My wife bought me a Lionel starter set in the early 80s and that’s what set the wheels in motion. A few times she has said she regrets buying that set, but in truth, she is mostly indifferent. However, she loves to see the joy on youngsters faces when they visit the layout. Once or twice, she complained that I spend too much money on trains, but then I reminded her how much she spends on her hair and she hasn’t complained since.
The owner of an LHS that I used to frequent told me a story about a wife that put a large HO collection on the trash shortly after her husband died. She was bitter that he paid more attention to the trains than he did to her.
