My wife is also my best friend and we share a lot of interests but not all, she does however like trains a great deal and can often be found constructing kits and creating scenery not to mention removing my UP and Amtrak roster from the layout so she can run her looooooong Santa Fe freight! lol! She is one in a million and I am definately blessed to have her in my life!
My former and I were coming back from the NMRA national held in San Mateo in 1981 and we had stopped off at Tehachapi for some train watching. She was paying attention to the trains as they negotiated the loop and she inquired about the bulges protruding from the top of the long hood on EMD units. Those, I explained, were associated with the dynamic brake system.
For the whole rest of our trip home I drilled her on dynamic brakes figuring that I would drop a question sometime when there were a lot of club members about and impress them with how knowledgable the little woman was.
Came the big day! We are at trackside at the club layout and a freight came by and I casually in a volume that could be heard throughout the layout room inquired "What do you call those bulges protruding out from the hood on those EMD units?"
"Oh," she blurted out, "those are catatonic brakes" I never tried that again!
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
Well, I'm not interested in the significant other debate, but Moose Bay does have some true tales made up from its legendary past. So gather 'round and I'll tell you a bit about John Buford Brad, whose statue graces the urban retreat known as Brad Park....
John Brad started out as enlistee in the Union Army in the Civil War. Why he did this is unknown, but there is anecdotal evidence that he needed to get out of town for a while, and he figured this would be an easy gig. His complete ineptitude with all manner of weaponry led to his assignment in the Quartermaster Corps, where his natural abilities in wheeling, dealing and particularly in not squealing allowed him to settle in comfortably behind a desk well to the rear of the action.
After a while, he was promoted to lieutenant, primarily on the basis of attrition of more senior officers. He conceived a scheme to enrich his fortunes back home in the sheep business, and had the U.S. Army order large quantities of haggis, to be delivered directly from his home town of Moose Bay to the troops on the front lines with Grant at Vicksburg. When the haggis arrived, the hungry Union troops demonstrated the great, sharing nature of Americans, and immediately smuggled the victuals across the river to their Confederate bretheren. Historians have traced the packing crates to the southern prison facility at Andersonville.
Word of this debacle reached high into the army command, and Lieutenant Brad was summoned to Washington. He was court-martialed, found guilty, and so disgusted the army's judicial system that he was stripped not only of his rank, but also his uniform, right there in the courtroom. At that point, however, now-Private Brad's fortunes changed again. The army was concerned with keeping their troops warm, and noticed the cozy full-body underwear he was wearing. With Guinness-like cries of "Brilliant," the officers immediately closed the proceedings, and opened new ones in which Private Brad was re-instated as a Colonel, and placed in charge of underwear procurement. From then on, the "Union Suit" or, as they are more commonly known, "Long Johns," have been a staple of winter warmth. The sheep business in Moose Bay became quite a center for wool production for a number of years, and John Buford Brad returned home a hero.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I am just about to tackle hand laying turnouts using Joe Fugates method. I spent yesterday evening talking with the wife about hand laying. She was interested enough to ask me to explain the related terms, such as frog and points. Then this morning we were talking about rail codes and the difference between mainline and branch line track work. She wants to find a location where we can examine a branch line coming off the main line to see the differences in the prototype...I am some kind of lucky guy for sure!
Hi!
I'm 64 and my wife (# 2) is very supportive of my MR activities, but she is not active in it. She has her hobbies, and I have mine - and we respect each others territory. The best thing I did when we got married was to make sure she had her hobby room, and I had mine. Of course the layout is in a third room so I guess I have more, but that's ok.
Like someone said earlier, when we were dating she was very attentive to my RR stories and projects. In fact, that is one of the reasons I married her. Today, after 7 years, she is still very supportive of my hobby activities, but she is not as interested in my stories as she once was. And frankly that's ok, and I don't bore her with anything but the basics or important stuff. The key here is that we are very supportive of each other's interests, and respect what we each do for fun. That goes a long way towards a good relationship.
I've been retired 2 1/2 years from the "earl bizzness", and went to two company sponsered retirement seminars before I pulled the plug. In both of them, a topic was "24 - 7 - 365", and how that is probably the time you will spend with your significant other that you now only see in the evenings and weekends. And they went on to talk of the value of separate space for each, the value of individual interests, and mutual respect for each other's activities - and how these would go a long way in keeping harmony in the household. How right they are!
One last note..... One of the ladies I dated when I was looking for wife # 2 was well to do with a very high paying career. I thought we would make a terrific team, in that we could pretty much have all the nice things in life (including a very nice train room w/facilities). Well, it wasn't long before I got her home and took her upstairs to see my layout (some folks use "etchings", I used trains). When I opened the door and she saw the room filling 11x15 HO layout she spent a couple of moments just looking. And then she said - in a not too nice tone - "How much did all this stuff cost?"
