Graham Farish in the States

[bertiedog]

Well of course Graham Farish did a Hudson in HO, but it seems the AHC American Catalogue in 1952 considered the whole Farish range HO.....and the Prairie could conform to US outline prototypes. I wonder what the US modellers made of these.

Stephen

[Il Grifone]

It would certainly take a bit of work to make a GWR prairie tank look in the least American! and does 30 examples count as "used widely"? It would be a bit like saying an SP GS-4 is used widely in the States for example.

 

Not owning either, I'm not sure whether the engines would be happy on 15" curves. The early GF Pullman cars certainly aren't!

[DavidBelcher]

 

Not owning either, I'm not sure whether the engines would be happy on 15" curves. The early GF Pullman cars certainly aren't!

 

Most early GF Pullmans have a 15" curve of their own these days if the pics of ones selling on eBay are anything to go by!

 

David

[Il Grifone]

Make that all GF Pullmans! A lot have the floor and/or bogie castings infected with metal rot as well.

My latest acquisition has escaped the floor rot and still has one bogie (most seem to lack bogies - probably crumbled into dust.)

[bertiedog]

On the HO Seekers site I came across another advert for the Merchant Navy, they were trying to sell it as resembling Streamlined Southern locos, and they meant US Southern Railway not the UK. The Pullmans were sold in the States, what people made of them....I wonder?

 

Mr Farish Snr had serious ideas on the US market, as the Hudson showed, but even this was a way of proving that Farish exported products to the Civil Servants, thus enabling them to get around the post war import restrictions.

 

What he was after was permission to import Pittman motors, which he finally got, but then used most of them to complete the Formo Three Rail loco!.. and used wheels on them made for the US projects. I think he had ideas of sub contracting to Gordon Varney's HO range, but at the time Varney was producing items cheaper than Farish in the UK. As restrictions on importing German motors came off he sourced motors from there.

 

I could never figure why the range was not developed, it simply languished un loved, descending to track only at one point. They had bouts of interest in new items, as with the UK N gauge items, but again no further development.

 

Stephen.

[DavidBelcher]

Make that all GF Pullmans! A lot have the floor and/or bogie castings infected with metal rot as well.

My latest acquisition has escaped the floor rot and still has one bogie (most seem to lack bogies - probably crumbled into dust.)

 

I've got one of the post-1962 styrene ones at home via eBay which seems in fine shape, bogies included, although I'm led to believe that the above comments don't apply to these as they'd ditched the metal floor and improved the QC on the die casting process by then.

 

David

[Il Grifone]

I've got one of the post-1962 styrene ones at home via eBay which seems in fine shape, bogies included, although I'm led to believe that the above comments don't apply to these as they'd ditched the metal floor and improved the QC on the die casting process by then.

 

David

 

I meant the early ones. The polystrene version was entirely different as regards warping etc. and also didn't weigh a ton, so locos could actually pull them. In the early fifties, my HD Duchess could just about manage the one I had (Pauline) as long as nothing else was coupled on.

[DavidBelcher]

What he was after was permission to import Pittman motors, which he finally got, but then used most of them to complete the Formo Three Rail loco!.. and used wheels on them made for the US projects.

 

Ah, so that's why it has Boxpok wheels! I'd always assumed it was due to some mix-up in the GF drawing offices between a Q (which the Formo loco resembled) and a Q1....

 

David

[DavidBelcher]

I meant the early ones. The polystrene version was entirely different as regards warping etc. and also didn't weigh a ton, so locos could actually pull them. In the early fifties, my HD Duchess could just about manage the one I had (Pauline) as long as nothing else was coupled on.

 

Sorry for the mix up. Wasn't sure if the bogies carried on being an Achilles heel post-62 as even some of those seem to turn up S/H with the wrong bogies fitted (Tri-ang BR1 more often than not!). Or maybe those are just down to living room floor accidents in years past involving model railways and clumsy parents' feet?

 

David

[bertiedog]

Yes, the wheels on the Q1 are from the Hudson, there were two or types used in production, some had a Bakelite centre, but all on the Formo Loco are metal. The design closely follows Varney, and Farish appears to have got the design from him, a business friend.

 

Mr Farish liked using Bakelite, they were after all electrical radio parts makers, and got the Formo range and the name from the Preen Company, whose trademark was "Formo". Preens came from Southampton, and were also parts makers to the radio trade, especially coils, resistors and variable condensers. They were bought out as the war broke out, and did war work, with the trade mark made over to Mr Farish Snr., of Bromley in Kent.

 

I am told all the design or the Formo Range was done in 1939 , by the Preen Company, and it was the acquisition that prompted Farish into entering Model Trains.

 

Mr Preen was a model enthusiast, and knew Stewart Reidpath, and Mr Hambling very well. Hamblings had a Factory at Ringwood near Southampton, and parts for Hamblings and Essar products were made by Preens.

