George E Mellor entered the model railway trade in 1929, and remained involved until he died on January 3rd 1994. Born in 1911, he grew up in Colwyn Bay and never moved away. Amongst Mellor’s products, GEM’s 4mm cast white metal loco kits were well known, appearing in 1964.
Before that GEM’s main stock in trade had been 16.5mm gauge trackwork and a wide assortment of handbuilt rolling stock. The company had no casting ability, but George was an innovator and the success of Wills and K’s was not lost on him nor was Tri-ang’s early success with TT gauge.
Subject ID: 1370
MoreGeorge E Mellor entered the model railway trade in 1929, and remained involved until he died on January 3rd 1994. Born in 1911, he grew up in Colwyn Bay and never moved away. Amongst Mellor’s products, GEM’s 4mm cast white metal loco kits were well known, appearing in 1964.
Before that GEM’s main stock in trade had been 16.5mm gauge trackwork and a wide assortment of handbuilt rolling stock. The company had no casting ability, but George was an innovator and the success of Wills and K’s was not lost on him nor was Tri-ang’s early success with TT gauge.
One of the lines in the GEM 1956 catalogue was the small range of products under the S&B name. The S in S&B stood for Rex Stedman of Leeds Model Company fame. After Stedman died in 1959, GEM obtained the S&B business and with it the ability to cast in white metal. The result was that from 1963 GEM joined the league then composed of K’s, Wills and Bec to become one of the four big names in 1960s white metal railway kits. By the end of the decade GEM’s contribution had been established in TT and OO, with a leaning for the LNWR engines so familiar to anyone living on the North Wales Coast in George’s lifetime.
The TT range although extensive in its day withered after the 1970s, until ultimately in 1993 it was sold to 3mm Scale Model Railways with which it remained. By then GEM was actually in the hands of the gentleman who owned the company until 1997. This was Roy Dock, one time editor of the Model Railway News, who left that magazine for life with GEM. A Railway Modeller announcement stated that from the 1st of May 1977 GEM was a partnership between Dock and Mellor. Dock became financially responsible for the company, Mellor retaining a ‘fatherly’ role. Twenty years after his involvement commenced Dock was a sick man. He had been with the GEM stand, as so often, at the York Easter Show in 1996. Later that year a stroke laid him low.
The upshot of this was the September 1997 announcement that the whole GEM range as then constituted had been sold to Terry Henson’s Thameshead Models of Bedford. Since 2000 kits have been upgraded and re-released. In that year the N gauge GWR 28xx appeared and by early 2007 twelve in OO were available again. The modern releases all have an etched nickel silver chassis kit which Terry’s team has produced.
Subject ID: 1370
Subject ID: 1370