Here are two of my personal experiences.
I was at a friend's open house, which showcased his wonderful o gauge layout, some years ago. Mostly train fans were in attendance. After a while I met a fellow, a model railroader, who had recently gone through a divorce. He got to telling me his story about his ex who did not like his o gauge layout. Evidently the layout and his love of trains ( he said he owned about 400 engines and about 1000 freight and passenger cars ) was a point of contention between he and his ex for sure. The more this fellow spoke about his ex wife, the more angry he became until he blurted out this line: "Because of that $%*(# I had to sell all my o gauge trains and move into an apartment. That horrible $%*(# downsized me to HO!!" The guy was so serious! Upon hearing this it was all I could do to contain myself. I had to excuse myself so I could go into the bathroom and howl!
Lou Palumbo who writes the CTT column Views from the Underground once told me that some guys were secretive about visiting his train shop and making purchases. There was no way these fellas wanted their wives to find out they were at the train store. These guys would go to great lengths in hiding the fact they were at the store ... so much so they would park their car in the rear of the building or down the next block. They would leave the new train purchases in the trunk of their cars and sneak them into the house when the wife was out.
Lou would run into these guys with their wives at church or another public place a few days after their store visit. Upon spotting Lou, the guys would drop back a few steps making facial and hand gestures that said to Lou" don't tell her you saw me in your shop yesterday". He did devote a CTT column to this very subject. I loved hearing Lou tell the stories! LOL!
