Bassette-Lowke for North America
by Keith Wills B
assett-Lowke was famed for its range of German-made British outline trains which it contracted in the early 20th century from presti- gious firms as Bing, Carette, Marklin, and Schoenner. They ran the gamut from OO/HO to Gauge IV in clockwork, electric and live steam, in scale, scale- tinplate, to simpler tinplate trains. It was the prestigious “carriage trade” purveyor, known for quality and service. To cope with growing demands, it es- tablished in-house manufacturing capa- bilities as well as outside suppliers which produced models to B-L’s high standards. Production was small com- pared to mass market manufacturers such as Bing or Hornby, which made models in tens, if not hundreds of thou- sands. It built and sold marine, archi- tectural, military and railroad models to special order for governments, indus- trial interests and museums, and re- ceived contracts for large-scale models from East African, Chinese and Rhode- sian railways to name a few, generally static, and at times superdetailed. While it had many international con- nections, it maintained strong North American ties, notably with Canada, and to a lesser degree, the U.S. In 1913, Canadian Northern Rail-
way, pre-World War I forerunner to post-war Canadian National, was Canada’s second transcontinental in competition with Canadian Pacific. It commissioned a large stand at a British exhibition which promoted im- migration to the Western Provinces. Bassett-Lowke built a shallow, glass
UNIDENTIFIED AMERICAN PROTOTYPE 1925
enclosed display case with a two and a half-inch gauge, Gauge III passenger train portrayed against a painted prairie backdrop, purportedly at the Edmonton station, to impart what the railroad wanted to convey. A plain Pa- cific locomotive was accompanied by
A static locomotive and two complete train sets were created for the CPR, one operating in its pavilion at the 1924-1925 Wembly Empire Exhibition and the other static, more likely for display in its London offices according to the late Omer Lavallee, CPR histori-
1924 SPECIAL ORDER CPR PACIFIC
two full scale coaches. The two-track display was perhaps 15 feet long. Canadian Pacific was an early and regular client with a variety of projects from exhibition booths to working loco- motives and complete static trains. It made
models of CPR’s various
steamships which plied the oceans off Canada’s coasts and designed and built a stand for it at the 1909 Vienna Exhi- bition, which included models of CPR trains. Perhaps the most active era of their collaboration was during the 1920’s to 1930’s. We will examine some Canadian models, plus a few American ones ordered by our roads and the Smithsonian Institution.
an and archivist. The operating Gauge III set ran around the booth’s perime- ter about ten feet above the floor, while a static 1ocomotive sat on a floor pedestal. All were the latest 2300 G3D- class Pacific, a powerful, recent devel- opment of which the road was justly proud. The static set had a full-scale consist of baggage car, first class, coach, dining car, coach and observa- tion. (See the October, 2002, COLLECTOR CONSIST for a more detailed discussion of the Wembly models.) It also made a 1928 un-streamlined Gauge III H1B Hudson, probably for display in CPR’s Montreal Windsor Station headquar- ters. A 1935 photo shows it unpainted.
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SEPTEMBER 2013
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