I'd say mine is more than just tolerant, but maybe not quite as supportive as I'd like. She certainly never complains about my trains, she didn't even blink when I came home Saturday with a new Polar Express FT set. She has even bought me some trains and toys, but normally only if I tell her what I want. She does get a kick out of the layouts, even posting pictures and bragging about this year's Christmas layout. However, I would love her input on my layout, especially with scenery as I suspect she would probably be pretty good at it. Mostly, I'd like her company at train shows, I do tire of doing things by myself at times. She did go to the train store with me on Sunday, but I won't kid myself - It was a beautiful day and she got to spend a couple of hours on the back of my motorcycle. Or, maybe secretly, she was just there to make sure I didn't come home with another train set. Either way, I enjoyed the company.
My wife is very supportive though she does not share the hobby with me. She's always bragging about the home layout and our modular displays to her friends and is very active in getting people to come see our modular group's public displays.
She never complains about what I buy. In fact, 20+ years ago, when she was at bed rest and pregnant with our third child, she refinanced the house and took the money we got back to transform the attic into a train room.....seen in the pics below:
We have since moved. We were going to do the attic gig again. However, college tuitions sort of got in the way. My wife then allowed me to take over half of the basement. She didn't bat an eye when I ordered Mianne bench work for my new layout, seen below:
I am very lucky.....
Peter
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Mine waffles back and forth on it, there are certain things about it that she enjoys and others not so much.
Liz, my wife, is very tolerant and actually enjoys the hobby through me. She has attended York a couple of times and instead of going off somewhere else she wanted to walk the aisle with me. She goes on layout tours with me when the NMRA has open houses. We take train related trips together in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. She has commented that it is so much easier now on birthdays and Christmas to find gifts because I was next to impossible to buy for before getting back into the hobby. The big one though is her saying , yes you have a lot of train friends and you should take the old layout down and move it into the main part of the basement and go much bigger.
Of course marriage is a partnership and I do my part to support the things she enjoys also. She loves live theater so I make sure we have ticket packages to many of the local theaters in the area and we see about 30 shows a year together.
My girlfriend Magnetta loves the hobby!
My wife Paula is tolerant and supportive of the hobby, likes to see trains run and never comments negatively on my purchases. Trains are a personal hobby and if we are responsible about it, we are entitled to pursue it. Men and women have their own interests and no one has a right to try to take them away from us.
it seems that we have a lot of cooperative spouses out there. this is nice to hear.
Bob C.
I would say my wife understands my interest in model and real railroading. But, I think she dislikes it when I want to spend money.... lol....
{The, "do you really need another one" look... lol...}
I will say that she enjoys seeing the village and trains under the tree and through out the living and dining rooms during the holidays. She knows setting up and running them makes me happy and she said that makes her happy.
My daughter also just looks at me and rolls her eyes or makes funny remarks. But, she has reminded my wife that it keeps me away from other things that could get me in trouble! Got to love her for that statement!
My wife is very supportive of my hobby. She has accompanied me for my occasional trips to York. She finding things and is an expert at finding really good buys. I always mention what I want to buy and she has never said no or given me "the look". BTW I never look to buy anything we cannot afford no matter how nice.
On the flip side I am always supportive of her quilting/sewing hobby. Again she will only look to buy something we can afford.
In short she is a great train buddy. However I would not be disappointed if I could find an electrical genius as a train buddy. 
My wife is very supportive. Quit frankly, I could not do the huge Christmas and Halloween layouts we do every year with out her helping unpack everything, set up, adding her artistic flair, and display suggestions. Last year she made some awesome looking Redwood trees from scratch using paper towel cardboard, hot glue, paint and limbs she found at Michaels. I liked them so much that a put my order in for a large count for my permanent layout to be started in about a year. She has also supported my purchases, and hates for me to miss out on any deals. She also gave me ideas on adding multi levels to the seasonal layouts.
At one point, she wanted me to put a ceiling loop that went through the wall, in every room in the house. I feel very fortunate to have such a great wife!
JoeG
Also, my wife bought me the Polar Express set when they first came out in 2004. She had difficulty finding one as they sold so well, but she did eventually, and paid top price, too. She went on about it so, I purchased one for her the next year, and a K Line Girl's set. She loves them both and enjoys seeing them run on the layout, or at Christmas with our temporary layout in the living room.
Jesse
Watching the Remembrance Ceremony in downtown OKC for the 21st anniversary of the very deadly terrorist bombing that took 168 lives on this day in 1995. It hits home with the fact of our being fortunate to have those we love and share this hobby with, as I, and others, shared with their fathers and family in past years. God bless them all.........
