About Mr. Cat.
When I was working at "E.A.M.E.S." back in the 1950s, I acquired,
among other things, the bare body of a Bassett-Lowke L.M.S. "Watford
Electric" motor coach; no bogies, no wheels, just the body. I was greatly
impressed by the quality of the tin-printing, and the very good impression it
gave of its prototype. So the body went into the collection, but rather near
the bottom of the box, as it was a non-runner! I let it be known from time to
time among my like-minded friends that I was looking for a suitable motor
bogie, but for many a long year it languished at the bottom of the box.
Quite suddenly, about 1997, a very good friend, who is an inveterate
attender at auction sales, suddenly handed me a Bassett-Lowke electric
motor-bogie which he had picked up at an auction, and said to me "is this
the sort of thing you’re looking for?" Indeed it was! It was not in
outstandingly good order, and had some bits missing, but was basically exactly
what was required. An approach was made to Bob Chester-Lamb, to see if he could
supply (a) the necessary spare parts and (b) the other bogie, with positive
results. So, with a little bit of work, the motor-coach became a runner. Very
soon after this, a centre trailer coach appeared, which was quickly acquired
for me by the same good friend; and then, a set of three L.M.S. suburban coaches,
including a brake-third, appeared at another auction, and was duly purchased.
Now the brake third suburban coach is to all intents and purposes identical to
the Watford Electric driving trailer, but with a blank end at the brake end.
So, I now had the makings of a complete "Watford Electric"
set. Firstly, I tried photocopying the driving end of the motor-coach, altering
the destination display from "
Encouraged by the success of this project, I then turned to other ideas.
As an ardent L.M.S. enthusiast, I always regretted that the early post-war
Bassett-Lowke coaches in B.R. red-and-cream livery, which were obviously based
on L.M.S. prototypes, were not produced in L.M.S. livery. I also had a very
good Hornby "Princess Elizabeth" for which I had no suitable train
(the coaches supplied by Hornby were hardly of a standard to match the
locomotive!). So I acquired a very tatty example of the Bassett-Lowke
"blood-and-custard" brake third (it didn’t even have a roof) and set
to work, using the same photo-editing program on the computer, to produce new
sides in L.M.S. livery, to be printed on glossy photo-style paper and attached
to the coach.
This was such a marked success that I decided to acquire further
time-expired coaches in the same series, prepare further replacement sides and
make up a full train. I would also offer them to other collectors. I decided
that the time had come to "go into business", so to speak, and to
give the enterprise a name – so "Mr. Cat Graphics" came into being;
as "Mr. Cat" was already my e-mail user name, it seemed obvious that
I should make further use of it in this way.
Ever since the first "overlays" were produced, I have been
upgrading and improving existing designs, and adding further items to the
range.
A recent development, which is giving me a great deal of
"job-satisfaction", is a co-operation agreement with "Ace
Trains", under which I am preparing artwork for a range of new tinplate
coaches to be produced to run with their superb "A4" class Pacific
locomotive. On their behalf I am also preparing and applying overlay sides and
ends for a series of short runs of special vehicles of various types. Other
projects for Ace include the platforms and roof sections for their overall
station roof, and a range of station buildings, very shortly to become
available.
