In the late 1940s and early 1950s a group of MMRS members were experimenting with track and wheel standards in 4mm and were pushing the boundaries of modelling at the time to develop better standards enabling them to produce 4mm Finescale standards as we know it today. The group comprised of well known people like Alex Jackson, Ross Pochin, Sid Stubbs, Norman Whitnall, John Langan and Norman Dale amongst a few others.
Initially the group was led by Alex Jackson but he died early in his 30s after a serious illness. He invented the ingenious coupling now named after him in his honour, the AJ Coupling. More details on the clever coupling can be found here. Model engineering was this group’s pastime and Sid Stubbs and John Langan became well known in the model railway world for their articles in the magazines on their brand of modelling 4mm scale using 18.0mm track which came to be known as EM Gauge. Peter Denny of Buckingham Branch fame was also modelling to this standard but he adapted commercially available products whereas the MMRS Group were making their own wheels and motors and gears as they were not satisfied with what was available at the time.
Sid kept notes when developing and working on his lathe and milling machines and this is a scan of his book which was discovered tucked behind a cupboard in our clubrooms in 2024.
Sid-Stubbs-Full-Notebook-compressed