Rod Stewart Builds Model Trains During Tour

Fri, 21 January 2011 04:54:37 ET

While some rock stars indulge in drinking and casual sex when they come offstage, the 'All for Love' hitmaker spends his time building scale models of railways.

Rod Stewart builds model trains backstage when he's on tour. While some rock stars indulge in hedonistic pursuits such as drinking, drug-taking and casual sex when they come offstage, the Scottish singer requests a large table in his dressing room so he can indulge his hobby of building scale models of railways.

Rod, 66, also makes sure he always has a fan on hand so the fumes from the glue don't affect his voice and he never drinks before he begins a building session. He told Model Railroader magazine, "I can't build after a couple of glasses of wine - the results are never good."

The "Maggie May" singer added that a good model builder has "an eye for proportion, a sense of what fits naturally, right down to the placement of the advertising signs." He also stressed the importance of taking regular breaks, saying, "When I find myself focusing so intently on a model that it ceases to be fun, it's time to walk away, have a cup of tea and come back to it later."

Rod, whose wife Penny Lancaster is pregnant with the couple's second child, has a 139 square meter model train layout on the third floor of his home in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and says he spends up to four hours a day in there building trains and stations. The scaled down creation is based on the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads of the 1940s.

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