 

The crudity of the body of the Q1 must, it should be remembered, be compared to 1930's OO designs like Trix etc, it was in fact quite accurate for 1939 design standards.

 

The Southampton works of Preens had a foundry and die-casting facilities, and this was used after the war to make the items for the Formo Range.

 

When the Southampton plant closed in about 1949, the existing parts and plant were transferred to Bromley, and production finally started. The delay was due to the Board of Trade restrictions during 1945-51, when new toy manufacture was banned unless strictly for export.

By the time the Formo items were ready for sale, Hornby had resumed full production, and the Formo was not popular. Farish had surplus Pittman motors and used those, and the wheels from the Hudson Loco, with the intention of selling off the large stock of sets. Farish made the 3 Rail track at Bromley, and it shows, it is better made than the Preen items.

 

But then there was a large fire at the Bromley Farish warehouse, and the already packed Formo items were water damaged. Mr Farish approached Gamages of Holborn, London, and sold the lot to them to clear.

 

This explains the water stained boxes that nearly always come with the Formo Sets. The wagons were not affected, they had been made at Southampton, and later at Bromley, using the old Preen die-casting equipment.

 

The Formo controller was made at Bromley at the electrical parts factory, as were the 2 pole motors etc., that Farish used to get around the Toy restrictions. He could make the 2 pole as it used all radio parts to be manufactured! What he had wanted was decent Varney or Pittman US motors for all the locos, but there was no import credit, and it was only allowed if you already exported things abroad, which is why he sent the OO items for sale in the States.

 

Farish were a strange mixture, they made radio parts, rubber mouldings, Kilner jar seals, fertilizer tablets, table lamps, and an assorted range of railway items. Part of the problem was diversity, they did not concentrate on a range long enough to be successful. My Grandfather provided the companies transport from Tonbridge in Kent, to Bromley and Southampton, during the war the main products were vital war radio parts, the Kilner jar seals!! and fertiliser tablets, made at Tonbridge. Plastic parts for Farish products came from Crystallate at Tonbridge, the record manufacturer and plastic company.

 

Mr Farish, ever one not to waste anything, had the wooden boxes that the Hudsons are packed in altered and printed from the wooden box packs of Kilner jar seals!

 

I hope the details are correct, I meet Mr Farish Snr., on several occasions, but only as a child.

 

Stephen.

[Il Grifone]

Sorry for the mix up. Wasn't sure if the bogies carried on being an Achilles heel post-62 as even some of those seem to turn up S/H with the wrong bogies fitted (Tri-ang BR1 more often than not!). Or maybe those are just down to living room floor accidents in years past involving model railways and clumsy parents' feet?

 

David

 

From what I remember, in the sixties Farish restarted with two locomotives (GWR 94xx and 81xx) 4 plastic wagons on a metal LNER type underframe (LNER van*, mineral wagon, open wagon and brake van**) the Pullman cars, suburban coaches and later corridor coaches of a Maunsell low window type. The suburban coaches*** were initially in kits with metal bogies and later R-T-R with plastic bogies. The locomotives suffered from Mazak failure, though the 94xx I have seems OK. She is a excellent runner. IIRC the Pullmans were always R-T-R. Possibly the Tri-ang bogies are an attempt to allow them to go around sharp curves or maybe the bogies suffered from metal failure like the locos.

 

* Not a bad model but dimensionally compromised. I fitted a new lower roof to one of mine which improved it a lot.

 

** Does the GF brake van have a prototype? It appears vaguely LMS but is too short.

 

*** These are usually said to be LMS design and a couple of early (50s) ones I have are in this livery, but I'm not sure as they do not really look like the Glasgow stock I have seen them described as.

 

I've replaced the driving wheels on one of my Formo Qs (the other sits in her set box and is only run on rare occasions) with a set from a Farish 81xx, which improved the looks and the running - she suffered from a quartering problem and ran very jerkily - the cranks were not at 90º . She is prone to derailment,however, as the centre wheels are lower than the outer sets and she rocks fore and aft. I'm loathe to start messiong about with the axle bearings to try and sort this out. Her tender sits on HD wagon wheels which run rather better than the original Formo ones, which have a poor profile (not that the Dublo one is good!).

[DavidBelcher]

 

*** These are usually said to be LMS design and a couple of early (50s) ones I have are in this livery, but I'm not sure as they do not really look like the Glasgow stock I have seen them described as.

 

 

The length of the coaches is somewhere between the regular non-lav 57' non-corridor stock and the Cathcart Circle (54'??) sets, but the number of compartments etc. seems in agreement with the former. Not bad models, in the case of the kit versions with the tinplate roofs they benefit from new bogies/buffers plus flushglazing, rain strips and roof vents though.

 

David