The LNER Encyclopedia

Did anyone visit the Tooting Bec railway model shop ever in south London and is it still there?.

I visited the shop maybe three or four times back in 1993-94 and the shop just a 5 minutes walk from Tooting Bec tube station was stuffed full of Hornby, Lima and Bachmann steam and diesel locos many of which were 'limited editions' at the time along with other model railway related products that were sold. I bought a limited edition Lima GWR King and a lima limited edition ex-LMS 'Hughes Crab' along with a couple of WR Western diesel Hydraulics in different liveries and a number of Lima B.R. maroon Mk1 coaches (I was into Lima products at the time) anyway I presume the shop in question is long gone along with the old fella who was behind the counter back then because I assumed that the shop was his?.

I suspect Mickey is refering to the original home of Bec Models, gone a long time ago.

It has been a while since I last went but Jane's Trains is worth a visit.

Yeah I believe that was the shop Mike and thanks mick b

I also bought a Hornby B.R. Black 5 and a Hornby B.R.8F as well cos at that time 1993-94 neither locos were available in the Hornby catalog for 1993 & 1994.

Bec Models, 10 Tooting Bec Road - I used to pass it everyday in 1969/1970 on the 49 bus from South Kensington to Streatham and vice versa.

I seem to remember that they produced a couple of kits - in TT?

Peter

I think they also did 4mm and trams. There are some 4mm D11 GCR Directors currently on ebay.

G'Day Gents

I have a Bec D11 and a couple of J52's, I wonder what happened to the molds for these and other loco kits.

manna

Plenty of BEC OO J11s still around too, as well as which they did a J17. Both were body and tender kits only, the loco body's features and proportions altered somewhat from the real thing (especially in the case of the J17) in order to fit the Triang Jinty chassis.
Not "high quality" in my opinion...

PGBerrie wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 6:35 pm ...I seem to remember that they produced a couple of kits - in TT?

A good dozen w/m loco kits, and some wagons too. I assisted in the disposal of a large TT layout some years ago with several of these, and they were very neatly cast, all designed to take mechanisms from Triang TT.

manna wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 10:06 pm I have a Bec D11 and a couple of J52's, I wonder what happened to the molds for these and other loco kits...

It's not the moulds, but the mould masters that might be of interest.

But they are of their time, the idea that the externally visible mechanism should be of correct dimensions so that the splashers are correctly positioned (among much else) was very much scratchbuilder territory when these were introduced. The J17 was neat, but as with the J11 there wasn't a long enough 6 coupled small wheel mechanism for it from RTR OO at the time. It assembled very easily though and looked decent; this at a time when the choice in 0-6-0 for 4mm was very limited.