It was reported early this year, by The Express that Stewart adores his model railway so much that he spent £70,000 on getting his 124ft-long creation shipped from the US to his house in Essex, where he was to reassemble it.
Rod has spent eight months getting his 124ft long model railway shipped from his Malibu residence to his Essex home. It's cost the rocker £70,000.
Sir Rod Stewart has recently shared details on his huge model railway layout – and it’s absolutely breathtaking! https://t.co/g7MsEvGKJw pic.twitter.com/kSZRIauctz
— Hornby (@hornby) November 13, 2019
At the time of the report, it had been eight months, and still, the reconstruction had not been completed. His model railway is called the ‘Grant Street and Three Rivers City’, one of his life’s most precious items. Incredibly, it took the musician 23 years and an added £30,000 to complete.
The former Faces man hired two shipping container ships and freight planes to get the entire set over to the UK. Wanting to get it delivered and assembled by Christmas that year, he told BBC radio’s Loose Ends: “It all got flown over here. It’s taken eight months, two containers on a ship that went through the Panama Canal, and now we’re rebuilding it here in Britain.” He continued: “It really is a masterpiece, even though I say it myself.” (Faroutmagazine)
Stewart has been a fan of model trains since he was a kid, a love he shared with longtime pal and former Faces bandmate Ronnie Wood.(Music-news.com)
For the past 26 years, he has been building a huge 1,500 square foot model railway, inspired by post-war Manhattan, in his Beverly Hills home, and has now revealed the finished set to Britain's Railway Modeller magazine.
"When I take on something creative like this, I have to give it 110 per cent," he said of his long quest for the perfect model railway. "For me it's addictive. I started, so I just had to finish. I'm lucky I had the room. If I'd have realised at the start it would have taken so long, I'd have probably said, 'No! No! Nah!'"
The star often used to book extra hotel rooms when touring to create a temporary model-making workshop, but is now ready to enjoy the fruits of his labour.
"There are perhaps aspects of the layout built in the early days which could be upgraded or improved, such as some of the earlier buildings, but at the moment it is time to enjoy some operating sessions," he explained.
The mammoth railway set takes up most of the third floor of his mansion, and includes skyscrapers standing more than 5 ft high, dirty rubbish-strewn streets, with tiny people positioned as if they were living life in the city.
After nearly three years on the market, knighted rock star Rod Stewart and wife Penny Lancaster have finally sold Wood House, their historic and conspicuously opulent longtime country estate
Sir Rod put Wood House in Essex on the market for £7.5 million in 2016, but struggled to sell the sprawling estate, with his wife Penny Lancaster blaming Brexit for the lack of interest.
The six-bedroom manor home has seen Sir Rod, 74, through two wives and several girlfriends and includes a boating lake, tennis courts, a swimming pool and huge gardens.
By November 2016, he had cut the price by £550,000 and he further reduced it to £5.95 million in early 2018.