Eddie Izzard the railway modeller

[jonny777]

He wins a pass as a semi train buff - I'm not normally into cross dressers.

 

The biggest ass on a plane that the crew hated was cilla black I'm informed

 

An ex work colleague who had a previous job in a theatre insisted the biggest **** was Bob Monkhouse.

[sharris]

Rod Stewart ?

 

We seem to be in quite a company (mostly good company I think, not so sure about Hermann Göring though!).

 

I found this list on Wikipedia... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_transport_modellers - some I knew about, many I didn't.

[jetmorgan]

We seem to be in quite a company (mostly good company I think, not so sure about Hermann Göring though!).

 

I found this list on Wikipedia... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_transport_modellers - some I knew about, many I didn't.

I do wonder how many of those "celebrity modellers" actually built their own layouts and models and how many got them built for them. Reminds me of the chap in the radio controlled model flying club my dad belonged to...always claimed he'd built this model aircraft and that one, when everyone in the club knew full well he got them professionally built by someone else.

[PaulRhB]

Well Rod Stewart and Pete Waterman certainly build some of it as they enjoy modelling not just owning models, although both work with others too. Eddie found his old layout in the lift and donated it according to the story, the local club rebuilt it and from his reaction had improved it too.

If you had their kind of money it must be tempting to speed things up using professionals but they are still putting money into the hobby whether it's paying others to build or buying kits etc and doing it all. Same as those of us who buy rtr really and there are plenty of people buying finished layouts on here and in eBay

Edited July 20, 2016 by PaulRhB

[Jongudmund]

Eddie Izzard's comedy show "Glorious" is probably his best one. He does a whole bit about Noah's flood which I still laugh about when I think of it.

 

Anyway, nice of him to donate his old trains to the museum and good on the local mrc for making something of it. Good bit of publicity for the mrc, I'd have thought.

[jjb1970]

As a general rule I was advised many, many years ago if I had heroes then on the whole it was best to not meet them and have my impressions of them destroyed. A bit simplistic, and there are celebrities whose private persona is as admirable as their professional talents but a lot of them are not pleasant. Another old adage that I've found remarkably well found is the old one that famous people who like to appear as thoroughly nice people in public are often complete you know whats whereas others who seem brusque and not at all likeable are quite charming in private life.

[jetmorgan]

As a general rule I was advised many, many years ago if I had heroes then on the whole it was best to not meet them and have my impressions of them destroyed. A bit simplistic, and there are celebrities whose private persona is as admirable as their professional talents but a lot of them are not pleasant. Another old adage that I've found remarkably well found is the old one that famous people who like to appear as thoroughly nice people in public are often complete you know whats whereas others who seem brusque and not at all likeable are quite charming in private life.

I would have to agree with you on both points...especially the last one. I was at a model aircraft collectables show one day and I over heard one of the stall holders talking about Tony Robinson (Blackadder/Time Team) when he was on a dig on a spitfire crash site excavation...apparently he was often on the mobile to someone effing and blinding about the cold and the rain and the people who were doing the dig. Didn't sound anything like how he is in front of the camera.

[5050]

I've seen worse layouts - even at exhibitions!  Must have been good BITD.

[jetmorgan]

I've seen worse layouts - even at exhibitions!  Must have been good BITD.

I think it's a really great little layout...okay it's more trainset run around type layout rather than a Much Murkle or Copenhagen Fields but it's how most people in the hobby started....the trainset on a piece of board in the bedroom or loft, running trains around in circles at hyperspeed, and a town in the middle of the circle with no means of crossing the railways for any of the residents to get out.

[Jenny Emily]

I would generally agree with never meeting heroes as they might not live up to expectations, though in a former working life I did meet some people who turned out to be really nice, and some who weren't. Craig Charles (Lister) was a rude up his own orifice type, as were the band Space. Gordon Burns was really nice, as was - perhaps surprisingly - Fred Talbot who I taught to drive a 4" scale Garrett traction engine for a piece filmed for Granada Tonight. I also used to occasionally drink with Nat Lofthouse in his local (which was my local) and he was really nice. I had no idea who he was until told much later, as I have zero interest in football. He did say that talking with me was nice, because we just talked about normal stuff and he was a little sick of people expecting him to talk nothing but football. Sam Allardyce is a neighbour of my parents, and my sister went to school with his daughter so consequently I saw him a bit and he was a lovely chap.

