An end to war

In various ways, the craft of 16mm can put an end to war. As you sit at your workbench fettling up a kit or preparing a locomotive, you are part of a long tradition. For centuries, the skill of the hand and eye have been used, firstly to bring people together, then to convey messages to a wider public. Ritual whether martial or religious, crowds attending sport, modern folk at their 16mm scale meetings, all know the value of craft.

Our craft has two aspects. One is private love and knowledge, the other is social.

The craft of the ‘16 miller’ is not to frighten. It is inclusive, kind, open-hearted and peaceful. At its best, it can be gentle, active.  

A 16mm scale Kerr Stuart 0-4-0 gently makes its way around our garden railway. Photo MD Wright

There are parallels with other crafts and indeed with activities which may be considered more cerebral.

Needlework is one example. It is a gentle art but yet can also be active. It can even provide a response to injustice or atrocity. The word Craftivism was coined in 2003 but the idea that needle-craft can be a tool towards positive change – is much older. We can take just two 20^th century example. Chileans made arpilleras (hand-stitched embroideries) to protest about dictatorship. Woman Suffragists made beautiful banners to advertise the cause of Votes For Women.

You will not be surprised that needlework could be used as an advocate for peace.  Many examples have been lost over the last hundred years but a particular sampler preserved by The Embroider’s Guild collection pleads, celebrates and advocates for peace. Though striking, it is not meant to be beautiful. It is good to look at, but was not primarily made to beautiful. It acts as an encouragement to others to make an effort.

The creator was Margaret Foster. She took her designs from two established genres. Before the arrival of woven name-tapes, the typical sampler was worked by a trainee to practise or showcase the art of embroidered lettering. Marks of ownership were essential when even a handkerchief was valuable and when laundry took months. As a showcase, or to make the labour less dull, the sampler consisted of improving verses, artfully framed. In these days, the sampler, with its embroidered verse, is a collector’s item.

Copyright and exclusive! Embroidered local costume. Postcard courtesy MJ Jackson

The other genre was the local embroidery style. In some parts of Europe, each region or even village still have their local style of embroidery. I was proudly shown a sample book of Norwegian patterns, showing patterns each typical of a particular town or district. Every child will receive a costume bedecked with these patterns. They will sit down and be taught, in their turn, how to create them. This must have been true all over Europe at one time. The boy illustrated is wearing Tyrolean Sunday best.

In the early 20^th century, the ‘local style’ had almost died out in England, though some patterns are preserved in old pieces. Margaret Foster wanted to keep alive the Wessex style, best described as multi-coloured black-work interspersed with bands of smocking. A preserved piece includes a strip in the Strawberry Flower pattern, typical of Wessex style.

The Strawberry Pattern consisted of a strip of embroidered flowers embroidered in black on a self-coloured background. This picture is adapted from a design by Moyra MacNeill

In summer 1918 she created a sampler. It has both lettering and bands of pattern. It thus incorporates the two strands (to coin a phrase) of sampler embroidery – tradition and utility.

She wanted to be accessible and so her art is not intimidating. She used a piece of cream even-weave fabric, very roughly edged. The background shows through the stitching in an unpretentious way. It is mainly black thread on cream with colour and distributed in small random patches. The lettering records a few unpretentious lines of doggerel. In the original, the poem was jumbled on to seven lines of text. Below them are the maker’s initials and the date – May 1918.

A little sampler for the month of May

work’d while skies were warm and flow’rs were gay

And all good British people humbly pray’d

that Peace with Victory be not long delay’d

The overall effect is of heartbreaking simplicity. It well deserves its place in the archives.

This needlework is mentioned because of its relationship with our 16mm model layout. Both are conscious of the history and issues of the real world.

Malcolm Wright's 16mm garden railway features a bridge in the U.S. style. A war surplus WD Baldwin 4-6-0 pushes a couple of WD wagons, all Wrightscale. Photo MD Wright

Like most layouts, the Wrightscale South Deeside Line starts with a story. Our garden railway is set firmly in the period between First and Second World War when the First World War is still known as the Great War. All of its staff are personally acquainted with events in that war and the roster is full of war surplus stock.

In the fictional history, the railway started some years previously, serving a slate quarry in Scotland. Yes! we did have our own Scotch slate. It was, if you like, a second Ballachulish which came into its own around 1930. Some American loggers remained after the Great War was over. They built the bridge which links the original line with the extension. The railway also serves local people, for travel, post and groceries.

