Famous train nuts

Can you name any famous train nuts along with their area of interest? Walt Disney, who liked all things trains, back yard sit on trains (scale?), don't know about modeling. He was known to show up at any time at Disneyland and run the park train.
Frank Sinatra, Lionel,"Those who die with the most toys, wins"...
Can you add anyone?

Johnny Cash was Lionel Railroad club's first member.

Hey,
Michael Gross- Family Ties
Frank Sinatra- Big Lionel collector
the guy who played Frank Fontana on "MUrphy Brown"
the writer of the comic strip "For Better or Worse"
Mandy Patinkin- Crooner? Actor?
Disney animator and inspiration for Jiminy Cricket Ward Kimball
( he had a full scale narrow gauge railroad on his residential property in California... now that's nutz!!!)
Tom Snyder- talk show host

That's all I can think of for now...
.. I'll post again later
Mike

conrail71,

Actually, it's Lynn Johnson's (the creator/artist of "For Better or Worse") husband who is the rail buff, not Lynn herself.

He has his own line of backyard railroad equipment too (link is NOT to home page, but to a page where he describes how he aquired the company. At the bottom he mentions Lynn, "For Better or Worse," and even has a sample strip featuring his animated alter-ego with his garden layout)...

http://www.ridingrailkits.com/about.html


I also stumbled upon this while looking for the website above, which has a list of famous model railroaders (although, I don't know how accurate it is)...

http://www.boldts.net/TrainsCelebs.shtml


Good topic, hope this one keeps going for a while!!!!!!!

Barry Burbank, local weather person on Boston Channel 4 sometimes shows trains at points on local weather map.

Oh, and also rocker Neil Young, he owned Lionel for a while.
Local Rochester radio personallity Tom George. Fred Rogers, you know, Mr. Roger's Neighboorhood!

Neil Young.... Yes, I forgot... Helped Devolpe TMCC, met him @ York...

Here's a list I found on the NMRA tutorial site:

Winston Churchill
Tom Brokaw
Phil Collins
Joe DiMaggio
Walt Disney
Michael Gross, the actor
Ed Dougherty, the professional golfer
Merle Haggard
Tom Hanks
Elton John
Michael Jordan
Ricardo Patrese, the Formula-1 race car driver
Frank Sinatra
Joe Regalbutto, the actor
Bruce Springsteen
Rod Stewart
Donald Sutherland
Mel Torme
Neil Young, the rock star. He's also a part-owner of Lionel...

An interesting cross-section...

Gary Coleman.
See him from time to time at Allied Model Trains in Calif.

Try Mr Bill Gates, he's rented out the Royal Canadian Pacific "Empress" a number of times

Gorden Pinset (actor) used to narrarate and viste sites when doing "Ribbons of Steel"

The story of how I met a Famous Train Buff (who is on the list above) on my Irwin's Journal Online section of the website:

http://www.irwinsjournal.com/ijonline

Look for "Celebrity on Track 2".

Hi All,

Tom Brokaw did a two hour special on Lionels, from its beginnings to the present on PBS.

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http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11371

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