Rod Stewart falls for new model -- model trains

By Belinda Goldsmith

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Singer Rod Stewart once wanted to know if you thought he was sexy, but he is showing a less raunchy side of himself these days -- going public with a model railroad cityscape that took him 12 years to build.

Far from his hard-rocking, late-prowling early years on the road, Stewart, 62, has spent many nights tinkering with miniature buildings and other city fixtures to design a model-train layout that is 120 feet long and 24 feet wide.

The singer's creation, called Grand Street & Three Rivers RR, is featured in a Model RailRoader magazine's December issue that hits newsstands on November 6, along with an interview of Stewart.

"I'm proud to be a railway modeler. It means more to me to be on the cover of Model Railroader than to be on the cover of a music magazine," Stewart was quoted as saying. "I pity a man who doesn't have a hobby like this one -- it's just the most supreme relaxation."

Stewart's link to the magazine began when its publisher, Terry Thompson, received a letter from the singer saying he had been an avid reader and model railroader for 20 years and suggesting the magazine might be interested in photos of his layout.

The magazine's senior editor, Carl Swanson, visited Stewart at his Beverley Hills home to inspect the miniature railroad setting, which is reminiscent of 1940s Manhattan and takes up almost the entire third floor of Stewart's home.

"It is truly an extraordinary model, one of the best I have seen, with startling level of detail, a world in miniature," Swanson told Reuters.

"He is really seriously involved in this hobby that requires a lot of skill and has nothing to do with making money," Swanson said. "He just does it for the joy of it."