Real Steam

As described earlier the interest in steam and model railways can be traced back as far as my great grand father, Mr William H Ellis. The family no longer has any of his models but we do have a number of paintings, photographs and a selection of tools.

By all accounts my great grand father was a very strong minded man who’s language was always choice. My father notes in a small bio on the family, ‘he was a brilliant engineer in a variety of fields including aviation, automotive and railways as well as a painter and sculptor’. I remember my father relaying a story where by on returning to his workshop his grandfather had destroyed a car body he had been working on, saying ‘you would never had finished it and they were like oil slicks when new’ Not the most encouraging man it seems but he did past on his knowledge and instilled an interest that has been passed on to me so he can’t have been that bad!

I have a number of photographs in my possession that show the last model he made a live steam LMS Princess. Built around the late 30s early 40s to a gauge of either 31/2 inch or 5 inch the locomotive looks an impressive piece of engineering. There is some confusion about the gauge, as I know he built a number of locomotives of LMS design in a variety of scales. I would dearly love to track it down and perhaps even get the locomotive to run again, alas sadly not at the railway it spent many hours running on.

The locomotive is pictured at ‘The Looms’ firstly pulling a number of wagons and then appears in the corner of a number of photographs. I would really like to solve the mystery of the gauge, which is further confused by the history of the railway it ran on.

The photograph below shows the locomotive on a small bench possible confirming its gauge of 5inch?

'The Looms' was a large garden railway built by Jimmy James just outside Chester around 1930. It was located in an old orchard close to the Chester to Birkenhead railway line. The original layout was a built to a gauge of 3 ½ inches, running around the orchard with a 3 ½ / 5 inch or maybe 7 1/2 inch gauge raised level track running down one side. At some point the inner layout was replaced with a 7 1/2 inch and 5-inch gauge railway that ran around his house and orchard. This remained until about 1993 when the house and railway were sold. 

These pictures show the last running day 1983/4 with resident 71/2 inch A3 pacific built by Jimmy James and a visiting LMS Royal Scot. Today the buildings remain including the small shed down the side of the house, much of the original track bed is still visible forming planting boarders for the new residents

The railway used a variety of locomotives with the princess making regular visits. There are a number of other locomotives pictured in my possession which appear to be models built by Jimmy and my great grand father. I have also been able to dig out some very old film footage from about 1950, which shows locomotives running back, and forth on the demonstration line. This is of poor quality but once transfered to DVD it maybe possible to see other classes of locomotive.

The last picture shows Jimmy James with a relative operating a locomotive on the raised demonstration line. My father is on the left aged about 8 which makes this date to around 1953. Thirty years later I would be stood aged 3 next to Jimmy's A3, marking the beginning of my interest in railways.

3 Generations in one class of Locomotive

My interest in trains stems back to my father who was a passionate steam enthusiast and excellent model maker but its possible to trace the interest back to his father and grand father. Effectively the interest in trains and modelling goes back 4 generations. Unfortunately many of the models have long gone but I do have photographs that show some wonderful looking specimens. I am going to start with three particularly interesting models that mean a great deal to me spanning 3 generations of modelling. The fourth generation will have to wait as it’s classed more as live steam model engineering.

My Grandfather Cyril Ellis was a very competent modeller and engineer specialising in scratch built EM and 00 models in the 1950s and 60s. He had built a variety of LMS and GWR locomotives and was planning a layout of St Ives when he sadly died in his early 50s. As a family we don’t have much to remember him by something my father used to point out on numerous occasions. When Cyril passed away my father lent his tools and equipment to Cyril’s brother Ron Ellis. Ron was also a keen model maker and engineer who used the equipment until he passed away in 2007. Unaware to my father, and me the equipment was disposed of rapidly, much of what would have been my grandfathers and his before him disappeared never to return. All the equipment had been stamped with W.H. Ellis and C.R. Ellis; I still have a rummage of old tools just in case I see some initials. Thankfully my father was able to get some light tools and machining equipment but sadly that was it.

