
Sir Rod Stewart reveals his epic model railway city - pseudolus
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50403561
======
andrewstuart
My little boy has been crazy about cars ever since he was the littlest boy.

So when he was 2 years old I made him a little city, the size of a large
coffee table, using all the stuff from model railroads. Grass, roads, houses,
people. I drilled holes and pushed led lights through the bottom and into the
insides of the buildings. I even put little monkeys in the trees and playing
on the roofs of the buildings. The only thing it _didn 't have_ was railroads
or trains.

Most toys, kids play with them for a while and stop and move on to something
else.

He played on that little city non stop for at least 4 years if not 5. Every
morning he got up and sat down next to it and started pushing his cars around
it and parking them and lining them up and making vehicle noises.

I have to admit I had a huge amount of fun choosing all the parts and
designing and making that little model city.

He's older now so the table lies in a corner much loved and worn and now
unused but here it is:

[https://imgur.com/a/hNOSGrq](https://imgur.com/a/hNOSGrq)

~~~
bitwize
Do you remember the elaborate HBO title card that ran before their movies in
the 1980s? They built an entire city, and some surrounding backroads and
suburbs, in miniature to dolly the camera through before the HBO logo (itself
built of wood and covered with sheet metal) spun at you -- even going so far
as to place tiny model prostitutes on the street corners.

The only computer directly involved in production was used to control the
sliding of two pieces of film to produce a "flare" effect late in the
sequence.

~~~
mrob
CGI was expensive back then. Escape from New York (1981) had a "wireframe"
city scene, which was actually a model city with fluorescent tape applied to
the edges of the buildings. Cheaper than doing it with real computer graphics,
and looked just as good.

~~~
jimnotgym
>Cheaper than doing it with real computer graphics, and looked just as good.

My kids were poking fun at the rendering glitches in the titles of Star Trek:
Next Gen. They explored Netflix a little further to find the original Star
Trek, and agreed that it had much better CGI with their starship. No glitches
at all! It never occurred to them that they were models.

~~~
aquova
Funnily enough, TNG used models as well, I don't think it was until Deep Space
9 that they actually started using CGI starships. The versions of the first
two Star Treks on Netflix are the remastered versions, so they might be
pointing out CGI issues that came up years after the original airing.

[https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Remaster](https://memory-
alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Remaster)

~~~
NeedMoreTea
DS9 also used models! CGI came with Voyager, notably using Amigas with Video
Toaster.

They had been extremely reluctant to use CGI up to that point, despite many
efforts to persuade.

[https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/CGI](https://memory-
alpha.fandom.com/wiki/CGI)

~~~
0xcde4c3db
Babylon 5, which (somewhat infamously) ran at roughly the same time as DS9,
was much more aggressive in adopting CGI (also courtesy of Amiga and Video
Toaster, I believe) for space stuff, but still used a lot of practical effects
for interior shots as well. The CGI ultimately had a negative impact on the
DVD and LaserDisc releases. Live action was shot for widescreen, but CGI was
only rendered for 4:3 standard-def broadcast. The plan was that if they ever
did a widescreen release, they'd re-render the CGI for whatever the target
resolution ended up being. But when production ended the assets were lost, and
they ended up having to manipulate the standard-def video into a widescreen
aspect ratio. This isn't too bad for the pure CGI space stuff, but there are a
few composite shots that look _awful_ on the LaserDisc and DVD releases
because of it.

I guess sometimes no matter which tech you choose, it ends up being a double-
edged sword in one way or another. Especially in the early '90s.

~~~
dmccunney
Yes, B5 was an aggressive adopter of digital technology. The driver was
_costs_. Models were _expensive_ , and if they could be replaced by CGI, the
cost of making the show could be dramatically reduced. B5 was being produced
for the syndication market, which was a different animal than the usual
networks, and doing it cheaper while retaining quality was a major goal. Short
lived competitor "Space: Above and Beyond (which lasted one season) used
models, with production costs over $1,000,000 per episode, and that was a
major reason they only lasted a season. B5 did use Amiga and Video Toaster in
the beginning, though I believe they transitioned to other equipment later. J.
Michael Straczynski's partner Doug Netter had a company called Netter Digital
that did the work. JMS commented that when he did pitch meetings with possible
networks that would air the show, it was him and a 5 minute clip of their CGI
renderings. When I saw the first episode opening, with the Vorlon craft
emerging from hyperspace to dock at Babylon 5, I sat back open mouthed going
"Whoa". I'm a computer guy, and had some notion of what it took to _do_ that

------
dnc
I wonder where the fascination with trains and railways (that I share) comes
from. Maybe from the 19th century industrialization and technological
revolution when railway was one of its main symbols ("locomotion of
progress")? Related to this, it was a great surprise to me when I first found
out about the origin of the term 'hacker':

"3\. The Early Hackers

The beginnings of the hacker culture as we know it today can be conveniently
dated to 1961, the year MIT acquired the first PDP-1. The Signals and Power
committee of MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club adopted the machine as their
favorite tech-toy and invented programming tools, slang, and an entire
surrounding culture that is still recognizably with us today. These early
years have been examined in the first part of Steven Levy's book Hackers
[Levy] .

MIT's computer culture seems to have been the first to adopt the term
`hacker'. The Tech Model Railroad Club's hackers became the nucleus of MIT's
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the world's leading center of AI research
into the early 1980s. Their influence was spread far wider after 1969, the
first year of the ARPANET. "

Source: [http://catb.org/esr/writings/hacker-history/hacker-
history-3...](http://catb.org/esr/writings/hacker-history/hacker-
history-3.html)

