I have been an HO model railroader for 20 plus years off and on. I haven’t been able to get too much going because of small space or limited funds but I chip away at it. I have been married for almost 8 years and my wife and I haven’t seen eye to eye very much regarding my hobby because of space and money.
Well, this last weekend we went to a Model train show with our 3 sons. As we were about half way through looking at all the layouts my wife tells me she wants to build an N scale layout because the size intrigues her and thinks it would be fun to do. What a shock! Before we left she bought a locomotive, some books and gave me a description of how she wants the layout to look.
I don’t know what had more of my attention, the train displays or her announcement. She told me she had been thinking about building one for a while but she felt HO was too big for her. Wow.
So, I am now trying to help her design a small layout she can build. This should be fun. I’ll try to let you all know how it is going periodically.
Wow, wish my wife would say something like that. Mutual trips to the LHS would be a lot better than her dragging me to AC Moore and Michaels all the time.
now we know who wears the pants in the family!..LOL…good job!..i wish i could get my wife THAT interested in the hobby…she’s ok with it, but won’t touch the controls…at least she got out the walther’s catalog and ordered me a lot of stuff for christmas…I think i’m going to keep her!..chuck[:D]
Sounds like a compromise better than any world leader could ever come up with!! I would assume that if she wasn’t already, she’s a keeper now!! (Better watch out though . . . in my experience it seems that women, once they are into something go all the way. So when she starts nitpicking your work, rivit counting your next kitbash and telling you that you can’t get a new car because the railroad needs more motive power as well as DCC - just remember “Model Railroading is Fun!”
That’s great! My dear wife is very encouraging in that respect - EVEN when I’ve spent a little more than I should on things. She’s always asking me, “How’s the train business?”
I recently changed my layout to incorporate a new idea that I had been kicking around for a while, which basically eliminated the small 4 track yard that I had. My wife mentioned to me just this tonight, with a somewhat forlorned look on her face, “Ya’ know…I miss seeing the yard on the layout.” - basically implying that the current layout was missing something important. I didn’t comment but inside I thought, “Whoa! She does notice things.”
So, blueriver…strike while the iron (rail)'s hot! It’s great when the whole family can be involved on the same project together. Do keep up posted on how things are coming along. Thanks for sharing that…
Get involved with a modular layout rr group, maybe you can both work on a module together. My wife has a corner she very proudly displays at the shows, she has total control of everything but the structure under the table surface and loves the challange.
My wife is not personally interested in trains, but she is quite supportive of my involvement in it - it diverts me from other unhealthy attractions (booze & women). She wants me to try to involve the kids as much as possible, but so far only my youngest (6yr old) daughter pays any attention when I’m doing train-related activities.
It was actually my wife who got me “back on track” [(-D] with building a layout in our new house. I’ve spent the last 4 years building huge steel mill structures and posting articles about them on my web site. She kept asking me, WHEN are going going to rebuild your layout? She believes the kids will be more interested once they start seeing moving trains. Amazingly enough, even I have gotten more excited[:P] about returning to the Land of Living Trains!
Everytime I go to a train show, swap meet or the LHS, my wife has only this to say: “Drive carefully and don’t you dare come back empty handed” Then I come back with maybe a box car or some other small stuff and I’m greeted with: “Is that all you bought, why didn’t you buy a locomotive”. I’ve been married to her for 43 years and that explains in part why I have so many locomotives.
I can’t complain either. It is nice when “upper management” is in sync with your interests. Two years ago, we completed an addition to our home… a new two-car garage, a downstairs bath and… a 18x20 “bonus room” which just happened to fit above the garage AND was officially leased to the Eastern Division of the NKP… as long as I keep her in the “upper management” position! : ) I didn’t even have to negotiate the lease!
On my first layout, I built scenery and after a few weeks my wife kept telling how to make it look better so I told her to redo it and it was better. We are now building our third layout and she does all the scenery and has started into building buildings and other parts of the layout and loves it .
Neat blimp pictures, danmerkel! Several years ago I worked for a guy who was into hot air balooning. Got my first baloon ride back then. Like you say, “What a ride!”
Well what do you know. My fiance and I are going to Dallas this weekend. After reading the initial post on this thread I just mentioned at dinner that there was a train show in Fort Worth this very weekend. I just got an email from her saying she found $1 off coupons for the show on the internet. Wow! I guess she’s a keeper too!! I better hurry up and marry her and elect her to the Board of Directors!
Good for you! My wife is definitely supportive. Once in a while she’ll even go with us when me and my 2 year old son go “down to the trains.” Moreover, she once gave me a cab ride on the local tourist line’s “engineer for a day” program as a birthday gift. Most recently, her folks got me an annual pass for that route.