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My wife's perspective on the train in the basement

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  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Markham, Ontario
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My wife's perspective on the train in the basement
Posted by Rapido on Thursday, January 23, 2014 4:02 PM

Here's a neat video that some amateur filmmakers did last year of the full-size coach in my basement, mainly from Sidura's perspective. It's pretty neat.

http://mrr.trains.com/videos/user-videos/2014/01/a-train-to-nowhere

What does your wife say about your hobby?

-Jason

 

Jason Shron - President - Rapido Trains Inc. - RapidoTrains.com
My HO scale Kingston Sub layout: Facebook.com/KingstonSub

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Posted by kbkchooch on Thursday, January 23, 2014 4:14 PM

My wife is pretty much the same way. There was only 1 caveat. Hmm There must be a clear shot to the laundry room. Hey no problem!! Big Smile

Karl

NCE über alles! Thumbs Up

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Posted by mactier_hogger on Thursday, January 23, 2014 4:22 PM

Hey Jason. It took a bit of pleading and begging but I managed to get permission to bore a hole in the wall from the family room into the layout room Big Smile That will give me a small, semi-sceniked staging yard. She is quite supportive of my hobby as I'm a retired railroader and she prefers to have me in the basement as opposed to gone half the time!

Dean

30 years 1:1 Canadian Pacific.....now switching in HOSmile

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Posted by selector on Thursday, January 23, 2014 4:55 PM

Jason, bless her wrinkled heart.  Well, both their hearts....my wife's and yours. 

My wife knew immediately that I needed something to do with passion, and she could tell that model trains was it.  Now, nine years into retirement, she continues to support me fully, but she does roll her eyes and kid me as soon as trains or railroads find their way into a conversation we are having with a third party. 

I will admit it was a bit of a problem in the early days, but I am much more careful now...except when I simply can't help myself.  However, there I was two Christmasses ago, minding my own business, when my son-in-law casually mentioned that the substantial loft above the garage would hold a great railroad.  I had opened my mouth and was about to respond that we had stuff stored in it, and that we had other plans, when She piped up and asked, "Why not, Crandell?"  My mouth opened and closed a couple of times, soundlessly, and that was that.  Fortunately, it encompasses no modifications to the structure or wall covering.

-Crandell

PS - You KNOW you want to do a CPR 4-6-2 or a 2-8-2. Cool

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Posted by mactier_hogger on Thursday, January 23, 2014 5:46 PM

selector

Jason, bless her wrinkled heart.  Well, both their hearts....my wife's and yours. 

My wife knew immediately that I needed something to do with passion, and she could tell that model trains was it.  Now, nine years into retirement, she continues to support me fully, but she does roll her eyes and kid me as soon as trains or railroads find their way into a conversation we are having with a third party. 

I will admit it was a bit of a problem in the early days, but I am much more careful now...except when I simply can't help myself.  However, there I was two Christmasses ago, minding my own business, when my son-in-law casually mentioned that the substantial loft above the garage would hold a great railroad.  I had opened my mouth and was about to respond that we had stuff stored in it, and that we had other plans, when She piped up and asked, "Why not, Crandell?"  My mouth opened and closed a couple of times, soundlessly, and that was that.  Fortunately, it encompasses no modifications to the structure or wall covering.

-Crandell

PS - You KNOW you want to do a CPR 4-6-2 or a 2-8-2. Cool

 

 

Big SmileBig SmileBig Smile

Dean

30 years 1:1 Canadian Pacific.....now switching in HOSmile

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Posted by cowman on Thursday, January 23, 2014 6:54 PM

When rebuilding after a house fire, we went up the stairs and she pointed to the stud lined room to the right, "that's the train room."  As Crandell said, the jaw moved, but nothing came out.

Unfortunately, by the time I was semi-retired, son had moved into the space and shows no sigh of leaving.

Oh well, she gave me some $$$ for Christmas to put a ceiling in part of the basement that will house the layout.  Less than half the size of the original.  That is unless I can figure out how to move things around to give me more space.  Problem is some early construction was done without a layout down there in mind.  Sigh, would have been a great layout room, stairs down into the middle and an outside enterance.  Sigh again.

Have fun,

Richard

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Posted by UPinCT on Thursday, January 23, 2014 7:30 PM

Richard,

Can't you move the son to the basement?  Maybe one day when he's out, you and some friends can quickly move his stuff before he comes home.

