Triang catalogues.... 1962-1967

[exmouthcraig]

George you have competition 


https://youtu.be/lshSGkOFLDs

[daffy]

But George is more well known.



Here.

[Bealman]

Thanks daffy 

Well, that is competition alright....  Pete Waterman! Thank God he's into 0 gauge these days!

I guess I could send this thread  to Hornby stories, but I'm far too modest for that 

So I'll just soldier on here. 

Interesting views, he had though. Seems like a pretty cool sort of guy. Thanks for posting! 

[Paddy]

In the Hornby video, Pete Waterman states that he is now building a new 4mm layout that uses Hornby models!

Could he move to N gauge next? 

Kind regards

Paddy

[exmouthcraig]

He is an absolute Gent of a bloke, going back probably nearing 15 years he was at a local show to us with plans and photos of his Leamington Spa build, my town of birth and know every inch of what hes building.

Dad and I went to the show just for a gander and bumped into him, he was desperately trying to find out about a row of buildings that sat just beyond 1 of 2 bridges as plans he had didnt show them and they were knocked down in the 70s.

You couldn't meet a nicer bloke, obviously my chances of meeting @Bealman are quite slim, he has no belief he is better than you or I and really you wouldnt know hes had the success that he has. A genuinely great bloke with so much passion for Railways of every kind.

[Bealman]

Ok, another anecdote. Post #43 shows the P5 power unit from 1962 which is still powering my layout today. It's actually amazing that it is!

Within a few days of Christmas 62, the thing started overheating and wax started dripping out of it! This had both myself and my father completely baffled, and the Bealmother was on the verge of taking that back to Joseph's in Sunderland as well. Then it dawned on me fatha (slipping back into the dialect there  ) that operating it on  the carpet was probably stopping the ventilation!

So, onto the baseboard it went, but the felt from the billiard table wasn't helping either, and it still kept dribbling wax. Sitting it on a hard cover book solved the problem - just in time, I suspect!

However, it really is still operating under the B & CE today! 

Ok, back to the catalogue. This page shows a number of Bealman ticks:



The goods wagons came with the Embassy smoker's Transcontinental train set, except for the R236 "depressed center car", which is actually the R118 "bogie well wagon" in the British rolling stock range. I also owned the snowplough, which I absolutely loved. So much so, in fact that an NGS snowplough is on the wishlist.

Then, of course, there is the operating helicopter car, on the same page. Well, what have we got here? An intruder on the Beal & Castle Eden!!



There are a couple of problems, however - it won't fit through the tunnels, the couplings are incompatible with the N gauge Rapidos, and......



....the trackside trip lever won't clip-fit to Peco Streamline track!! 

/to be continued

[Bealman]

The 1962 edition saw the introduction of new, "Modern Image" station buildings and canopies, and also curved platforms. To deal with the Super 4 track radii, they'd be curved alright! (Mind you, I need talk. Check out the curves at Kirkby Langdale in the helicopter shot above)



Interestingly, there is just a glimpse of Minic Motorways in the background there. This roadway system would play a big part in things in the future, as we will see in forthcoming episodes. 

Equally interestingly, Triang still offered the original range of staion buildings from the original 1955 catalogue:



On the opposite page, however, was a new addition: a colour light signal. Bealman acquired one, and was disappointed by it. Firstly, it seemed underscale. It was about half the height of the Hornby Dublo versions which were around at that time. Secondly, although operating on the suggested 12V, both grain of wheat bulbs blew. Replacement bulbs were not available at the time (or if they were, Bealman could not find any), so that effectively was that.

I still have the yellow lever frame type switch, though, attached to two black passing contact lever frame switches used by Triang for their point motors. Here they are sitting on the mess that is the Beal & Castle Eden on 1/4/20:



....and in the flooded quarry depicted in the May 1997 Railway Modeller magazine!!



/To be continued

[Bealman]

One weird thing in this catalogue (well it didn't seem to be weird then, but sort of does now) was the inclusion of a collection of rubber scenic accessories (I don't know if the material was actual rubber, but it was some kind of latex based stuff). There were embankments (with suitable rubber gradient sections to get your trains up onto them), a stand-alone tunnel similar to @Train Waiting 's "tea cozy" tunnel (but rubber), two weird-looking stand-alone rubber cuttings, and these:



Note that there are three items ticked - a pair of haystacks, an oil tank, and a pair of small fir trees.

They say the past can sometimes come back to haunt you..... well in this case not so much me as the Beal & Castle Eden.

Invasion! 



Arghhh!! Headlines! Giant and haystacks appear in a field near Troutbeck Bridge overnight! Giant rubber fir trees block the road to Castle Eden!  Horror!





On a purely technical note, the reason one of the haystacks is lying down is because whatever the stuff is, it's become quite brittle over the intervening 57 years (God, 57 years....  ), and it won't stand up!

For the record,I don't have the oil tank anymore as it was modified to become a flying saucer which featured in my box-office flop 1972 science fiction movie, "The Visitor", made with the clockwork Kodak movie camera featured in another thread.

As the alien was fleeing Earth in his UFO/rubber oil tank, he crashed into one our satellites and the rubber flying saucer was totally destroyed.

Hence no pictures of a giant oil tank at Castle Eden. Just so you know.

Next: the 1963 catalogue!!

[tutenkhamunsleeping]

Wow! I had a couple of those haystacks when I was a child, I'd clean forgotten they existed!

They look like muffins now. Perhaps it's time I had my breakfast.

[daffy]

Please, please, please remove those lever switches from the flooded quarry George!

You'll electrocute yourself with all that water about!

As for the 'rubber' items, they are so ... er .... lifelike.  Not sure just what form of life though.    I can understand why you used the oil tank as a flying saucer as they all seem positively alien.

[Bealman]

Wow! I had a couple of those haystacks when I was a child, I'd clean forgotten they existed!

They look like muffins now. Perhaps it's time I had my breakfast.

Muffins, I hope! 


It's life, daffy, but not as we know it. 

[Bealman]

1963.

This is an interesting catalogue in what was obviously a busy year at Rovex Scale Models Limited, Westwood, Margate, Kent. The Lines Bros Group were branching out big time, and Item RT.280, the 1963 catalogue, reflects this.



First thing I noticed was the Ninth Edition had gone up to one shilling! A Cuneo painting graced the cover again, "Modern Image" this time, with a wonderful rendition of the transition period. A Class 4 diesel-electric has crossed the single track Saltash bridge, while a "Grange" waits for the express to pass.

I assume little mousey is blotted out by the Triang Railways banner again.

The banner hints at something different.... the Triang - Lionel Science Series?? 



Once the catalogue is opened, you realise you've got quite good value for your 12 pence! Not only have you got all the Triang Railways goodies, along with these peculiar science interlopers, but the entire TT range as well!

This was the year that Stephen's Rocket made it's debut, with smoke, no less, and to this day I think it's a great model and I wish I'd got one.

[Paddy]

Hi George,

I believe the rubber buildings were made by another Tri-Ang company called something like Frog Models.  I suppose it was an early example of what is now called cross-selling.

Kind regards

Paddy

[Bealman]

Ah yeah.... I have a vague recollection of Frog Models.

Totally forgotten about them - thanks for the memory bump! 

[Paddy]

Just be grateful that Tri-Ang did not put prams in the catalogue! 

Kind regards

Paddy