Last week we posted about some Railway Series pre-cut models from the 1950s that we wanted to know more about, and reader Justin A. Olsen kindly replied:
I saw your page on the Railway Series Press-Out Models, and wanted to throw in my own comments.
These models were first published around 1957 by the same group who published the main books at the time (Edmund and Ward). Card modelling was quite popular at the time however most of these models (Micromodels, Modelcraft, etc.) were at smaller scales and tended to be complex. It seems the Railway Series engines were made to be built up by those with less experience, but the models’ artwork does look nice (I’ve considered building “Gordon” from the scans you showed).
Other engines that were available were Thomas (with coach Annie) and James. The ads always suggested other models were in preparation, but nothing else ever appeared. I would presume they stopped publishing these around the 1960’s or 1970’s once Awdry stopped making new books.
These models are very scarce, I’ve only seen one other example (Thomas) ever appear. Thanks for the scans you posted, I always wanted a go at building one of these models.
Thanks Justin! We’re still interested in purchasing the two models we don’t have yet, Thomas and James, so if you have some you’d like to sell then do contact us by email or phone.
