Rod Stewart demands trains backstage

Rod Stewart builds model trains backstage when he's on tour.

While some rock stars indulge in hedonistic pursuits such as drinking, drug-taking and casual sex when they come offstage, the Scottish singer requests a large table in his dressing room so he can indulge his hobby of building scale models of railways.

He also makes sure he always has a fan on hand so the fumes from the glue don't affect his voice and he never drinks before he begins a building session.

Rod, 66, told Model Railroader magazine: "I can't build after a couple of glasses of wine - the results are never good.

He added that a good model builder has "an eye for proportion, a sense of what fits naturally, right down to the placement of the advertising signs."

The 'Maggie May' singer also stressed the importance of taking regular breaks, saying: "When I find myself focusing so intently on a model that it ceases to be fun, it's time to walk away, have a cup of tea and come back to it later."

Rod - whose wife Penny Lancaster is pregnant with the couple's second child - has a 139 square metre model train layout on the third floor of his home in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and says he spends up to four hours a day in there building trains and stations.

The scaled down creation is based on the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads of the 1940s.