Well I have a similiar experience with my wife. She encouraged me into a new hobby (only two weeks ago) as we figured Drag racing was getting too expensive as we near retirement. Her father was a machist at the local Clyde-GM plant here for 27 years and my wife is also an ameteur historian, so trains play a big part in researching our city’s history. (Sydney, Australia)
Well, my partner is generally supportive of my hobby, although not being a railfan per se. I think she’s more intersted in the arty aspect of it - scenery, painting, etc. as her mother’s an art teacher.
My partner’s grandmother, on the other hand, is interested in trains, as her late husband used to work for the railways. When I moved in with my partner, her grandmother stopped by to see my model railroad - a ‘plywood pacific’ at that stage. She’s since gone to a couple of model railroad displays with my partner during their usual Saturday arvo trips.
Lets just say my wife is extremely train tolerant as she’s just given up her rights to the rest of the basement as recently as the other night when she was explaining to me where she thought I could put my “helix thingy” I wanted to eventually have. She’s found trains on line for me booked us motels for train shows found me trains at yard sales etc. but has attended her one and only train show and as she puts it thats enough. I think this is as good as it’s going to get . If she were too much into trains then she would be telling me how to build my layout like she’s tried to tell me how to build my hot rods and motorcycles.
We’re all supposed to be tollerant of each other now a days so it works out well just the way it is.
Mine tolerates it, but that’s all. I enjoy her quilting, actually she’s better at quilting and patchwork than I am at modelrailroading. We don’t go to the others shows though.
Pretty much not at all. She calls it my “crack” habit, which would be fine if she were just talking to me, but sometimes she starts in with the neighbor kids (who happen to like trains). That’s not to say she doesn’t get me gifts and throws some extra cash at me once in awhile. The one thing about trains she does like is riding them.
I have some friends that have wives that are very supportive, even helping at shows and with duties in historical societies and such. I am envious.
Well guys, I must be the luckiest man around. When we got married 5 yrs. ago, my wife gave me the garage to play with my trains ( aren’t they cute). After about a year, I got her to help me with some plaster. The next thing I know, she’s up on the bench work, and as she’s planting little tufts of grass, she looks over and says, well you did it, I’m hooked! She is now in charge of finishing scenery, makes the most beautiful pine trees (a la Paul Scoles), and is building what I think are contest quality plaster buildings from Downtown Deco. As soon as someone shows me how, I’ll post a bunch. I think it’s a woman’s patience that helps her more than anything. This is the greatest hobby ever, and it makes it just that much better to have a wife who enjoys it as much as me! And having the CFO on board sure makes it a little easier to get that new kit I want!
I knew a guy years ago who had married a girl he had met in Bangkok; he referred to her as his Railroad Thai!
My first wife was tolerant; my second–and current one–is a little bewildered I think. She doesn’t understand the meaning of the word “archive” and therefore doesn’t comprehend my enrapture with my 50+ year collection of hobby magazines! To here they are just fuel to turn a small fire into a raging conflagration!
My wife is not a modeler, but she is a big railfan. For our honeymoon, we rode the Algoma Central from the Soo to Hearst and back in May.This is NOT the tourist train. We were the only two passengers for most of the second half of the trip.
She enjoys listening to recordings of Japanese train boarding announcements, as she went went to Japanese high school (her dad was in the Navy and they lived on the economy.) Needless to say, any vacation includes at least one train ride.
We’re going to Chicago the weekend after next to attend the Trains/Amtrak town hall meeting – and ride some trains.
We’ve taken Amtrak clear across the country and back twice and we both had a great time.
She doesn’t like to touch my basement HO layout, but we’re building a garden railroad for her (I do the heavy construction and she does all else). We’re members of the South Jersey Garden Railroad Society. She’s the rason we’re part of that group - I’m just the hanger-on. Nice folks, and the G-scale layouts are interesting, but I’m into indoor scale modeling. G Scale is generally too tinplate for my taste (although there are notable G Scale exceptions).
We attend train shows together, and Division, Regional, and even National NMRA conventions together.
Well I guess my wife is, or she has her days [:-^].
Let me rephrase that. Sometimes she will get me some video or pictures from her workplace. Her job is about 100 ft from a Norfolk Southern line. Then this morning she called to tell me a MOW and a crane was going along the trestle. Also she was planning a trip to “horse shoe curve” last year, but we didn’t make it.
She will tell me/do the videos for me, but she doesn’t like the hobby stores. I’m guessing that due to spending money [:-,].
So I think she’s a railfan, just not a hobby store fan.
My wife’s great uncle retired as a blacksmith for NYC and she’s got his retirement document framed along with a matching one from the union. When she met me she liked trains but didn’t know a whole lot about them. Now she knows what makes a steamer go, how a diesel generates its power and more than she ever thought she would want to know. The sound of a Norfolk & Western whistle, it’s echo moaning off the hills, makes her get goosebumps. She’s looking forward to helping out on the scenery and structures of the railroad we’re (I’m) building. She’s also a heck of a good steady hand on a switching loco’s throttle. She can couple cars as soft as a kiss. Lucky me, she thinks model railroaders are cool people.