Sir Rod Stewart talks about his model railway + photo slideshow of his model railway

Rod Stewart's secret hit track! After 26 years, the veteran rocker finally lets the world see his breathtaking completed model railway - a 124ft spread depicting an entire US city and inspired by the view from his childhood home.

He has long been known as a model railway enthusiast — even if at times he didn't want to talk about it.


But now Sir Rod Stewart's legendary layout — 26 years in the making — can be seen for the first time in all its finished glory.

The rocker's astonishingly detailed 124ft long x 23ft wide model depicting an American city and its industrial hinterland in the 1940s contains hundreds of buildings, from trackside switchman shanties to vast factories and skyscrapers.

Called Grand Street And Three Rivers City, it also features a railway station crossed by numerous bridges at rush hour. There are period cars and lorries as well, of course, as trains, and it is all surrounded by lush landscape and dramatically lit in the colours of late afternoon sunshine.

Sir Rod told Railway Modeller magazine that scenery and structure modelling, rather than locomotives, trackwork or electrics, are his forte.

'It's the landscape I like. Attention to detail, extreme detail, is paramount. There shouldn't be any unsightly gaps or pavements that are too clean,' he said.

This also extends to soccer fan Sir Rod referencing his beloved Celtic FC in the name of the Celtic Coal & Steel firm building. There is another nod to his Scottish roots with his Great Caledonian Steel & Iron Co.

The 74-year-old's now demolished childhood home at 507 Archway Road in North London overlooked train tracks.

Yet, he was inspired by American railways because that is where he was living when he began the model in 1993. At the time, he had recently built a new house in Los Angeles and included an attic room specifically for the layout.

But he told the magazine, which features Sir Rod as its cover star in its new December edition along with an in-depth feature, he does not think American railways are better than British ones. 'They're bigger, the locos are bigger but not any better,' he said.

While life on the road as a rock musician and its temptations has led to many contemporaries going off the rails, for Sir Rod railway modelling became an escape from the pressures of touring — he would take kits, tools and paints with him and book an extra hotel room for a workshop so he could pursue his hobby in between concerts wherever he was in the world.