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 this isn’t in the least bit unusual amongst wealthy model train enthusiasts. Steven Spielberg and Neil Young have their own model train company called Lionel trains.
And this group of well known personalities are not alone in their enthusiasm for model trains. Building model railway systems is no longer a hobby pursued by young boys. Their dads and their uncles are more likely to be Hornby train enthusiasts with their own model train sets.
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. 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 the link suffered due to vandals stealing some of the track for a short time Bideford and Barnstaple were once again linked by rail. 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. Just answer one simple question and you’re in with a chance.