Triang catalogues.... 1962-1967

[Bealman]

Unfortunately not, he was a truck driver for British Road Services, and in those days, a trip from Newcastle to just about anywhere meant he was away for days or weeks.

Looking back on it, that baseboard would have made quite an acceptable pool table 

[Paddy]

Hi George,

Sounds like you had a wonderful Mum and Dad.  8' x 4' is huge when you see it in real life - amazed you could fit it in to your flat.  Love the artwork - it makes you want the models so much.

Kind regards

Paddy

[Newportnobby]

I wish I still had my 00 stuff as it included much of what you have shown in the pics. Very suspiciously, it all disappeared in one of my parents many house moves :'( :'(

[Bealman]

Most of my stuff was still there when I went back and had to clean the house out when my parents died in 1990, but I gave most of it to the next door neighbour whose son had got married and recently had a little boy.

[Bealman]

Another anecdote.... a close inspection of the trainset page with the Pullman set that I received for Christmas 1962 will reveal a tick beside the maroon Princess Royal locomotive in the night sleeper set. Within a day or two of Christmas, the Britannia started playing up. I can't recall exactly what was wrong, but it prompted a return to the place of purchase.

The shop was a sports shop called Josephs, in Sunderland, actually not far from Sunderland railway station. While being primarily a sports shop, upstairs they had a toy department with what to me was a very impressive display layout.

Anyway, up we went with my mother complaining bitterly about this bloody Britannia loco not working. The hassled guy placed it on the display layout and couldn't get it to go either. My mother went on and on and demanded a new locomotive immediately. The poor bloke went off to the manager and huddled discussions ensued, followed by much rummaging around among shelves of red and yellow Triang Railways boxes.

Upon his return, he explained that they had no Britannias in stock, but did have a new Princess Royal, also with smoke. The Bealmum decided that was good enough, so Bealman ended up with a Stannier at the head of his Pullman express, and the shop assistant lived to work another day.



1962 saw the introduction of twp new British locos, the NE B12 shown here, and an A1A-A1A diesel, also shown here. This page also shows the smoke and Magnadhesion features.



During 1962, Series 3 track continued to be available, but it's production quickly ceased. The new gee-whiz Super 4 track boasted: correct scale(!), realistic(?), correct sleeper space and length(maybe), facilities for clipping accessories(definitely), plated steel track and fishplates(yuk), close double track spacing(yeah!) and self-isolating points(also good for young enthusiasts).



The working catenary system was something which interested the young Bealman greatly, but never appeared on his layout, although I do believe that @Newportnobby had a catenary setup with the Triang EM2 Co-Co locomotive, Electra.

What also interested Bealman, however, was the Transcontinental range. I desperately wanted that Davey Crockett locomotive!!!

Things took an unexpected turn, however. My father was a pretty heavy smoker at the time, and Embassy cigarettes, his preferred cancer stick of choice, gave away coupons with every packet. Green stamps with tequilla! Lah, la la la la lah... oops, wrong thread 

Anyway, a glance through the Embassy catalogue revealed the Triang RS31 set, shown here:



The set consisted of a 0-4-0 yard switcher, gondola, oil tanker, and caboose. Awesome!! Bealman cautiously approached Big Bealman about this, fully expecting to get his arse kicked. To his surprised delight, it turned out that not only did Bealman Senior have enough vouchers to get it, but he was quite happy with the idea. Perhaps he was more of a model railway enthusiast than he let on!

And he gave up smoking in 1967. 

/To be continued

[Paddy]

Hi George,

Your Dad gave up smoking the year I was born.  Obviously not suggesting his decision had anything to do with my momentous appearance. 

Kind regards

Paddy

[LASteve]

My Dad had a brilliant idea at one point - knowing very well that we wouldn't be able to built much of a layout due to the expense, he bought me a book of Triang Hornby track plans. That was good enough for me, I spent hours "playing" on those layouts, tracing the routes around. I still have a couple of the books lying around.

I think the "missing" mouse is underneath the "Hornby" graphic on the picture. I remember it being on one of the sleepers. One of the hardest ones that I remember, the mouse was "disguised" as a ceramic insulator on a telegraph pole.

[Bealman]

Hi George,

Sounds like you had a wonderful Mum and Dad.  8' x 4' is huge when you see it in real life - amazed you could fit it in to your flat.  Love the artwork - it makes you want the models so much.

Kind regards

Paddy

It fitted into the upstairs flat in Sunderland Street, but when we moved to a new council house on the Burnside estate in early 64, it wouldn't! Baseboard cut down to 5x4.

[trkilliman]

In the 60s I used to buy the Triang catalogues and dream about what I would buy...if I had the money. Getting 2/6d (half a Crown) pocket money didn't go far, and saving it up was hard for a young lad when it burnt a hole in my pocket.

In the early 60s there was a programme on T.V. the few weeks leading up to Christmas that showcased new toys. IIRC they were shown on a Saturday teatime.Who else remembers these programmes?

I particularly remember they showed a Triang American diesel in blue and yellow, with a light placed centrally on the Deltic like "bonnet"  Boy did I want one of these, but alas it never happened. I think the colour of it attracted me more than anything else.

[daffy]

@trkilliman    .If it was one of the ones illustrated here

https://tri-ang.weebly.com/r55-diesel--prototype.html

I shared the same wish for one, but it was not to be.

[Bealman]

@trkilliman  I also remember that show! It featured a great Triang layout! I don't know how you saw it in colour, though, as it was all black and white TV then!   

However, the locos you mention are most certainly in the 1962 catalogue. The single ended unit can be seen beneath the set I got above, and the double ended unit is on the opposite page:



And the next, along with a cute steeple cab loco (both with working pantographs), and a Budd diesel railcar:

[chrism]

I never had anything quite as old as these, although I think the first stuff I had was still Triang-Hornby rather than just Hornby.

I remember being rather puzzled when one of my Christmas presents was a large sheet of plywood, until I got to the smaller things in the pile and unwrapped a blue 0-4-0 tank engine and a few wagons.
The following year I was given a Hymek and later got (part with pocket money, part with top-up from Dad) "Albert Hall" - no smoke but it had "sound", a sounder box in the tender with a stiff sandpaper-like strip hanging down which was brushed by a metal strip fixed to one axle on every revolution.

I do recall my earliest track was the Super 4 (I think it was called) stuff, because I had to get adapters lengths when my later purchases were the newer System 6, with lower sleepers and rails.

[Bealman]

Ah, a little blue  0-4-0 tank engine in the Triang Hornby period? In that case, you had "Nellie".....



As opposed to "Connie," as she was known during the Triang years.



Connie carried number 6, Nellie number 7!!

[chrism]

"Connie" rings a bell more than "Nellie" - must have been a Triang one then.

Whichever she was, she eventually got seriously modified to become a resemblance of a Dubs crane tank 

[Bealman]

I can now confirm that the early catalogue is indeed the 1955 edition, thanks to Paddy, who very generously emailed his PDF copy to me, along with several others.

That edition is actually Number one, with the 1956 edition being #2, at the princely sum of sixpence. Interestingly, by the 1961 edition, it had only gone up to nine pence!!

I also found it interesting that the range was pretty much stagnant there for the first few years, with new developments really starting to take off at the start of the new decade.

I reckon I've got enough material here for a PhD in history!!

Thanks, mate! 

George