Triang catalogues.... 1962-1967

[Paddy]

I love Tri-Ang TT - there is just something about it.  The perfect size if you ask me.  Smaller than OO but big enough to see and enjoy the detailing.

Kind regards

Paddy

[Bealman]

Yeah, it's sort of a shame TT never took off.  I realise there are some specialised clubs and groups around for the gauge, but they are exactly that.... specialist.

Those boxed sets are fantastic, ntp3!! You know what they say, though, once you take them out of the box, they're worth nowt.

However, as discussed earlier, and like me and my James Bond car, will you ever sell them? I tend to think not!

Your pics just reminded me that every Triang set came with that bottle of horrible oil! 

[railsquid]

i know nothing about sexism (wasn't taught at my all-boys Grammar school)  , but I'm wondering why Mum, Dad and sonny Jim are depicted as being, apparently, radioactive!

... and that leads to Dad having 6 fingers as famously depicted on one of the Hornby Dublo adverts 

Ha ha, I haven't seen that one before!

Actually there's a township not far from Chez Bealman where they reckon people are like that, but for a different reason completely, so we'll steer clear of that one 

In the (then very insular) town on the Cumbrian coast I spent a few childhood years in, there was a family with that particular anatomical feature and one of the boys was in my class did indeed have 6 fingers.

[Bealman]

Insular, eh? Yeah, this place I'm thinking of here is a bit that way too, but we'll not go there. Ever onwards in the Triang Universe!



The new products were very exciting. The Brush 2 diesel electric loco was now available in BR green livery (Of course, it was that colour at the time - this being very much Triang's "Modern Image"). But look below - available Autumn 1963 - A BLUE PULLMAN!!! 

Things were getting serious here. Even the new Caledonian Single locomotive took the young Bealman's fancy.

As an aside here, in hindsight, it is amazing (and in my mind, a credit to the designers) just how many products at the time were retasked and came out as new models! This comes through these catalogues time after time. For example - and that is just these pages alone, take a look at that new 0-4-0 diesel at the bottom of the left hand page. that has to be sharing the same chassis as "Connie" on the right.

The outside frameless 0-6-0 diesel shunter would most certainly have the same chassis as their 0-6-0 Jinty locomotive. Likewise, I think the new Caledonian Single would have been the same chassis as "Lord of the Isles". It is blatantly obvious that the Dock Shunter on this page is identical to Bealman's Transcontinental yard switcher, except it's red instead of yellow.

This strategy didn't just apply to locomotives, but coaches and trackside accessories too, which I'll be looking at later.



The rolling stock range remained fairly stable at this time, although new coaching stock appeared in the form of something for the new locomotives to pull - a Liverpool/Manchester coach for Stephenson's Rocket, and a Caledonian 1st/3rd composite coach for the Caledonian Single.

Looking at goods stock, a cute wagon with three containers was introduced along with a wagon carrying a Triang container, very similar indeed to the current Peco N gauge versions. I can't remember for sure if I had one of those three container wagons or not, but my mate mentioned earlier definitely did.

However, I was given one of those bogie well wagons shown here - complete with Conqueror tank load, held on by elastic bands!! The tank was one of those toys where you pulled it backwards a few times, let it go, and whoosh! Off it went like a startled rabbit 



1963 saw the introduction of CKD - Completely Knocked Down. This is a concept I shied away from at the time, as the crippled Britannia locomotive did not give me much faith in either myself or Bealman Senior being able to put "Princess Elizabeth" together - and I'd swapped Britannia for a Princess anyway. However, my new mate didn't, and he got the pair of maroon coaches, though I think his dad put them together.

This was an interesting and bold concept, and has often been discussed on this forum as to if it would work in N gauge. Without hijacking my own thread, the general consensus, if I recall is that it wouldn't, and I tend to agree. If you want to discuss this further, please use the search function and address the appropriate board.

However, substantial savings were to be to be had by going down this route - Princess locomotive in the Night Sleeper set shown earlier, 69/6, CKD version, 45/- !! BR maroon composite coaches, 11/6, CKD, a pair for 18/11 !!

The block signalling equipment shown on the left page was a bold move, too - but probably a little advanced for it's target audience.



