Our History..

The Beginning..

Roger Chivers the founder of Chivers Finelines began the journey way back in the late 1960’s when he was commissioned to assemble some Wills, K’s and GEM kits.

From the Mid 1970’s he was building commissioned point work via a £1.68 classified advert in the Railway Modeller.

In the late 1970’s, he was ask to produce some patterns for Tom Cooper of Merlin models for some 009 locomotive bodykits to fit on Joe Works chassis’s.

After an inspirational visit to a Preston model railway exhibition in 1979, Roger began his first kit of his own, RC1, Vale of Rheidol 2-6-2 to fit the fabled Minitrix N205 chassis. By this time he had a growing interest in American narrow gauge and was trying to get hold of an American magazine called Finelines. He enjoyed the play on words Finelines being narrow gauge, because he was not certain about the copyright situation he chose the name Chivers Finelines.

After Two or three years of success of the growing range of 009 locomotive bodykits, sales fell, having not been in business very long he assumed he’d made a mistake, he didn’t realise this was the first economic recession in the country since he started the business. He thought he had to do something different and with the help of Alan Grainge, of Grainge & Hodder, he learnt how to draw etching artwork. For a whole year in the mid 1980’s the business income was solely generated by the first etch kit, RC101 Southern Utility BY van.

After expanding the range of etched and white metal kits throughout the remaining 1980’s and early 1990’s. He married Sharon in 1991, and she became an enthusiastic helper in her new husbands enterprise, and in 1992 Chivers Finelines took delivery of its first white metal casting and mould making machine. Bringing casting in house, well, garden shed to be precise. Sharon could be found in the shed casting white metal along side him, and keeping him supplied with cups of tea in a must of a china mug.

His ambition was to be the next DJH models but this was modified by Roger’s wish to take Sharon back to live in Australia which is where the overseas narrow gauge products came into the range. Whilst searching for a house in Queensland Australia, Sharon realised that Roger’s heart was not 100% in the project. He was finding it more difficult than he expected to be both a pattern maker and the caster of the kits.

The Rise and fall…

Always wanting to be at the forefront of developments, as he had been with etching, he jumped at the chance of a secondhand CNC machine being retired from a school in the early 2000’s, with a view to making his patterns on it.

At an exhibition, a very important name, Colin Ashby comes into the scene of Chivers Finelines. Roger was complaining to Colin that the machine was actually pretty useless at making patterns as he had intended, Colin in his usual jocular way said “thats because the machine you have got is not designed for what your trying to do, its designed for cutting holes. Holes like plastic injection moulded dies”.

With guidance from Colin, he cut out a sample die on a scrap of metal that unfortunately couldn’t be injected. Colin told Roger it broke his heart to see such a beautiful piece of die cutting that he couldn’t inject plastic into. Roger said “your joking!”, and enjoyed telling Colin that it didn’t matter as he would get the right piece of material and cut it again as the data was still on the computer and although they have not been heavily marketed you can still find that sprue today, CPF1 Windows.

Once he got the hang of it, he could churn out injection moulding tooling quicker than Colin could mould them, as Colin did the injection moulding. Roger began to get the hang of finding things he didn’t know he needed like the proper tool grinder he had to find when he got impatient waiting for new cutters after he broke one.

This time it was his own injection moulder, which dates from 1979 and is still going strong! After getting to grips with automating injection moulding dies, the machines could be heard clonking away in the workshop producing 100’s parts a day.

In the run up to 2010 Sharons health had deteriorated to the point that Roger was her full time carer.

Boys to the rescue?….

Trying to run the business and be a carer up to this point had taken a significant toll on his health and a family decision was made that his sons, Simon & Matthew, would deal with half of the business each. Simon set up Slimrails, and Matthew set up Five79, and they both did their best whilst also having full time jobs. Matthew found after a couple years that having a full time job, wife, young kids and half his Dads business a pressure, and supply became hit and miss as he only produced kits when he had spare time.

Simon was natural born seller and for 10 years sold a steady stream of kits and never complained, until he found the same as Matthew when his second child arrived. Like Matthew, he also found it very difficult to get the right balance, so he made the hardest decision and in 2019 closed Slimrails.

a dawn….

The 2020 pandemic not only brought a deadly virus but also opened up an opportunity for a rebirth of Chivers Finelines. Matthew was made redundant from his full time job and with most companies shut, the chances of finding a new job seemed to be off the cards. The decision was made that the business would be put back together and Matthew would take charge.

In 2021, Sharon’s health declined for the final time, having suffered with muscular dystrophy her entire life, she died peacefully after a short stay in hospital.

Matthew spent his entire career in engineering and manufacturing so he found it an easy transition to manufacturing side of the business, and under the directions of his father began the apprenticeship to learn the tool making side of the business. In 2022 the first brand new kit came from Matthew, RC811 Tramway open bogie wagon, with many more kits and products planned in the future.

Initially the business was brought back under the Five79 name, but Matthew had decided that the company had to be back under one name, the original, Chivers Finelines.