Exley

Edward Exley founded the firm at Bradford about 1922. Its first products were made to order: live-steam, clockwork and electric locomotives in 0 and 1 gauges. By the 1930s, the range included 0-gauge coaches, available both from stock and to order. Exley supplied Bassett-Lowke with coaches for its scale range, and added 00-gauge coaching stock in the later 1930s as that scale grew in popularity.

During the Second World War, the firm turned to war work and made scale ships for naval recognition. It retooled for railway production in 1945. Postwar coaches had revised underframes and bogies, and coach-body tooling was upgraded around 1950. Exley also made industrial models to commission and continued supplying Bassett-Lowke. In the early postwar years, sales were handled from Worksop while the works remained in Bradford; the sales operation moved to Baslow by 1952. In the late 1950s, Edward Exley sold the locomotive-construction side to Stanley Beeson.

A fire destroyed the Bradford premises and most of the tools in 1962. Coach lists continued afterward, but new coaches were no longer available from the lost manufacturing facility. The Baslow company continued to offer coaches; its 7mm models were later made by outside workers to order. The Brighton Toy and Model Museum dates the company’s cessation of trading to 1995, while the specialist account records 7mm models listed until 1995.