Press Officer Rick Purnell writes ….

An Extraordinary Model Maker

What remarkable talents our members have as Teignmouth Probus club secretary John Polley presented members with an illustrated talk about the model railways he has engineered, constructed and exhibited. His interest started as a very young child with his first railway set an LMS 060 ‘Jinty’ loco and his childhood ambition was to be a train driver. In 1996 this interest was rekindled to making model train layouts and in 2002 became a train driver on the London Underground. He attended over 100 model makers exhibition during 2005-2015 including National Model Railway Exhibitions, with his ‘showpiece’ ‘Abbey Road’ layout featuring classic London Underground trains, Out of this he was asked for bespoke engines and rolling stock (not commercially available) and his hobby developed into a thriving business.

In a visit to India he found a workshop that could manufacture thin pressed brass sheet ‘cut-outs’ that were assembled and soldered with soft metal castings for the train fronts and backs. One of his contacts could make CAD drawings to scale and another introduced him to a Sri Lankan enthusiast who set up a manufacturing unit and Metro Models went into production including 3D printing of parts. John also developed undercarriage drive units using micro motors used in CD players and the electronic circuitry which gave his models a more smooth realistic motion in action particularly stopping and starting.  

Loads of slides were shown of the design, manufacture, construction process and of the exhibition display of his layouts. On retirement he sold his sets and business.

Sadly, both model making and train driving must be in his blood as since ‘retirement’ he is now a qualified tram driver with Seaton Tramway and he is constructing a new layout in his garage named “Teigncombe” which models the stretch from Eastcliff Bridge, the bend and Holcombe Tunnel.

For any model railway enthusiasts, his latest work will be on exhibition at the Matford Market Centre on week-end 22nd  to 23rd July 2023.  

Our chairman Steve Battersby, who was a ‘train spotter’ as a youth gave the vote of thanks after an equally interesting Q&A session.