Bruce Jacobsen posted:<snip? Although I did have to sell my 63 Split Window Corvette to make room for the new expansion.<snip>
Holy cow!!! That is truly dedication to the hobby. I'm not sure I could ever make such a sacrifice and I'm known far and wide as a train nut.
My wife is and has always been very supportive of the hobby. When we go to train shows or on train trips I always make sure to do things that she and my daughter like too. You really need that give and take. The worst thing you could do is not consider your spouse's needs and go into "uncontrolled" train mode. (We all have been there at one time or another.)That would be a real train wreck.
All the best,
Miketg
Bruce Jacobsen posted:Although I did have to sell my 63 Split Window Corvette to make room for the new expansion.
I'm glad to see someone has their priorities right
My mom supports my Dad with the Live Steam stuff. Of course she won't support her son(me) because she thinks it is a waste of time and she doesn't realize how much trains I have now. I think still doing trains is better than getting in trouble with the law or not being alive.
She's the best. Wouldn't have done it without her blessing, but she has supported everything I've wanted to do (not just trains), and I have been there for her as well. It works great. She contributes to the layout, goes to shows, shows the layout off to anyone who will listen, etc. etc.
Can't ask for more.
.
My wife has put up with me and my trains of various sizes (HO, N, O) for as long as we've been together, going on 45 years. She's attended shows and swap meets with me and knows all my train friends and has never begrudged me the time I spend with the hobby.
p51 posted:Robert Coniglio posted:P51 toleration is good
I agree. Many hobbyists (or any kind) don't have it nearly as good as I do, I know that.
In all fairness, she walked into the layout room yesterday after I got my first section of grass down on the layout and looked it over. She actually smiled. I think now that it look like a miniature world, maybe it looks cooler than bare benchwork (it sure does for me).
And every now and then she surprises me. For example, my re-enacting group had their annual group party in December, and as I was getting my class As out, she comes home from shopping with not only a reproduction 1940s dress, but her hair done up in that style! My jaw hit the floor with a loud clang as she's never done anything like that before...
Wow!!!!You got a 1940s vibe to it very cool.Seeing this makes me recall my grand mother.She would tell me about all the trains she saw.She was 12 old when ww2 was going down.I would sit and listen to her.And how the railroad in this chase sal.Would run double head freights and troupe trains.
I'm fortunate that my wife is very supportive even though she has no interest in the hobby. She thinks the layout is "neat" but that's about it. In return, I have no qualms about her love of fashion.
Separate bank accounts are wonderful. 
- Greg
Robert Coniglio posted:these stories are nice to hear. I wonder if we have any women hobbyists who rely on the support of their husbands?
Bob C.
My husband supports my Run Room in the basement as I support his office and machine shop in the barn.
I installed a three phase power supply in the barn for his machines and wired the machine shop and office for him when he remodeled a "perfectly good barn".
After my Run Room track was designed with RR Track software, he designed my tables, helix base, and upper tracks bases with his CAD software. When I was working over the holidays one year and he was off, he set up the system so we could mass produce the tables and other surfaces. He designed my people access bridges.
We have enjoyed luxury and narrow gauge rail excursions in Canada and the United States. I enjoy fishing with him on the TX Gulf Coast.
I gotta say my wife I think is the best. She supports my hobby, she's involved in my hobby and I have to stop her from making purchases. we were at York last week and she wanted me to pick up an AC 12 that I saw for $1,400 I had a fight with her not to buy it I didn't let her win this time most of the time I usually do let her win. so as far as I could say when it comes to my hobby, trains I got the best wife there is let me correct that train partner.....
I know this thread has been dormant for a while, but earlier here, I replied that while my wife is more tolerant than anything else (and has a sometimes severe case of control-freakishness) she does surprise me.
Case in point; she had a day off that I didn't have and out of the blue, she texts me that she's in the middle of making curtains for the bottom of the layout. I'd only ever discussed wanting such curtains a long time ago and not in any detail. I came home from work and 80% of the work was already done.
Now, that was a great thing for me, but I must admit it isn't the color I would have picked and I really wish I'd known she was going to do this as she put the separations in the sections of the curtains in places that make it very tough to get to anything underneath the layout now and she used a set of hooks and rings that makes it very tough to remove the curtains and also to re-hang anything you take down.
I sure didn't tell her any of this, though, because her heart was clearly in the right place.