Consistent with this story, most models are accurate War surplus plus hardy pre-War survivors such as the Wren. The management bid successfully for a War Surplus War Department Baldwin 4-6-0 but were outbid for a German 0-6-0. The majority of trains carry freight. Wagons include small slate wagons designed or built in Wales or War Surplus War Department stock.

For complicated reasons, some of the only French Péchot bogie wagons to leave France ended up on South Deeside. But that is another story. To tell it now would be an overly long digression.

The artillerie-88 bogie wagon, designed by Prosper Péchot of the French Army, was the fore-runner of War Department bogie wagons. Wrightscale 16mm model.

Like any craft, there is a focus on improving skills. The sampler is a good place to start when learning needlework. A model, or series of models, is a good introduction to a mastery of metal-crafts.

Samplers should be done to the best of the crafter’s ability. A 16mm scale live steam model locomotive demands the best from the modeller. Each piece demands the correct materials. Working it and ensuring a good fit with other components requires a series of skills; putting it together yet more.

At each stage and certainly at the end, trouble-shooting is needed. This is quite a skill of its own. The ability to go back through the work looking for the flaw - where things started to go wrong - has to be learned. It requires character. The first experience of trouble-shooting is hard, but working at it helps. A new mindset will be acquired, the ability to see mistakes and regard them not just as time wasted, but as an opportunity to learn. Dismissing a mistake out-of-hand brings on a peculiar and damaging psychological blindness. Working at it clear-eyed dispels the blindness. It is that unique something that folk who work with their hands can offer the world – whether they be needleworkers or metal workers.

Baldwin Gas Mechanical as used in World War 1. Photo courtesy Jacques Pradayrol

There is the vital social aspect. Taking part in a select list of activities can make us better people. Model-making and sampler design require what is known to professors of social science as scenario planning. Authorities such as Professors, Mellers, Tetlock and Arkes studied forecasting, a fairly cerebral process, but their findings apply to planning a craft project.  They distinguish forecasts which are pure bluff, attention seeking or cheerleading from  better ones. These are efforts made in good faith to get the answer correct. (I am borrowing words from Tim Harford.) 

Serious forecasters, like modellers or needle-workes, will soon be confronted by the gaps in their knowledge. They have to come to terms with the illusion of explanatory depth. We think we know how something works … until we try getting it to work. How many times has a parent been caught out by a curious child or an onlooker who seems to be asking naïve questions? The experience can prompt humility and moderation.

Turning a prototype BGM into a working model requires many skills, including feedback from friends and customers. 16mm Wrightscale model. Photo MD Wright

Get-togethers, whether cerebral or crafty can bring out the best in us. They can make difference a cause of celebration rather than conflict. This is not a new discovery. There are schools and colleges for workers by hand and brain, the name being used in the chummy original sense. ‘School’ comes from Latin schola – leisure employment, ‘college’ from Latin collegium - association or partnership.

Academics appreciate face-to-face time, whether in the flesh or by Skype. The same applies to model-making. The people who model most productively are club members. In an unclubbable age, active membership of clubs is still high. Time is given freely. Information is offered on a not-for-profit basis. The assumption is that members bring an open mind and treat others as they have been treated. Even before the 16mm association was formed, area associations began, where it was possible to meet in the flesh and run trains together.

Collaborative sewing has the longest history of all.  Needlework these days still has a strong social aspect. Every craft shop has its local directory of craft-clubs and sewing bees.

A restored ex-WD Baldwin 4-6-0 has honed many skills but the impression you get from this photograph is of fun! Photo courtesy Jim Hawkesworth

There is another quality shared by the crafts and more cerebral arts such as fore-casting. A good example is possible to recognise but less easy to explain. There are many examples of sloppy work. At the other extreme, arguments, models or sewing projects can be so pleased with themselves that they have no appeal to anyone else.

Model of ex War Department Baldwin 4-6-0 exudes tranquility. Wrightscale 16mm model pulls wagons built on Wrightscale WD bogies

To have merit does not require a crushing level of skill or knowledge. In the realm of predictions, a ‘superforecaster’ does not have to be an expert in some subject, but does have to be open-minded and respectful of contrary evidence or opinions. A sampler has to please. Something made by a child might nestle in the heart in the way that overwhelming skill in needlework fails to do. A model has to have ‘it’ too. Perhaps it can be described as genuine ‘play-value’