Family of trains?

Just me and my grandson. He does his thing with diesels and I with my steamer.

All by myself while they whisper about me in the next room

In regards to running trains I am the quintessential lone wolf except when my little Ginger Snaps (Grandchildren) are around.  Just ask my wife.

Another weird, but interesting question for no other reason, than the fact that I can perfectly relate. My son & I are the ONLY ones in the family that know anything of value about trains. We're the only ones with a layout. Some of the family might run a train for X-Mas around the tree but they have cheap plasticy HO & a single loop of fasttrack. None of them could believe it when we bought our house I built 2 train layouts in the basement. I end up defending us a lot at family parties & whatnot. Seems like everyone else is into either sports or beer, or both. They do respect me tho, I'm the go-to guy for repairs. On the wife's side, her older brother has TONS of nice, modern Lionel.....in boxes collecting dust....even tho he has a HUGE house, but he's an idiot for other reasons anyway so go figure...

I mostly run mine alone, but sometimes I will be joined by my Uncle, or my 7 year old brother.

Me, myself, and I.  For 46 years I have been the only one interested in trains.  Maybe I'll have a grandchild someday who will run Pappy's trains With him.

Lone wolf.

My children and grandchildren dont care about my trains and my wife will watch the passenger trains and has done a large part of the landscaping on the layout with the exception of four months of ballasting that I did this past winter.

Mikey

My blood family all have their own. More bit piece collectors than operators.

Visiting kids? Being in the living room it has to happen!

 

"Family" being those adults around me, two will sit, and watch with "campfire enthusiasm". Two others will actually fire things up and run them if they know I'm not working on it.

 

My wife and college-age daughters take an interest in my progress on layout projects but have never taken an interest in participating directly. Sometimes one of them will wander in and watch for a few minutes, but nothing more. The exception to this rule involves visits to train shops and public layouts around the holidays. Both of my daughters still seem to enjoy these activities, though probably more out of nostalgia, as they both started tagging along at a very young age.

I use to run the trains with the 5 grandkids but they all graduated to the electronic gizmos. So I became a loner, but miracles do happen. Grandchild number 6 arrived this spring, so I will be having a co-operator in another year or so, at least for a few years.

 

   Bill T.

Depending on the mood around the holidays I set up and wife will run for the kids that come by the window to see them. otherwise I am lone wolf

 

Mark,

From one "Pappy" to another, I'll be saying prayers for you. My 6 grand-daughter's range from 2 yrs to 27 yrs (no grandson's yet). Right now the 2 yr old will be ready by Christmas. Since my kids "caught" FedEx with a train delivery. I think they'll allow me to have one train around the tree in our trainroom (just maybe). If not, I'll have trains delivered to my eldest son's home.

Used to run trains with my father when he was alive, now I run them with my son

I run my trains alone (unless someone with kids comes over, then I usually let the kids run a train). My Dad has some interest in trains, but not in running them, just collecting LV hoppers, LV in general, and postwar milk cars.

When I get together with my Brother, we run the heck out of our trains, usually at his condo in Denver, he has a very large N-scale layout.   My wife and kids are polite and understanding but will only watch for a few minutes occasionally.

It's Father's Day so I should bring up the dad factor. He was my big influence, we ran the trains & worked on layouts together when I lived at home, then when I moved out & got married, we built things seperatly, but shared the hobby when one of us was over to the other's house & still went to hobby shops & train shows with my son. Now that mom & dad are gone, it's just me & Jr now, but I know he's still there in spirit anyway when something odd happens like the last time we ran trains around my birthday & the electronic whistle on Jr's Polar Express tender gave a little 'toot' while it was running with neither of us near the transformer. I looked right at it & said out loud "Hey Dad!"....

My wife likes to watch the trains in action, but has no interest in participating.  My sister likes trains, but won't build a layout, and her husband prefers football.

 

No other relatives live near me.

 

Just little ol' me 99% of the time (when I have an operating layout).  The other 1% would be when a friend would come over for an operating session.  Thus, all layouts I've designed/built were designed with me in mind primarily, and accommodating other operators secondarily.

 

No grandson, only a 15 year old granddaughter that is into other things besides trains. Daughter never cared for trains... wife sort of tolerates/supports trains.

 

However, she does like the paycheck the real deal brings home for us.

I have found a falloff in enjoyment of running them alone. But I have numerous Great Nieces, and a great nephew and several grandchildren that love them. So any time any of them visit (which is often) We run the trains. My Youngest Grand daughter was just short of a year old this past Christmas but I bought a 10th Anniv. Polar Express in Nov. because I expected she would like it. I was right, She loved it, and when she saw the movie the first time she kept looking around for the train. My daughter was not on board with my getting the train but was impressed and amused when Olivia kept looking for it. Since February the Polar Express is back in the box but Olivia will still toddle into my Den and say "Choo choo" and point so I will run the trains for her. She likes the Steam engine Whistle and bell. She also enjoys re-arranging the scenery, mostly people but a few front edge buildings as well. Since we babysit most evenings because our daughter works later than my wife, I run a train for Olivia almost every day.

