Exley

[random]

A few pictures of some Exley 00 models.

 

Exley made a huge range of high quality coaches. Most had a very attractive quite glossy paint finish that instantly attracts the eye. The vast majority resemble LMS standard 1930s stock in general appearance although there were a small number of other models. Some were reasonably accurate models for their time of LMS prototypes, while others were not. Some models of GWR and SR stock had tooling specially made for them, but kept the general LMS profile and mostly LMS proportioned windows.

 

For most models, sole bars, sides, and roofs were made from a single piece of aluminium with the main windows stamped out. A few late models had the sides joined by a false roof and a separate real roof. Many models had cast metal ends, wooden floors, metal underframe fittings, and real glass windows. Models with all of these features tend to be rather heavy. Later models had plastic ends, underframe fittings, and glazing, and a pressed metal floor. Some models have a combination of earlier and later materials. Interiors were either wood, metal or plastic although a few were made without interiors. Early models had the top window lights painted or printed on the glazing but all later ones had these stamped out as part of the main body sides. Many models were supplied without bogies for the purchaser to fit their own, but some models, probably pre-war, did have cast metal bogies with the name Exley cast into them. Probably much later, some models were supplied with Exley plastic bogies with the name Exley moulded into the axles.

 

Judging by the large quantity of models that come up for sale, many thousands must have been made. With a large range, if you are looking for a particular vehicle, you may have to wait quite a time before finding it as there are many different ones but if just looking for any Exley coach, there is usually a good selection for sale on eBay. Looking at the way the models are constructed, it is clear that although hand built, considerable thought had gone into making a model that could be rapidly assembled. Production of Exley 00 models ended in 1962 when the factory burnt down.

 

For those wishing to find out more, there is an article about Exley in the April/May 1994 of Modellers Backtrack and possibly also in Modeller Railway Constructor annual 1980 – can anyone confirm this second reference?

 

 

LMS Brake corridor third. Exley plastic bogies, but may have been added after manufacture as spacers have been fitted so the vehicle rides at the correct height so it may not have been manufactured with them

 

 

 

LMS Brake corridor third in BR maroon livery. This model does not have an interior which is unusual for this kind of Exley coach. Compared the the LMS liveried vehicle, it does not have gaurd lookout duckets. Exley used a darker shade for BR maroon vehicles than for LMS ones of all those I have seen. Whether this is by accident or design, I do not know. BR maroon livered Exley vehicles are relatively uncommon. Bogies are probably not Exley and look modern.

 

 

 

GWR van. I am pretty certain this is a fictitious vehicle. I think it also came in LMS maroon and SR green. This model has a wooden foor and Exley plastic GWR bogies and again the bogies may have been fitted later.

[gordon s]

The first time I ever saw Exley coaches, I was a young lad at the North Middlesex MRC and totally smitten with the quality and appearance of these beautiful coaches which stood head and shoulders above the latest offerings from Tri-ang at that time. Of course compared to the current offerings they are now dated, but they really were the Rolls Royce of coaches in the '60's.

 

Lovely to see these pics. Keep 'em coming.

[Il Grifone]

These were considered the 'Rolls-Royce' of model coaches at the time. IIRC they were priced at around £2, which compares with 14/11d for a Dublo LMS coach. (I would estimate 1/- equates to about £1.25 today.

[random]

A few more pictures of Exley coaches. For vehicles with metal ends, these were attached to the body by three bits of wire. Two either side of the buffers through the sole bar and one through the top of the roof. The visible sole bar was part of the main body. For vehicles with plastic ends, these were secured to the floor above the bogies and the visible sole bar was part of the underframe and the lower part of the coach body tucked in a channel behind this.

 

Exley LMS corridor third. I think a reasonable model of an actual LMS vehicle. Cast metal ends, stamped metal underframe fittings, wooden floor, wooden seating, real glass windows, top opening ventilators printed or painted on the glazing indicating an earlier vehicle. Quite heavy. Sprung bogies with the top plate completely made of a phosphor bronze - not like the fairly common Acro/Nucro/Teaness. I do not know who made these bogies. They were probably fitted to the model after it was bought as many Exley coaches came without bogies.

