> He told Railway Modeller he worked on the skyscrapers and other scenery while on tour, requesting an extra room for his constructions in his hotels.
> "We would tell them in advance and they were really accommodating, taking out the beds and providing fans to improve air circulation and ventilation," he said.
I can understand taking parts on a tour, but maybe I'm missing something? Assuming Rod's moving from hotel to hotel frequently, how is he going to have the time to do something so massive? And, wouldn't this kind of thing be well-known?
”For example, during a 63-show North American tour in 2007, Stewart relocated his wife Penny Lancaster, the couple's toddler son Alistair, and seven massive traveling cases of model kits and tools to a suite of rooms in Chicago. From this central location, he flew to each night's show. After the performance, a limo would rush him back to the airport where his private jet would be waiting. After a quick flight back to Chicago and a few hours rest, Stewart would be up bright and early and busy at his model railroad workbench. Stewart said he could usually manage a few hours of steady model building each morning before setting aside his tools and spending the remainder of the day with his wife and son.”
I used to be a roadie for one of America's biggest rock bands. The amount of non-essential gear trucked from city to city in heavy hard shell road cases was mind blowing. I'm talking more or less a full gym's worth of equipment brought "just in case" the artist in question felt like exercising. I don't remember ever seeing it used...
for reference, we're talking a full crew of 90+ roadies, 14 tractor trailer trucks, 9 tour buses. I figured it cost over $1MM per show day. Yeah I can absolutely see this being a reality for Rod Stewart, as zany as that sounds.
Also factor in that Rod is, uh, old. My experience was with an act in a similar age bracket. They were not playing back-to-back shows. Usually had a least a day break between gigs. They would also fly to the next city, where we we left to the buses. This equals more down time, and hence time to work on trains! Maybe Rod's not like that, but a hunch.
Also - Neil Young is also a big model train enthusiast. I believe is part patent owner on some model train components and also some tie-in to the board of Lionel Trains. Wonder what other rock stars are also huge train nerds!
Neil Young's interest in model trains is influenced in part by his two sons' cerebral palsy. When they were young, his train set--seeing it and ultimately controlling it with custom controllers--was one of the few ways they could interact with the world.
> Wonder what other rock stars are also huge train nerds
Pete Waterman[0] (of Stock, Aitken and Waterman record producers - think Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley etc) is a huge enthusiast of the hobby. When he got into the hobby as an adult he was deeply disappointed with the quality of the rolling stock in his preferred scale (O gauge) that it's said he practically rebooted O gauge modelling in the UK by working with manufacturers to improve their products.
I know there was a whole arc on Trailer Park Boys with Sebastian Bach being a model train champion and his rival was Patrick Swayze, but I'm not sure if there was any truth to it in reality (but I hope there was!). Lead to a great and clever end of the season.
He has a whole crew to install his stage setup, which includes a big drum kit and a full-sized harp and lots of lighting and stuff. They can probably pack up his train sets into black instrument cases in no time.
According to this older article, his "train set" is 23 feet wide and 124 feet long. On tour he'd just bring the buildings he was working on, some of which were five feet tall.
It says he was working "on the skyscrapers and other scenery". For model railroads and other diorama work, those are usually made separately and then added to the layout.
He was just having a room set up with a desk and area to build those smaller components, then would take them home and add them to the layout.
He's not bringing the whole layout, but the skyscrapers are pretty big; having a dedicated room for the models plus tools (including glue and paint, both of which are fragrant) would make it a lot easier.
> He told Railway Modeller he worked on the skyscrapers and other scenery while on tour, requesting an extra room for his constructions in his hotels.
> "We would tell them in advance and they were really accommodating, taking out the beds and providing fans to improve air circulation and ventilation," he said.
I can understand taking parts on a tour, but maybe I'm missing something? Assuming Rod's moving from hotel to hotel frequently, how is he going to have the time to do something so massive? And, wouldn't this kind of thing be well-known?