My Wife and Standard Gauge...

Tinplate in general has been a big hit with my wife. She grew up with her Dad’s postwar trains and was shocked that she hadn’t heard of these great looking tinplate trains before. She’s pretty serious about it too, oftentimes buying her own trains to run on our layout, even stuff that’s hard to find these days   Her first purchase was the MTH Lionel Corp 2800 series O gauge girls train shown here.  At the last York show she started buying some standard gauge stuff, because she says that’s where the serious tinplate is!   Standard gauge is a new scale to me, although we’ve always had some o gauge tinplate.  This should be fun!

awsome ! looking for the girls set myself in standard gauge ! also just the O Gauge pink engine ,have the rest of the set

My wife is mildly into trains, including claiming ownership of the "cute" On30 part of the layout downstairs.  But the only trains allowed in the living room are my SG trains.

@Frank Ranzino posted:

awsome ! looking for the girls set myself in standard gauge ! also just the O Gauge pink engine ,have the rest of the set

Both girls sets are hard to find. It took my wife a while to find the o gauge set.  I don’t know that I’ve seen the complete std gauge girls set anywhere lately.  

Mark

Sorry to go off topic….

Nice shot of the working boats

Steve

Strummer, Glenn...

Bingo!  My wife has been into trains ever since our first date about 28 years ago.  But MTH's display of tinplate in Orange Hall at York through the years really captured her attention.

To wit, when she saw the O gauge 'girls' train...she says its her Easter Train!...she HAD to have it, ordering it when we returned home from that particular York meet.

Then, she saw the LCT redo of the Blue Comet..."I want that!"...ditto.

Dad's first trainset, the Lionel 366W...1835 engine, three 300-series 2-tone blue passenger cars...had followed me into this marriage.  It was mostly a revered shelf queen in the house.  But after the above events, 'we' had to have some 500-series freight cars...bright, shiny, colorful, nickel-plated features, one of each type, etc., etc...  The search, the search...must do the search.

And so it went...goes.

"Pushed a button"?...indeed!

    When we were first married, we went to a local train show at Christmas time. I was at the other end of the hall when she came running to me, grabbed me and said "I just saw something I really like and it's so cute and it's only nineteen ninety-five!", and ran me to where she saw it. It was (of course) a 400E Blue Comet. I had to tell her that there was no decimal point between the nines. "Awww. But I really like it."

    Years later when we could afford it, I bought her the MTH, along with an original 10E and short passenger cars. She also has the LGB Streetcar with catenary because she loves watching the sparks.

    Yes, gentlemen, size does matter.

@train steve posted:

Mark

Sorry to go off topic….

Nice shot of the working boats

Steve

Thanks. Newport, about 16 miles north of us. Beautiful Yaquina bay and a fantastic place to walk... 🙂

Mark in Oregon

Though Wild Child the wife loves riding dirt-oriented motorcycles out in the mountains with me (and has her own bike)...

(Above pic from this year's October 31 ride.)

...trains leave her cold.

She appreciates what trains have done in our life:

* Model Trains - Raised funds when needed via sell offs during a financially tight time in our lives.

* 1:1 Railroading - For providing an above average income (for our region) when I was a railroader, and providing good retirement for us now.

However, her giving thought of trains as a hobby for her is absolutely not going anywhere.

With the bikes, I love sharing that part of my life with her. With trains, well, if it were a joint hobby, then it would be another opinion that needs to be accommodated. I actually like being solely responsible for my model train decisions. My model railroading is very personal to me.

The above FWIW.

Andre

A while back my wife says "I think I would like to bring blue into our living room."  While she was out I decided to add some blue,  so far still on display after 2 weeks!  She's a good sport

@dkdkrd posted:

To wit, when she saw the O gauge 'girls' train...she says its her Easter Train!...she HAD to have it, ordering it when we returned home from that particular York meet.

Haha!   How funny.  My wife also intends to use her girls o gauge tinplate set as an Easter train.  

My wife had no interest in my collection of Lionel Flyer S gauge trains. However, when I brought home a Lionel Classics standard gauge Mayflower set, she was an immediate fan. It's been standard gauge tinplate only ever since!

Kirk Lindvig

Who wouldn't love the Mayflower set? It is gorgeous!

Unfortunately, in over 30 years of marriage my wife has shown no interest in my trains except once, when without my knowledge, she volunteered me to erect a SGMA layout at the Crawford County Fairgrounds as part of the county's national salute to its local fire and police forces.  Fortunately, I was able to convince some local Mulberry citizens to help me set up my Standard Gauge modules into a large SG layout and then help me run my SG trains on the layout during the National Night Out Celebration for local police and fire forces.  At my age and with my bad back and knees, had it not been for these "helpers" the SGMA layout would not have happened.  Not surprizingly, the SGMA layout was the hit of the Crawford County celebration!

Bob Nelson

I am a bigger toy train freak than even my husband is. I have two of my own large Standard Gauge layouts, an a large O mainly prewar layout as well. When we got together, I gave him all of my G-scale trains, and I moved on to Standard Gauge tinplate and O tinplate. Recently adding original AF O-tinplate, and original Lionel prewar tinplate. Original AF Wide Gauge has been a primary focus recently.