Old GEM Kits

[danny]

A few months ago, I bought a couple of early GEM whitemetal kits, the Festiniog Railway bug box and coal wagon. I have managed to find out that they were first made in the 1960s, but I would like to know more about them, such as when they stopped being made.

[JulienW]

Looking at their website (found via Google) the 009 white metal stock kits are still available to buy new.

[B.Meldon]

As Julien said they have never gone out of production and are still available.

Here is a link:

http://www.lytchettmanor.co.uk/narrow_rolling.html

The loco kits are here:

http://www.lytchettmanor.co.uk/narrow_loco.html

Brian Meldon

[Tigger]

And you'll find that if you take a Peco steel solebar 10ft brake chassis and remove a small amount of material from the sides of the solebars and trim the ends, the GEM bug box floor is a perfect fit onto the footboards, letting it sit at about the right height from the rails.  The knifeboard seat can then be glued onto the top of the chassis.  You can either chew out the coach end to allow the coupling pocket to accept a Peco coupling, solder on a Greenwich coupling or use the smaller, scale couplings supplied with the kit.  They run really sweetly on the Peco chassis, too! :)

[tedp]

In 1968 or 1969 I bought two of them at Portmadoc. The original chassis arrangement was useless, but if you fit a different chassis like Tigger suggests, they should be all right. The detail on the whitemetal parts is quite good. I butchered the four sides into the clerestory four-wheeler shown on the right in this photo:

[jaymzhatstand]

I've got the Ashbury 4-wheeler, and as designed the chassis is a dog.  It was confined to my 'awaiting attention' siding.  That attention may well be a new chassis as suggested so hopefully it will one day be traffic-ready!

Cheers

J

[Isle of Stoner]

They really are horrid kits but you wouldn't believe how many we sell from the shop in Port. Reminds me I must order some more.

Despite saying this, I have a few of them in my stock boxes.


John W

[danny]

I'm sure the newer ones I have seen look slightly different to the old ones.

[nigelk]

I thought they had etched chassis now? I know at least 2 modellers who have put bug boxes on a Grafar coach bogie. The axleboxes on the wagons as originally provided are cast as part of the side so even fitting bearings would be a major challenge. Replacing the cast metal roof helps reduce the enormous rolling resistance by just a little.  :P

[Alan Feldon]

The bug -I have replaced the original chassis with peco n guage wagons
the quarrymens coaches and other vehicles with cast axleboxes,I just remove these,and replace with a "U" shaped brass strip with holes drilled to take metal axled wheel sets
Thus despite the weight if they run freely you can still get quite a few behind a loco
As has been mentioned -card roofs also help.