I was surprised when I picked up this month’s MR to discover that it carried an article with Michael Gross’ by-line - surprised, because the name pushed a button that said “vaguely familiar, but for inexplicable reasons.”
Then I saw his picture on the MR website, and thought - “Of course - Family Ties.” Theatrical elements are always welcome in a hobby that Frank Ellison helped found - I won’t say artistic, because there are thirty pages of discussion on that topic elsewhere - but he seems like a nice choice to spread the hobby. The famous people who come most immediately to my mind - Walt Disney excepted - as model railroaders are Frank Sinatra and Roy Cohn, and aside from being dead, they didn’t exactly have that wholesome quality a family hobby needs - although Sinatra might’ve brought a certain Rat Pack insouciance to model railroading. It would’ve been model railroading with martinis and Dino - although, now that I think about it, I HAVE seen photos of Linn Westcott in a bow tie.
Cohn, on the other hand, would have all of us who owned Russian Decapods hiding them under the couch.
Does anyone else know of any famous people who are modelers? Particularly younger ones?
Michael Gross is probably as well-known these days for his model railroad work as for Family Ties, at least amongst the model railroading community…Sinatra was a toy-train buff, the made-for-HBO “Rat Pack” movie features a scene where Ray Liotta is running a rather extensive Lionel layout.
While model railroading is inherently a pretty wholesome hobby, there’s no reason why folks who are also interested in less “wholesome” activities can’t also be model railroaders.
You can add John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, to the list. He was known to be an avid railfan. I believe Ike, himself, also had the interest, although I never heard that he actually had models.
There’s a hobby shop in Franklin Tn. that has VIP evening hours so the country music stars that live in the area can shop without being hounded. They won’t say who they are though.
Our most recognized local weatherman , Dave Brown, is a modeler. I have seen him at the GATS show in Memphis a couple of times. He may not be a celeb all over but he is very popular where I live.
Merle Haggard had a album years ago called My Love Afair with Trains…all train songs with Merle narrating and train sounds too…The album had pictures of some of his models…Another older album had a picture of a old car running on the rims on railroad tracks…Cox 47
Perhaps one should really step back and first address the question of whether these famous people are actually model railroaders, or simply the owners of commercially built model railroads, before jumping to any conclusions about them being part of our hobby. I’d have to say that very few real celebrities ever participate in the modeling aspect of the hobby these days (they certainly did many years ago but times have definitely changed). Likewise, celebrities often purchase or have custom made anything that momentarily catches their fancy, not out of any enduring interest in a subject or item. Very brief, flighty interest in a multitude of subjects is often what people with a lot of money have. And, at least in my book, those that might be toy train (Lionel, AF, Marx) collectors are just that and not model railroaders…unless they have a layout of some sort to run their trains on.
Neil Young is a big railroader…Hmmm…I think it was about 10 yrs. ago or so I saw a special on A&E that featured Neil Young and his collection…not suprisingly he incorporated alot of organic materials onto the layout…Moss, etc…
What shocked me most was Sally Jesse Rapheal (sp) is a train nut too…as alot of us know, trains are not just for us boys!
Depends on whether or not you consider these celebrities Model Railroaders or people who just like trains–I say hooray for both, BTW! Had a chance to see Sinatra’s layout on an episode devoted to Lionel trains on a program once, and whether or not he built it, it was pretty impressive. And according to the program, he spent a lot of time with his layout, so whether or not he tinkered or just ran trains, he LIKED them. And that’s the important point, to me.
Another fine actor who has an extensive Lionel layout (that he built himself, BTW) is Mandy Patankin, the B’way musical star.
Michael Gross being into model railroading doesn’t surprise me at all–he’s one very cool guy.
And let’s not forget the Dentist in that wonderful Canadian comic strip FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE and his extensive G-guage outdoor layout. That hobby of his has resulted in some wonderful episodes.
Tom [:D]
Several years ago Michael Gross won the model of the month award for building a station. Given how long ago that was I will assume that it is not just a fad for him. I am also assuming that he actually made the model that he won the award for.
Pete Waterman (music promoter) has a giant O scale layout which was on TV recently - he also owned (not sure if he still has them) a number of full-size locos and had a hand in the “Just Like The Real Thing” range of finescale O kits. I got the impression from the TV programme that he’d done a fair amount of the work himself, and apparently there are a few other musicians who tend to turn up on his doorstep while touring and run trains for a few hours - rather the opposite of the old rock and roll tour stories!