When I think about Rod Stewart, which doesn’t happen very often, two things come to mind.

The first is that song he did with Bryan Adams for The Three Musketeers soundtrack – ‘All for Love’. It gets stuck in my head every time his name is mentioned.

The second is his hair in the 80s, which I am convinced is the inspiration for the iconic tannie short cut that’s so popular among middle-aged women in the Free State.

I’d never have pegged him as the model train type.

According to the Daily Mail, however, he’s a train enthusiast with a very impressive model railway that took 26 years to build.

If you thought that model railway in Germany was impressive, wait until you see the Rod Stewart mini-rail experience.

The rocker’s astonishingly detailed 124ft long x 23ft wide model depicting an American city and its industrial hinterland in the 1940s contains hundreds of buildings, from trackside switchman shanties to vast factories and skyscrapers.

Called Grand Street And Three Rivers City, it also features a railway station crossed by numerous bridges at rush hour. There are period cars and lorries as well, of course, as trains, and it is all surrounded by lush landscape and dramatically lit in the colours of late afternoon sunshine.

Sir Rod told Railway Modeller magazine that scenery and structure modelling, rather than locomotives, trackwork or electrics, are his forte.

‘It’s the landscape I like. Attention to detail, extreme detail, is paramount. There shouldn’t be any unsightly gaps or pavements that are too clean,’ he said.

This also extends to soccer fan Sir Rod referencing his beloved Celtic FC in the name of the Celtic Coal & Steel firm building. There is another nod to his Scottish roots with his Great Caledonian Steel & Iron Co.

Rod also included his now demolished childhood home at 507 Archway Road in North London which overlooked train tracks.

Yet, he was inspired by American railways because that is where he was living when he began the model in 1993. At the time, he had recently built a new house in Los Angeles and included an attic room specifically for the layout.

It is a thing of beauty.

Well done, Rod.

[source:dailymail]