Flicking through my issue of MR from November 1986, I noticed a letter to the editor from a young French girl who decided to get into model railroading despite having lost an arm. Aside from the question of ‘where is she now’, this got me thinking about the gender balance in our hobby. It strikes me that while women connected with a model railroader (wives, mothers, sisters, etc) seem to support the hobby, there aren’t that many cases of women who are outright model railroaders themselves. I was wondering if anyone knew of any layouts which were done by female model railroaders, or if there may be a ‘shift’ in the gender balance? And any thoughts on why this imbalance may be the case?
I can count the number of actual female model railroaders I have read about in the magazines since the mid-1970’s (MR, MRG, RMJ, and RMC) on two hands. I’m sure there is more but its a 99%+ male hobby - I blame the genes. My fiance is threatening to play with my trains so I might have gotten lucky here.
I haven’t come across many in my model railroading travels over the years either. The ones that I do know or have met all seem to be more interested in the artistic side of the hobby as opposed to the operational.My wife, case in point loves to make scenery ,buildings,and trees etc but could care less about the locomotives, wiring or rolling stock. I count myself luckey that she has any interest. Her dad was, still is a very heavy model railroader which probably has something to do with her interest as it was something she grew up with.
I know exactly what you mean - my girlfriend’s the same way. Her mother’s an art teacher - that’s probably where the interest comes from. As riogrande5761mentioned, model railroading is probably one of those ‘guy things’, but I’m still curious if there are any female model railroaders out there.
How to tell if you have a genuine female model railroader:
She gives you a list of brass and tells you she wants one for Christmas…
She simulates a rolling brake check when she starts her freight out of the yard - after having made it up to match the deck of car cards and attaching the caboose last…
While discussing how to handle some unusual situation, she reaches over to the bookshelf, pulls down Rights of Trains, flips it open to the correct page and points out the rule…
Her average weathering job looks better than your best weathering job…
When something electrical malfunctions she grabs the multimeter…
I will concede that my own wife isn’t that enthusiastic, but I’ve met a few ladies who were. My wife settled for twisting my interest knob from New York Central to Japan National Railways with the gift of my first brass locomotive.
Whew, glad the trash can was nearby. That’s Rosie O’ Donald!
Because I had heard the same thing about Rosie O’ Donnell, you know the comedian, actress, former talk show host.
On the more serious side, there are a few female model railroaders. Elizabeth Allen is one that comes to mind. She’s well known in prototype modeling circles. I’ve seen pics of her stuff and it would put 90% of male modelers to shame.
This will probably earn me some sharp criticism but I’ll say it anyway. Boys and girls from a very young age are into entirely different pursuits. Maybe it’s in the genes, maybe it’s in the way we bring up children. My 5 y.o. grandson loves machinery. He loves cars and trucks and big machinery and trains. His 7 y.o. sister is into dolls and clothes and colouring pictures. It’s the difference between masculine and feminine. That’s not to say there aren’t exceptions, however. Many boys pursue careers which some may consider “feminine” like interior design, fashion design, cooking. And many girls pursue careers which some may consider “masculine” like construction, welding, carpentry, driving those big mine trucks. There’s nothing wrong with people pursuing careers in fields which many consider gender-specific to the opposite gender. Many of the world’s top chefs and fashion designers are men. When my eldest granddaughter was in her pre-teen years she enjoyed doing carpentry, construction work and using power tools. She has helped me build the framework for my layout and has helped me paint more than one room in the house and could patch holes in drywall as well as I could.
I think you’re right that most women would rather support the hobby than actually be model railroaders. Many times in articles in MR I’ve seen statement like, “My wife painted the backdrop,” or “My wife made all the trees on the hill.” Neither my wife nor my daughter had any interest in my model railroading other than to comment, “That looks nice, dear,” or “Great looking farm scene, Dad.” My son has about the same attitude. However, my eldest granddaughter when she was about 6 to 12 y.o. enjoyed doing scenery on my layout but had no interest in running trains and told me in no uncertain terms that she wanted nothing to do with the wiring. She has an artist’s eye and I depended a lot on her for help with scenery and detailing scenes. She was also very good at painting N scale people which I find hard to do. Now that
We’ve lived in our house for 11 years, and I think my wife has been in the train room four times. These visits usually involved an immediate need for a bat to be shoed out of a bedroom, an urgent phone call that needed to be fielded, or one or more of the children had gotten into something that needed my attention…
It would be lovely to have her share some of my quality time, but frankly, she has her pursuits and I have mine. We respect the boundaries and don’t put a lot of expectations or feined interest into it.
I do have one daughter that is particularly crafty, and she likes to mess around with some scenery projects, and has helped me with some structures and painting projects.
She built the little drainage ditch in my yard, for instance. (with direction from me). She really had fun with that little project., and I dare say it turned out nicely.
I’m working on expanding parts of the layout, and I’ll be glad to have the help. I don’t know if it will lead her down the path to ruin as a full-blown model railroader, but I certainly enjoy her creativity and company while we’re working together.
Well, we have one lady in her middle sixties at our local train club who is not only a model railroader but has two differently focused layouts in construction: 1 an older N scale layout for the '50’s with a loggling branch, and 2 a contemporary HO layout with city and industrial switching. But the funny part is how she got into the hobby! She was for many years modelling ornate circus wagons until someone gave her a train set, as a gift, so she would have a place to show off her collection. The more she explored railroading the more she got into it and now we do field trips and research at historical societies. My “train buddy” and I also do hobby shops and train shows. Ya just never know what might get a person interested, eh? John
Audrey got into MRR through her folk art painting of all things—she was painting a landscape involving an abandoned mill somewhere outside of Cleveland OH some years ago. Then the ol’ nose got out of joint----(curiousity does work!)[:)]
