With my birthday coming up shortly, my dear wife wanted to take me out to the LHS this past Saturday to pick up a reference book that I've had my eye on for some time now:
New York Central Facilities In Color, by Geoffrey H Doughty (Morning Sun Books)
Although it's a very beautiful looking and informative book, at $60 for 128 pages, I could never really quite rationalize buying it for myself.
Well, after grabbing a bite to eat at a vegatarian Indian restaurant for lunch, we arrived at the hobby store about mid-afternoon. This particular LHS has a terrific RR and military reference section that takes up one side of the store. And books pretty much go from floor to ceiling. (If you are a RRing geek, you could literally get lost in that section of the store for hours.)
We found the above mentioned book and proceeded to browse the plethora of other reference books they had there. I enjoyed perusing through the MEC, B&A, B&M, and New York, Susquehanna & Western RR books - in particular, the B&A and MEC RRs, which had a number of pictures of ball signals that were still being used on those lines back in the 50s.
While I was enjoying my new findings, my wife - who enjoys reading and has recently developed a keen interest in history - was browsing through some of the New York Central locomotive books. At one point, she turned to me and said somewhat emphatically, "WE need to get a book on the history of the New York Central!", followed by a long enough pause that silently implied, "Don't you think that would be a good idea?" Having been married to this woman for nearly 15 years, I knew that she was serious. But I still had a difficult time keeping myself from laughing out loud.
The history of the NYC was actually pretty reasonably priced. But, after seeing how much my birthday present was going to cost us, she decided maybe it would be better to pick it up at another time.
Needless to say, I enjoyed having my dear wife with me yesterday at the LHS. She was enjoying herself to no end looking at a architectual book about the variety of depots and stations that were on the various RRs.
Sorry guys, she doesn't have a sister...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
That's great that you can get your wife interested in the hobby. Keep it up and you'll be running the Pennsylvania RR next to the NYC!...ha!...All I get out of my wife is when I show her something I built or done on the RR is "that's nice dear" and off she goes doing her own thing. But it's not all that bad.
She will buy me train stuff at Christmas , birthdays...ect...We went to the LHS this weekend together and she bought me a set of Sealand 40' containers. She always buys me containers when we go to the LHS. Probably because she works at the port of Houston and that's as far as her interest in the hobby goes.
She's greatful I'm into the hobby though...She tells me it keeps me from chasing skirt and out of the bars. She didn't even flinch when I wrote a check to the LHS for $253.00 and some odd cents...But then again, I had to take her to the mall afterwards for her to shop until she dropped, so I guess we're even....chuck
Chuck,
It's funny you should mention running the PRR next to the NYC. My wife and I had a chance to take a short road trip recently to the east central area of Ohio.
My wife loves water. Even though we live within a few miles of Lake Erie, I thought it might be nice to visit some place different. After perusing the Internet, I found that there was a good size lake (Tappen) located about 30 miles SSE of Canton. From Cleveland, it's about an 1 hour and 45 min. drive down I-77, then SE along SR 250.
Along the way, my wife was consulting a book that we had just bought about unique places to visit in the state of Ohio. I told her that we would be driving past Dennison, OH, where I mistakenly thought Denison University was located, and where a friend of ours from church had attended college. (I found out later that Denison University is actually located just east of Columbus.)
Anyhow, my wife looks up Dennison in the travel book and discovers that there is a railroad depot museum in downtown Dennison. I had not planned on visiting any RR related things on our trip, so I asked my wife if she wanted to stop by and check it out. She said that she was up to it. When we arrived, we discovered that the depot had undergone a $1M renovation and that they were having the grand opening to the new wing of their museum that very day.
In the process of going through the museum, we discovered that:
The new wing of the depot consisted of 5 PRR passenger cars - lined end-to-end - that you walked through and that were filled with wartime PRR pictures, artifacts, and memorabilia about the area in and around Dennison. One car was solely dedicate to the water management/flood control efforts during the early to mid 1900s because that area of Ohio was (and still is) susceptible to flooding. Another car was dedicate to the presence of PRR and B&O lines.
