I don’t like it when my wife hangs out in what I call my train room and she calls her second living room. Yesterday she sat down on the couch after we moved some furniture around and viewed my collection (or most of it WINK) and she said “there is A LOT of money on those shelves” . GULP

I said are we talking retail or the fabulous deals I got on these special cars after exhaustively searching for them over the course of years?

Then I was in more trouble when she realized the shelves held a double row of trains.

Sensing what was coming I announced that I was heading out to run trains and she went on to do something else but I’m sure her mind was still ticking and calculating my collection. I have a feeling she will be going on a shopping spree soon.

You are in trouble now!

• "I could be doing worse things."
• "I think I should thin out some." Then sell a couple of things.
• "A lot of these are for parts."
• "Look at all of my uncompleted projects."
• "It won't look like so much once I straighten up."
• "I'm looking for a worthy cause to donate to so we can do a tax deduction."
• "There is a big gap between what I think it is worth and what I can sell it for."
• "They bring back such good memories."

I feel for you Todd

Been there done that sound familiar! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

My wife heads to my train room and says “when are you going to clean up this mess?” She can’t see my collection because its buried.

My wife knows comments like that are the surest fire way to NOT get a nice dinner out of me (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

I hide mine in the storage unit and have only a few items here at the house. That way she can’t start figuring out what the value is! And that does not include the Locos with batteries. RCS, and Sound cards. By the way any one interested in a Ros Loco?

Paul

Paul,

What is a Ros Loco?

My wife knows that we only have what we need to run, plus some extras, and that everything is purchased on a shoestring budget, won in a raffle, or made by me, so never complains about $$$.

Buy yours something expensive that will keep her busy (like a Nikon) and she’ll leave you alone for a while.

Todd,

And does she really BELIEVE you??? (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

She knows it to be true. Of our ~dozen engines, perhaps four were purchased new, on sale. In fact, the railroad and various projects basically pay for themselves in the articles I prepare for GR Magazine.

When we visit other railroads, she sees that some people have more $$$ invested just in their BridgeWorks power packs, or faux-concrete work, or big engines, or streamliners, or …, than we have in the entire railroad. (Granted, few people put the countless hours in that I do which is another reason she never complains about costs.)

It’s the same way with big JBLs, and you can’t believe some of the BIG stuff that’s been in our living room system. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Buy low, sell high, and do lots of favors along the way that are often repaid in kind.

Half of the train shelf is hers. I do steam, she does diesel. I am narrow gauge, she is standard gauge. It keeps the peace that way.

OK Todd. If that’s your story, stick to it! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

Joe Zullo said:

You are in trouble now!

…

Have to agree with you big time Joe Z. He can away do like I had to do was fig.out a way to easy the pain.

You know when you and your wife were here Joe, a few yrs back, that I only had one train Cart for storage. Now have added a trailer to it, Some storage in the computer room, Train storage at the set up area and out in the Ho Trailer is a bunch on shelf there to.

So I had to tell her at our age this is a saving for the kids later on. When we are gone, they can sell them. “Due to they don’t really care for the trains and not there thing anyway…” Now she agrees on the idea of saving something for them instead of saving money after we are gone.

On all of the trains we have… it’s to late anyway and now we have them, beside already invested in some good deals over the years…

All of our the kids should be OK with for our saving…

“Wife…Least it working so far” LoL

Oh… on my end, still helping her. One never has enough trains. Shhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeee (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

When I had a massive HO layout, my wife would fuss occasionally… Remember that gold GP lettered in Chessie that Athearn came out with?

Yeah. She thought it was “cute.” Really hated seeing it sit in the yard with all of the superdetailed and weathered D&RGW diesels, but hey, it made her happy…

Robert

Todd Haskins said:

I don’t like it when my wife hangs out in what I call my train room and she calls her second living room. Yesterday she sat down on the couch after we moved some furniture around and viewed my collection (or most of it WINK) and she said “there is A LOT of money on those shelves” . GULP

I said are we talking retail or the fabulous deals I got on these special cars after exhaustively searching for them over the course of years?

Then I was in more trouble when she realized the shelves held a double row of trains.

Sensing what was coming I announced that I was heading out to run trains and she went on to do something else but I’m sure her mind was still ticking and calculating my collection. I have a feeling she will be going on a shopping spree soon.

My mom has no idea what I paid for my trains. I am sure she knows that I have a lot of money tied up in them, but she enjoys watching them run, and never comments on the cost. I too have purchased most of my collection on sale, or I traded for some of it. But I do dread having that conversation. At $40 a boxcar, the upper limit of what I have paid for Aristo and USA boxcars, my nearly 100 of them works out to…too much money. But I am having fun, and I can’t take my money with me when my time is up.

Devon Sinsley said:

My wife heads to my train room and says “when are you going to clean up this mess?” She can’t see my collection because its buried.

yep.

that’s the way to go.

i personally have no problems in this area. my wife knows, what i spend on the hobby, and she thinks of it as a write-off to keep me at home.

Korm Kormsen said:

Devon Sinsley said:

My wife heads to my train room and says “when are you going to clean up this mess?” She can’t see my collection because its buried.

yep.

that’s the way to go.

i personally have no problems in this area. my wife knows, what i spend on the hobby, and she thinks of it as a write-off to keep me at home.

Truth is my wife does also. She loves that I love to build as much as I do and knows that I only bargain hunt but I also don’t think she would mind if I bought new. She kinda choked the other night when I told her I wanted about $1500-$1800 to put the layout in. But she said we will if we can.

My wife is the best - When people comment about the cost of all the trains she says, “At least he’s not out at a bar drinking our money away and when he dies I can sell it all.” I love my wife…

Joe Zullo said:

Paul,

What is a Ros Loco?

That is called an errant finger while typing Rats should have been 'ROD" Locos

Paul