Model Railway Suppliers and Manufactures

[The Johnster]

Bill Bedford couplings; excellent range of lost wax castings of couplings complete with vacuum and steam heating bags intended for permanently coupled rakes of coaches.  I fitted out a Westward 64xx and a pair of Airfix A30 trailers with them and detailed the ends; perfect running with scale couplings over 2' radius reverse curves!

[The Johnster]

Talking of lost suppliers, Scenerama are a company I'd not heard of before I picked this old kit up last year for my "might come in useful one day" pile (from late 80s or early 90s I'm guessing) from the Corris Railway stand at a show.

IMG_20161008_165059.jpgIMG_20161008_165137.jpgIMG_20161008_165125.jpg

As can be seen its an injection moulded kit similar in concept to the Airfix/Dapol range of buildings, however the level of detail is fantastic and includes a one piece roof, superbly detailed windows and one piece complete chimneys, and even very nice garden fencing and gates. Rather than moulded brick work, printed self adhesive brick papers are included to finish the exterior. I'm thinking Redutex or embossed plasticard may be a better option nowadays.

 

Can anyone throw any light on this range as to when they were made, other models that were produced, etc?

 

Strange - I have just come across a couple of these kits in my 'might come in useful one day' box. I think that they may be earlier, as I haven't railway modelled for well over 40years - until I started again this year. I could have bought them more recently, bargain hunter that I am. I have a feeling that I actually made one up and it was quite hard work

I made one of these back in the 80s, and didn't find it any harder than an Airfix/Dapol building.  It took longer because there were more parts as it is better detailed, but went together beautifully.  I added floors and internal walls, and curtains, and overlaid the roof with my own cut paper slates, which of course increased the time the job took, but I don't remember it taking more than an evening.  Perhaps yours had warped a bit over time and didn't go together as easily as it should have.

[Dazzler Fan]

I can view the David Geen website.

 

What restriction is he under?

Why not  download the code and rebuild the site?

 

Noel

[billbedford]

Bill Bedford couplings; excellent range of lost wax castings of couplings complete with vacuum and steam heating bags intended for permanently coupled rakes of coaches.  I fitted out a Westward 64xx and a pair of Airfix A30 trailers with them and detailed the ends; perfect running with scale couplings over 2' radius reverse curves!

 

 

These went to Stevenson Coaches. The last I heard was that Eileen's Emporium was looking to stock them.

[Jol Wilkinson]

The cast couplings are available from Brassmasters;

 

http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/coach_couplings.htm

 

Unfortunately they don't do the non corridor carriage variety, which used to be available.

[The Johnster]

Thank you Bill Bedford and LNWR modeller; it is good to know these excellent couplers are still available and I may well be in the market for some more sometime soon, though for now the t/ls I have reverted to are doing the job well enough.  I can thoroughly recommend them to anyone who runs fixed rakes as simple to install, rock solid reliable drawing and propelling, and good looking too; a perfect piece of miniature engineering!

 

Satisfied customer, no connection.

[kitmasterbloke]

On 15/10/2016 at 19:23, RANGERS said:

I just found this in another blogpost off RMWeb:

 "I am Roger Chivrall, the son of the original designer and maker of the Scenerama Kits. His name was Ronald A. Chivrall a past winner of the Championship Cup for Model Engineering.
My father, who was the Tool room manager and later the Chief Designer for Airfix and subsequently Crayonne at Sunbury on Thames, designed them and had them tooled under the Company of Scenerama. I was the original salesman for them. The Company did not do well and I believe the tools were sold and ruined by trying to etch the brickwork into the tools. I have the original artwork for the walls etc and a fair number of the kits. I did have them on sale on E.bay a few years ago but did not sell many."

 

From memory these were produced in the late 70s/ early 80s. I didn't take much notice of them until much more recently when I bought a couple of packs at a toy fair and had a good look at them. The mouldings are exquisite and my initial thoughts were to replace the printed overlays with embossed plasticard ones but the print quality is first class and it seems a shame to discard it.

