Its time to OUT celeberity railfans!

[Anonymous]

Paul Harvey-Quoted news that the "Corn Shipments are going to utilse every grain car out there.
Tom Snyder-Loved to tell listener that Supertrain was a bad TV Show!
Neil Young-Traitor who helped moved Lionel Production to China even though he wrote songs critising the USA
John Kerry-uses rail trails in home of Boston.
anybody else out there???

[Overmod]

Clearly in this 'category' -- Jennifer Garner, in People Magazine:

"I just cannot avoid a train."

[fuzzybroken]

I don't know about railfan, but Rod Stewart is an avid model railroader. I even loaded a Walthers box for him into a UPS trailer bound for California (This would be about 7½ years ago...) .

-Mark
http://www.geocities.com/fuzzybroken

[espeefoamer]

Jhonny Cash was a railfan.Yul Brenner was a model railroader.

[mloik]

Dan Rather often talks about railroad lore during his visits to David Letterman, etc.

[csxengineer98]

the father from the tv show family ties....michel gross.... he is a big railfan..one of the guys i work with use to work on amtrak..said about once a month..he was on the train...
whoppi goldburg is a railbuff to..hell she has her own passinger car....
csx engineer

[Anonymous]

Composer Anton Dvorak (of "New World" Symphony fame) has been dead since 1904 but he's reported to have told his pupils at the Conservatory in Prague: "I would gladly give all my symphonies had I been able to invent the locomotive." Spent a lot of his spare time around railway stations checking out the locomotives.

[Junctionfan]

French composer Charles Valentin Alkan wrote a really difficult piano piece call Chemin de Fer and Swiss composer Arthur Honegger composed a piece for orchestra called Pacific 231.

[Anonymous]

How's about Gary Coleman? He's a modeler if not a railfan.



Old Timer

[Overmod]

Junctionfan, correct me if I don't remember this right, but Honegger went to quite some trouble convincing people that "Pacific 231" was NOT a tone poem about a locomotive, and in fact wasn't inspired by railroad sources at all, but was just an exercise in increasing an illusion of speed via decreasing tempo. Which would make him an honorary NON-railfan, I think; we don't go calling Jethro Tull members railfans because of "Locomotive Breath"...

[Anonymous]

I nominate Adrain Belew, former guitarist for Frank Zappa, and King Crimson.

He told me he's a train buff in an E-mail !

[Overmod]

I don't know which is more impressive, that Adrian Belew is a railfan, or that you're in e-mail contact with him!

[Anonymous]

No biggie, he has a web site, and tries to answer fan inquieries as often as possible. He is also a producer and solicets new music, but not recently because he has been preoccupied producing a compilation of his carreer.

[Anonymous]

Pete Waterman - the man who discovered Kylie Minogue is a top rail fan, and owns a good proportion of the preserved locos in Britain to bbot.

[Anonymous]

And what about Canadian composer Eldon Rathburn? He's got a CD out called "Mostly Railroad Music." He took his movie camera on one of the last CN steam runs out of Montreal or Toronto about 45 years ago.

[Junctionfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Overmod

Junctionfan, correct me if I don't remember this right, but Honegger went to quite some trouble convincing people that "Pacific 231" was NOT a tone poem about a locomotive, and in fact wasn't inspired by railroad sources at all, but was just an exercise in increasing an illusion of speed via decreasing tempo. Which would make him an honorary NON-railfan, I think; we don't go calling Jethro Tull members railfans because of "Locomotive Breath"...

Being a composer myself, we composers don't do anything unless we are inspired. Alkan and Honegger may not have been "railfans" but they were obviously inspired enough to write the pieces. I am writing a piece called the Infernal Nightmare; doesn't mean I'm a "demonfan", just inspired.

[AntonioFP45]

Re: Actor Michael Gross [C):-)][tup]

I remember reading in TRAINS magazine in the late 80s or early 90s that he became an owner or part owner of a railroad "spun off" by the Santa Fe. Michael had stated though that he wasn't going to be too involved with the day to day operations of the company. (Was it the Arizona and California??)

Anybody have that article or remember the story? [:D][8D]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by fuzzybroken

I don't know about railfan, but Rod Stewart is an avid model railroader. I even loaded a Walthers box for him into a UPS trailer bound for California (This would be about 7½ years ago...) .

He is also quoted as saying that if he could make it onto the cover of Railway Modeller magazine that it would mean much more to him than being on the cover of Rolling Stone.

As far as other celebrities not mentioned on here, I can think of a few more to add on.

