W is for William Britains & W. Horton

Who may well be another William, but could also be something else entirely, Wally, or Walt, Warren or Wesley . . . yeah, it's probably William! Confusing, because there's nothing in Garratt, while Grace's has two, the novelty maker (probably our man!) in Middlesex (W.) and the gunsmiths in Birmingham, who ARE William and are still going, while another William played Cricket for Middlesex, around the same time as the toy producer set-up, but while the toy maker moved to Middlesborough, he died in Sussex?

 

Anywhoos, a quick box-ticker as we close-up on the railway figure posts, and with more comparison images to come in the round-up, and some other stuff in the past, linked-to in the Tags, this is a couple of images from Jon Attwood (many thanks again) and three from me, one of which we've seen before, just to get them all up here.

Various packagings for both the Britains Lilliput and Trix TTR (Trix Twin Railway) ranges, both of which used the same figures, although the Lilliput range was enhanced with vehicles in a larger HO-gauge (Half-O-gauge) compatible size, which couldn't be passed-off so easily as TT-gauge (Table Top/1:120), while little people are just little people!

 

I slipped this in to a post years ago with a casual note, and didn't admit to my sin, but as I get older, I seem more amenable to expunging my guilty secrets in public, if only to spread the guilt around and lighten the load on my own conscience, as we've all done similar things.

 

Before I do, just a note that the figures were attached to the platform by being drilled between the feet or elsewhere on the base and held in place with brass cabinet-makers screws of the smallest size.

 

The truth is, I no longer have it, although I did save the figures, but, because I thought it was homemade - it was a car-boot purchase by a third party given to me, because of my then specialization in small scale, although 'specialization' itself is a bit cheeky, given I didn't know what this was, but model railways were very-much a side shoot then, anyway - it got burnt! There, I said it, I used it to light a fire, many years ago, well, it wouldn't fit in any of my storage containers, and looked a bit naff!

 

I now realise it's classic Horton, and classic Art Deco, in the style of Woking station, which I've always liked, despite the tons of haphazardly-added modern shite hiding the true nature of the original, but the - seemingly unused these days - signal-box between the two sets of up and down lines is still relatively untouched.

 

Although Woking's signal-box is bare brick for the most part, but it has the rounded corners and the flat roof, I have the Hornby station in aluminium, and it's the same style, and 'rendered' in cream/orange/green if memory serves, so this was probably depicting one of many, or a generic London suburban halt, from the inter-war building boom?

None of Salisbury's stations look anything like this, being all Victorian multicoloured brick wonders, but I dare say you got a sheet of station names and the posters? One of the reasons it looked home-made was the poor application of the paper elements!

I know, but I'm afraid to try straitening him! The difference between the Hotel Porter on the left and the railway station-staff Porter on the right, a similar trick was played with another figure, while a third railwayman got a cream jacket to become an ice-cream seller, rather than a platform refreshment vendor!

H is for Huminiatures!

Miniature Hugh-Mans! Only an overview, visually, because all my existing collection, including the stuff that was here (or round the corner now!) in the attic, was combined and sent to storage a year or so ago! Also it was damaged in the 2007 summer-floods, so is a bit depressing, although it's mostly survived, it lost it's pristineness!

But both Adrian Little And Jon Attwood have between them found all the following, so we can have a half-decent look at their output, and the sort of revelation following, so many thanks to both of them.

The box isn't quite as bad as it looks here, enhancing the contrast so you could more-easily read the information on the labels has resulted in something which looks like a bloodstained artefact recovered from a murder victim in Midsomer or some New England coastal community!

 

Five shillings was a lot of money back in the day, and while these are believed to have been on sale from the war or soon after the end of it, they wouldn't have been that affordable, to the average buyer, even in the 1960's or 70's, more of a luxury, or something architects could put on the bill?

 

They are however (left and upper shots) exquisitely painted, compared to their J&L Randall Merit counterparts or Wardie Mastermodel clones. And I've just chosen my words very carefully, following what's come to light just in the last few weeks as a result of the Minikin find AND re-reading the Brookes book on Kemlows.

 

Before I continue - the lady in a pink top and grey skirt (top right) fixing her hair in a compact-mirror is an interloper, I'm not sure whose figure she is, perhaps Merten? I suspect the figures in the lower image are early Merit, they are quite well painted, but heavier sculpts, and brighter colours on pink plastic.

 

But, it seems the original story, which I got from the Brookes' at the lovely exhibition open-days held in Alresford, Hampshire by Bob Leggett, which was that Merit had got the tooling when BJ Ward went bust, and that the workers being laid-off without pay had carried them 'over the road' to Randall's, was in fact, a tad fanciful.

 

Having said that, I cast no aspersions, the story told, was made clear to be hearsay, and was some ten-years before the book was ready, so before the Brookes were even talking to Stephen Lowe (of the Kemlows family), but reading how Collis Plastics first played a roll in, and were later bought by Kemlows (the firm behind the production of Mastermodels), has made it all clear.

Not clear here - should have used a ruler like some over-efficient evilBayer - but these are the smaller TT-gauge, in the master collection I know I also have the larger O-gauge, both unpainted and painted, home and factory.

 

The clarity came in realising that there is NO crossover in poses, to/from Slaters and Minikins, and that therefore BJ Ward (who carried most of the poses of both!), knowingly, or unknowingly (through his tool/pattern maker Collis) copied, cloned or pirated BOTH firms, to produce the figures, for his otherwise pretty unique range of die-cast, tin, whitemetal, wire and wooden railway accessories. Because both firms were active, earlier than Ward's enterprise!

 

And that's enough for now, as we are going to be looking briefly at both Mastermodels and Merit in the next few days/week or so, and can polish-off the rest then, as it's all in the Kemlows book, sort of. Suffice to say, we have to believe, that for whatever reason, Slater's (a Northern-based firm) must have got their tooling from the early Collis Plastics just North of London?

A flat wagon courtesy of Jon, I may have one or two of these horse-drawn vehicles in the master collection, if so, and because they will be in flood damaged packaging, I will build them as a future project one day!

 

 

From the Carriage Foundation;

 

"Dog carts were so named because they were originally used for carrying sporting dogs in the boot, some would have louvred sides which provided ventilation. First built at the beginning of the 19th century as two-wheeled vehicles, they were later built with four wheels. They carried four passengers sitting in pairs, back to back, and were so useful for all country pursuits that they were found in every country house and used well into the motor age, many of the later examples never being used for the purpose for which they were originally designed."

As well as the O, OO (HO) and TT-compatible figures Slater's also did N-gauge stuff and, I think, the odd-bit of the bigger 1, H, or G stuff, at some point? But I'd have to check with the collection to be sure!

E is for Epemera - The 'Other' Gem

We often feature, here at Small Scale World, the output of Gem, Gemodels, Gem Models, the cake-decoration and novelty figures of George Musgrave's 'Gem' and Festival (as also supplied to and copied by Culpitt et al), he who also sculpted for Britains, among others, and I have mentioned from time to time the name change from Gem, to Gemodels, due to the threat (or veiled threat?) of legal intervention from the other Gem.

And here is a flyer for the 'new' narrow-gauge locomotive kits, which would have been mixed-media (whitemetal and brass) kits. Running on TT-gauge track for an in-scale rail-gauge, this was the existing Gem company which forced the name change on Musgrave's enterprise.