[rockershovel]

I once met Jason Leonard, at the time the most capped player in rugby, and he was a real "old school front row" and great company. Definitely an "alpha male" but it was a very good evening... Martin Johnson came to No 1 Son's school on a "popularise rugby" day in about 1993 and was a great success, and Austin Healey did a coaching session for No 2 Son's U16 group followed by an hour in the bar for the dads, and THAT was pretty good.

 

No 1 Son met Guy Martin recently, in the pits at a dirt track meeting at Kings Lynn and was really pleased about it, describing him as a "top bloke".

 

I have a niece, now in her early 40s who did a Masters in archaeology and has spent the past two decades on the fringes of academic life; she once participated in a Time Team dig and is also a member of the "Tony Robinson not-a-fan club", although she knows Phil Harding through academic contacts and holds him in high regard.

[NHY 581]

Gareth Bale.

 

Top chap. Still very down to earth despite his rapid rise to fame. He took time out on a short visit to his parents a couple of years ago and signed 22 football shirts to be presented to my sons under 7s football team. Each shirt signed with the lads name. My lad treasures it now. Also turned up to open my lads new school when Gareth had just signed for Real. A very busy time for him but he did not rush and spent a lot of time speaking to the children and parents.

 

Nice guy and did not disappoint. He is a real 'hero' to a lot of lads in my sons school for this reason.

 

Rob.

[Guest 40-something]

David Beckham, met at a charity do a few years back, top bloke, very down to earth and after I told him I wasnt a football fan he said "thank god, someone normal for a change"!

 

His missus on the other hand, torn face tripe full of her own self-importance

[alfsboy]

Sometimes talent doesnt match ambition .I used to make a lot of model soldier dioramas for a very wealthy guy who just couldnt paint model soldiers .He wanted too but just couldnt .so he paid me handsomely to do it for him.He certainly gave it a go though . .Time, talent etc all needs to match up to get a model made .

[Captain Nick]

In my experience, celebs are just like the rest of us. Some have good manners and some don't, some have good days and then they have bad days. Many years ago I was introduced to a fairly well known female TV presenter but I pretended not to know who she was or what she did.(Mariner just returned from years at sea!) She asked me what I did and then explained in a matter of fact way what she did. We hit it off for the rest of the evening although it cost me a lot of G&Ts.

[Zomboid]

I met Boris Johnson on the Metropolitan line back when he was mayor. Didn't talk to him, but a few other people (train was pretty empty) were asking for photos, which he accepted with good grace.

[Rugd1022]

Used to bump into a few thesps when I lived in Hammersmith in the '80s, most of them 'old school' and on the whole very polite and friendly. One exception was the late Denholm Elliot who frequently used Ravenscourt Park LT station, on one occasion he was a little 'too friendly' towards me and a bit creepy, it might have been because he was two sheets to the wind at the time (9 o'clock in the morning) but I had other suspicions! Terence Alexander (Bergerac's Father-in-law and several ITC cult telly baddies) was a regular at Paddington, always immaculately dressed and always said hello. His dress sense was very 'old school showbizz' though and I'll never forget the sight of him wondering along platform 8 at Padd in a dark tan coloured safari suit in 1983.

 

An eye opener was the sight of Rodney Bewes and James Bolam both p*ss*d as farts in 1984, falling out of a doorway together in King Street, Hammersmith, popular myth says that they never spoke to each other once they'd finished working together on 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads', but it was patently untrue.

 

Actress Sarah Miles '(Blow Up' and 'Ryan's Daughter') bought a Thames side property near my gaff and would often sit outside supping a G&T, waving and smiling at passers by.

 

'Hard man' Del Henney ('The Sweeney' and 'The Professionals') was drinking buddy of my Uncle's for a while, very gruff looking but nice as pie once he started talking.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Rugd1022

[The Stationmaster]

Rodney Bewes lives locally andI have in the past seen him joining the branch train, presumably heading home from London in a state which might politely be described as 'p*ss"ed, and then some'  He was in the Doctor's surgery a month or two back and is basically the same as anybody else - keeps himself to himself and talks only to folk he knows.  

