Another Fine Mess…

A contagion of Fletcher Jennings Locos. 

Soon after I joined the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association, the Trent Valley Area Group (TVAG) of the Association was founded. Centred around Derby, the geographical boundaries of the group are deliberately vague. Having had some initial contact with the group, my main involvement started when I returned to the area after five years away with university and work. I returned to find an active group of like minded individuals who had started a group layout and enjoyed drinking tea and beer as much as I did. 

With a shared interest in making freelance model making both realistic and believable the one thing we all enjoyed was the silly idea. Some loco or item of rolling stock would catch the eye of one of us, we’d discuss it over tea, or beer and often a model would result. It might be Tim with his styrene or a master would be made and Phil would cast it in resin. 

Fast forward twenty years and some of us are still involved with the TVAG, some have drifted away, we’ve gained some members and sadly some are no longer with us. Others may have moved to the other ends of the country, or to Wales, but are still considered TVAG members. Whilst the pandemic has reduced the pub meetings, we have replaced them with fortnightly Zoom sessions where we pour a drink of our choice, dial in to the zoom, do some model making, put the world to rights and indulge in some gentle leg pulling. The Zoom sessions have the advantage that you don’t have to be in Derby to attend and have helped include some members who have moved away from the area. 

One thing that has endured through the decades is that we still love a silly idea and it is amazing how contagious a silly idea can be, quite appropriate in a pandemic, to the extent that they can wreak havoc with another member’s model making plans. 

Some are more susceptible to the silly idea than others, exiled TVAG member and long standing friend Paul of EDM Models being one. Paul and I are very different in some ways, Paul is an engineer who thinks nothing of soldering up etched kits like Japanese origami whilst I’m an inveterate bodger who shudders at the thought of such dark magic. We are very similar in others, both like freelance modelling to be believable and both enjoy driving steam locos in Wales. 

To date, I’ve not been that comfortable with building fully etched kits and have found more enjoyment building multi-media kits, such as those from the Wrightlines stable. I’m not averse to using oo scale ready to run chassis, but not the dreaded Smokey Joe, and have been keen to see the success of resin casting and the emergence of 3D printing in recent years. 

When Chris Ward produced his Townsend Hook in 4mm scale I commissioned a 7mm scale version to fit on the Branchlines chassis kit for Talyllyn as I wanted a less obviously Talyllyn Fletcher Jennings loco. Test samples were printed but then the CWR business changed hands and all went quiet.

A while afterwards, Paul sent me a message saying he was considering buying a 3D printer. It was at this point that my silly ideas started affecting Paul because my reply was to send the Fletcher Jennings file over and say “here’s something to test it with”. Paul being Paul took the design, reworked it considerably, added extra detail and accompanied by Dapol producing the suitable B4 chassis, EDM Models had a new kit on the market. See how easy these silly ideas are transmitted? 

My EDM Models kit Fletcher Jennings, built as intended. 

You would have thought that having succumbed once that Paul would treat any suggestions from me with the greatest suspicion. However, it would appear that combining silly ideas with beer just increases their contagious nature. Paul and Annie stay at ours for the TVAG annual Mickleover members day. After the show there is often a curry and a beer or three in the evening making an enjoyable weekend of it. This year was no exception and as the beer flows there is usually a silly idea or two bandied about. This year I just happened to casually mention (by accident your honour) that I’d spotted an attractive looking Bagnall 4-4-0 that would fit nicely on a Bachman On30 chassis. “Need photos” says Paul but I couldn’t find any. A few weeks later one was found and sent to Paul. At first there was little response, then a trickle of messages became an avalanche, an appeal for photos on the NGRM-online forum resulted in many previously unseen photos being found and the emergence of the next EDM Models kit.

EDM Models Egyptian Delta Railways Bagnall kit under development. 

Photo courtesy Paul Martin www.ngtrains.com

You can see how contagious these silly ideas can be, maybe Paul will block me on Messenger, but then he did buy the 3D printer that started this all off….

For me, it’s pleasing to see the development of quality kits that make the best use of 3D printing. The technology has come on leaps and bounds with good quality machines that makes the woolly finish and endless sanding of earlier printers obsolete. Embracing these advances in technology will result in loco kits that are straight forward to build and further the potential of 7mm scale narrow gauge model making. Hopefully enticing the new entrant away from the dreaded Smokey Joe bash into something more believable and better quality whilst maintaining ease of construction. 

The purist might bemoan the use of an oo scale ready to run chassis. The addition of a bespoke chassis with kits like these is the next logical step and one that I’m sure is not far away. Now where’s my book of silly ideas. Paul….