Famous People Who Like Model Trains Quiz

Answer: Rod Stewart

Sir Roderick David Stewart was born 10 January 1945 in London (but maintains strong ties to Scotland from which he has ancestry). He is a mega-successful rock singer and songwriter, selling over over 100 million records worldwide. He has had six consecutive number one albums in the UK.

Considering one of Mr Stewart's biggest albums was "Trans-Atlantic Crossing" and biggest singles was "Sailing", it might seem ironic that he is a model trains enthusiast. Mr Stewart's model train collection was featured in several issues of "Model Railroader". His permanent layout includes a "Three Rivers City" model railway.

Answer: Walt Disney

In 1928, Walt Disney, as a commercial artist, designed Micky Mouse (and also provided his voice until 1947). This was the start of the largest animation empire the world had ever seen, with the opening of Disneyland in Anaheim in 1955 seen as perhaps his finest achievement.

Mr Disney was obsessed with the railroad as witnessed by the amount of animation time given to this mode of transport. After he visited the Henry Ford museum near Detroit, he was so enamoured by the 4-4-0 locomotive that took guests around the museum, that he constructed his own steam engine and named it Lilly Belle (his wife's name was Lillian). He also created his own "Carolwood Pacific Railroad" at his Beverly Hills house but it became so big he shifted his train hobby towards building a model railroad at Disneyland.

Answer: Michael Gross

Michael Gross is best remembered as the dad in the TV show "Family Ties" where he and his co-star Meredith Baxter, who played his wife Elyse, shared the same birthday, June 21, 1947. He had a change up playing Burt Gummer fighting giant man-eating worms known as Graboids in the "Tremors" movies and subsequent TV series in the nineties.

He is an avid model railways fan, and hosted a detailed video series on how to build your own model railroad. As well he is a partner in an actual railroad, as he helped to save a line that ran in New Mexico from Larny to Santa Fe.

Answer: Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett was the son of a congressman (Howard Buffett). The second of three children, he was inspired as a seven year old, when he borrowed a book from the Omaha Public Library called "One Thousand Ways to Make $1000" by Frances Minaker. He has two degrees in Finance and took control of Berkshire Hathaway, a textile company, in 1962. In November 2018, shares for his company exceeded $200,000 per share for the first time, thereby capitalising the company at $US 328 billion. In 2009, he founded "The Giving Pledge" with Bill Gates. This philanthropic endeavour facilitates billionaires pledging to give away at least half of their fortunes. Mr Buffett has pledged to give away 99% of his fortune.

Warren Buffett supposedly has a large model railroad in his home. Berkshire Hathaway owns a majority share of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.

Answer: Tim Berners-Lee

Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee is an electronics engineer and computer scientist, most well known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He held concurrent positions as a professor of computer science at the University of Oxford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In creating the World Wide Web he harnessed existing technology by implementing the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via an internet in mid-November 1989.
By October of 1990, he had written the three key technological tools that are still the foundation of the web:
HTML: HyperText Markup Language. The markup (or formatting) web language.
URI: Uniform Resource Identifier. A sort of "address" that is unique and identifies each resource on the web. Also called a URL.
HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Allows for the retrieval of linked resources from the span of the web.

Sir Tim was actually a keen train-spotter as a youngster, and claimed that he learned about electronics from tinkering around with his own model railway as a child. In his 1999 book, "Weaving the Web" he said "I made some electronic gadgets to control the trains. Then I ended up getting more interested in electronics than trains. Later on, when I was in college I made a computer out of an old television set."

Answer: Neil Young

In a musical career that spans over fifty years, there is little that Mr Young has not done as a solo artist, as a founder of Buffalo Springfield, or as one quarter of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Known for his distorted guitar sound, he has been dubbed "The Grandfather of Grunge". "Harvest" (1972), containing the haunting "The Needle and the Damage Done" was arguably his finest album. "Cinnamon Girl" (1969) was an early hit. He has been inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a solo artist in 1995 and in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2009.

His fondness for model trains includes an alias, Clyde Coil. He is also a part owner of the inaugural model train manufacturer, itself. While Young has been an avid collector of model trains childhood, his son, Ben, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy, caused him to create a huge model railroad. Mr Young developed controls that enabled his son to operate the system, to create an interest that they could share.

Answer: Reverend W. Awdry

Wilbert Vere Awdry was an English Anglican cleric, railway hobbyist, and children's author. His enthusiasm for trains came from a childhood living near a Hampshire section of the Great Western Railway where the main line climbs at a gradient of 1 in 100 for three kilometers.

A banking engine was needed to push the trains up the gradient and it was the whistle communications between engines that piqued his interest. In 1943, the genesis of the "Thomas" stories began when he told railway stories to his son Christopher (during a dose of measles).

After Rev. Awdry wrote "The Three Railway Engines", he built his son a model of Edward, with wagons and coaches, out of broomsticks and wood scraps. The first book was written in 1945 and a total of 26 books were written up to 1972.

The first TV series (26 stories) aired in 1984 in the UK, with former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr as the narrator. Mr Starkey is also a model train enthusiast.

Answer: Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert Sinatra was an American singer, movie actor and producer. He waas one of the most popular musicians of the 20th century having sold more than 150 million records worldwide. He began his musical career in the swing era with bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey but found solo success in 1943. His musical career then stalled but picked up when he became a brat packer in Las Vegas. His acting career met with success with "From Here to Eternity" (in 1953) which earned him an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Mr Sinatra released many notable albums including, "In the Wee Small Hours" (1955), "Come Fly with Me" (1958), and "Only the Lonely" (1958).

Mr Sinatra collected Lionel and and other tinplate model trains. He had a separate cottage filled with model trains.

Answer: Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash (1932 - 2003) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, who sold more than 90 million records worldwide. He had the rare distinction of being inducted into the Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Gospel Music Halls of Fame as his music crossed into rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, folk and gospel genres.

The Man in Black, whilst he has his own model railroad, demonstrated support for model railroading by making commercials and endorsing Lionel (original model train manufacturer) throughout the 1970s. Some of these advertisements can still be seen on YouTube.

Answer: Tom Hanks

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born 1956) is an American actor producer. Hanks became known for comedic roles initially, in movies such films as "Splash" (1984),"The Man with One Red Shoe" (1985) and "Big" (1988). He then became known as a dramatic actor who played 'Everyman' thrown into in unusual circumstances in movies such as as "Apollo 13" (1995), "The Green Mile" (1999), "Cast Away" (2000), "Road to Perdition" (2002), "Captain Phillips" (2013), and "Sully" (2016).

He has collaborated with film director Steven Spielberg on many movies and TV miniseries.

Mr Hanks' films have grossed $9.0 billion worldwide. He won a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in "Philadelphia" (1993), and repeated that feat next year for "Forrest Gump" (1994). In 2016, he received a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Tom Hanks' fondness for model trains purportedly made him keen to sign as the central actor in the animated 2004 film "The Polar Express".