By now, those horrible rubber houses and embankments had been phased out (except for the rubber tunnel, as can be seen. The hay stacks and fir trees were retained, however!!). The embankments had been replaced by a set of bright orange piers, which I had a set of, but talk about ugly!! I think I preferred the rubber embankments, except the piers could be used on curves, of course.

Also in the above pic is yet another example of Triang retasking, but I'll address that in the next post. VB stubby empty! 

[Buffin]

Now you're talking! That southern electric set was my pride and joy, and fairly whooshed round the big series 3 oval on the 8 x 4 my dad had built.

And as it was an oval, the V was always at the front 

All (and I do mean ALL) these years later, coming across one at a swapmeet still brings a smile to my face.

Great topic, Bealman

[Bealman]

Thanks, Buffin!

Ok, VB replenished (I'm sick of bottled stuff, but saving a lot of money), so let's further examine Triang's retasking of equipment. Take a look at that platform crane at the top of the left-hand page in the last image of my post above. Then take a look at this:



See anything familiar?

The engineer's coach in the crash train is quite obviously a re-liveried clerestory coach from the Lord of the Isles set. The operating crane is a brilliant bit of gear which appeared as the British crane truck here, a platform crane, and on a "Depressed Center Car" as a Transcontinental crane car!!

What so impressed the young Bealman was that, unlike the Hornby Dublo platform crane of the day, this Triang offering was streets ahead. No big silver crank operating handle sticking out the side here! This crane looked the part - girder coloured, it looked industrial (even though there was no suggestion of how such a prototype would be powered), sexy gold chain instead of string, a hook AND a jib that could be raised and lowered!

Best of all, no overscale crank handle. Instead, small discrete knurled operating knobs which were almost invisible on the model. No wonder Triang got heaps of mileage out of it! Mileage? Certainly - it even made it to Australia!

Triang crane at Castle Eden ready to resurrect the coal merchants that used to occupy this site:



In the goods yard at Kirkby Langdale, partially obscuring the primitive Ratio crane behind....



Next.... Triang Science!!

[ntpntpntp]

The new products were very exciting. The Brush 2 diesel electric loco was now available in BR green livery (Of course, it was that colour at the time - this being very much Triang's "Modern Image").

I loved my type 2. Later on in the early 70s I had a Freightliner set which Dad posted to me all the way from Fiji of all places! (he was working out there at the time)

The outside frameless 0-6-0 diesel shunter would most certainly have the same chassis as their 0-6-0 Jinty locomotive.

Yes definitely the same.

It is blatantly obvious that the Dock Shunter on this page is identical to Bealman's Transcontinental yard switcher, except it's red instead of yellow.

Basically it was a body on top of the power bogie from the Transcontinental diesel.   I had two dock shunters, they were very reliable little things.


I still have the sorry remains of  Southern Electric unpowered end somewhere in the garage.

[Bealman]

Yeah, that little Transcontinental shunter had knurled wheels, if I recall. Kept going forever! Noisy, though.

But it had a light on the front, which I thought was great.

[Bealman]

As requested by daffy in reply #84, I have removed the Triang lever frame from the flooded quarry at North Beal, and even cleaned the area up a bit!





The horses on the hillside at the nearby Ferryhill Gap seem contented enough, if a little red:



Back to the 1963 catalogue!

[Southerngooner]

These bring back some memories! I can remember badgering my mum one day for the green 2-6-2 3MT tank loco, with steam, which I think was R59S. I must have been at home as every time mum asked me something, "R59S" was dropped in by me. She cracked and took me to Bermans toy shop in Basildon and got me it later that same day....... Not something I'm proud of doing now, but hey I was a youngster then!

I also had the CKD Princess Elizabeth in green but remember overtightening the tiny screw on the centre driver after fitting the valve gear so the thread got stripped and it would never stay in place for long. The coaches were a doddle to fit together as CKD but I'm sure mine came with LMS printed sides (on a MK1 coach?!) - have I remembered that right?

I got rid of all my Triang when i was 13 and went over to N, getting the Hornby Minitrix 2MT and  Britannia, plus a Grafar 94xx. My mate had the Jubilee so he kept getting invites over.....

[Bealman]

Interesting story about your CKD experiences. I remember my mate (the one who lives in NZ these days) definitely had a pair of CKD maroon coaches, but not what they had on the sides.

