Model Trains – Hobby Of The Stars
Can you guess what Steven Spielberg, Neil Young, Pete Waterman and James May have in common? They are all model train enthusiasts.
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. Neil Yound and Steven Spielberg have their own, respected model train company called Lionel trains.
And this small band of celebrities are not alone in their obsessive enthusiasm for model trains. Building model railway systems 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. Obsessive collectors tend to be interested in pristine vintage models that are still in their boxes, never having been played with. As Mr May says, these models were meant to be played with and not kepe in their boxes.
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 unceremoniously threw the box away when he built the system in his James May’s Top Toys television programme.
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. Unfortunately the model trains weren’t big enough to take any passengers or goods, but nevertheless a lot of people had a lot of fun with model trains.
You could win one of two fantastic Hornby Train Sets in the current Christmas Hornby Competition from modelzone.co.uk. All you need to do is answer just one very simple question and you could win a great Hornby train set.
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