General Discussion (Model Railroader)

IVRW:

How 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?"

Sounds like somebody (several somebodies) didn't pick the right wives!

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)

wjstix:

IVRW:

How 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??

tomikawaTT:

Sounds 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.

Stories?  You got stories?  All I've got is some model trains.

BlueHillsCPR:

tomikawaTT:

Sounds 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.

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.

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.

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.

BlueHillsCPR:

tomikawaTT:

Sounds 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.

tomikawaTT:

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).

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

 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