First question that needs to be asked is do you live your life on your wife's terms as a slave or your terms as a man with character? My wife is basically supportive but when it comes to my trains, I make all the decisions; she doesn't get a vote. My hobby activities are honest, moral, ethical, kept affordable and they do not impose or impede her activities.. I don't see why this question needs to be asked.
i've not been so lucky with girls
sometimes trains aren't even mentioned and they are turned away by my disabilities
although now this girl Logan has started talking to me lately and she supports my train interest although there is no layout yet to speak of
hopefully soon I'll get a lionchief set and build from there
and i hope to see Logan more often than right now in college
Dennis LaGrua posted:First question that needs to be asked is do you live your life on your wife's terms as a slave or your terms as a man with character? My wife is basically supportive but when it comes to my trains, I make all the decisions; she doesn't get a vote. My hobby activities are honest, moral, ethical, kept affordable and they do not impose or impede her activities.. I don't see why this question needs to be asked.
Wow, not only was that insulting to the majority of everyone else posting here, I guess you've been reading one of those, "marriage manuals" written right after WW2... 
We don't have a basement, and a rather small house, she tolerates the layout, but hates the dust that appears on the scenery.
But she enjoys our Amtrak trips together so that's more important to me then anything.
Peter, I really like your layout, and I am sure your kids, and your wife enjoy it too. Your a lucky guy.
My wife does.
Dennis
Mine does, too.
My wife supports the hobby 100%, in fact, in 1992 she suggested that I should a layout, we both agree the time period of the layout to be late 1940's through mid-1960's in the Calumet Region of Illinois and Northern Indiana..
Well,
Here is why my wife supports my model railroading addiction:
My father in law was a master modeler in HO - she gets it!
But most of all she knows model railroading is good for a marriage because:
- It keeps me off the streets
- It keeps me out of bars
- it keeps me away from women of ill repute, questionable character, and loose morals
- And after I finish spending money on trains there is only enough money left to chase my wife!
It also helps to always remember that it is all about her and always YOUR FAULT!
Richard
Richard Gonzales posted:- it keeps me away from women of ill repute, questionable character, and loose morals
Generally speaking, doesn't model trains keep guys away from all women, at least when they're between their teens and their 30s or so?
Just sayin'....
Model trains has never been a 'chick magnet' pastime and isn't something you'd ever want to admit on a first date if you're normal dating age.
Lee,
One never brings up model trains during the formative dating years, or at least not until certain " mile markers" are met!
Richard
Another member that has a supportive wife, but she kids me and says "don't push it" 
One of the things I did when we first dated was introduce her to my postwar collection. I took many of my pieces and demonstrated them one by one for her amusement. She grew up playing with toy cars, so I felt there was something to work with. I'd often point out a beloved train shop in our travels together and would tell stories about my "train buddies" aka train shop owners.
I've always been given adequate space(within reason) for my trains such as most of a basement or a spare bedroom. I am a fiscally responsible person, so purchases have been funded as long as bills are paid. My hobby also entails collection real equipment such as crossing bells, a few dwarf signals and the like. She didn't even freak out when one day I came home with a SafeTran 3 aspect signal head and hid it in a closet!
We've even taken a few short train trips together, but I usually opted to go by myself with longer excursions due to the fact I prefer standing in the vestibule and enjoying it by a hobo's eye view.
She likes the fact that my hobby is wholesome, it keeps me out of trouble and out of the bars! Who could ask for more?
Mine does not. She's not against it, but she doesn't really support it.
p51 posted:I know this thread has been dormant for a while, but earlier here, I replied that while my wife is more tolerant than anything else (and has a sometimes severe case of control-freakishness) she does surprise me.
Case in point; she had a day off that I didn't have and out of the blue, she texts me that she's in the middle of making curtains for the bottom of the layout. I'd only ever discussed wanting such curtains a long time ago and not in any detail. I came home from work and 80% of the work was already done.
Now, that was a great thing for me, but I must admit it isn't the color I would have picked and I really wish I'd known she was going to do this as she put the separations in the sections of the curtains in places that make it very tough to get to anything underneath the layout now and she used a set of hooks and rings that makes it very tough to remove the curtains and also to re-hang anything you take down.
I sure didn't tell her any of this, though, because her heart was clearly in the right place.
You better hope no one tells her of your post - could be a darn cold winter coming!!!!
Actually, she already knows everything but the color...
And really, that's a very minor thing.
She puts up with me isn't that enough!? Other than the occasional eye roll she supports my hobby.
A soon to be wife(see avatar) very supportive ...as a matter of fact when we relocate down south, a train room part of the plan. I am very lucky