Well, I knew then that she was Ms. Wrong, and after a couple of weeks she was history!!!!
ENJOY,
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Well.............one minute the wife looks at my hobby with a confused face, and the next she wants to work on it, and thats when I am confused. She said she would like to do some weathering or what nots, but then she said she doesn't have the talent. I think you need talent in other things (sports,painting,etc), and this hobby is more you do your own thing. You will improve over time. She made me a fence and it looks good. So she has some talent.
The good thing is. When she was younger her dad was into trains, so she kinda knows what is going on. I think she is about the one female I have been with that seemed to care. The other girl friends I had in the past (not to seem I have some now ) just didn't care about this at all.
I guess its a guy thing. I am sure other men have this problem, to what there hobby is (hunting, cars, fishing, etc).
"Rust, whats not to love?"
jacon12 I've learned, from living to be 65, to not bore people, be it model railroading or some other subject, with long winded-stories about things I know they're not really interested in. It's the quickest way to see their eyes glaze over and for them to visit fewer times. That includes my wife. Now if she happens to come out to the train room and asks about something on the layout I'll give her a short story of how it was done or what I'm trying to do. Don't get me wrong, I like for her to come sit with me and chat about this and that but I know model railroading isn't her thing and I wouldn't think of boring her with anything she's not interested in. It's all about balance and harmony. JaRRell
I've learned, from living to be 65, to not bore people, be it model railroading or some other subject, with long winded-stories about things I know they're not really interested in. It's the quickest way to see their eyes glaze over and for them to visit fewer times. That includes my wife. Now if she happens to come out to the train room and asks about something on the layout I'll give her a short story of how it was done or what I'm trying to do. Don't get me wrong, I like for her to come sit with me and chat about this and that but I know model railroading isn't her thing and I wouldn't think of boring her with anything she's not interested in.
It's all about balance and harmony.
JaRRell
Well I'm a whole lot younger than you are, by about 365 days! But my situation is about the same with my wife of 41 years. I do my thing and she does hers. I take an interest in her hobbies of gardening and rug hooking by taking photos of her creations as I enjoy the photography challenges. Along the line I get some really nice photos of her stuff to share with others, and as inspiration for her rug works. She sees what I/m doing and makes the occasional comments and probably takes in more than I think. This is shown when we have visitors and she makes comments on my efforts.
So far so good!
Bob Boudreau
CANADA
Visit my model railroad photography website: http://sites.google.com/site/railphotog/
Been divorced for nearly 30 years now...must say the ex was very supportive of my model railroading but that didn't make up for other issues. In the intervening years I have been in relationships of varying intensity but there was this one woman I was dating when I was modeling N scale who I showed my layout to - she thought the trains looked like snakes and was creeped out. Needless to say that relationship came to a rather abrupt end.
The cats on the other hand love the trains - a little too much at times!!
Mainetrains
'there's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear' Modeling the Hard Knox Valley Railroad in HO scale http://photos.hardknoxvalley.com/
Well, I'm unmarried, have been for over 30 years, so I don't have a wife to bore with stories about my MR, and being a 'lone wolf' model railroader, I don't have that many friends in the hobby to swap stories with--except on the Forum--and the majority of my friends are professional musicians, and though they know I've got a hobby and have seen my MR in the garage, I don't really have many MR stories to tell anyone.
Sometimes when my son is down, or my nephews, they'll see something I've done lately on the MR and ask, "Hey, how'd you do THAT?" and I can get into a kinda/sorta discussion about how I am redoing the Buttes or putting some more animals on the layout or putting some more feeders to a block--stuff like that (or explain again to my wise-butt grandnephew who I love with all my heart but is one of those Sticklers for Fact about why I'm running Missabe Yellowstones on my Rio Grande layout), but for the most part, if I started to tell railroad stories to my friends, I'd get a kind of SAY WHAT? look. And I wouldn't blame them too much--one of my best and dearest friends is a Physicist. I sure wouldn't want to hear stories about him colliding Neutrons down at Stanford, LOL!
(But then again, one of my best buddies since college is a Cultural Antrhopologist, and we sure have fun discussing the fact that the Ancient Germans were actually MORE civilised than the Ancient Romans, LOL!)
So as far as MR stories, I kind of keep to myself, unless my son or nephews decide to drag it out of me.
As to my ex-wife, who is still a good friend, even if she lives half a continent away--when we get together, we discuss music. That's how we met.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
tomikawaTT Sounds like somebody (several somebodies) didn't pick the right wives!
Sounds like somebody (several somebodies) didn't pick the right wives!
Precisely. I have been a model railroader a lot longer than I've known my wife, so her having at least a passing interest in trains was a vital criteria..and she does.
I doubt I could be married to a woman who made fun of my hobby (or didn't care one bit about it).
