Do they support you? Help you? Laugh and point? My wife is very excited about the progress of my layout. She is very interested in the scenery aspect and wants to help with that. She's very patient... even when we sit in a freight yard for 3 hours on a Saturday afternoon waiting for trains to roll through. She even bought me my first locomotive. Wow, after reading that I guess I'm pretty lucky. D6
My wife of 31 years is very supportive. Last year as I started building my monster layout, see http://www.trainboard.com/userphotos/wfp.jpg, she was encouraging and very helpful. She takes pride in the operations and purchases of new equipment. I enjoyed her help but was floored when she suggested extension to the other 1/4 of the basement! Wow what a woman!. She even accellerated the plans by insisting that I get the lumber for the tables when we last went to the hardware store! She does hold me back from all that shiny brass stuff, but otherwise is a great railfan and hobby lobbyist.
Do you count EX-significant other. At first she got a kick out of driving around on photo trips. Always had to include stuff for her though. She even said she'd paint my buildings and stuff. After a few years she decided that I loved trains more than her and left. Oh well just more time to play with my trains!!
My wife of 39 years supports my model railroad hobby. It's my use of the Internet to get on boards like this and therefore the telephone she objects to!
I will have to say that my wife of almost 49 years supports my Railroad Hobby. She has even helped pick out some rolling stock and buildings and once talked me into getting a little diesel switch engine because it was cute.. What really surprised me was last night she suggested that being I wasn't very happy with my layout, why don't I tear it down and build a larger one around the walls instead of a table that it is on now. She even suggest a double decker. I immediately got my tape measure and started measuring around the walls and made a rough plan on a sheet of typing paper. She said not to go to fast as money is in short supply but to build as dollars become available. How is that for a wonderful wife?
Since I rambled loud and long the last time this came up, I'll just up date here. This afternoon, my lovely, beautiful, trophy wife informed me that she successfully out bid and got a 1940 issue of an Engine Mechanic's Hand Book! She has furnished me an 1899 Machinists's Hand Book, 1905 Steam Engineer's Reference Book, and a 1925 Steam Engine Encyclopedia, and "talked" me into purchasing the New York Railroad Supply Company's computer controlled turn table motoring kit. She of course has her own check book full of blank checks to purchase any antique dolls she might happen to like, and I occasionally have a custom hand made doll for her as a surprise. It balances out. She is still a FOX in my book!
My wife of 31 years is quite happy with my hobby, as it is also how I make a living She very often comes with me to railfan venues, and even makes a point of taking train photos for me when she is away on holiday with her mum in other countries!
Although my wife does not actively participate in my hobby she does like to show friends the work I have done. She also doesn't mind me spending on my hobby as it then eases her guilt when she spends money on clothes
I have been married 25 years. My wife is neither here nor there about my hobby. I dont have a lot of money to spend on model RRing anymore but I do read the mags and occasionally I will buy a kit or a model(just got a 1:50 scale CORGI model of a Twin Cities PCC streetcar at the Seashore museum store in Maine)and we are still paying college tuitions. I also dont have a lot of room for a model RR since my cabinet shop takes up much of my basement(I dont have time for THAT either with my job). My wife and kids used to make fun of me and my liking for trains until I got hired by the BNSF and my wife saw my first "real" paycheck. They don't poke fun anymore!!! The payback is that I get to railfan "up front and personal" every day on the job!!
When we're sitting in the family room watching the boob tube, my bride of 23ys will say, 'this is a lady movie, and I'm not turning to the "tank" channel, why don't you work on the railroad'. When the kids come home with their boyfriends they always bring them down cellar to check out Dad's 'electric trains'. As the other 'old married hands' mentioned its' a quid pro quo. They get to shop for things they want and we get to buy more locomotives.
As I mentioned in another forum in TB, I'm making a switch to N scale in order to have a model RR. Today my wife and I went to Lobo Mountain Trains (a local hobby shop here in the valley) to check out the N scale goodies. Well, by the time I left I had an Atlas N scale GP7 in layaway, and I've got my eyes on an SD7 and one of Likfe-Like's SW7s. Wow, I didn't even know the detail had improved that much! Here's the best part- my bride of 13 years gave me the gren light to make the purchase. As a matter of fact, she wondered why I didn't get the two other locomotives I was looking at. The tradeoff here is that she wants to repaint our townhome, and she gets money to do that. She's also gotten new traverse rods & drapes for the living room & bedroom, which I just finished installing. I get something, she gets something- it works out well
When I was a courtin' mrs yankinoz she bought me a train set for christmas. That pretty much sealed the deal for me I am active in the hobby not only with her blessing but as a result of her encuragement.
Mr. Dante, Thnak you very much for the insight. I never realized that until I saw your post. "When the kids come home with their boyfriends they always bring them down cellar to check out Dad's 'electric trains'. I never realized how good a thing that could be. BTW, I have to teenage girls who are doing great! Thanks again, cjh
My wife of 8 years, supports my trains hobby very much. When we met she wondered about the fact that I said I have other things to do besides sitting around watching the boob tube. She knows that I will be in the basement with the layout. She has learned that alot of the guys will come in the house and head straight to the basement. She has met a whole group of people through my N-Scale modular club(K-SONS), NMRA, and NRHS. Everyone of them are good down to earth people. She has become very active in each club. She has her own hobbies and I support them fully. It is a two way street.
My wife loves it.Except when she has to step over stuff (i.e.boards drills saws) when she comes upstairs to the trainroom.In fact she is painting the stairs to look like a length of track with a mars light comming out of a tunnel at the top when you look up!In fact Im trying to figure out how to wire up train sounds whenyou open the door you will look up to see where the sound is coming from .She's even going to paint a backdrop .