 

I've no idea what became of the producer but I suspect they were too highly priced for their time, the tooling alone must have cost a fortune, and hence didn't sell well. They appear on Ebay from time to time but the value of the mouldings seems to be more appreciated now and they fetch upwards of £15, still something of a bargain but the £2.50 the one between Signaller has is a real steal.

 

[RANGERS]

On 19/04/2020 at 15:52, kitmasterbloke said:

 

Tragic that the tooling was lost, it was a real work of art and must have cost a fortune to make.

[Phil Parker]

3 minutes ago, RANGERS said:

Tragic that the tooling was lost, it was a real work of art and must have cost a fortune to make.

 

Some of the buildings ended up in the Hornby range. I've got some of the originals and they are excellent. Well ahead of their time. As far as I can tell, Hornby just re-used the moulds.

 

https://philsworkbench.blogspot.com/2019/05/scenerama-modelling-detached-town-houses.html

[The Johnster]

Looks as if we might have to add Springside to the list of small producers who are as the snows of yesteryear.  

[PMP]

8 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Looks as if we might have to add Springside to the list of small producers who are as the snows of yesteryear.  

It looks like you’re making things up again.

If you ring them you’ll find they’re in their 43rd year of trading, and are taking the opportunity to change their website onto a new platform whilst their previous web site has expired. But let’s not do any actual research though, far easier to potentially damage the company by spreading fake news.

Springside

01803 813749

07720 939094

[The Johnster]

Information useful.  But it did look a bit bleak, as they cannot be found online at all, not even in the form of phone numbers.  Stock of their products is low or out of at Hatton's and Rails/Sheffield, all hallmarks of a company which has ceased trading, and I did not make that up.  i am delighted to hear that my assumption was incorrect, and wish Springside, whose products I have found excellent for many years, many more years of successful trading.  I certainly did not intend them any harm, and hope that my highlighting of the situation and your correcting of it helps them.

 

It is not uncommon for small companies to disappear unannounced, as illness or pressure of work on ageing proprietors takes it's toll.  It all gets too much for them, or, worse, they pass away, and things are just left hanging.  I opened a topic a few days ago on 'Small Suppliers' to try to find out what had happened to Springside, and responses have suggested dealers that have items in stock, but no further information until you replied to my post here.  

Edited April 23, 2020 by The Johnster

[PMP]

21 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

Information useful.  But it did look a bit bleak, as they cannot be found online at all, not even in the form of phone numbers.  Stock of their products is low or out of at Hatton's and Rails/Sheffield, all hallmarks of a company which has ceased trading, and I did not make that up.  i am delighted to hear that my assumption was incorrect, and wish Springside, whose products I have found excellent for many years, many more years of successful trading.  I certainly did not intend them any harm, and hope that my highlighting of the situation and your correcting of it helps them.

 

It is not uncommon for small companies to disappear unannounced, as illness or pressure of work on ageing proprietors takes it's toll.  It all gets too much for them, or, worse, they pass away, and things are just left hanging.  I opened a topic a few days ago on 'Small Suppliers' to try to find out what had happened to Springside, and responses have suggested dealers that have items in stock, but no further information until you replied to my post here.  

 

Yep just seen that thread, 1st post an automatic assumption that they were out of business from yourself.

 

Interesting the thought didn’t occur, has anyone got a contact number/email for them? Or could someone please take a look through a recent magazine and pass on the number/email so I can contact them.

 

Just straight to ‘ooh they’re probably out of business’.

[The Johnster]

I did not assume they were out of business, which is why I asked what had happened to them.  None of the answers suggested anything other than that they had ceased trading, and I assumed that they were probably out of the game, but the key word is 'probably' in this sentence.  Perhaps if your read what I actually wrote and interpreted the phraseology instead of jumping to conclusions about what I meant (I accept that I myself jumped to conclusions about Springside's current status, but at least I had some evidence to suggest this and none to counter-suggest it) you would be less keen to indulge yourself in what I am beginning to see as an attack on me, probably because you have to justify your own shaky and opinionated viewpoint to yourself.  You have every right to attack me, as I have every right to defend myself by, having twice now explained the reason for my assumptions which you have ignored, by not responding further to posts from you; life's too short to bother and I'd rather do some modelling.

