Men Love Model Trains
Filed Under (General) by admin on 26-12-2009
Tagged Under : hornby trains, james may, model railways, Model Trains, neil young, pete waterman, steven spielberg
What have Steven Spielberg, Neil Young, Pete Waterman and James May all got in common? They are all keen on their model trains.
Music industry mogul Pete Waterman has a magnificent system, housed in a 200 foot barn, reputed to be worth as much as half a million pounds sterling. He even owns his own model train business. And there are many wealthy model train enthusiasts with a similar obsession. Steven Spielberg and Neil Young have their own model train company called Lionel trains.
And this small band of celebrities are not alone in their obsessive enthusiasm for model trains. Building and running model train sets is no longer a hobby pursued by young boys. It’s their dads, their uncles and even the old rock musicians they listen to who are more likely to have a room full of Hornby Trains.
Model train collecting has become big business. Collectors look for vintage model locomotives that are in pristine condition, still in their boxes having never been used on a track. To many, including James May, this is not what these model trains were meant for.
At a model train auction Mr won a completely unused Hornby train set for £200 which other collectors would have kept, unused, in its box. Mr May built and played with the train set in his James May’s Top Toys television programme as he says this is what was intended when the system was made.
In the soon to be aired December 20th edition of James May’s Toy Stories he and around 400 valiant volunteers rebuild the long lost rail link between Bideford and Barnstaple in Devon using OO gauge model train track. Although some of the track was stolen by vandals Bideford and Barnstaple was once again linked by rail, allbeit for a short time. Obviously the model trains didn’t carry any passengers of goods but the people involved had a great time building the track.
You could win one of two fantastic Hornby Train Sets in the current Christmas Hornby Competition from modelzone.co.uk. All you have to do is answer one simple question and you could win a fantastic Hornby train set.
