Rod Stewart’s Model Railway

For the past 26 years British rock star Rod Stewart has been secretly building a massive model railway in the attic of his Los Angles home. The model spans 1,500 square feet and is based on the city of New York and Chicago as they were during the 1940s, the rock legend recently revealed in an interview with Railway Modeller magazine. Stewart has named his model the Grand Street and Three Rivers City.

Stewart started building the model in 1993 and continued working on it in between tours and making music. Often, Stewart would work on his models even when he was away in another country performing live in front of his fans. He would request hotels for extra rooms, and the hotel staff would be very accommodating, removing beds for him, and providing fans to improve air circulation and ventilation.

Stewart’s love for model railways started in his childhood when he lived on Archway Road in north London, near to the London Transport Highgate Depot and the Wellington Sidings coal yard. While on a holiday with his parents in Bognor Regis at the age of around eight or nine, Stewart saw a railway layout in a model railway shop window, and he thought—”if only I could get paid to build a model railway like that.”

Stewart says he built ninety percent of the model himself, except the electricals. “The only thing I wasn't very good at and still am not is the electricals, so I had someone else do that,” he told BBC.