 

I've made me own mind up, ta.

Edited April 23, 2020 by The Johnster

[tomparryharry]

It's always a bit difficult to maintain a 'presence' in this day & age. Take your finger off the mouse, and all hell breaks loose. There are 2 sides to every coin, and it's down to the retailer to maintain their own shop front. 

 

I'm very pleased to see that Springside are still going, and power to their elbow. There might be some good in this little teacup, after all, Springside might well notice that a little press release to that effect is taking place, and it's still all systems go. 

 

Good for them, I say. The sun is shining, birds are singing, and teddy is looking for a ladder to climb back in the pram....

 

Tootle pip! Everybody!

[PMP]

On ‎23‎/‎04‎/‎2020 at 14:27, The Johnster said:

.  Perhaps if your read what I actually wrote and interpreted the phraseology instead of jumping to conclusions about what I meant (I accept that I myself jumped to conclusions about Springside's current status, but at least I had some evidence to suggest this and none to counter-suggest it) you would be less keen to indulge yourself in what I am beginning to see as an attack on me, probably because you have to justify your own shaky and opinionated viewpoint to yourself.  You have every right to attack me, as I have every right to defend myself by, having twice now explained the reason for my assumptions which you have ignored, by not responding further to posts from you; life's too short to bother and I'd rather do some modelling.

 

I've made me own mind up, ta.

 

I can assure I had read exactly what you'd written, what I feel is 'shaky' as you put it is spreading rumours based on the answers you received here

I see you've copied the tag line from my signature. Interesting that.

 

I put it on about 7-8 years ago, we had a bunch of sciolists on the forum then too.

[Phil Parker]

On 23/04/2020 at 14:27, The Johnster said:

Perhaps if your read what I actually wrote and interpreted the phraseology instead of jumping to conclusions about what I meant

 

You were quick enough to post on this thread suggesting they were out of business, but somewhat slower to come back to it to say that there was good news and they had a new website.

 

Were anyone just to alight on this thread, and not the other, they might reasonably assume you were in possession of some knowledge about the business and it had closed. If you are going to start a rumour in several places, please come back and scotch it when you find out it's false. Good news needs to be spread as fast as bad.

[tomparryharry]

I do hope Springside are still going, and going well. I would like to have some double locomotive brake hangers for my Taff Vale fleet. I should have bought them years ago, but things got in the way. 

 

These are indeed mixed- up times, and it doesn't take much trouble to use the 'delete' key. However, It is within the  interests of any business to maintain a presence, in which ever  format they care to use.

 

I've written some real daft stuff on here, and in retrospect; "Did I write that? Jeez"... I've deleted more than I've written.  The keyboard is a dangerous instrument, capable of many things both from harmonious, to downright dangerous. Approach with care! Face to face conversations are so much better, as you get the conversational snippets which can both sooth the audience, and anger them, in equal measure. 

 

Writing out of context, and, reading out of context, is an absolute short-cut to naughty typing. No sugar in a Storm Force 11 teacup!

 

Roof Preed. No, I'll say it again, Proof read is a pre-requisite for being here. Perhaps we need a safety catch on the 'submit' icon.....

Edited May 22, 2020 by tomparryharry
It happens like that.

[The Johnster]

On 21/05/2020 at 10:43, Phil Parker said:

 

You were quick enough to post on this thread suggesting they were out of business, but somewhat slower to come back to it to say that there was good news and they had a new website.

 

Were anyone just to alight on this thread, and not the other, they might reasonably assume you were in possession of some knowledge about the business and it had closed. If you are going to start a rumour in several places, please come back and scotch it when you find out it's false. Good news needs to be spread as fast as bad.

As has just been suggested, proof read.

