Andrew Emmerson

It might have been, although I think the ACRO coupler came out later. The 'Sprat and Winkle' design was invented and patented back in 1949 by George Hope of the Liverpool firm of Hope and Nixon. You can see the patent at http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=EPODOC&II=3&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=19490401&CC=GB&NR=621012A&KC=A On page 81 of 'MRJ' issue 2 George Hope writes that he ran out of capital after other people pirated his design, although he didn't have Derek Munday in mind as a pirate, as he congratulates Derek for reintroducing the design. I am sure the ACRO design came out some years later. I see it was relaunched in December 1983 by Leslie Hubble Ltd of Leicester (review and advertisement in Dec. 1983 issue of 'Model Railways' magazine). Andy Emmerson.

The ACRO coupler was designed by the late and highly resppected Fleetwood Shaw (alias Sheetwood Flaw) for his own layout, so I guess he was able to make them work. A new company tried to relaunch the design a decade or two ago (I have the paperwork somewhere) but I assume they did not take off. Fleetwood used to visit the Chuffs shop in Lisson Grove when I worked there in the early 1970s. He was employed at the 'Kremlin' (BR Headquarters). Andy Emmerson.

Not the full history but it appears that ACRO was related to, or the descendent of Teaness (i.e. T and S). They were based in Epsom (from memory). Google tells me to look at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/82144-acro-nucro-teaness/ The wheels may well have been made for them by Jackson, who in those days (or later) were associated with K's of Shepherds Bush (and not with the Romford Model Company or W&H in those days). In pre-war times the Romford Model Company had Hamblings as its sole agents. ACRO was reincarnated as NUCRO. Andy Emmerson.

> Who imported the LMS Jap Crabs in the late 60s, i've seen a fair few now, but they were before my time? Brian, They were imported by John Underhill of Reading (and made by KTM in Japan). John Underhill is described in greater detail at http://rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12739 I made a mistake there when I stated the Underhill KGV (made by Olympia in Japan) was H0 scale. In fact it was 3.75mm to the foot, neither fish nor fowl! Andy Emmerson.

Sorry, I haven't looked in for a while! Good to hear from you Brian. My career on BR did not take me onto the footplate but was always office-based. I have not heard where Jeff went. Ken Jones joined King's Cross from the reatl photography (camera) trade but he may have been a bus driver before that. It was Ken who introduced the 'secret code' used on the labels of items displayed in the secondhand and commission sale window. The code (I can reveal now) was MECOBLITZA, where M was 1, E was 2 and A was zero. Or maybe M was zero, E was 1 and so on. The retail price was shown normally (e.g. £25) but the price at which the item had been bought in was in the letter code. This enabled Ken to tell how far he could drop the price when a customer tried to offer an amount below the asking price. I think all bargaining had to be done by him or one of the Morrises. Ken did have a soft side (and told some pretty 'rude' jokes) but we didn't get to see it very often. I would describe him as having a split personality. Andy Emmerson.

On the subject of CCW kits, I wonder if anyone knows the definitive answer to what the initials CCW stood for. Only a fortnight ago I was reading an article (possibly by C.J. Freezer, certainly someone speaking with authority from personal knowledge) about wooden coach kits in one of the magazines. It discussed the various firms who made these kits in the 1950s and 60s and gave some opinions on the merits of each of the products. One of the pioneers (in this country) was CCW of Watford and the article gave the definitive story of this firm’s origins. Specifically, it stated that CCW was founded by H. G. Cramer, Jack Webster and A. N. Other (whose surname started with a C). Within a short while the partnership was dissolved, Jack Webster setting up the Webster Development Company in Chorleywood (which later became Ratio and made arguably better kits than CCW’s) and the third man disappearing off the scene. Cramer, who also ran a model shop in Watford. could not run the wooden kits operation single-handedly and sold the 7mm side of the business to Commander A. F. Inglefield, who took it down to Chichester. Does this ring a bell with anyone? I cannot lay my hands on the article now but I am sure I didn’t dream the whole episode! So where did the article appear? And who was the mystery man with the initial C? Here’s hoping someone knows... Andy Emmerson.

I've just looked and it's there all right. Maybe your ISP suffered a 'blip'! Or else, if you may not be logged into Yahoo Groups. If the latter, go to https://edit.yahoo.com/registration?.intl=us&new=1&.src=ygrp&.v=0&.done=http%3a//groups.yahoo.com Good luck, Andy Emmerson.

