John van Riemsdijk 0 Gauge

(UK)

John van Riemsdijk was an engineer of Dutch heritage, with a distinguised career serving both Royal Navy and SOE during WWII. Following the war, JvR (as he was known) set up a business designing and manufacturing clockwork powered meters and time switches for petrol pumps, parking meters and similar devices.

JvR then began producing trams, single and double deck, clockwork and, to a lesser extent, electric powered. These were sold via Bassett-Lowke, Selfridges and Hamleys. An 00 gauge 0-6-0 tank loco followed, together with an 00 gauge saddle tank. W&H produced a die cast LNER 0-6-2T loco which were motorised (clockwork) by JvR. 0 gauge locomotives followed, 4-4-4 tank, 0-6-0 tank and 2-6-2 tank. By 1954 JvR had joined the Science Museum (see obituary below), and model production ceased.

John van Riemsdijk

Curator who helped set up the National Railway Museum

By Tony Hall-Patch, The Guardian, Thursday 27 November 2008

John van Riemsdijk, who has died aged 83, was the keeper of the civil and mechanical engineering department of the Science Museum, London, and in 1974 and 1975 was responsible for organising the collections for the new National Railway Museum at York. His work laid the foundations of what is now the largest and most comprehensive museum of railways in the world, with an unparalleled archive and research capacity.

Van Riemsdijk was born in Muswell Hill, north London. His father was Dutch and his mother English and, as a young man, he travelled widely by train with his father around Europe. Thanks to his formidable memory, he acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the continental railway network. He attended University College school, Hampstead, and Birkbeck College, London, where he read English and French, and was recruited into the Royal Navy soon after graduating.

His continental background, coupled with his fertile, academic but practical, engineer's mind, and his knowledge of continental railways, led to him being drafted into the Special Operations Executive (SOE). While serving, he conceived such inventions as a clockwork-powered "moo horn" to help the French resistance find parachuted supplies, and a steam-powered generator for field radios.

After the war he started a business that manufactured small-geared spring mechanisms, but sold it when he joined the Science Museum in 1954. His first post was as a lecturer, but he then progressed through the curatorial grades to become keeper of civil and mechanical engineering.

In 1981 he delivered a paper entitled The Hero as Engineer to celebrate the 200th anniversary of George Stephenson's birth, to much acclaim. The following year, he was made a Companion of the Institution of Mechanical Engineeers. His last major contribution to the Science Museum was to mastermind the reconstruction of the displays in the main hall.

He retired in 1984 and subsequently moved to the south of France.

In retirement Van Riemsdijk was able to give full vent to his passion for gauge one model railways. His collaboration with Count Antonio Giansanti Coluzzi, a model train collector, resulted in the successful development of Aster gauge one steam locomotives, which for 30 years have given enormous pleasure to model railway enthusiasts.

His success lay in a rare ability to express himself on complex technical and scientific matters with a measure of self-deprecation and wry humour that any layman could understand. A great lover of music, painting and the arts in general, he crossed the barriers between art, science and engineering.

He wrote extensively on railways and steam power. His book Compound Locomotives (1994) is regarded by many as the best semi-technical book on railway locomotives. He was a member of the Newcomen Society, Stephenson Locomotive Society, the Bevil's Club, and a vice-president of the Gauge One Model Railway Association.

He was a most diligent correspondent who replied at length with humour and wit to a host of admirers and enquirers across the world.

He is survived by his wife, Jocelyn.

John van Riemsdijk, museum curator, born November 13 1924; died August 31 2008

Gauge 0 Locomotives

Van Riemsdijk 4-4-4 tank locomotive

Van Riemsdijk 4-4-4 tank locomotive, British Railways black livery

Van Riemsdijk 2-6-2 tank locomotive, black LMS livery

Van Riemsdijk 0-6-0 tank locomotive

Van Riemsdijk cylindrical locomotive box

Gauge 00 Locomotives

Van Riemsdijk gauge 00 0-6-0 tank locomotive (incomplete)

Van Riemsdijk gauge 00 0-6-0 tank locomotive (some parts missing)

Tramcars

From an eBay sale :

These were originally supplied unpainted in early postwar years for painting in the livery of the owners choice.

Van Riemsdijk Tramcar, Portsmouth Corporation livery

Van Riemsdijk clockwork Tramcar, unlettered

Delighted to say that I have received a few words and photos from an ethusiast, who writes :

I bought one of these models from eBay, plus three others from Vectis, which I have been restoring back to their original colours. Two London and one Grimsby and Immingham Ex Gateshead Tram plus a Sheffield Standard car

The Ex Portsmouth Bogied Tram repainted by me to a London Transport E3/1, the wreck of the Feltham was restored by me and the Green Tram was the ex Gateshead and District Tram which had half heartedly been painted in Grimsby and Immingham colours which I finished off. As as for the Cream and Lined Blue this was one that someone had painted in a livery of Green and Cream then they stuck on Corporation Transport Transfers which I did not like, hence the Sheffield Colours but unfortunately the Truck it runs on has been replaced early in its life but it still runs well.

The E3/1 is by the way clockwork and stops and starts for about 25 ft in total running length