 

 

 

 

Exley LMS corridor third. Plastic ends, Plastic underframe fittings, Stamped metal floor, probably stamped metal seating, real glass windows, top opening ventilators stamped out as part of the main body sides indicating a more modern Exley vehicle than the previous illustration. Quite light weight. Exley plastic bogies with Exley plastic bogie spacers so this model may well have come with bogies rather than being sold without.

 

 

 

 

Exley LMS corridor first. Exley did not make a proper corridor first as far as I am aware. They just put a “1†on the doors of a corridor third. Most (all?) of the real standard LMS corridor firsts of this same general appearance had a half compartment and smaller window at one end of the coach. Cast metal ends, stamped metal underframe fittings, wooden floor, probably stamped metal seating, real glass windows, top opening ventilators stamped out as part of the main body sides. Quite heavy. Exley plastic bogies with improvised bogie spacers so these bogies were probably bought separately for a coach that again came without bogies.

 

 

 

Exley LMS non gangwayed brake third. I don’t think this vehicle is of a particular prototype although he LMS certainly did posses some similar longer vehicles. Plastic ends, Plastic underframe fittings, Stamped metal floor, probably stamped metal seating, not sure if windows are glass or plastic. Quite light weight. Exley plastic bogies with Exley plastic bogie spacers so this model may well have come with bogies rather than being sold without.

 

[DavidBelcher]

Unfortunately I don't think I have any pics remaining, but I used to have an Exley 12-wheel LMS restaurant car. The body was pressed aluminium, with the design being somewhere between Period III and the coach that has featured in the Dapol and Hornby ranges. Ends were cast metal, the floor was wood (to which the body was secured by small metal pins) and the interior a mix of card, wood and metal (seats unusually made of coiled-up aluminium sheet, and the wooden tables had lamps made from small brass pins), whilst the underframe detail was very basic having a large wooden battery box and metal strip truss rodding. Windows were plastic, and originally it had incorrect metal 4-wheel bogies, though I was able to source some plastic Exley 6-wheelers to replace them. It was definitely an Exley as the underside bore a yellow paper label along the lines of "Made in England by Edward Exley Ltd., Bradford". I know at one point they offered a 'budget' range alongside their more detailed coaches, judging by the slightly generic LMS-esque design and cheapo underframe details it sounds as though my coach may have been one of these.

 

David

[coachmann]

I did a lot of refurbishing of Exley coaches (usually stripping the paint (what a job that was) and respraying and lining out etc. The Exley MR clerestory coach above was done for one Derek Lawrence and this is what gave him the idea to produce 'Exley' type coaches from BSL and Westdale aluminium parts in 1973.

 

As has been stated, Exley were renown for their stove baked gloss finish. I replicated the ultra-gross hard wearing finish using cellulose heat-dried. It was expected in those far off days.

 

Exleys suffered from a particular problem, that of steel touching the aluminium and causing what can only be described as varicose veins on the roof. The cause was simple....... Exley used picture glass and this was held in place by spring steel stretchers with black paper insulators between the steel and the aluminium shell. Either the paper broke down with age of some numpty had pulled the coaches apart and ommited to replace the paper insulation.

 

As far as I am aware there were the 'popular' range and the more expensive coaches. Some were shorties (a lot of non-corridors) while others were scale models. The Exley plastic bogie was rather neat but many modellers fitted Anbrico bogies or Rex-Kennedy bogies. The latter were whitemetal sideframes rivetted to a spring steel stretcher, in otherwords, the bogies were sprung.

 

Larry Goddard

[DavidBelcher]

Thanks for that photo of the SR coach - the LMS diner I used to own seems to have been of similar vintage; underframe detail and the peculiar rectangular buffers are almost identical.

