Models & Kits

Model Trains – Hobby of the Stars

Do you know what Steven Spielberg, Neil Young, Pete Waterman and James May all have in common? They are all keen 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 has his own model train making company. 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 model train collectors are not interested in playing with the model trains and they only want pristine vintage models, still in their boxes having never 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. James May is not an obsessive collector, prefering to play with these vintage models than to look at them in their boxes.

In the pre-Christmas December 20th edition of James May’s Toy Stories he and loads of helpers rebuild the long lost rail link between Bideford and Barnstaple in Devon using OO gauge model train track. Although the model rail link suffered when some vandals stole some of the track for a short time Bideford was once again linked to Barnstaple by rail. Unfortunately the little model trains were obviously not big enough to carry any passengers but a lot of people enjoyed building the rail link.

You could win one of two fantastic Hornby Train Sets in the current Christmas Hornby Competition from modelzone.co.uk. Just answer one simple question and you’re in with a chance.

KVANT Alt sax Vintage model, ESM Jazz 6 mouthpiece (Bojan Bahč) – Nothing gonna change my love