3 ms·

I used to be a roadie for one of America's biggest rock bands. The amount of non-essential gear trucked from city to city in heavy hard shell road cases was min

I used to be a roadie for one of America's biggest rock bands. The amount of non-essential gear trucked from city to city in heavy hard shell road cases was mind blowing. I'm talking more or less a full gym's worth of equipment brought "just in case" the artist in question felt like exercising. I don't remember ever seeing it used... for reference, we're talking a full crew of 90+ roadies, 14 tractor trailer trucks, 9 tour buses. I figured it cost over $1MM per show day. Yeah I can absolutely see this being a reality for Rod Stewart, as zany as that sounds. Also factor in that Rod is, uh, old. My experience was with an act in a similar age bracket. They were not playing back-to-back shows. Usually had a least a day break between gigs. They would also fly to the next city, where we we left to the buses. This equals more down time, and hence time to work on trains! Maybe Rod's not like that, but a hunch. Also - Neil Young is also a big model train enthusiast. I believe is part patent owner on some model train components and also some tie-in to the board of Lionel Trains. Wonder what other rock stars are also huge train nerds!

teachrdan 7y ago
Neil Young's interest in model trains is influenced in part by his two sons' cerebral palsy. When they were young, his train set--seeing it and ultimately controlling it with custom controllers--was one of the few ways they could interact with the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young#Personal_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young#Personal_life
- Velofellow 7y ago
  Very interesting. Knew of his sons’ condition, but did not know of the connection to the modeling. Thanks!
teh_klev 7y ago
> Wonder what other rock stars are also huge train nerds Pete Waterman[0] (of Stock, Aitken and Waterman record producers - think Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley etc) is a huge enthusiast of the hobby. When he got into the hobby as an adult he was deeply disappointed with the quality of the rolling stock in his preferred scale (O gauge) that it's said he practically rebooted O gauge modelling in the UK by working with manufacturers to improve their products. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Waterman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Waterman
CosmicShadow 7y ago
I know there was a whole arc on Trailer Park Boys with Sebastian Bach being a model train champion and his rival was Patrick Swayze, but I'm not sure if there was any truth to it in reality (but I hope there was!). Lead to a great and clever end of the season. Here's a clip I found, have to skip through a bit to see the Sebastian Bach stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbZi14-i6s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbZi14-i6s

teachrdan 7y ago

Neil Young's interest in model trains is influenced in part by his two sons' cerebral palsy. When they were young, his train set--seeing it and ultimately controlling it with custom controllers--was one of the few ways they could interact with the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young#Personal_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young#Personal_life

Velofellow 7y ago
Very interesting. Knew of his sons’ condition, but did not know of the connection to the modeling. Thanks!

teh_klev 7y ago

> Wonder what other rock stars are also huge train nerds Pete Waterman[0] (of Stock, Aitken and Waterman record producers - think Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley etc) is a huge enthusiast of the hobby. When he got into the hobby as an adult he was deeply disappointed with the quality of the rolling stock in his preferred scale (O gauge) that it's said he practically rebooted O gauge modelling in the UK by working with manufacturers to improve their products. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Waterman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Waterman

CosmicShadow 7y ago

I know there was a whole arc on Trailer Park Boys with Sebastian Bach being a model train champion and his rival was Patrick Swayze, but I'm not sure if there was any truth to it in reality (but I hope there was!). Lead to a great and clever end of the season. Here's a clip I found, have to skip through a bit to see the Sebastian Bach stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbZi14-i6s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbZi14-i6s