 

David

[random]

Exley pre-war coach LMS open composite - I assume from Edward Beal's West Midland layout with this legend on the side. Turned up in a box of junk that included items all the way from the 1930s to 1970s. Has steel chassis - some early Excley coaches had this instead of wood and later aluminium. Balanced on the top of a pair of a pair of Airfix LMS coach bogies for the photo. It has none of its own although among the junk it came with were plenty of bogies, but none that were early Exley pattern as far as I am aware. In rather a sorry state although the better side is pictured!

 

[roythebus]

Seeing that clerestory coach a few threads up, reminds me of a set of similar coaches I saw in a cupboard when I worked at the Kings Cross shop in about 1967; from memory there were 4 of them, but to HO scale. whether they were Exley or Kings Cross build I don't know.

[hoboking]

Had some of these in 'o' gauge, GW livery back in the 1960/70s most were of the standard sort of collett come stanier type design, but i had one clerestory/corridor brake which was in post 1928 GW livery with a roundel !. The paintwork was flaking badly so we sent it back to Exleys (who were still advertising in those days) for a repaint, I remember being quite dissapointed when it came back,as it had lost its shiny baked finish, and had a satin/matt sheen that seemed to be the fashion at the time. The shell was a one piece, the roof was quite flat and it had the clerestory section made of a wood strip moulding with a separate aluminium roof strip pinned on top It had the sprung type bogies mentioned.. It was sold to a model shop in Cardiff with some other 'o' gauge course scale stuff, in the 70's, i often wonder where it went, as i dread to think what its worth now!

[Golden Fleece 30]

I have read with interest this section on Exley coaches as I am a great Exley fan.  I was surprised to read that the BR maroon coaches were relativly uncommon, my first set of 7 were BR maroon bought second hand in 1968.  I had gone for a job interview and ended up with my mother taking me to the managers house that night to buy these.  Until about 5 years ago that was all I had then I have bought a few of Ebay including another 4 BR maroon ones.  I aslo managed a Royal Mail, a few GWR main line, Engineers saloon and 12 wheeler in Blood and Custard as per photo.  In the last few months I was lucky to win 4 LMS suburbans and a set of 6 SR green vehicles.  What has pleased me is after winning a new and unused WR coach a few days ago and I went to collect it, I asked if there was anything else and was told 18 more all new and unused in original boxes.  Some of these had never even had the tissue paper opened.  With all these there is a wide range of construction methods as previously mentioned.  I have to say I have (and in the process) of fitting modern Bachmann bogies as these are all free running,  Even the new 18 with plastic bogies are not as good at running as metal wheeled with pin point bearings are.  I will add other vehicles later.

[coachmann]

I saved up at Denny's in the 1950s and bought an Exley LMS corridor third for something like 9 shillings. It had Exley plastic LMS bogies. I seem to remember Tony Colbeck of Anbrico had something to do with Exley at one time.

Edited April 5, 2014 by coachmann

[Golden Fleece 30]

Until this week when I found this site I did not know much about Exleys apart from what I saw with the ones I had.  Until yesterday all the others had a mixture of different types of whitemetal bogies and an assortment of wheels.  The 12 wheeler did not have any bogies and I bought some of Ebay and was disappointed to find they seemed short in length hence putting the Hornby ones on as in the photo.  Was that Peter Denny in Long Eaton you bought from?  One of yesterdays collection had £2 on the box so quite a lot later although it did include postage.  I have no idea what Anbrico parts look like so don't know if any of there parts were fitted.  I would have liked WR and not GWR but have never seen any at anytime and only one other Blood and Custard but that was too dear in my opinionas I will not pay over £30.

[coachmann]

Anbrico went on to produce their own coaches in similar style to Exleys, though I think some were brass pressings. Did some early DMU's as well. Tony C. asked me to paint his final batch to clear them out but I couldn't fit them in. Anbrico whitemetal bogies were cast at GEM and GEM used the sideframes to produce their own Equispring variant. The Exleys got fitted with a variety of bogies as one might expect over a period of many decades. 