Frank Sinatra-Huge Lionel fan that had an incredible layout.
Elton John-Garden railroader.
Joe DiMaggio-Lionel enthusiast.
Phil Colins-Model railroader.
Sally Jesse Raphael-Z gauge modeller.
Bruce Springsteen-Model railroader.
Ward Kimball-His name may not exactly be a household word, but he was a Disney animator who created many characters that everyone knows, most notably Jiminey Cricket. He had one of the world's greatest toy train collections and also owned the "Emma Nevda", an old Mogul, plus other real railroad equipment.
Walt Disney-Live-steam models.
Buster Keaton-Had both Lionel and American Flyer trains throughout his life.
Nat King Cole-Had a Lionel layout in the early 1960's.
King Edawrd VIII-Model railroader.
King George VI-Model railroader.
Pope Pius XII-Had Lionel trains running in the Vatican. There's even a photograph of him dressed in his full Pope outfit with his trains.
Winston Churchill-Model railroader.
Hermann Goering-Definetly not someone that you'd brag about liking trains, but he did have an incredible O gauge layout. When he surrendered to Allied troops at the end of the war, he even had a suitcase filled with trains amongst his personal baggage.

QUOTE:
Pete Waterman - the man who discovered Kylie Minogue is a top rail fan, and owns a good proportion of the preserved locos in Britain to bbot.

Some more about Pete Waterman, he at one time owned the Flying Scotsman. He's also one of the hosts of the British version of Americn Idol. His first job was a fireman on British Railways, but he left when they switched to diesel and went into the music business.

There was a segment on him on an episode of "Extreme Machines" on TLC (I have it taped) where he mentions that he's delt with every major rock star. He listed the names of those who have been mentioned on here, but he also mentioned Paul McCartney and U2. He went on to say that they're all railway fanatics and that when they come into his office and see that it's full of toy trains that they don't want to talk about music-they want to talk about trains. Then when they find out he's got the real thing, they want to go and see it.

[Anonymous]

Sally Jesse Raphael-Z gauge modeller.
I know that Z gaugers are about as nerotic as you can get, Its a requirment of the hobby.
Lynn Johnston-Creater of Comic strip "For Better Or for worse" shows husband
in train room,,Good sunday strip on oct 4th.
Rod Stewert-He's a cutie but he is the closet too...
George Bu***he first- Seen at trolley muesum in Kennebunkport Maine
David Letterman??

[SSW9389]

Michael Gross is part owner of the Santa Fe Southern. Tracks run from Santa Fe New Mexico to Lamy, NM.

QUOTE: Originally posted by AntonioFP45

Re: Actor Michael Gross [C):-)][tup]

I remember reading in TRAINS magazine in the late 80s or early 90s that he became an owner or part owner of a railroad "spun off" by the Santa Fe. Michael had stated though that he wasn't going to be too involved with the day to day operations of the company. (Was it the Arizona and California??)

Anybody have that article or remember the story? [:D][8D]

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by kissmycaboose7

Lynn Johnston-Creater of Comic strip "For Better Or for worse" shows husband

Dr Johnston has 1":1' on the ground (several thousand feet) and sells equipment in that scale. He has also done G. There was an article about him in MR not long ago.

[Anonymous]

Could you please did up a date on that artical?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mloik

Dan Rather often talks about railroad lore during his visits to David Letterman, etc.

Dan and Dave are both paid to talk, the only time we hear from them is in an arena that is not much more than scripted talk. How about either one or both of them join us here in this forum for starts. Then we hopefully we will hear some real views of theirs and not their handlers.[2c][swg][:-^]

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by kissmycaboose7

Could you please dig up a date on that article?

Here's the article:
http://www.trains.com/content/dynamic/articles/000/000/004/486iqkwu.asp
Here's his website:
http://www.ridingrailkits.com

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

Being a composer myself, we composers don't do anything unless we are inspired. I am writing a piece called the Infernal Nightmare.

Did kickmycaboose7/trainfinder22 inspire you to write that?

[espeefoamer]

Ward Kimball ran a 3 foot gauge railroad on his property.

[Junctionfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ericsp

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

Being a composer myself, we composers don't do anything unless we are inspired. I am writing a piece called the Infernal Nightmare.

Did kickmycaboose7/trainfinder22 inspire you to write that?

LOL. No, actually it was Dante's Inferno and Colin de Plancy's Dictionaire Inferno.

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by espeefoamer

Ward Kimball ran a 3 foot gauge railroad on his property.

And had a station that came from a Disney movie, IIRC.

[Anonymous]

Ward Kimball's equipment was all donated to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, CA, (outside Riverside about 50 miles east of LA) where it is exhibited. They also have an outstanding operating collection of traction (mostly LARy and PE) and conventional equipment.

If you've never been, plan to go. You'll be glad you did.

[Anonymous]

I believe Bill Gates is a railfan. I remember reading about him renting a private train a few years ago (why would someone with his bucks rent a train when he could buy one?)

Chet Huntley (David Brinkley's news partner) was also a railfan- his misspent youth in Montana was spent hanging around the railroad. He even wrote a book about his youth which has a neat story in it about a steam locomotive being pushed, by hand, by the ladies of the town; the railroad was demonstrating roller bearings. (I don't see the railroads doing anything like that today....)

Erik