See also the Brighton Toy and Model Museum Toy Encyclopaedia and the Train Collectors Association Western Division Index of Manufacturers
Edward Exley Ltd, by Pat Hammond
With acknowledgement of help given by Quentin Lucus of Edward Exley Ltd. and the work of Roy Chambers.
A History of the Company
This firm is primarily known for its coaching stock in 00 and 0 gauge and was founded at Bradford by Edward Exley about 1922. Initially the products were locomotives, in live steam, clockwork and electrically powered, in gauges 0 and 1, which were made to order.
By the 1930s, 0 gauge coaches had joined the range of products, and both locos and coaches were available ‘off the shelf’ as well as to order. During this period the company started supplying Bassett-Lowke with models, including the range of 0 gauge coaches which the latter company sold as their ‘scale range’. It should be remembered that this was in the days before current consumer legislation, and as we have seen elsewhere in this catalogue, Bassett-Lowke bought in much of their range of products from other manufacturers and sold them through their catalogues under their own name. At the same time a business relationship was formed with J S Beeson, Mills Bros., Leeds Model Company and others, with much cross fertilisation of products between the parties involved.
In the later 1930s, partly as a result of Vivien Boyd-Carpenter having joined the company, high quality 00 coaching stock was added to feed a growing market in this new scale.
During the Second World War, work turned to the war effort and scale model ships for naval recognition use were made. With the return of peace, the Company retooled in 1945 to produce their railway models again. The underframes and bogies of the early post war coaches were improved from those of the pre-war era, and around 1950 the tooling for the coach bodies was also upgraded to the style most commonly found today.
Edward Exley Ltd also produced industrial models to commissioned orders, which included charabancs, industrial installations, large diesel engines, etc., and continued to supply Bassett-Lowke with ‘scale’ coaches.
In the early post war years the sales department was in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, with Boyd-Carpenter running this part of the business, although the works were still in Bradford. By 1952, however, Edward Exley (Sales) Ltd had moved to Baslow in Derbyshire and Edward Exley had resigned as a Director of the Sales Company in July 1955 after a disagreement. However, Edward continued to manage the works in Bradford. Furthermore, the catalogue carried the statement 'This Company is not now a manufacturing undertaking'. Lists of coaches in 00 and 0 scale were issued by the factory but these were headed 'Exley of Bradford'.
Locomotives had continued to be available after the war, mainly to order, but in the late 1950s Edward Exley sold the loco construction part of the business to Stanley Beeson, who had made locos for a number of Exley clients. Coaches were listed until 1962 when there was a terrible fire which destroyed the Bradford premises and most of the tools. At this point Edward Exley decided to retire.
The company at Baslow continued to offer coaches but discontinued the 00 gauge range as the manufacturing facility was lost in the fire. The 7mm models were listed as available until the death of Boyd-Carpenter in January 1995, but were in fact being made by outside workers to order.
Additional notes from comments made by Australian enthusiast Edsley
In response to the question of length of Exleys I have done a quick measure of the actual body length, not including buffers
Standard post war coach length was 40cm (15.75 inches]
Shorter suburbans, full brakes etc were 35cm (13.8 inches)
Exley GWR and Midland clerestories were 37.7cm (14.8 inches)
Pre-war Gresleys were 40cm although some corridor coaches were a bit shorter
Pre war Pullmans were quite longer, longer than standard coaches
Six wheel coaches and Stove brakes were 21.8cm (8.6 inches)
Exley 4 wheel range 17.3cm (6.8 inches)
The Exley body wrappers were stamped from 0.020" half hard aluminium. The door handles and ventilators above doors done while flat. The main windows seem to have been indexed to a standard distance apart
The diners use one of the window stamps wound back a bit so as not to entirely penetrate for the large roof ventilators
Exley Gresleys. I have 2 identical coaches , One has on the side " Restaurant Car" but the other "Dining Car" Both original and otherwise identical. Was there some method in this? Is it prototypical or an Exley whim?
Memories of an HRCA member
'The Ridge', Eaton Hill, Baslow, was the the home of Vivian Boyd-Carpenter. It was (and perhaps still is) a quite large and pleasant private house set in a beautiful area. I visited VB-C (as his contemporaries tended to call him) twice in the late 1960s, and the prevailing atmosphere was domestic rather than commercial.
To retrace our steps: In 1922 Edward Exley founded the firm which bears his name. At first it concentrated upon producing '0' gauge locomotives, and Mr Exley, who was an accomplished model engineer, built many of them himself. As demand grew, he needed to take on employees and he opened a factory/works in Bradford, and later also sub-contracted work to 'out-workers', who included the renowned Mr Beeson. The firm continued to provide locomotives (many of them bespoke), and during the 1930s became famous for its coaches in '0' and later in '00' gauge. The sides and roofs were made from a single aluminium sheet, in which the window spaces were cut, and then the sheet was wrapped around formers, which were presumably shaped to give the correct profile for any given type of coach. The coaches were, and are, noted for their superb painting and lining. They were sold as coach bodies to customers who wished to fit wheels to suit their own track, and were also available complete with standard Exley bogies, which gave a high quality ride. Exleys also sold coaches to other firms - notably Bassett-Lowke - who then marketed them as their own premium coaches. In 1947 the firm became a limited company (see below), and in 1955 Mr Exley resigned his directorship. In 1962 there was a disastrous fire at the Bradford works, which severely damaged the firm's equipment and stocks.
I do not know when Mr Boyd-Carpenter became associated with the company, or in what capacity (e.g. as a shareholder, employee, manager or director). But he clearly had a close connection with the firm, and in the model railway press there often appeared advertisements headed 'EDWARD EXLEY LIMITED', subjoined by the address 'The Ridge, Eaton Hill, Baslow, Derbyshire: Tel, Baslow 3224'. For example, the advertisement in the June 1968 'Railway Modeller' stated that 'New Exley Coaches in 00/H0 and 0 are available from time to time, but quantities thereof are limited. Second hand vehicles, after overhaul at works, are generally on hand'. 'Over 80 items' were available for the Scenic Modeller. Hamo Tramways and Eheim Trolleybuses were also models on sale.
When I (twice) visited 'The Ridge', I was most hospitably received. Mr V B-C himself was very affable, and it soon became clear that he was a strong traditionalist. Many years after nationalisation, the catalogue continued to state that the railhead station for Baslow was 'Bakewell L.M.S.' Mr B-C was, I remember, not happy about the then recent electrification of the LMR all the way from Euston to Manchester, and he considered that the new trains were much too fast. He also viewed unfavourably the also then recent re-organisation of the Post Office/Royal Mail. He had quite a lot of models and parts for sale, and I bought several items, but, as I indicated at the beginning of this post, 'The Ridge' was not a shop in the usual sense.
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