Just thinking out loud, Derek

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Posted by medickistler on Thursday, January 23, 2014 9:48 PM

My wife is very supportive with the understanding that I am very supportive of her photography.  I get the basement room and she gets the office.  I dont say anything when she buys photography stuff and she doesnt say anything when I buy train stuff.  Lifes good and we both have our room for or hobbies/passions.  The one caveat is that she told me if I ever attend a model train show with bibed overalls and a conductor hat she will divorce me.  LOL

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Posted by Tracklayer on Thursday, January 23, 2014 10:43 PM

Rapido

Here's a neat video that some amateur filmmakers did last year of the full-size coach in my basement, mainly from Sidura's perspective. It's pretty neat.

http://mrr.trains.com/videos/user-videos/2014/01/a-train-to-nowhere

What does your wife say about your hobby?

-Jason

 

 

My wife (ex-wife) didn't like or agree with anything I did whether it was model building, electric trains or otherwise. Now I do what I want to 24/7 with no one to answer to but God...

Tracklayer

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Posted by "JaBear" on Thursday, January 23, 2014 11:08 PM
Gidday Jason, My wife has always been supportive of the idea of me having a hobby, both of us coming from a rural back ground and seeing far too many farmers, after a life of hard work and long hours, retiring to town and finding nothing to do or keep themselves interested, going into decline and departing  from this mortal coil, far too young, and without receiving sufficient reward for those years of toil.
Though a mortgage and kids education were priorities, and my model railroading was done at the local club with a very small budget for my own purchases, my wife queried the expense of playing with toy trains, but after having a conversation with some of her friends which revolved around the cost of their husbands golf clubs, golf club membership, boats, the running thereof, fishing tackle, and the ilk, she relented a little as far as the purse strings go. My wife now acknowledges that while there are those at the club who just go to play trains, on others efforts, there is actually a lot more to the hobby. She doesn’t mind me working on the kitchen table, as long as I tidy up after myself, and recently mentioned that she wouldn’t mind having a crack at building a small house or similar, so I will keep an eye out for a suitable kit.
I showed her-in-doors your video and she reckons that your wife has a great attitude.
Cheers, the Bear. (The Boss of Home when I’m at work).Whistling

"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."

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Posted by CGW121 on Friday, January 24, 2014 8:41 AM

My wife wanted me to build a G scale layout in our back yard. I decided on ho in the basement. She loves it and helps with scenery and stuff like that.I must be lucky.

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Posted by tcwright973 on Friday, January 24, 2014 9:25 AM

Although I still don't have a layout, my wife is very supportive of my interests. I have a nice collection of locomotives and rolling stock for railroads of western Pennsylvania. Which she allows some of to be displayed in the dining room. She enjoys visiting club layouts, going to train shows, as well as railfanning. If anything, I have to control her buying impulses at train shows because she thinks I should buy everything I stop to look at. If it were up to her, we would railfan a couple of days a week. Am I lucky, you betcha. And have been for the last 50 years this coming Sunday.

Tom

Pittsburgh, PA

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Posted by BroadwayLion on Friday, January 24, 2014 9:31 AM

LION has no wife. Him is monk, Lives in Monastery.

Hobbies are encouraged, but with very little financial support. But I do have a (former) classroom located above the library. 14 scale miles of track, 8 subway trains... so I cannot complain. All construction other than tracks and trains are from found materials, all lumber was from a building that we tore down, and was stored in a barn. Wire is mostly surplus including some 24 foot 66 conductor cables from a circa 1920s pipe organ.

Life is good, salery is nothing (to talk about or otherwise) but the benefits are out of this world.

ROAR

The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.

Here there be cats.                                LIONS with CAMERAS

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Posted by BATMAN on Friday, January 24, 2014 10:29 AM

Jason

My wife is much like yours. Our house is a well used gathering place for all our friends and family. My wife never could see the point of having rooms in the house that no one uses. Yet people have come in and asked her "why she would let me do that" or "how could you let him ruin that beautiful room". Like your wife she simply said "we have the space, so why not". She never even batted an eye when I moved the Grand Piano out of what would be the Tainroom to the livingroom.

Pacific Western Rail Systems is not far from our house and they have a profile of what I model on file. As a result over the years and for no reason at all she stops in there and they help her pick out something I might like. It's kind of her version of buying me flowers.Laugh I'l be sitting at the computer and she'll come home and pass something over my shoulder and give me a kiss on the head. Items have included among other things, two Atlas Trainmaster Gold Loco's given to me about a year apart, A Proto SW1200 and on two other seperate occasions Rapido CPR coaches.