The best part of the visit for me and my wife was talking with the retired PRR/PC/CSX worker, whom they had next to the Interlocking tower exhibit. Her name was Jane Steele and she worked for the railroad in Dennision for 39 years - from 1942 to 1981.
Jane's job was to receive and dispatch telegraph messages to the engineers, keep track of the trains across her sector, and pull the "Armstrong" levers in the Interlocking tower, when needed. Jane also told us that the RRs treated her VERY well and that she was paid the SAME rate as the men. In and around the exhibit were hands on items that gave you the feel of what it was like to work on and for the PRR in that era.
As we went from car to car, my wife just soaked in all the history, artifacts, RR paraphernalia, and local information and enjoyed herself immensely. And, yes, we did end up visiting the Tappen Lake. However, I don't think my wife would have enjoyed the trip half as much if we hadn't stopped off and visited the Dennison Railroad Depot museum. Eating dinner in the depot diner was a nice treat for her, too.
P.S. In case any of you might be interested in more information about the depot museum in Dennison, OH, you can either click the link above, or visit their web site at: http://www.dennisondepot.org
My wife has us building a garden railroad, and last night she was talking about her own HO layout! Holy cow! My wife may be competing for my layout space!!
Eight to ten months ago we were in the local hobby shop (Sattler's in NJ), when she saw an HO Proto-2000 Atlantic Coast Line E8. She loved the color scheme, and I woulnd up buying it for her. At this point she has an entire ACL passenger train (although I still haven't put a decoder into the loco - it's an older P2k, so is not DCC-ready. Right now it runs behind one of my CB&Q heavy Mikes).
Meanwhile, the garden railroad was going to be a 3' Colorado narrow gauge style asrrangement, complete with Lagas Creek 3'-gauge track (expensive but very realistic looking) and all rolling stock in 1:20.3 scale (the scale in which G gauge track is 3'). We have a Spectrum Mogul in that scale, but no other rolling stock - until Saturday, anyway. At the York PA Garden train show, she saw a USA Trains ACL F3, and had to have it. No more Colorado narrow gauge! Now we'll go with the standard gauge stuff in the slightly smaller scale (wherein G scale track is standard gauge). I was looking forward to narrow gauge in the garden, but what the heck - at least the track is cheaper! And it is HER layout.
And to think that, when we got married a few years ago, I was worried that she would think I spend too much time on the trains. Guess I'll get that decoder in her E8 this week...
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
Brunton wrote:Eight to ten months ago we were in the local hobby shop (Sattler's in NJ), when she saw an HO Proto-2000 Atlantic Coast Line E8. She loved the color scheme, and I woulnd up buying it for her. At this point she has an entire ACL passenger train.
Mark,
Atlantic Coast?...hmmmmm...Your wife one of those "purple people", too?
Must have broke the mold when they made her
Then again I came home with a new loco the other day after going to the train show and she just laughed and said "I figured as much" . We are truly blessed men
Fergie
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=5959
If one could roll back the hands of time... They would be waiting for the next train into the future. A. H. Francey 1921-2007
tstage wrote: Sorry guys, she doesn't have a sister...Tom
Now you've gone and spoilt the whole post!
tstage wrote: Well, after grabbing a bite to eat at a vegatarian Indian restaurant for lunch, we arrived at the hobby store about mid-afternoon.
Well, after grabbing a bite to eat at a vegatarian Indian restaurant for lunch, we arrived at the hobby store about mid-afternoon.
My wife loves Indian food. It never occured to me to go to the LHS afterwards! Maybe there's something in the curry ....
