What have Spielberg, Neil Young and James May got in common?
What have Steven Spielberg, Neil Young, Pete Waterman and James May all got 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 has his own model train making company. And this isn’t unusual amongst wealth model train enthusiasts. Neil Yound and Steven Spielberg have their own, respected 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. Their dads and their uncles are more likely to be Hornby train enthusiasts with their own model train sets.
Collecting vintage model trains has become enormously popular. 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 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. James May is not an obsessive collector, prefering to play with these vintage models than to look at them in their boxes.
In the December 20th edition of the current series 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. 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 need to do is answer just one very simple question and you could win a great Hornby train set.
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Tags: hornby trains, james may, model railways, model trains, neil young, pete waterman, steven spielberg, toy stories
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