[Golden Fleece 30]

Here are 3 SR and 3 GWR coaches.  The full brake for both has the same window pressings but the roof of the SR is in Southern style with the shallow arc rainstrip.  The SR ones will need a little touching up but that is to be expected as they look well used and were quite grubby when I received them a couple of days ago.

[Golden Fleece 30]

Does anyone have a list or catalogue of all 00 Exley's made?  It is so I know what to look for myself as a couple of recent adverts for Exleys have been either non Exley or a couple have been advertised as 12 wheel Buffet cars but to me I thought all the 12 wheelers were on the longer 69' Restaurant or sleeper cars.  These two both do not look right and are only 57'/59' vehicles as they are stood on top of other standard coaches.

[Ian Kirk]

Hi,

LMS 12 wheeled dining cars were 69ft long and the Exley is general considered to be a good representation.  The Buffet car that you posted a photo of on the 5th is a pretty good representation of the LMS diagram D1948 ones which were 57 ft. long on 4 wheel bogies.

 

best wishes,

 

Ian

[Golden Fleece 30]

Hi Ian, those two were photographed together to send and show 2 people what the difference was.  They were (and still are) trying to sell the 57' foot one with Exley 6 wheel bogies on as  a genuine 12 wheeler, not surprisingly I did not get e reply from either.  I did measure and convert the two that I have, the Restaurant being about 1 1/8" longer, to confirm this as well but they are hoping for a mug to pay £200 + for one.

 

Cheers

[Golden Fleece 30]

To regenerate this thread, Exley LNER tourist stock coach with correct square cornered windows, and a pre war Southern coach.

 

 

alice 110.jpgalice 111.jpg

Very nice, especially the Tourist coach.  Were these 00 or 0 or both gauges?

[Golden Fleece 30]

Here are some more 00 variations.  I have put the BR maroon brake on to compare with Randoms, his does not have the guards ducket but mine has and there is no indication of ever having LMS on the sides.  The GWR open 3rd has its acetate windows dropping (as has a few of these new coaches) which will need fastening back in position.  It also looks to have shrunk a little too.  The GWR suburban brake is to compare with Randoms as this is a different shell to the LMS one.  The Royal Mail is in need of a good restoration but I am not keen at the moment.  What I do not like is the acetate pick-up net and may fabricate something better one day.  The LMS full brake is in need of a good cleaning but it is how it was bought.

[coachmann]

A right miss-match. GWR  and LMS pressings in Southern colours, GWR pressings on LMS bogies (Exley did a neat Pressed Steel bogie in plastic). We were familiar with all this back in the early 1970s when Exley were becoming hard to obtain, which is why we set out to produce a range of similar coaches but with prototypically correct bodies and liveries using BSL components in 1973. It was up to me to replicate the Exley coach finish and I even took to baking some!

Edited April 8, 2014 by coachmann

[Golden Fleece 30]

It might be a right miss match but like most "mass" production items some things have to be used on different projects just think about loco chassis's from Tri-ang and Dublo.  At least tExley put a better looking roof on the Southern stock.  As for bogies, all the whitemetal ones were very, very poor and most did not run so I am in the process of replacing them all with Bachmann ones.  Even the recent new ones do not run as I would like and they are getting replaced too but I will keep these later plastic ones.  Although the Collett ones are the same wheel spacing as the Mk1's they look wrong under the Suburbans so those will have new Mk1's on.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

.... In rather a sorry state although the better side is pictured!

 

It's superb. Clearly been trashed and set alight by football fans after an away defeat of Wolvernal Arsewanderers at the feet of Villanley Buraston.

[random]

Does anyone have a list or catalogue of all 00 Exley's made?

 

Ramsay's recently published 8th edition of "British Model Train Catalogue" ISBN 9781907292668 has a list. I bought mine from Speedy Hen as that was much cheaper than elsewhere but took an email to customer service to get both volumes delivered as one was missing. The list in this book seems to be compiled from catalogues and known examples. It is a long list. However, catalogue entries were probably a list of what you could order, not necessarily what was actually made, but I expect that most of what is listed was made - particularly models in common liveries. In addition, the details give in Exley catalogues are not always very specific. I expect some of the more exotic liveries were made only in very small numbers.

