A Lesson in Model Railway History
Article by David Peacock
Here is a good question for a model railway club quiz night. ‘Name the three leading British Model Railway Manufacturers in the period 1920 – 1940′ Easy to get the first, Hornby! Well done, now the second? Something to think over but most will get Bassett-Lowke. Correct. But the third? Far fewer will know of the Leeds Model Company, yet it was indeed number three in the manufacturing league. Founded in 1912 by Rex Stedman the company finally ceased trading in 1967, but its many products remain in service today, some in their original standard scale three rail format, others converted to two rail and fine scale operation. Of these products the most familiar will be the moulded Bakelite coaches, open wagons and box vans, produced in great numbers both before World war two and into the late 1950s. Also familiar are the range of small boiler standard tank locomotives, six designs dating from 1935, and one from 1948. These remarkable models were engineered to come from one set of standard tooling both for the bodies and also the mechanisms. Despite this each locomotive, whilst sharing the family resemblance is quite individually identifiable, by its size and wheel arrangement, and with a varied range of chimneys, domes, safety valves and other features.
Throughout the 1920s, the Leeds Model Company regularly introduced new models into its range. Starting with a series of essentially freelance clockwork driven standard tanks, and a small 0-4-0 saddle tank, the company started to mass produce scale models of prototypes from the major companies, LNER (principally ex Great Central locomotives) and Great Western. Coaching and goods stock was initially all handmade, but from 1922 costs were dramatically reduced by the use of paper lithographs attached to wooden body shells. By 1936, the year when moulded Bakelite vehicles were introduced the company had in all produced to the highest standards of draughtsmanship and colour printing 81 designs of lithographs. Among these the brilliant ‘Brighton Belle’ Pullman car set of five coaches was recently used as the basis for the Darstaed ‘Brighton Belle’ set, and for subsequent Pullman car variations.
Finance to build the Leeds Model Company from a small operation into a substantial manufacturer initially came from G.P.Keen. Keen was one of the leading influences in the model railway hobby in the last century. For many years he was President, Chairman and Exhibition Manager of the Model Railway Club; the present HQ building of the Club bears his name – Keen House. He was a wealthy man and commissioned many fine models thus supporting several of the model makers and model companies of the time. In 1920 Keen provided the finance enabling Rex Stedman to expand the Leeds Model Company business and on 11th March the company was incorporated as The Leeds Model Company Limited, with Keen and Stedman as subscribers and directors. The money enabled Stedman to move in 1921 from the small premises in Harewood Street to a new factory at Balm Road Mills, Hunslet. Manufacturing capacity was immediately enlarged and the company from its modest beginnings was then fully under way. Well before their collaboration in the new company, Stedman had produced many fine models for Keen, rakes of coaches for Keen’s K-Lines layout were started in 1917, and completed through the succeeding years. From 1925, and under the name Mansted Foundry , (a play on Stedman’s name), ten locomotives, most specially designed to Keen’s requirements, were supplied to K-Lines. One above all stands out as arguably Stedman’s finest model, the LNER Gresley U1 Garratt, now kept in the National Railway Museum York. This powerful 0 gauge locomotive once hauled on a special trailer three men with a total weight of 39 stones – 248 kg, and 103 trucks on the K-Lines tracks.
About the Author
David Peacock is a Trustee of the Leeds Stedman Trust
