingly conceded the live plants for the GRR to her. My next project is to comply with her wishes, a 145 foot run (one way) out and back thorough her apple/plum/orange trees.
She actively searches out train stores for me to go to.
She Prepays for tickets to train shows. While at the shows, she pays for food and trains.
So I guess that I’m a little more lucky than most.
P.S. She’s been doing this for over 30 years, so I guess “she’s a keeper.”
My wife tolerates my hobby and even goes to some of the train shows with me as well as some railfannning. Of course it’s all her fault - she bought me my first train that started me in this hobby, not that she knew where it was going to lead.
Enjoy
Paul
Let’s see. On our last trip to Dallas she mentioned that there was a train show in Fort Worth and wanted to know if I wanted to go. While there she saw me looking at a structure kit that I’ve wanted for a while and said “why don’t you get it?” The previous trip I wanted to stop by Discount Trains in Addison. I wandered the aisles for about an hour just looking at all kinds of stuff. She wanted to know why I wasn’t getting anything. A half hour later walked out with some real neat stuff.
Understanding is not the right word because it implies that she “understands” why some men go crazy over trains. She doesn’t “get” it, but I don’t understand why women need so many pairs of shoes. But insofar as the hobby goes, she likes the fact that I have something like that. She has her sewing hobby so I guess she understands the need for a hobby.
I know the feeling, my wife is also very supportive, and I have said the same things when needed. Her most recent gesture is to let me build a layout in the spare bedroom (roughly 10X12) and sure I’m taking her up on it!!
Despite my grousing, I have a very understanding wife. She can probably tell which is the locomotive and which is the caboose, but operationally that is about all. She doesn’t understand my interest in trains, but then again, she doesn’t understand my interest in football, hockey, the Three Stooges, tools or much of anything else we men tend to be interested in. But she supports it, and even keeps it as a priority when we do stupid things like look at houses or house plans!
I do bounce ideas for buildings, scenery and non-railroad operations stuff off of her. I suspect she will help with the scenery, when and if I ever get that far.
My wife caught me on the computer yesterday and asked, " are you bidding on more model RR stuff, I said " of coarse not, “this is a forum and they tell you how to model without spending too much money.” Thanks guys!!!
My soon-to-be wife (getting married March 17th of 2006) is O.K. with my addiction to model railroading. She said she loves to come down to the basement and see me in my “element”.
Wow! Except for the “moving down south” part ( I was already here ), that sounds A LOT like me and my wife! It is SO NICE to have a wife that gives you the freedom to enjoy this hobby of ours!
I set my wife straight before we got married…I told her that i’m a train nut…i spend a lot of time with them and if she don’t like it then there is no sense in us getting married…she has never complained about them ever and i’m thankful she puts up with them…just don’t forget to bring her some flowers once in awhile and spend time with her and everything is gonna be alright…chuck
I am fortunate to have an understanding wife who is very supportive with this hobby of mine. When I first started into the railroad hobby many years ago, she would always accompany me to the LHS and even bought a few engines for me. Through the years she still shows her interest and is my best critic.
Mine is also very supportive. She painted the background scene on the wall behind the layout. She seems to enjoy the railroad museums we go to. She enjoyed the “Tour of the Line” ride on the Algoma Central several years ago. She liked our trip on Amtrak’s Capitol Limited a couple of years ago. While that was not her first train ride, it was the first time in a sleeping car and dining car. Her grandfather was a conductor on the C&EI but unfortunately he passed on way before I even knew she existed.
My wife has been generally supportive, but I can’t think of a time when I got so out of control where I had to resort to using a feeble line like “hey - it could be drugs, gambling…”. If that ever occurs, I’d say she has every right get in my face about it. I depend on her to make sure my hobby doesn’t become an obsession.
The real key to her continued support and interest in my hobby is that I never put her in a position that would require her to be “understanding”. The day this hobby becomes more important than my marriage and/or family is the day I’ve mentally checked out.
It’s just that this original post seems like part of a “Columbo” plot to me…
“Honestly Looootenant. Does this seem like the sort of E mail a loving husband would post if he was intending to run his wife over with his Rivarossi Big Boy”?