 

> I seem to remember Tony Colbeck of Anbrico had something to do with Exley at one time.

>  I have no idea what Anbrico parts look like so don't know if any of there parts were fitted.

Exley seem to have supplied their plastic bogies - those that are often found under later LMS coaches fro Anbrico to use under their DMUs. At some point, maybe after the Exley factory burnt down, Anbrico made their own metal bogies. These can be identified by their round central boss and coupling mount. They occasionally appear under Exley coaches but probably older Exleys that did not originally come with bogies.  These are probably Anbrico bogies http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Single-white-metal-kitbuilt-coach-bogie-OO-scale-with-wheels-/321374417446?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=XrSqUaBg6ASK2kexfbhGv1%252Fy0DE%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc and http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Coach-bogies-LMS-type-/281307646098?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=XrSqUaBg6ASK2kexfbhGv1%252Fy0DE%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

 

> It is so I know what to look for myself as a couple of recent adverts for Exleys have been either non Exley or a couple have been advertised as 12 wheel Buffet cars but to me I thought all the 12 wheelers were on the longer 69' Restaurant or sleeper cars.  These two both do not look right and are only 57'/59' vehicles as they are stood on top of other standard coaches.

 

Exley made the LMS Restaurant car I think in four different lengths:

 

- The 68 or is it 69 foot version - the most accurate. Six wheel bogies

- The 60 foot version. Probably pre-war only with old cast Exley bogies like these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EXLEY-COACH-BOGIES-Qty-2-/321368147135?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item4ad308c4bf. As far I am aware, these were the only type of cast metal bogies Exley made. Some early bogies that may have been Exley were metal pressings. Final ones were plastic in at least GWR and something like LMS styles. I would say that most Exley coaches do not have Exley bogies as probably at the time when most were produced inthe 1950s, they were supplied without bogies.

- The 57 foot version. This seems to have come with either six or four wheel bogies or maybe non at all. This may explain the comment that the six wheel bogies look under length to fit this vehicle

- The 50 foot version. Seems to have been made to go round trainset curves

 

Exley passengers were not meant to go hungry. In addition to the LMS Restaurant car, other catering vehicles included (and I am sure there are others not listed here):

 

- LMS buffet car - I think a reasonable model although the real LMS had only two of them

- LMS 50 foot kitchen car - again a reasonable model

 

- GWR Restaurant car with central kitchen section and seating either side. Although the layout was right and some of the kitchen windows probably the correct proportions, it kept the LMS standard profile and LMS style main windows

 

- SR Restaurant car - again mainly an LMS vehicle but with a curved rainstrip on the roof. Something that was probably very similar also appeared later without the curved rainstrip

- SR Buffet car. This was based on the SR 4BUF electric stock vehicles. The real things were famous for their art deco interiors. The model did feature correct square cornered windows and small thin slit window high up on one side but was LMS profile in shape and probably too short. Hamblings also made this coach in their metal ready-to-run range but their coach was longer - probably correct scale length. Whether Exley made their SR buffet car specifically to go with their Portsmouth EMU or just as another coach I do not know. In theory, with a lot of artistic licence, you could make up an impression of a 4COR, 4BUF, or 4RES with the Exley EMU end coaches and choice of other Exley SR green coaches as centre cars!

 

- LNER tourist stock grean and cream buffet. This had square cornered windows rather than the usual curved cornered LMS style

 

Catering vehicles were popular and it seems that many people who purchased rakes of coaches included one. Travelling post office vehicles also seem to have been good sellers.

 

> The GWR suburban brake is to compare with Randoms as this is a different shell to the LMS one

I think the GWR had suburban brake coaches that had a long brake section without windows while LMS ones included windows in that area and that is why there are at least two Exley variants.

Edited April 20, 2014 by random

[Il Grifone]

The GWR vehicle sounds like the 57' composite vehicles from the twenties. Both Hornby Dublo and Hornby had an attempt at this vehicle, but we could do with one to modern standards.