~~~
jkaptur
My pet hypothesis is that train systems are intellectually complex, but bound
in a framework of knowable rules. It seems like some people just can't resist
diving deep into systems like that (credit card rewards, board games, or, of
course, computer programming).

~~~
photojosh
OMG I think you've just explained my wife's obsession with frequent-flyer
points to me. (And she flies a lot, which is a desirable prerequisite.)

------
wefarrell
This deserves a video walkthrough. The photos are indistinguishable from
cityscape photographs, which speaks to the incredible level of detail. However
it's hard to sense the scale.

~~~
hn_throwaway_99
Yeah, the whole thing looks pretty amazingly massize, but there isn't a single
photograph that shows the whole thing.

I'm also really curious what the sky is painted onto.

------
femto
So one can view Rod Stewart's entire career as an attempt to achieve enough
fame to preserve his model railway layout after his passing?

Tongue in cheek, but I do think modelers keep these questions in the back of
their mind, about the worth of this thing they put thousands of hours into.
You accept that you do it because you love it, whilst recognising that most
don't share your passion. Hopefully it goes to a good home after you depart,
but finding that home is a big ask for others. Even then, if the value is in
the journey/making rather than the destination, will another "passionate" even
benefit from the ownership?

~~~
Cheyana
From the looks of it, he’s been keeping his career going all these years just
to support his train hobby. ;P

~~~
Rapzid
Scale cinder blocks 'aint cheap.

~~~
LoSboccacc
that reminded me of a startup I read about in one of these ask:hn posts:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16429467](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16429467)

they're really not cheap

------
cyberferret
Some of my earliest memories as a child was watching my dad working on a huge
model railway set that he built when I was only about 3 or 4. We had an entire
room of a house dedicated to his train hobby. Strangely, when we moved house,
my father never recreated the same thing in any of the other places we lived.
It was almost as if he completely turned his back on that passion and hobby.

I never thought about it until my 40th birthday when he presented me with some
of the carriages and engines that he had saved even after we had emigrated to
Australia (we had sold/burned/threw out most of our possessions for the move).

I am sure those old Fleischmann models are worth a bit nowadays as collectors
items, and when he gave them to me, it made me realise how much that hobby
meant to him and how much he must have missed it for all those years that he
couldn't go to his room and spend time with his trains.

------
orpheline
His layout was featured in Model Railroader back in 2007:

[http://mrr.trains.com/magazine/press-releases/2007/10/rod-
st...](http://mrr.trains.com/magazine/press-releases/2007/10/rod-stewart-and-
model-railroads)

~~~
teh_klev
My pal has a decent Model Railroader archive and is digging out that issue for
me to read. I'll scan the article pages and put them somewhere for others to
see when it arrives.

------
jelliclesfarm
Gorgeous! I love imagining new cities. One of my projects after I am done with
farming is to create a future world with future cities..not unlike Italo
Cavalo’s imaginary cities but in the future.

Does anyone want to share how they imagine new cities?

~~~
dougb5
I have an imaginary city that I started sketching out as a kid. In my
imagination it is situated in a real-world place, so a few years ago I
transferred my sketch into Google My Maps and I tweak it from time to time,
like a garden. Thankfully the location is still uninhabited :)

Are there any tools people like to use for this kind of urban dreamscaping?
Google My Maps is pretty rudimentary but it's all I know. Games like Sim City
don't fit the bill for me because there's too much other stuff going on -- I
just want to sketch roads, buildings, transit lines, etc., on top of a map.

~~~
nkrisc
A game, heavily modded, like Cities: Skylines might do it for you. You can mod
away most of the management minutae and just focus on the infrastructure,
transit, and building. It's not hard to basically turn the game into a virtual
model builder.

Here's some examples:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/doxh7h/50_i...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/doxh7h/50_ish_shades_of_concrete/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/bvxh5i/urba...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/bvxh5i/urban_junction/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/busrvi/topv...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/busrvi/topview_of_the_west_side/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/boxbp2/expr...](https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/boxbp2/expressway/)

------
pseudolus
Amazing achievement. He really nailed down the 1940s-1950s urban look. The
skyline looks like an inventive pastiche of Chicago and New York. I do wonder
if he included an automat.

~~~
reroute1
I used to take the train into Union Station at Chicago every day and I thought
I recognized parts of the model almost right away, it really is quite well
done.

------
mturmon
What a cool project. I wonder if there's been an essay or treatise on these
kind of agglomerative, ever-expanding labors of love. There are points of
similarity to the installation art of Jason Rhoades
([https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/jason-
rhoades](https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/jason-rhoades)), or the Rodia's
Watts Towers ([http://www.wattstowers.us](http://www.wattstowers.us)) among
others. It's trying to capture an entire world.

------
gwbas1c
I don't understand this:

> He told Railway Modeller he worked on the skyscrapers and other scenery
> while on tour, requesting an extra room for his constructions in his hotels.

> "We would tell them in advance and they were really accommodating, taking
> out the beds and providing fans to improve air circulation and ventilation,"
> he said.

I can understand taking parts on a tour, but maybe I'm missing something?
Assuming Rod's moving from hotel to hotel frequently, how is he going to have
the time to do something so massive? And, wouldn't this kind of thing be well-
known?

~~~
Someone
He might not have moved hotel that frequently.
[http://mrr.trains.com/magazine/press-releases/2007/10/rod-
st...](http://mrr.trains.com/magazine/press-releases/2007/10/rod-stewart-and-
model-railroads):

 _”For example, during a 63-show North American tour in 2007, Stewart
relocated his wife Penny Lancaster, the couple 's toddler son Alistair, and
seven massive traveling cases of model kits and tools to a suite of rooms in
Chicago. From this central location, he flew to each night's show. After the
performance, a limo would rush him back to the airport where his private jet
would be waiting. After a quick flight back to Chicago and a few hours rest,
Stewart would be up bright and early and busy at his model railroad workbench.
Stewart said he could usually manage a few hours of steady model building each
morning before setting aside his tools and spending the remainder of the day
with his wife and son.”_

~~~
emmelaich
Great article (from 2007), including the fact that was a railway worker!

Here's the website of the article that OP is referring to. [https://peco-
uk.com/pages/railway-modeller](https://peco-uk.com/pages/railway-modeller)

(different magazine)

------
newnewpdro
Slightly off-topic but HN-appropriate, Alan Cox of Linux kernel fame runs a
model train business:

[https://www.ultima-models.co.uk/](https://www.ultima-models.co.uk/)

------
ynac
The jaw-dropping model aside, the magazine cover is my favorite part. Whenever
I see someone get appreciation outside of their known position of recognition
- it gives my renaissance muscle a little tingle. I wonder if this is more
common or less common than we think.

"...like Rod Stewart on the cover of Railway Modeler!"

Can anyone think of other examples of this?

~~~
robotnixon
I enjoy these too. A few off the top of my head:

James Hetfield of Metallica is a well-known beekeeper

Tony Bennett is an avid painter

Bryan Adams is an excellent photographer

Paul Newman is in the Sports Car Club of America Hall of Fame and had an
extensive auto racing career

Geena Davis nearly made it to the Olympic archery team

Steve Martin is an excellent banjo player and has won a couple Grammys for it

~~~
zimpenfish
Some off the top of my head:

Bruce Dickinson is a commercial 757 (later 747) pilot (also fenced
internationally for England.)

Maynard James Keenan and Sam Neill are both (I believe) renowned winemakers.

Terry Crews is also an avid painter.

------
Anechoic
_Sir Rod Stewart donates to Market Deeping Model Railway Club_
[https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-
lincolnshire-48332649](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-
lincolnshire-48332649)

Vandals damaged model railway exhibition, Rod made a donation to help restore
it.

------
ravenstine
That is awesome! Now I have an all new respect for this guy.

~~~
52-6F-62
Same here! The level of investment and his work on it is staggering.

It also reminds me of a Canadian treasure (possibly NSFW/language)...

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbZi14-i6s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbZi14-i6s)

It's surprisingly prescient being a rock star with that kind of ... smokey
voice...

------
Someone1234
I'd love to know how he safely accesses the inner/back parts. Some other large
models have gaps, and you climb up from under, but at least in the photos it
was unclear where that would be in some pictures (too dense).

The detail is simply breathtaking. I particularly loved the boat/old warehouse
with the rust and exposed metal.

------
malthaus
Anyone interested in epic model railways/cities - i've just been to Miniatur
Wunderland in Hamburg which is very accessible and entertaining (i'm in no way
into model railways) with tons of cute little details; well worth a visit!

~~~
navbaker
An addition for anyone in the Baltimore/DC area: the Ellicott City Volunteer
Fire Department has an annual model train display that they set up every year.
Believe it’s from right after thanksgiving through the new year. It’s not
enormous from a square footage view, but it is absolutely packed with detail.
They even have a scavenger hunt sheet they give to kids to see if they can
find stuff like all the Santas, Harry Potter miniatures in a hidden cave, etc.
Well worth a visit if you’re in the area!

------
jacquesm
If not for model railroads the computing scene would look entirely different
today.

------
teh_klev
BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine talks to Rod about his hobby on his show[0]. They're
then joined by Jools Holland who is also an enthusiast, and then after a tune
Steve Lamacq and the guy from Railway Modeller, who wrote up the article
mentioned, chat for a while longer about modelling.

As a modeller myself it was nice to listen to a reasonably respectful and
decent length piece about the hobby.

[0]:
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000b4vn](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000b4vn)
(skip to 35 mins)

------
Luc
I wonder how the lighting was done. The shadows are really sharp, as if
they're coming from a single source, without overlaps. This really adds to the
realism of the scene.

~~~
mrob
I don't see anything moving in the photos, so it could be done using a single
small light source, a tripod, and long exposures.

------
equalunique
Brings back some long forgotten nostalgia. Growing up in South Florida, where
trains aren't much utilized, I was amazed as a little kid visiting Holland how
much trains were used in Europe, and how big the model train scene was there.
I'll always remember walking into a shop in Eindhoven that was like the most
beautiful model train museum I've ever seen.

------
AnimalMuppet
Nice. Look for the Pennsylvania T1 Duplex in the second photo.

(For those not familiar with the term:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplex_locomotive#PRR_class_T1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplex_locomotive#PRR_class_T1))

------
dation
If you are interested in model trains you might like this video about the
largest model railway of Russia from RT Documentary:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fNBlLWYthQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fNBlLWYthQ)

------
aasasd
Watch some videos of Luke Towan and then say that you're not enticed to start
putting something together:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxhZ7uE7glY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxhZ7uE7glY)

------
FpUser
That's some beautiful job. My mother in law's friend has something resembling
built that takes the whole basement and I was deeply impressed when saw it. I
can only imagine what Rod's creation look like when you actually see it.

------
canada_dry
I love this kinda thing and - if I had Sir Rod's bank account - would probably
purchase some augmented reality goggles and bring the city alive with traffic,
pedestrians and King Kong with bi-planes.

~~~
NeedMoreTea
If I'm interpreting the second picture right, he may be one step ahead with
traffic. It looks like each carriageway has a continuous slot, so I'm going to
guess that traffic is on a very long loop, one for each direction so the
traffic is constantly moving over that bridge.

Can't tell from what I can see of the city detail in the last photo if that's
the same.

------
dang
Also
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21527206](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21527206)
(but no comments there).

------
Andrew_nenakhov
I have always wondered how do they keep such sets from being covered by thick
layers of dust? Is it special ventilation, or do they just clean and wipe
everything every day?

------
WalterBright
> I enjoyed the building more than I did the running.

So true!

His layouts are incredible. I'd love to see them in person.

------
DennisP
I showed this to my dad, who used to do model railroads. He said just the
first photo looked like it cost about $10,000.

------
klenwell
After reading about the true meaning behind Boris Busses the other day:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21506443](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21506443)

I'm afraid I have to ask: what's he trying to bury? Hopefully nothing more
shameful than he's secretly been a Ruby-on-Rails developer for the last 10
years.

~~~
jtms
Being a rails dev for the last 10 years is shameful?

~~~
klenwell
Only if you're a rockstar.

~~~
jtms
Phew! Glad I dodged that bullet, though I guess I’m more of a JavaScript dev
these days

~~~
klenwell
I hear that's where all the rockstars ended up.

------
aussiegreenie
When Rod Stewart travel he always books two rooms. One for him and the other
for his trains.

------
pxi
Sir Rod you truly are an artist!

------
fbn79
Would be great for a Godzilla disaster movie

------
Cuuugi
This is the type of celebrity news i can get behind. Looks fantastic!

------
zackkatz
I had no idea Rod Stewart covered the Tom Waits song "Downtown Train".

I do not thank this article for informing me of this fact. It is a horrible
cover. The world needs more Tom Waits and less Rod Stewart.

------
dwoozle
Looks like he is a lot better at modeling than singing :)

~~~
dwoozle
Guess his singing has more fans than I’d think!

