ROD STEWART IN MODEL RAILROADER MAGAZINE

Model Railroader

While many rock stars go to their hotel rooms and deal with their demons, rock legend Rod Stewart does something else: He builds model trains. A lot of them.

The cover story of the February 2014 issue of Model Railroader magazine features legendary singer Rod Stewart and the third-floor train room of his Los Angeles home, where he has been constructing model train set for 20 years—and he says he has three more to go! Filled with cars, roads, skyscrapers, bridges, and stores (including Corleone Olive Oil Co., a reference to The Godfather), the city layout is 6 feet wide and 26 feet long, and set in the mid-1940s. His passion for trains goes all the way back to his childhood; in fact, Rod asked his father for a wooden train station for his 15th birthday, but was given a guitar instead. “That guitar worked out pretty well for me,” he says. In an exclusive interview with Model Railroader, Rod talks about his trains, his music, and what he likes to do in his hotel room.

Select quotes from the piece:

· On his modeling time while on tour: Stewart arranges for a separate room for modeling at hotels along the way. His days consist of a morning workout, an afternoon spent constructing his model railroad, and an evening concert. For many years, he has traveled with large, carefully organized tour cases filled with kits, tools, and paints. “For three or four hours a day I’m in heaven, absolute heaven.”

On what other people think: “People are in such wonderment about it because it’s such a juxtaposition between rock ‘n’ roll and model railroads.”

On a confession he has to share: “I do pretty well considering I’m colorblind.”

On reading and looking through The Fabulous Franklin & South Manchester Railroad by modeler George Sellios, a book which Rod keeps on his breakfast table: “For me it’s like going back and listening to Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. That book is my reference point. He is the master.”

On the recent completion of a section within his set: “That section’s finished, and now I’m going on the road and have nothing to do in the hotel rooms.”

On preparing to build the last remaining section: “We’ve got a lot of ideas we’re kicking around, but the biggest problem is going to be getting from the city into the next scene. It’s a difficult one, because the city got bigger and bigger and now it can’t go any further – otherwise it will just be a city and no railroad. But we’ll come up with something.”

On his plans after he finishes the project: “What I’ll do when it’s all finished, I don’t know. Maintenance and more improvements.”