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WALTER WILSON – MACHINIST -LONDON
Walter Wilson first appears in London trade directories in 1827 as a tobacconist and sometimes grocer based at 33, Old Change in the City. In 1845 he first describes himself as a ‘machinist’ while continuing to run the tobacconist business, which was likely managed by his family. As a machinist Wilson was to develop a line of brass, spirit-fired toy steam locomotives, made to instrument standard, that were to set the pattern for toy locos to all UK makers who followed, until they were largely succeeded by mainly German made tinplate toy trains in the early 20th century.
Wilson’s locos were made from the late 1840s until the early 1860s. Moving to 30, Old Change in 1860, his business was no longer listed in directories after 1864, when he was 67 years old. Wilson supplied his locos to a number of notable opticians and instrument makers, such as Watkins & Hill, Robert Gogerty, H.J. West and later (after 1856) Newton & Co. Wilson would engrave the names of the retailers on the locos, today giving the mistaken impression that they made them. Newton & Co engraved their own name into Wilson’s products, a practice they continued with later products by other makers.
The locomotives, which are powered by inside oscillating cylinders, take two forms. The more significant is a standard pattern, two-axle loco. Its fully-cast baseplate defining the loco’s layout. It is this pattern that would define the standardised designs of later manufacturers and develop into the cheaper ‘Birmingham Dribblers’ of the late 19th century. Wilson also made three axle locos, these demonstrate considerable design differences and were probably made on an individual basis, although again, they set the pattern for more standardised later products.
Wilson left the trade almost simultaneously with Edwin Bell (of The Model Dockyard) and William Stevens (of Stevens’ Model Dockyard) entering it. Both began to sell brass locos closely modelled on Wilson’s and it seems likely that Wilson’s machine shop and patterns passed to one of them. During the 1870s both companies were to develop Wilson’s type-forms into outside-cylinder types that were then widely copied.
References
editTrain Collector (The Journal of the Train Collectors’ Society) 71 (June 2024) pp5-20.