So ya she supports me all the way and that support only increases as she see's the joy the hobby gives me and has come to find the hobby fascinating as she see's all of what it entails.

A nice room for a layout. (but I'd still rather have a basement.Smile, Wink & Grin)

It comes with a Bar and lazyboy.

Brent

"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."

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Posted by crhostler61 on Friday, January 24, 2014 10:05 PM

Divorced, no kids, and live alone. Perfect for a model railroader.

My 14x19x13 layout takes up almost the entirety of my livingroom, diningroom, and kitchen (under one vaulted ceiling)...might punch a couple of holes in the wall and expand into the garage. My now ex-wife and her kids were total pigs and a layout would have interfered with their enormous junk piles. My trains were all crammed in boxes in a small space in the garage, when I was married. Things were non negotiable with her.

I was also glad that divorce is very easy in Nevada.

Mark H

Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history. 

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Posted by Michael6792 on Saturday, January 25, 2014 1:08 PM

My wife supports my hobbies, of which I have too many. While she supports them, I still only get a small budget to support them financially. Now when I go buy lumber or building materials I don't usually "claim" that towards my budget, just like I don't take the gas I need to fill the boat to go fishing against my hobby budget. It does, however, require me to be resourceful (and sometimes sneaky) when I need something.

One thing I do to help with the "hobby budget" is to buy large lots of equipment on E-Bay, keep the pieces I want, and sell the rest off piece by piece usually coming out ahead. It really can help to strech an already thin budget.

Michael

Never attempt anything you don't want to explain to the EMT

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Posted by Rastafarr on Saturday, January 25, 2014 6:50 PM

No doubt, spousal approval is critical. My wife encourages the trains but asks that I keep a running tab of what I spend. When things get out of hand (like when a $6000 Accucraft live steamer starts to seem like a good idea), she's not slow to reign me in. Were it up to me, we'd be living in a cardboard box with a lot of expensive trainy toys Laugh

Streamlined steam, oh, what a dream!!

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Posted by glutrain on Sunday, January 26, 2014 12:20 AM

She whose judgement must always be respected ( after all, remembering whom she chose to marry) has agreed that the model railroader in the house can have more real estate in the basement-if (life always has a catch) the basement is cleared of more of the clutter left behind by married off daughters. Therein lies the classic dilemna : spend precious time and energy clearing clutter or invest precious time and energy into the existing layout space. Hmmm, pardon me while I take a while to consider my options....

Don H.

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Posted by galaxy on Sunday, January 26, 2014 4:47 AM

MOH {My Other Half} is into trains, too, aren't I the lucky one?

I do HO on a small layout in the "train/junque room". I also run my N scale under the Xmas tree.

MOH is into N scale and has no layout, except to run a GG1 and supporting passenger cars under the Tree. MOH is into the European N scale trains, as MOH grew up every other summer in Germany with German Grandmother, and so remembers the train rides/ locos of that time frame! Hard to come by in Nscale here, they are.

MOH  Does agree USA and Canadian{ where applicable} Steam locos running on tourist RRs is GREAT! SO there is NO discussion on going vacation to see on running! WE JUST GO!

If we ever get out of the Mobile home and into a house with MRRing space, we will both be able to build nice RRs even if only a 4x8 or 5x9!

Geeked

-G .

Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.

 HO and N Scale.

After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.

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Posted by mobilman44 on Sunday, January 26, 2014 6:41 AM

I was "between wives" when the first room filing RR was built.   Prospective wives were shown the layout, and comments ranged from "how much did all this cost" (with the word "this" sounding profane) - to - "wow, that is so wonderful, etc.".

The wife and I are in our late 60s, and knowing I'm in the train room is just fine with her.   She knows that I could be off on a golf course, or the middle of the Gulf, or some sleezy dive - but instead prefer to be at home with her (and the trains)....................

ENJOY  !

 

Mobilman44

 

Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central 

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Posted by Aikidomaster on Sunday, January 26, 2014 9:26 AM

My wife is very supportive about my hobby. I have a 20 ft x 30 ft finished room in the basement.Big Smile I have been working on the N&W (1958 era) layout for 5 years. She is happy not to have model railroading equipment all over the house. She will bring friends and family down to the room to view the latest progress. We could not be happier.

Craig North Carolina

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