Dave Nelson
See!!!! You guys "can" learn as old dogs!!!! My wife like to shop at the many craft stores in Sturbridge, Ma ( as well as a few other stores too ). So when I go to my favorite LHS in Warren, Ma, we go for breakfast at a log cabin in Brookfield Flats, then I park the car so that she can see the CSX freights that pass right ahead of her in Warren while I take my time inside. Then, we go to Sturbridge for shopping and a nice dinner. Sometimes we go to the Steaming Tender, the old Train Station in Palmer, Ma, the hotspot of New England where 7 RR's cross, now 4, and eat by the window while CSX trains pass by only 15 feet away.
IT works guys, it works !!! Make them part of the action !!
TOM, MEC and B&A books?? WOW, I would like to see what he has !!!!!!
I know how ya feel..... I was browsing thru one of my favorite N scale suppliers online & once I showed this to my wife, she JUST HAD to make sure I ordered it ! Something about women & Coke I guess...lol.
Hey, guys, I am the wife. In the beginning, we spent all of our layout time together. Now that I am only working 2 days per week, guess who spends the most time with the layout. I do feel guilty that alot of other things go undone.
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Brunton,
Boy are you going to have fun! I have put a decoder (sound no less) into an older Proto ACL E-8. It was for my daughter (she liked the color scheme too) and I wanted it running on the new layout (DCC) when she came over.
It can be done and keep the lighting, including the gyro light. However, you do need to "adjust" some of the parts on the existing circuit board. Great soldering fun. This was a couple years ago, so there are smaller sound units out there now, making installation easier. Still, there isn't a lot of spare room in there, especially if want to keep the original lighting functions.
Tilden
Just last night, my wife said she was going to make new curtains for our upstairs bathroom (it has a train theme with some railroad signs, etc.)... lo'and behold, she made some curtains with TRAINS on them and was so proud about them!!! Gotta love the supportive wife, who every now and then, surprises you... Makes you realize how lucky you (we) are.
Brian
Hehehe...nice story! I hope one day she will also want to do an operation session with you too!
I am also pretty lucky, my wife supports me with my hobbies...she goes with me to LHS to pick up die-cast planes and stuff but still yet to be interested in trains but I am sure once my Layout MKII is built, she will want to 'play' with it! LOL
So far she has taken interest in most of my hobbies including target shooting and got pretty good at it too! She came third in Women's Division in the club last year!
Gentlemen-can you give me the name of the tablets all you're wives are on.I like to buy a bucket full
Steve
I read some of the posts to my wife this morning. I thought I might get her into the basement to help work on the backdrop. She told me all the ways I really didn't need her help.
I guess it's just like that guy wrote in the book that men and women are inherently different. What was that title again? Oh yeah...
Men are from NS; women are from CSX.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
SpaceMouse wrote: Men are from NS; women are from CSX.
I can see a new bumper sticker for this.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
jbinkley60 wrote: SpaceMouse wrote: Men are from NS; women are from CSX. I can see a new bumper sticker for this.
Quick! Someone trademark it! LOL
Tom,
It sounds like your wife and my wife are cut from the same cloth! When we were recently looking for a new house, she refused to even look at one that didn't have a train room in it!
Gotta love those wives!
Iceman_c27 wrote: jbinkley60 wrote: SpaceMouse wrote: Men are from NS; women are from CSX. I can see a new bumper sticker for this. Quick! Someone trademark it! LOL
Do it before CSX does !
outdoorsfellar wrote: I know how ya feel..... I was browsing thru one of my favorite N scale suppliers online & once I showed this to my wife, she JUST HAD to make sure I ordered it ! Something about women & Coke I guess...lol.
It's not the coke - it's James Dean leaning on the porch next to his Harley!!!!
lvanhen wrote: outdoorsfellar wrote: I know how ya feel..... I was browsing thru one of my favorite N scale suppliers online & once I showed this to my wife, she JUST HAD to make sure I ordered it ! Something about women & Coke I guess...lol. It's not the coke - it's James Dean leaning on the porch next to his Harley!!!!
Oh, so that's why she walked away humming that Eagles tune....lol
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum