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Actors/famous people who like trains?

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Actors/famous people who like trains?
Posted by Boyd on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 2:22 AM

Anyone know what actors are train fans? I know Rod Stewart. I should remember others but its late and my memory is on a pillow right now. 

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 6:13 AM

I thought Rod Stewart was a singer...

I know Michael Gross is a rail buff and spokesperson for World's Greatest Hobby.

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 7:47 AM

We had a thread on this not long ago - maybe somebody has a moment to root it out.

Rod was in MR not long ago for his layout.

I've found out that I have several rail buffs here at work that I wasn't aware of, although to be fair, most are fairly recent hires.  Still...

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Posted by DMUinCT on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 9:19 AM

  Most know that Niel Young (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) is part owner of Lionel Trains and father of much of their electronic systems.  The late Frank Sinartra, a member of the Train Collectors Association,  built a building on his Calf. compound that looked like a Lionel freight station and filled it with an "O" gauge model of his home town in N.J.

  Late Actor and President, Ronald Regan, was also a member of the Train Collectors Association. Some of his (and Nancy's) trains are on display at the Toy Train Museum in Strasburg.  

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Posted by Modelcar on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 9:50 AM

As I believe I mentioned before....the late Jackie Gleason sure was.

Quentin

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Posted by TomDiehl on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 10:31 AM

Since we've broadened the field to all celebs, how can we forget Walt Disney and Ward Kimball.

I'm sure there were lots of others in the original Disney crew.

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Posted by eolafan on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 11:47 AM

I seem to recall hearing that Rod Stewart is a rabid model railroader and that he frequently takes a large part of his layout/collection wherever he goes and reserves an additional hotel suite in order to set up and operate his layout for stress relief and general enjoyment whenever he is on the road.

Eolafan (a.k.a. Jim)
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Posted by wjstix on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 2:00 PM

I think he does the extra room in the hotel so he can do gluing and painting in one room and then have another room to go to without having to breathe in the fumes/smells. I believe he takes kits on the road to work on in his free time, not a portable layout.

There have been a couple of threads about this topic in the past. It can be difficult to work out who is really a model railroader or not. Over the years many celebrities were photographed visiting the Lionel factory for example, or in ads endorsing Lionel, but weren't really modellers or train collectors. I'm sure many of these things were set up by publicists for the movie studios or record labels and Lionel, and I'd guess many celebrities figured 'what the heck, I like trains OK, I get some publicity, and Lionel gives me a free train set for my kid !!'.

For example, Jackie Gleason used a Lionel train to deliver drinks to his character Reginald Van Gleason III in a sketch (prompting his ad-lib "Booze is swell with Lionel !!") and Joe DiMaggio posed on the floor with a scale Hudson for a model RR magazine, but I don't know if beyond that either one was really a model railroader.

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Posted by Bob-Fryml on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 2:01 PM

Let's not forget the late Tom Snyder of NBC News.  For a number of years Mr. Snyder hosted the Tomorrow show which came on after Johnny Carson's.  Although he wasn't an actor, per se, Mr. Snyder was in the public limelight and he made no secret of his love of trains. 

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Posted by wjstix on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 2:04 PM

Speaking of Tom Snyder....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RTcaJmoYLI

Smile

Stix
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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 2:05 PM

Eric Idle, or Michael Palin, I'm not really sure of which one, is also well-known as a trainspotter.

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Posted by miniwyo on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 5:35 PM

Here is the same type of discussion from late Febuary / March there are quite a few mentioned in the thread.

http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/148911/1649597.aspx#1649597

 

CSSHEGEWISCH

Eric Idle, or Michael Palin, I'm not really sure of which one, is also well-known as a trainspotter.

 

It's Michael Palin. He has hosted numerous documentaries and things on travel. The majority being by rail.

RJ

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Posted by cherokee woman on Thursday, June 4, 2009 5:23 AM

There's also Spencer Christian, who is a railfan, along with being a wine officinado.  He used to be the weather man on Good Morning, America and also was the host of PBS' Tracks Ahead.

 

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Posted by cnwfan51 on Thursday, June 4, 2009 10:09 AM

Blush   Vincent Price the actor use to travel across the country on trains I remember he was an accomplished chef who traded recipe ides with the chefs abroad the City Of Los Angeles and the Twenth Centrey trains. There are acouple more but I cant think of them right now   Larry

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Posted by bedell on Thursday, June 4, 2009 11:34 AM

Gary Coleman, Wilford Brimley, Sally Jessie Raphael

 

Also we remember the great line in Sleepless in Seattle. : "My father has electric trains."

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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, June 4, 2009 9:32 PM

Someone who really doesn't- Gomez Adams.  Tongue

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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, June 4, 2009 9:32 PM

Someone who really doesn't- Gomez Adams.  Tongue

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Posted by ButchKnouse on Saturday, June 6, 2009 10:51 AM

The late country-western star Merle Haggard designed a house around his train layout. Trains would go through the walls from room to room.

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Posted by Chris30 on Saturday, June 6, 2009 11:51 AM

Paging doctors Howard! Paging doctors Howard!

Dearborn Station in Chicago... Santa Fe Super Chief...

Moe Howard (born Harry [Moshe] Moses Horwitz)

Larry Fine (born Louis [Levi] Feinberg)

Curly Howard (born Jerome Lester [Yehudah-Leib] Horwitz) / Shemp Howard (born [Shmuel] Samuel Horwitz)

The Three Stooges. The only time all four (of the best known / original) stooges appeared together was in a film called, "Hold That Lion!" Curly, who suffered a stroke in 1946, made a cameo appearance as a snoring passenger aboard a train. Also, it's the only time Curly appeared in a stooge file with hair! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hold_That_Lion!)

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Posted by locomutt on Saturday, June 6, 2009 4:47 PM

 Add Mel Torme' to the list.

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Posted by Boyd on Sunday, June 7, 2009 1:27 AM

Anyone know if Jim Carey likes trains? 

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Posted by Allegheny1600 on Monday, June 8, 2009 7:45 PM

Here in the UK, we have Pete Waterman (music producer, part of Stock, Aitken & Waterman - Brought us Kylie Minogue among many others!). He is building an 0 scale model of Leamington Spa station and environs in a large shed and has started his own company producing very fine locomotive kits in 0 scale.

I also understand that Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden!) likes but is really more of an aviation buff.

We also have a very serious BBC journalist/reporter, Ben Ando who is heavily into N scale, including the development of the scale.

Cheers, John E.

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Posted by 54light15 on Monday, June 8, 2009 7:49 PM

The German fighter pilot of World War 2, Adolf Galland, had a model train layout at his airfield in France- This is described in the biography of Douglas Bader; "Reach for the Sky" by Paul Brickhill who also wrote "The Great Escape."  Luftwaffe head and Nazi war criminal Herman Goering had a large O-scale layout in the attic of his country house. So, there are some unsavoury characters who enjoyed what we do.

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Posted by electroburger on Monday, June 8, 2009 11:25 PM

I saw a video recently of Dan Akroyd traveling around in a Private Varnish which was recently restored and put on the road to market Patron Tequila. He seemed equiped to put his face into the wind from the back platform with goggles on and and and ... do we all look that silly when we enjoy this hobby?

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Posted by MarknLisa on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 4:20 PM

Back about 1997 I was taking the Southwest Chief from Lawrence KS to Chicago. One of the table in the dining car had a large boquet of flowers. The dining car steward said they were from Ajelica Houston. He said she rode from Los Angeles to Lamy NM. Later a florist's van met the train at Raton NM with the flowers and a note thanking the crew for their service.

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Posted by Ted Marshall on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 6:01 PM

 

I think I read somewhere that both Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer were train fans. Whistling

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Posted by ericsp on Monday, October 24, 2011 4:35 AM

ButchKnouse

The late country-western star Merle Haggard designed a house around his train layout. Trains would go through the walls from room to room.

Merle Haggard would probably be surprised to read he died over two years ago.

http://merlehaggard.com/

I guess he has something in common with Mark Twain now.

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Posted by 54light15 on Monday, October 24, 2011 10:58 AM

Jeez, it's "Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard!"  Wasn't there a later Stooge film where it involves a Santa Fe? dining car? Moe is a railroad inspector and Shemp is laying on the floor hallucinating about Larry being a chicken? Moe also drives a nice 53 Mercury 2-door.

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Posted by Modelcar on Monday, October 24, 2011 11:13 AM

......Jacky Gleason..........Johnny Cash

Quentin

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Posted by DMUinCT on Monday, October 24, 2011 1:13 PM

Modelcar

......Jacky Gleason..........Johnny Cash

Yes and Johnny Cash held the "Lionel Railroder Club" member card #1.

Loved that album "Victorier Station".

Don U. TCA 73-5735

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