Depends when you got them, I suspect, as back in the day of these catalogues, the only stuff that Triang turned out was BR. So the nearest thing to LMS would have been an M, for Midland region.

In fact this BR exclusive mode that Triang was in at the time really frustrated the young Bealman, as by then he was reading Railway Modeller regularly, which of course was full of stuff that the adult modellers of the time were making.

Just as I model the railway of my youth - ironically BR, of course, they were modelling GWR, LMS, LNER,  SOUTHERN, and all sorts of other stuff.

Bealman desperately wanted his locos to be LMS like the ones he'd drool over in the mags, to the point of hand painting LMS on the sides of his Jinty and Princess tender.

He made such an horrendous job of this of course, that he essentially spoiled two perfectly good locomotives. 

My NZ mate also had one of those green 3MT tanks. That was a handsome model. It ran well, too.

[martyn]

My two penn'orth.

About 1965, I was given some Triang by an older friend who no longer wanted to play trains. This consisted of a circle of series 3 track, a Jinty, brake van and four wagons:IIRC, the cable wagon (with only one cable drum), the open wagon with opening doors, the open with fixed doors, and the other I can't remember. For about four years prior to this I'd been using Playcraft/Joueff, which was HO rather than OO.

I quickly found that my Playcraft controller was not powerful enough for the Jinty, and the wheels of all the Triang were too coarse to be reliable on the Playcraft track. It was a long time saving for a new Triang controller, and I still have it


I continued in OO for some years, but changed to N in 1975: most of my considerable collection of OO ended up with younger cousins, where I'm sad to say, it generally got broken and thrown out. It did include some electric light signals and the Royal Mail operating set


The first catalogue I remember was the one when the 9F was introduced: it might be the one where the mouse pretends to be a telegraph isolator. I think a great fuss was made if the fact you could see daylight under the boiler and the Ringfield tender drive. A friend had a large collection of Triang, and we often played with each others collection:he had quite a lot of the Transcontinental series as well as British.

There more, but this is long enough.

Martyn

[Bealman]

No, please, feel free to go on! 

I remember the Playcraft stuff! I think Woollies used to sell it?

[martyn]

Yes, Playcraft was only widely available in Woolies, and some sets via the Mail Order catalogues (such as Littlewoods) of the time, though fortunately a fairly local model shop, the long gone Wheelers in Colchester also stocked it.

IIRC, I had a clockwork and electric USA tank, a WR diesel hydraulic, an 040 diesel shunter,  four WR coaches, and about a dozen wagons. These included two Shell bogie tanks, a bogie car transporter, boplate, and IIRC,  a French style mineral. During the time I was collecting the Playcraft the Couplings were totally changed from a tension lock to a Dublo type hence needing a converter wagon or change the coupling for a new type available as spares. I couldn't work out why the coaches were described as Opens, when the doors were obviously closed...

I had to change Triang track to make sure trains could run. I'm pretty sure I went from standard 3 to series 4 and super 6 types. What happened to number 5?

I did get, amongst others, the Brush type 2 diesel. I was a little disappointed with it over time: the worm drive was brass and the gear moulded to the axle was nylon, and the wear was phenomenal. I then found a good spares shop in Ipswich.... Also on this loco, the plastic plate holding the wheels in one the drive bogie had securing bolts in each corner. Unfortunately the plastic was not strong enough and the bolts wore through and the plate dropped off. Back to the spares shop.... And for some reason, I bought a replacement armature, which is I still have, unused! When it was released, I was much more impressed with the Airfix version.

I also found that the steam chassis block, a bit like Farish, was common to a number of locos. I was given a Hall, complete, which over time, became a B12! I remember the CKD, but never built any. I always fancied the EM2, but again, never had one. The first kits I built were J17s by Fine cast which fitted the Jinty/08 chassis. A bit difficult in the days of no superglue, and I didn't know then how to solder white metal. It was Araldite, elastic bands, and fingers...

In the mid 70s they was a short series of articles in Modeller on how to convert the B12 to other classes, mainly ex GER.

Martyn

[crewearpley40]

My boss once worked the famous Newcastle manchester ted bank parcel train with two Van's full of pallets and still has the do let, remember the Brian mills depot Sunderland direction  with onward directions to add the two Van's to the nightly manchester london parcels train. I did wonder where my late Grandad ordered his type 2 loco from.