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
BlueHillsCPR tomikawaTTSounds like somebody (several somebodies) didn't pick the right wives! Yeap I gotta chime in with Chuck on this one. It's all about selecting the right partner. I really do feel sorry for all of the people whose spouse is not also their best friend. I can tell my wife anything and she'll listen and vice versa. Going on fourteen years and we still just want to hang out together.
tomikawaTTSounds like somebody (several somebodies) didn't pick the right wives!
Yeap I gotta chime in with Chuck on this one. It's all about selecting the right partner. I really do feel sorry for all of the people whose spouse is not also their best friend. I can tell my wife anything and she'll listen and vice versa. Going on fourteen years and we still just want to hang out together.
Here Here!!!
I've been married 25 years now, I have never had a better friend in my life.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
I must be one of the lucky ones also, my wife likes to lend a hand in building scenes, and making trees. I think its because of all the crafts she does, so she enjoys that. As far as running trains, thats another story though.
Some help is better than no help, she also attends train shows with me, and seeks out the bargins for me, sometimes i have to slam the brakes on though.
First I would not burden my wife with train stuff, she is not interested, but tells me she delights that I am out of her hair when I'm "choochin" Can you blame someone who has no background or real interest in trains to show enthusiasm for this hobby, she never has criticized the hobby and is probably happy I don't spend most of my time and money drooling off a bar stool somewhere. Her interest in trains would rate right up there with people relating stories to me about their grandchildren, does anyone really care?? She has plenty of interests and in some cases I take a mild interest in her endeavors and that seems to be a perfect balance. Because she indicates no interest in trains does not mean she demeans the hobby.
Dito! (Okay, okay, "Ditttto!")
My wife doesn't really care much about my railroading play, but she surely does support me in my own pursuit of it, and will often indulge me by listening patiently to some explanations. But the fact is, this stuff is well outside the interest areas of most women, and the combination of terminology and history leaves them feeling awkwardly out of their depth. She wants to understand, and is happy that I am happy, but it doesn't mean she wants me to conclude that she will listen to anything more than about 60 seconds of a quick swipe at history and context.
It is an imposition, something I learned the hard way many years ago. Try not to wear out your welcome. I figure if it would be unreasonable for her to expect me to sit down at her sewing machine and learn what it takes to make a good quilt, I should accord her the same reasoning when I insist on showing her my latest "achievement". Even one minute has her looking furtively elsewhere, wondering if the stuff in the dryer is ready to come out.
Stories? You got stories? All I've got is some model trains.
wjstix IVRWHow many people here have a wife (or who ever you live with) that will not listen to your Railroad stories. I think 'wife' is the key here...generally a girlfriend / fiancee will listen with interest (feigned or otherwise) but once you marry them you get about 10 seconds into the story and it's "why would I care about your stupid little toy trains?"
IVRWHow many people here have a wife (or who ever you live with) that will not listen to your Railroad stories.
I think 'wife' is the key here...generally a girlfriend / fiancee will listen with interest (feigned or otherwise) but once you marry them you get about 10 seconds into the story and it's "why would I care about your stupid little toy trains?"
Boy! You got THAT one right! It's amazing how a diamond ring can screw up a perfectly good relationship!I got back into trains so I could go hide out in the cold, damp basement that she didn't like to be in.Have I told you all that I'm happily divorced??
My wife listens to the whole history, from the 16th century forward - in fact she helped me write it, and her real-world family is an important part of it.
Briefly, omitting names, a variety of people were granted concessions to cut trees, mine coal and do other useful things by the Tomikawa Daimyo (with the approval of the Shogun) long before the Meiji restoration returned power to the Emperor. When the technology became available, several of the descendent family operations built rail facilities of different types to connect to the growing transportation network that was beginning to connect the outlands to the important cities. Through various political and financial upheavals, and (in three cases) direct government intervention, the railroads of Kashimoto Prefecture evolved to their present form (as of September, 1964.) There is a through route of the Japan National Railway Company (central government monopoly) that passes through Tomikawa where it interchanges cars with the coal-hauling Tomikawa Valley Railway, interchanges cargo with the narrow-gauge Kashimoto Forest Railway and exchanges passengers with the Nishikawa Electric Railway (which started off hauling materials for a hydroelectric project and now carries tourists to mountain resorts.)
Farther down the valley, at Haruyama, the JNR has another cargo-interchange/passenger exchange, this one with the narrow gauge Harukawa Gorge Railway - the only connection to the outside world for a hydro project (with four dams of various sizes and six power plants) and a number of hot springs resorts. There are no roads, or even decent walking trails, into the gorge - alternative transportation would be helicopter, with the last few vertical meters hanging from a hoist cable.
The two narrow gauge routes actually connect, 'way back in the woods - an area that I've written history for but am very unlikely to model.
Chuck (whose wife strongly influenced his decision to model Central Japan in September, 1964)
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.