The tale of Rod Stewart and his unlikely hobby
Rod Stewart has lived a storied life. After starting as a busker, he played in various groups, including The Dimensions, Long John Baldry, The All Stars and The Jeff Beck Group in the 1960s, all of which allowed him to develop and showcase his undoubted talent. It was a process of creative development that opened up the doors for the next chapter of his career.
However, Stewart’s big break came in 1969 when he joined The Small Faces spin-off Faces, and together, they released four celebrated albums, culminating in their final masterpiece, 1973’s Ooh La La, released shortly before they called it a day. Whilst in The Small Faces, Stewart had also been ploughing on with a solo career, and after the band split, it was what he would put all of his energy into. As a result, his solo artistry has provided many iconic tracks ranging from ‘Maggie May’ to ‘Da Ya Think I’m Sexy’.
Running alongside his musical exploits, Stewart has also made his name as a genuine character of the business, with many legendary anecdotes to boot, including a feud with Elton John. Whilst these stories range from the outrageous to the banal, there are some more wholesome anecdotes in there, with the pinnacle of these being his love of model railways.
It was reported in 2021 by The Express that Stewart adores his model railway so much that he spent £70,000 on getting his 124ft-long creation shipped from the US to his house in Essex, where he was to reassemble it. At the time of the report, it had been eight months, and still, the reconstruction had not been completed. His model railway is called the ‘Grant Street and Three Rivers City’, one of his life’s most precious items. Incredibly, it took the musician 23 years and an added £30,000 to complete.
The former Faces man hired two shipping container ships and freight planes to get the entire set over to the UK. Wanting to get it delivered and assembled by Christmas that year, he told BBC radio’s Loose Ends: “It all got flown over here. It’s taken eight months, two containers on a ship that went through the Panama Canal, and now we’re rebuilding it here in Britain.” He continued: “It really is a masterpiece, even though I say it myself.”
Revealing the origins of his hobby, Stewart explained: “It is all because my dad bought me a signal box, and I was born across the railway tracks in Highgate.”