The 57xx is the only thing left of Cyril Ellis' modelling career. Made in the early 50s its completely scratch built in brass with a handmade motor. The only thing bought were the wheels sets everything else was either turned on a lathe or cut on a workbench. The model is built to 00 gauge but it was intended to be converted to EM. The locomotive won a number of prizes for the outstanding quality of modelling but it is no comparison to RTR 57xx available today. I have it sat on a point made by his brother Ron (incidentally the only thing of Ron’s we have) in a display case. There is also a box, which accompanies it with his address and details of another locomotive he was building that sadly no longer exists. The only other items are 3 badly knocked about modified triang coaches that were in the stages of a rebuild.

The 96xx is one of the few models my father refused to part with. It was his first kit built locomotive on a scratch built brass chassis made in the 1960s I think sometime in his late teens. This was intended to run on his father’s layout. The detail is quite remarkable and shares some of the details of his fathers; I think there must have been some healthy competition. It retains its original box dribbled with lumps of araldite that looked to have been mixed on its top. My father had up until about 8 years ago a complete set of Exley coaches, that he used to buy once every month with his father from Hatton’s model Shop on Smithdown Road, Liverpool. His uncle Ron Ellis had a complete set of LMS Exley coaches bought around the same time. Other locomotives and kits made by my father included a Bulldog 4-4-0 which was sold to buy 0 gauge models and 2 white metal wagons, a GWR 3 wheel milk van and a shunters pole wagon which are safely put on display.

The third loco an outside-framed buffalo is my creation made out of the remains of a triang chassis and a mainline 57xx body. The motion is built from plastic and brass, with dummy plastic card outside frames and brass brake gear. This was more of a small project to see what I could do with the remains of what was really only fit for the bin. It could do with some extra detail and a driver to hide the motor but I think it goes nicely with the other two.

So there we have it, the 3 GWR Ellis family panniers, spanning 60 years of modelling each one constructed from the materials of its time.  

Where did it begin?

Hello and welcome to what I call the beginning of a new dawn in my modeling career. From the age of 4 I can remember making and playing with trains. My father an excellent model maker and GWR fanatic ensured the interest was ingrained in me from an early age. My earliest memory being stood next to a hot simmering 7 ¼ inch A3 at ‘The Looms’ a family friends garden railway just outside Chester (pictured) This set the seed. My first layout started with an oval of track and an Airfix Prairie with motor taken out and a rake of badly knocked about coaches progressing to a lovely hand built 009 model railway built by my father (sadly no pictures). As my interest developed a large collection of GWR 00 Gauge was amassed culminating in a double tracked layout that ran around the garage, 9 coach expresses were something of a norm! Sadly through my late teens and early twenties I had other interests and gave up the hobby.

My father continued modeling off and on experimenting with EM for a number of years. It became obvious that the scale was too small for him to work with so he started building up a collection of fine scale GWR 0 gauge models instead. It was at this point my interest was reignited. The scale for me was very appealing, it allowed for greater detail and smoother running but it was expensive. I had very little money then so turned to scratch building and kit bashing. My first project was an 0 gauge Hymek built from a much modified Triang Big train (pictured). This set the tone and I soon had a Lima 4F on the chopping board. Great plans were hatched and a certain amount of competition arouse between us. Sadly my father passed away very suddenly before we had time to begin the great 0 Gauge garden railway project. I finished a number of models and for a time ran them at Gauge O Guild running sessions but it was not the same.

From this point on modeling became a form of therapy. I built one more scratch built O gauge locomotive a freelance Aveling Porter (pictured) and decided to give up on the scale. Money, space and the reality that the projects we had planned would not materialise made me pack up and sell what I had made. I kept hold of all my fathers’ collection which comes out now and again to stretch its legs on a family friend’s vast 0 gauge garden layout of Reading and Paddington.

So that was where I was up to about 3 years ago. I was keen to continue modeling but unsure of what scale and prototype to go for. I had always regretted parting with my 009 and thought maybe narrow gauge? I had a brief dabble with some 16mm, cutting some steal frames for a Vale of Rheidol locomotive but in the end settled for something in 7mm 0-16.5. I had toyed with the idea of 009 but this was a bit costly for my budget back then so a simple challenge was hatched, build a Quarry Hunslet as cheaply as possible for fun (pictured). That was the beginning of what some people might call an illness! This passion or obsession has grown somewhat and shows no signs of diminishing, so I invite you to jump on board and share in some of my creations……