 

I didn't start a rumour on either thread (which, since the matter here relies on actual evidence, is 'both' and not 'several' places), and I never at any point suggested that they were actually out of business until it was incorrectly apparent to me from the replies I got that it appeared that they were, and even then I did not go further than describing an apparent situation rather than stating a fact.  I asked a question, having been unable to find information about them and as none of the replies I got suggested anything other than that Springside were not in operation; the conclusion I wrongly jumped to, which I have admitted and apologised for, was an entirely reasonable one.  Before you point out what may have happened if anyone had 'alighted' on the thread, consider what did happen when I 'alighted' on it and interpreted the responses incorrectly, but reasonably given the information supplied to me.  I corrected the situation as soon as I was aware of my misinterpretation of it to the best of my ability, because I completely agree that good news needs to be spread as fast as bad, and genuinely hope that Springside are not only in business but flourishing.  I did come back and I did scotch it, on April 23rd this thread and May 3rd on 'Smaller Suppliers', not that you looked!

 

OTOH, you have posted a criticism of me that, while it might be justified in as much as that I got my assumptions wrong, but less justified since I then admitted it and did my best to redress the situation as publicly as I could as soon as I could, does not take any of the above into account, and at the same time you have failed to comment on PMP's slander of my character in which he accuses me of 'making things up".  I would contrast my behaviour in refusing to engage further with PMP (n the interests of general unwillingness to further sour the atmosphere and realising that he is unlikely to engage in a debate without resorting to directly insulting me or issuing me with various passive-aggressive challenges; my view is that he is probably, note that I'm not stating positively, looking for a barney, which I've no intention of satisfying him with) with his response, which is to call me a liar by saying I make things up.  Forgive me if I feel a bit persecuted.  Please note that I corrected my sciolist opinion of the matter on 23rd April, 4 full weeks before you were 'somewhat slower' (than any of my responses in this matter) to comment on it!

 

'It looks as if Springside are as the snows of yesteryear', a reasonable and rational assessment of a not fully known situation in the light of the answers I'd received, is not the same as saying 'Springside are as the snows of yesteryear', a statement of fact which would have been wrong of me to indulge in because, as I knew, I was not in full possession of all the facts; I suggested what it looked like, and never at any point in any thread claimed to suggest or state what it actually was, which both PMP and your good self will realise if you bothered to read what I wrote properly assuming that you both have a reasonable command of the usage of the English language.  I jumped to a misinformed  conclusion, and am thus in fairness loth to criticise PMP or yourself for doing the same to me, but consider, please, that my comments show that I did not write what you and he assume without reading my input that I did.  I will now prove it.

 

Again, to self quote, 20th April 'What's happened to Springside' 'They seem to have dropped off the grid', the first part of which is a question, followed by 3 more questions, not statements, 'Have I missed an announcement', 'is all well', 'is this to do with lockdown'  These are questions from a concerned customer, not statements.   PMP comments 'Yeah, just seen that thread; first post an automatic assumption that they were out of business...' which sounds to me like the very epitome of a sciolist statement; he wouldn't logically have written that if he'd actually read what I actually wrote, the actual evidence, which is there for all (including yourself) to see if you could be bothered.

 

It wasn't an 'automatic assumption' of anything, and if PMP has seen that thread, he's glanced at it and hasn't looked at it, and I don't think you have, either.  I have just quoted the evidence that it wasn't; and I have now come to the new conclusion, which I reasonably believe to be correct in view of the actual written evidence from PMP and yourself, that neither of you ever properly read what I wrote and both of you have done the very thing you have (completely on the strength of your own opinions and in defiance of the actual written evidence) accused me of and jumped to an incorrect conclusion, and in your case this is particularly regrettable as you are an administrator and have a degree of power to abuse if you do not check on the veracity of what you are doing, which you clearly haven't in this case as if you had, you could not have posted as you did. 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by The Johnster

[Phil Parker]

Wow. What a tirade. I suppose you must be bored.

 

 

[tomparryharry]

Well, it is the right of the individual  to maintain his name, after all. 

[pirouets]

He obviously ran out of things to model as he previously said on the 23rd "life's too short to bother and I'd rather do some modelling."