When my Dad with us, he loved trains. Now it is just Elizabeth and I, but she sure is right there with me when we do run trains.

just me and a couple of the fury family.....

 

 

Myself, most of the time, Kids and  Grandkids have ZERO interest, from time to time a parent or Grandparent will be walking the kids down the alley and see me running trains in the garage, then I will have help running trains for a  period of time. The     VL Bigboy always sounds off when there are kids around.

 

Brent

Mostly, just me;  Sometimes have buddies come over.  But family?  Never, no, natta, etc.  Tried to get five Grandsons involved and bought trains for all of them.  Three of them "lost" their trains in various moves.  Two still have 'em but virtually never run them.  When they come over for a visit, which is increasingly rare as they navigate through their teen years, they express no interest in my layout, my trains, my train stuff, etc.  Just don't give a darn.  Didn't much care for my power boat, either, during all the years that I owned one.  Got rid of the last one last summer.  The only thing that attracts these kids are TV or video games.  Nothing at all constructive.

 

I guess that's not too unusual, although I envy the guys who do enjoy their trains with their kids or grandkids.  Wife, incidentally, cares not a wisp for trains, although she seems to be proud to show off "my trains" to her friends when they visit.  Do get some nice compliments from some visitors.

 

Paul Fischer

Kinda sad to hear of the lack of interest from everyone. Anyway, speaking to the point of the wife that is happy to show off the trains, my wife likes my hobbies because she knows I'm doing something nerdy (read: safe) & I'm not out in a bar somewhere like most guys, so she never talks bad about it, she might joke around, but she doesn't discourage me & is equally proud of my repair abilities.

Pappy,

Good for you!  Yes I live in a family of all women, except when I see my dad who takes a back seat because the hearing aid he got from the VA never works right.

Based on the last few posts, I have to update my earlier response.  I just said, "Lone Wolf..." up above, but that makes it sound bleaker than it is.  My two boys (32 and 28 now) both had trains on pull-out layouts under their beds (no basements here in DFW), so they've grown-up with them. They both take an interest, and a few years ago, both threw a hissy fit when I said I was going to sell-off the trains.  Evidently they're pre-claiming them over my still-warm body, so there is hope. No grandkids yet, but I'll guarantee they will have trains - male or female.  Both boys got me several train-related Christmas gifts, so they do care.

 

My wife is not "into" trains, but she pretty much lets me do what I will with them, and doesn't even care that I went to York.

 

 

We couldn't have kids and my wife would love nothing more than me not having any hobbies at all.
I can't even grasp the idea of more than one person per family being into it...

Carl,

Make a list of who gets what on paper today  

No reason you shouldn't. Lots of reasons you should.....

 

 

It sounds like the boys are just waiting for a reason to dive back in.

 When was the last time daddy gave them a new toy?

I am also a lone wolf. While my father had Lionel's growing up, he doesn't say much about his Christmas layouts. However trains have been my primary special interest since I was a young child. I have been mostly been messing with G scale outdoors, I am planning a new Lionel layout to build this fall/winter.   mike

Me, myself and I.  The grandchildren all seem to have pretty much lost interest lately.  Just the very occasional adult visitor comes by to see them now. 

Like many of you, I am also a lone wolf. 

My Dad and I pretty much.

Lone wolf,

2railguy,

   Our trains are most a Christmas time set up now, the entire family was involved for many many years, now with just a few family members left alive, my wife and I enjoy the O gauge layout in our formal living room each and every Christmas.  The people who visit

our home really do like our living room at Christmas time.

PCRR/Dave 

My Wife does like them, in fact it was her idea for me to have a Christmas platform (or maybe it was her way to keep me upstairs), she just doesn't have any intrest in running them.

2railguy I don't know what your issues are, but its like this in my house.

 

   My wife like my trains and has her own (ATSF E3) but is not happy with me due to its not on the layout. But when she gets a chance will still watches my GN and CB&Q units. My oldest which has Autism likes trains, My middle daughter likes trains and is still mad at me for selling my Daylight consist but has developed a liking for my GN FT and FA1. My son on the other hand has his N gauge, but now only shows interest now when his friends come to the house and want to look at my trains. Train shows for the most part are a family affair.  So what's your malfunction?

I used to run trains with my son and daughter when they were younger but I'm a empty nester now. I don't have a layout at home. I run my trains at my club so I rarely run them alone. 

My dad has always been involved in the hobby with me.  My mother has always been supportive, but I though she just "tolerated" the trains until this past Christmas when I pulled out my postwar 2026, she comment on how she loved "the smell and sound of the old ones"