Ah yes. Apparently he was a fairly regular visitor and came in one Saturday. I missed seeing him as I was on my lunch break (not at Renzos but the Groan Indian restaurant next door). He was served by the redoubtable Ken Jones, with not much deference, and after RS left, the other staff asked Ken, "Do you realise who that was?" "No and I don't care," came the reply. To be fair to Ken, he had no favourites and was rude to everybody! One day he noticed a customer lifting books off the bookshelf one after the other, flipping through them and then putting them back. After ten minutes, Ken couldn't stand it any longer and said, "You're clearly unable to find what you are looking for. We have the best selection of railway books in London, so what is it that we don't have?" "Don't worry," the guy said. "My train doesn't leave The Cross for at least an hour, so I thought I'd read your books." "Out!" screamed Ken, kicking open the front door and lifting the customer physically onto the pavement. Ken had come from the camera trade and used his previous employer's secret code for price-labelling the goods in the second-hand and commission sales window. I don't think I am breaching any confidences now in revealing it to be MECOBLITZA, with M = 1 and A = 0. Each loco was labelled with its price plus a code indicating what the shop had bought in for, so £50 was BA. If a potential customer liked an item but wanted to haggle over the price, the alpha code told the salesman how far he could bargain. This was explained to us underlings (Jeff Kosta and me) but any negotiating was handled by Ken, not us Saturday boys. One of the likable customers I remember was called 'Wee Fergie'. His day job was a signal designer for the London Midland Region at Stephenson House but he was also a good scratch builder and bought his supplies at King's Cross. Many Model Railway Club people bought their bits at KC too. many of the trade came in, as mentioned and we were often sent to Hamblings and W&H to collect or deliver supplies, I often wondered why so many of the brass turnings we sold looked identical to W&H's, even though we didn't get them from W&H. Ted Morris explained that everybody bought them from Anglo-Swiss Precision at West Drayton, so they were not exclusive products. I must put on record what good guys John and David Morris were. Totally honest and decent people. Happy days. Andy Emmerson.

Ah, I never saw the Riley. But I do remember a pub crawl co-arranged by Tom and Gerry Daniels in a motor coach having a dorsal fin at the rear. Dorsal fins are seriously cool!

Affectionately known as Nitfool and several other anagrams, Tom was a marvellously likable character, He ran the Excursions section in the Divisional Office at Reading, when I was in Passenger Development there. He organised many beer-drinking outings introduced me to CAMRA when it was still new. Much missed by his friends and colleagues (we had plenty of secret railway enthusiasts on the staff at Reading!). Andy Emmerson.

There were in fact three Chuffs shops. The original one was in Broadey Street, with an old enamel sign saying GENTLEMEN over the door. It was owned jointly by Peter Hunt (now of Perfect Miniatures in Sudbury) and Dave Fuest (who died soon after I joined the staff). The shop manager was a guy in a hippy fringed leather jacket called Terry and another staff member was Jon Mackechnie-Jarvis. I'm still in touch with him after all these years. As business expanded a larger shop was bought in Lisson Grove. Regular visitors/associates included Royston Carss (a cerebral guy who later had a business called Metal Models, I think --- is he still around?), Simon Goodyear (now Train Time, Huddersfield and seen regularly at the Rugby Vintage train shows) and Allan Levy (then of Philips Electrical but later to run New Cavendish Books). A City branch was opened subsequently in Bucklersbury, run by a Scotsman we knew only as 'Jock'. This shop did have a glory hole of a basement; the others didn't. Iain Rice was associated with the City branch, as I recall. At some stage the Broadley Street shop closed and the Lisson Grove establishment was renamed The Dolls House (pronounced doals house) and run by Peter's wife. Happy days! When Chuffs closed, I was hired by the King's Cross model shop. Andy Emmerson.

Apologies for nit-picking but I am sure that the S in E.A.M.E.S. stood for Services. When Ted Morris was demobbed after the war he chose a trading title that would cover the broadest possible range of activities. That's what I remember him telling me anyway. I was a Saturday Boy as well during the early 1970s, when Ken Jones was manager (and used throw out time-waster customers bodily!). Occasionally I was 'lent out' to work in the Reading shop, which although under shared ownership was run as a separate enterprise. Andy Emmerson.

With respect, I don't think Percival Marshall had any involvement. Stewart was "Archie" Stewart Reidpath. The first Marshall Stewart catalogue had exclusively 7mm scale products but under Stewart Reidpath's direction, he refocussed the firm's direction to 3.5mm scale. He was certainly the first person to sell 3.5mm products commercially. He also proved that it was perfectly feasible to fit motors into (most) H0 locomotives, regardless of what Henry Greenly claimed. By the way, the Oerlikon in question was previosuly mine. I bought it from Peter Corley but I do not know who owned it previously. Andy Emmerson.