Kemilway LMS 4F 0-6-0 chassis

I was recently rummaging through what is known in some circles as my maturing cupboard, trying to take stock of the number of unbuilt model railway etched kits that I have. It was more than I expected. No doubt due to a combination of a policy of buy it when you see it, and an overestimation of how quickly I am able to get things built!

Therefore, the subject of this month's posting is part of that inventory, and was probably purchased for a few pounds from one of the Abingdon (-on-Thames, Oxfordshire) model railway exhibitions in the late 1990s. I already had a Comet Models chassis kit in 00 gauge for the LMS 4F, but I had heard of the name Kemilway back in the 1970s and was curious to find out more about it.

The photograph shows what was contained in the plastic bag that I brought home. There are a surprising number of etch frets and components (compared to what I found in the rather basic Comet kit). The silver-coloured metal is claimed to be nickel-plated brass, and not the harder nickel silver that we are accustomed to today. The long copper-coloured etch at the bottom is phosphor-bronze. A multitude of bolts, nuts, bearings, washers and other small parts fill a small plastic bag. Contained within the superbly typeset instructions running to a number of pages are a couple of lengths of wire and some plastic grommets, shown in the middle.

What stands out, is that this comes from the earliest days of UK model railway etched kits: note the use of the term chemical milled. (The frets are all marked Copyright 1976.) It might be expected that things were a little crude and basic 40 years ago, but not a bit of it! This is clearly a quality production, put together by people who had really thought about what they were doing. The kit was designed to be driven on a fixed rear axle with a motor in the tender, and the leading two axles were compensated with what is effectively an equalised springy beam. It must have been a state-of-the-art kit at the time.

My internet searching has suggested that the story behind this range should have had a happier ending. Tony Dyer and George Pring were the pioneering enthusiasts behind the Kemilway name, but at some point the decision was taken to withdraw the range from sale as apparently a few competing suppliers were copying the kit designs and selling their versions. (This sounds like copyright infringement, but I am not aware of the details.) It seems that George Pring died in unfortunate circumstances; Tony Dyer passed away in 2016.

Nevertheless, the Kemilway Bulleid pacific chassis seems to have been a reasonable seller in its day, evidenced by listings of built examples on eBay. And the Kemilway name lives on.

I would like to think that one day I will find the time to do this kit justice. (Was that a squadron of pigs I just heard fly over?!...)