Although I learned many new things, if you're a long time model railroad enthusiast, the essay on model railroads might seem a little thin. And the equivalence made between having it known you're a model railroader and 'coming out' as one is a little grating, but, overall, all's good.
I found the section on Rod Stewart's layout of particular interest as Vince and I had been discussing Mr. Stewart's layout, and that made me take another look at the story Model Railroader ran on it in Dec '07 - which Mr. Garfield referred to as where Mr. Stewart "came out publicly". I was primed.
Between those two sources it hit me: Rod Stewart is an example of the 'Regular Model Builder' I was blathering on about in the Miniature Buildings in the 20th Century reading list post. I hear you scoffing out there :-) Yeah, he's a celebrity with mountains of money, so he's far from regular in that regard, but that's not what I'm talking about here. It was these statements he's quoted as making that are presented in those stories that rang the bell:
It's not a question of trains. It's a question of scale and detail. I base my layout on the 1940s New York Central and Pennsylvania line. I love it, man, I really do ...
Late at night I used to leave my hotel and just walk around looking up at all those buildings.
I don't want too much of that [buildings not made by himself] on my layout, it would make the railroad too impersonal.
Combined with the MR story on how Mr. Stewart was a self taught kitbasher and scratchbuilder of miniature buildings, well it was 2 and 2 equaling 4 at that point. While you're contemplating that I'll leave you with Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck.
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