 

We have a fair selection of thespians and the like living in our neck of the woods - Simon Williams is a smashing bloke, Phillip Schofield always seems cheery, although Gareth Thomas (now deceased) who was in Blakes Seven usually seemed to be wandering about in a state of inebriation.

[Mallard60022]

Met Jenny Agutter at the Blubell & Kingscote once in the late 90s just after the ITV 'Railway Children' film was made there and I was doing platform duties. Charming, but much shorter than I had imagined. As was the Queen that I 'met' when she opened Epsom Playhouse and I happened to be  holder of the open door to Auditorium. We didn't speak.........................   I also met Francis Rossi (Quo) at a school I was working at in 1985. He had come to mend a drum from an old Quo kit that had been donated to the School. NIce bloke but I was a bit tongue tied and should have been teaching at the time!

 

Phil

Edited August 2, 2016 by Mallard60022

[Tony_S]

I think the only telly personality I have met is Gordon S of Eastwood Town model railway fame.

I was at a birthday party recently and one of the other guests was a person from Countdown but I wouldn't have known which young female she was. It was an Irish "do" and and I had to fend off offers of more food and drink all evening!

Tony

Edited August 2, 2016 by Tony_S

[Jenny Emily]

My sister worked on Time Team for over a decade, and I met Tony Robinson a few times. I have to admit that he was always a nice bloke, and my sister always spoke highly of him. I think what does wind him up is mention of Baldrick, and my sister tells me that some-one calling him 'Baldrick' was enough to make him blow his top. I guess he has had years of the Baldrick jokes and the novelty wore thin long ago.

 

It wasn't unheard of when I was still living at home for a Time Team Landrover to turn up and a bunch of people would pile in for tea as they knew my Mother put on a good feed. I even drove the Time Team Discovery once when I had to move it off my parents' drive because it was blocking me in.

Edited August 2, 2016 by Jenny Emily

[jetmorgan]

My sister worked on Time Team for over a decade, and I met Tony Robinson a few times. I have to admit that he was always a nice bloke, and my sister always spoke highly of him. I think what does wind him up is mention of Baldrick, and my sister tells me that some-one calling him 'Baldrick' was enough to make him blow his top. I guess he has had years of the Baldrick jokes and the novelty wore thin long ago.

 

It wasn't unheard of when I was still living at home for a Time Team Landrover to turn up and a bunch of people would pile in for tea as they knew my Mother put on a good feed. I even drove the Time Team Discovery once when I had to move it off my parents' drive because it was blocking me in.

I've just bought myself an old 1998 Discovery V8...I wonder if I paint Time Team on it I might sell it for a vast profit

[The Stationmaster]

Met Jenny Agutter at the Blubell & Kingscote once in the late 90s just after the ITV 'Railway Children' film was made there and I was doing platform duties. Charming, but much shorter than I had imagined. As was the Queen that I 'met' when she opened Epsom Playhouse and I happened to be  holder of the open door to Auditorium. We didn't speak.........................   I also met Francis Rossi (Quo) at a school I was working at in 1985. He had come to mend a drum from an old Quo kit that had been donated to the School. NIce bloke but I was a bit tongue tied and should have been teaching at the time!

 

Phil

 

I've had morning coffee with the Queen.  But it's rude to talk about such things of course so I won't mention it - oops  

[alfsboy]

I have had lunch with Darth Vader .He spoke with a west country accent and wasnt wearing his uniform .

Edited August 2, 2016 by alfsboy

[Barry Ten]

My sister worked on Time Team for over a decade, and I met Tony Robinson a few times. I have to admit that he was always a nice bloke, and my sister always spoke highly of him. I think what does wind him up is mention of Baldrick, and my sister tells me that some-one calling him 'Baldrick' was enough to make him blow his top. I guess he has had years of the Baldrick jokes and the novelty wore thin long ago.

 

It wasn't unheard of when I was still living at home for a Time Team Landrover to turn up and a bunch of people would pile in for tea as they knew my Mother put on a good feed. I even drove the Time Team Discovery once when I had to move it off my parents' drive because it was blocking me in.

 

My sister met him once and also spoke highly of him.