TV personality; retired businessman, Woollahra

When you walk into the 1870 home of television personality Kerri-Anne Kennerley and her husband John Kennerley, something stops you in your tracks … the train tracks. “Doesn’t everybody have a train running through their house?” she laughs. “That’s the 9.22am right on time, so it’s obviously not NSW Rail.”

To say John is a model-train enthusiast is like saying Miley Cyrus enjoys a little attention. The train tracks are chest height and 50 centimetres wide, snaking through the house and outside by the pool. Fascinated with steam trains since he was a child, John even has an entire room dedicated to a train station. ‘‘I’ve always loved model trains. This is an exact replica of Shrewsbury Station in Shropshire in England,” he says. “It takes 4½ hours to set up. I’ve been building it for 15 years. I don’t think I’ll ever be finished.

“After school I’d lean over the bridge to watch the trains and I’d come home and my white school shirt would be covered in soot.”

Did Kerri-Anne know about his hobby before they married? “Probably not,” he laughs. “I think I might have mentioned it on the wedding night. She knew I was a modeller, but not to this extent.”

Kerri-Anne smiles and shrugs her shoulders. “He’s always loved trains, it’s a very English thing. I never blinked an eyelid. I think it’s nice and it keeps him happy, so I have no problem.”

The house has been remodelled to accommodate the trains. “I remember she did say, ‘What do you mean you’re going to cut a hole in the wall?’ but she was fine with it,” says John. There is a wall with a square hole leading to the station but when the tracks aren’t up it is covered with a painting. They even moved the swimming pool so the trains would fit better.

Kerri-Anne just smiles. “Then John cut through the wall and took 1.5 metres off the length of the kitchen to install a room for the station,” she says. “Until the architect told me he’d made the kitchen smaller I hadn’t noticed.”

The trick is that the train and its tracks can be packed up in half a day. “When it’s all away no one knows it’s here,” says John. “Most people who come here would not know about the trains.”

The pair recently celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary and their love is evident in their favourite room. “Our living room is the real room,” says Kerri-Anne. “It’s my office, has John’s work table and the TV. We’re both doing our own thing but we’re together. And I love it because if people come over you can just shut the door and not madly clean up.”

The shelves are laden with family photos and pictures of their dogs. Their new puppy Digger scurries around. On one wall near her desk, Kerri-Anne has a gallery of magazine covers that she has appeared on over the years. The 1997 Women’s Weekly headline states, “My amazing new body”. Women’s Weekly 1998: “Hypnosis changed my life”. Women’s Weekly 2006: “Kerri-Anne’s diet success”. New Idea2012: “My super new diet”. “Seems to be a theme there,” says Kerri-Anne with a roll of her eyes.

Says John, “One time she was fluffing about being on the cover of a magazine. I said, ‘Listen, sunshine, I’ve been on more covers than you’. They are railway modelling magazines in England, but they are covers none the less.”

Kerri-Anne calls the entertaining area of their home the Piano Bar. It is literally a bar lined with bottles and crystal glasses across from a grand piano that is almost buckling under the weight of framed celebrity photos: Kerri-Anne with Harrison Ford, Hugh Jackman, Liza Minnelli, John Travolta and Tiger Woods.

And as with other things in their home there’s a surprising twist – the piano is run by a floppy disk and plays automatically. “It’s like Geoff Harvey but without the beer,” Kerri-Anne quips. ‘‘I actually have the piano playing rather than regular music because I think it makes it sound like a cocktail bar.” As if on cue, the piano starts playing Billy Joel’s Just The Way You Are and Kerri-Anne sings the words to what could be the Kennerley theme song: “Don’t go changing”.