Make Your Man Happy this Christmas with a Model Train
Can you guess what Steven Spielberg, Neil Young, Pete Waterman and James May have in common? They are all model train enthusiasts.
Music producer Pete Waterman has a huge, million dollar model railway system housed in its own 200 foot barn. He even owns his own train making company. And this isn’t unusual amongst wealthy model train enthusiasts. Steven Spielberg and Neil Young have their own model train company called Lionel trains.
And this little group of well known personalities are not alone in their obsessive enthusiasm for model trains. Building model railway systems is no longer a hobby pursued by young boys. These days their dads and uncles, along with some old time rock musicians, who are more likely to be Hornby train enthusiasts.
Collecting vintage model trains has become enormously popular. 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 correctly says in his TV programme, this is not what these model trains were meant for.
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 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. Obviously the model trains didn’t carry any passengers of goods but the people involved had a great time building the track.
You could win one of two fantastic Hornby Train Sets in the current Christmas Hornby Competition from modelzone.co.uk. All you have to do is answer one simple question and you could win a fantastic Hornby train set.
Tags: hornby trains, james may, model railways, Model Trains, neil young, pete waterman, steven spielberg