Women model railroaders

[Anonymous]

Well, my mother is very interested in trains because of me. She's learned a great deal from me and I can have an intelligent conversation about trains with her without having to use any simplified or dummy terms. She's painted the figures on my layout.

[Anonymous]

My girlfriend thinks i'm Outsane which is a word she made up to describe me and my hobby

[SP9811]

My wife likes building, building kits for the layout. Also she has a good eye at the shows for SP freight cars and locomotives I don't have.
Thom
SP#1

[Anonymous]

My nephews daughter who is just as old as I am, has always been willling to learn a lot from her father about building and maintaining a modelrailroad. She's also an active member of the same club as her father. Let's say the blood runs in the family.

[krump]

I think this is a great idea...
- one of my daughters (6) shows a keen interest
- my wife no longer laughs at my hobby (I'm sensing some progress towards winning her over, in that she has offered to paint or build some kits)
- I have no influence whatsoever over my mom (though she gathers any train related stuff for me) or on my sister, nieces, or aunts (their bogus interest at least lets me talk trains)
- my grandmothers, greatgrandmothers didn't know I had a model train
- no current girlfriends (my wife wouldn't approve), after all I MARRIED my EX-Girlfriend... (she hates being introduced as my ex-girlfriend though)

so, bottom line is, the most significant influence that I have regarding the hobby is on a first grader.

[bsteel4065]

My daughter soldered all my track with me. We had a great time. At that time she worked on the line at IBM assembling mother boards and the like. She complained about the soldering iron not being good enough! And last week I had a call from my granddaughter, who is 4, asking if she could come round and play with the trains. Love them both.

[Anonymous]

My mom and sister don't really care about model railroading or trains in general. My mom always told me she grew up in an area where Santa Fe ran, but only a week ago did I find out she was confusing Rio Grande with Santa Fe. (How do you do that?)

[Anonymous]

I've been teaching my mom a lot. She can now identify locos by their wheel arangement, and can tell a Pacific from a Mikado (but then again, that's easy, RIGHT????)

[snowey]

I've tried to get my 2 teenage nephews interested, no luck with them, though, or other family members. I just learned though, that my 8 year old nephew is starting to get into plastic modelers. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed....

[AntonioFP45]

[:)][8D]In the case of women thinking if I'm crazy or childish, all I have to say is: "Unlike dumping money on lap dances, gettng high, or getting drunk, I get to see and enjoy what I spent my relaxation money on for a very long time!" I actually get respected.[^]

I think that it would be great to see more female modelers! [swg][tup] There are definetly more female railroaders and railfans! If I'm not mistaking, Allen Keller, who makes the great model railroad videos, is married to a lovely, female railroader! [;)]

A thought though: How many of you male modelers that have daughters or sisters have tried to get them or her interested in this hobby?

As a teen, I tried with my sister who is 3 years younger than me. I was unsuccessful, or so I thought, until one day we happend to see a picture of a NYC Mohawk. She identified the feedwater heater as well as the wheel arrangement. She also understands the difference between hood units and covered wagons, so she did pick up something! [:D][8D]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: [i] do they think you're crazy because you "play with trains"?[:o)]

yup

[Anonymous]

Sometimes I like to check out old model railroad "how to" books to see how things were done in the early days of model railroading. It's interesting to learn that flex track didn't exist and sectional track ( with fiber ties!!??) was something new and rare in any scale other than toy trains. Rail and turnouts were commonly hand laid (appearently no factory made turnouts). Most shocking was a book on scenery suggesting mixing asbestos with plaster for greater strength!!! Yea right, lets go get ourselfs a big ol' bag of asbestos at Home Depot.
Anyway, while reading the 1948 edition of " Model Railroad Track and Layout " ,by non-other than A.C. Kalmbach, there are a few references to men tend to do this or men often do that. Although the book was dedicated to " Kathryn (his daughter?) who at three knows plenty about trains and track", it made me wonder if there were any women into model railroading back then.

[?] My question is how many women today have taken up model railroading as a hobby? If your a lady modelrailroader, how or what got you started and how long have you been in the hobby? What are the things you like and don't like to do in the hobby?
[?]Men, does your wife, daughter or girlfriend, participate in building a layout? If so, what do they like to do? If not, do they think you're crazy because you "play with trains"?[:o)]


Thanks!