Triang catalogues.... 1962-1967

[OneTrackMind]

I really don't remember the station kit at all...

I also had quite a few more Airfix building kits, though I can't now remember which ones, and quite a lot of their military kits were used on my railway. They also produced figures, mainly military, to go with their kits and again I used some of these on my railway.

Martyn

Yes, I remember having the signal box, signal gantry, platform accessories and lots of other railway items. Airfix certainly put Oakham on the map!

[Bealman]

The Airfix box appears as recently as December 2019 on the Railway Modeller's beginners project.

Dapol own all those kits now, don't they?

[crewearpley40]

Hornby @Bealman according to website

[ntpntpntp]

Now produced by Dapol.  Certainly many of the loco kits and some of the building kits have been in Dapol bags (not boxes nowadays) when I've been browsing in shops.

Some of these should look familiar    My Dad made up all of the railway related Airfix kits back in the 60s.

https://www.dapol.co.uk/shop/model-accessories/self-assembly-oo-kits

[crewearpley40]

Thanks I stand corrected. I spotted the oakham signal box

[Bealman]

Yes, I thought it was Airfix/Dapol, that's what it said in the article. That stuff in the link is definitely the old Airfix stuff - the water tank, engine shed, I had the lot!

The lineside hut that I plonked onto my layout for the photo in my thread is even in that link! Much better paint job, though 

[Bealman]

1964.

The 1964 edition of the catalogue broke the mould by not featuring  a Cuneo painting on the cover:



It still cost one shilling, but as can be seen, both Triang Railways and Minic Motorways have equal billing. In fact, the panel top right says Railways/Motorways.

I have a couple of issues with this cover. Firstly, while it showcases the new Blue Pullman model  , (the Jag ain't bad either), it is quite obvious that the irresponsible driver of the Jag has done a gate runner and barely made it through before the Blue Pullman got there!!!

Secondly, the background equally obviously is attempting to show the new Model Land series of structures. However, being an ex-NE lad, the scene is reminiscent of a NE pit village. What's a Midland Pullman doing there, I wonder?

Picky, aren't I?  At least the illustration attempts to show the slot in the road for the car.

The rear cover shows the extent to which the Line Bros Group were going to integrate the two systems:



A mechanical horse with a road/rail wagon and adaptor, an amazing car loading ramp where you could drive a car up onto the railway car transporter, and off you go by rail, interesting road/rail junctions and track, and cute little road/rail buffer stops (bottom right).

Interestingly, the two systems appear to have been manufactured at different locations; as it says bottom left, Triang Railways are built in Britain by Rovex Scale Models Limited, Margate, Kent, while Minic Motorways are built in Britain by Minic Limited, Canterbury, Kent.

[Bealman]

Once opened, the eyes are treated to the new Triang Model-Land range of structures and sundry items. The buildings are pre-coloured, which is a bonus, I suppose, but seem to me to be a curious mix.... tea shoppe, village inn, country stile, village stocks, etc, with a bit of California thrown in - San Fernando, Bermuda and Hollywood bungalows, if you don't mind!!



Interestingly, the blurb states that: "All buildings are of British style and carefully proportioned to blend with OO/HO and TT layouts". Yeah, right.

The next page has some cool stuff:



The pit head gear looks pretty good, as does the operating winding engine. It was apparently designed to fit inside the winding house, which at least has big windows so you'd be able to see it working!

The two buildings top right, "Parkview" and "Heathview look like they're mix & match, while the De-Havilland Trident at the bottom (available later) looks pretty cool - with remote-controlled taxiing and steering, 9/12VDC. I may be wrong, but I don't think that it ever appeared.... too hard basket, probably!



All of the buildings on the next page, however (above), seemed pretty cool and open to all sorts of kitbashing possibilities. Of course.... directly opposite..... the new Blue Pullman train set!!! 

It looks surprisingly good for the day, but unlike our Farish N gauge version, only had the one powered car.

[smg id=9019]

Oh, sorry about that viewer... Christmas Day, 2013. Wonder what Bealman got? 



Most of the standard train sets continued, but the Freightmaster set (blurred, top left) was noteworthy, as it came with 7 wagons.... quite a large set for it's day.

As implied earlier in the thread, the firm continued to push the integration of it's road system with the rail system.



The car transporter set (bottom right) was interesting - that loading ramp looks like it comes straight off the point; certainly not a lot of room to spare there!

At the time, the young Bealman was baffled as to how the Minic cars changed lanes to go into garages, or up the ramp here, for example. Of course, the secret was there was a blade in the slot in the road, which operated just like a railway point. He found that out when he got a Minic car racing set in 1967 (yes, it's here in Oz with him today), but that's for a future episode! 

[Bealman]

Also occurring in the year 1964, locomotives with smoke became locomotives with SYNKROSMOKE, later amended to SYNCHROSMOKE in the next year's catalogue - presumably some employee woke up to the mistake 



The blurb says:"SYNKROSMOKE, the latest wonderful development from Triang Railways, must be seen drifting across every layout" ( not to mention smelled drifting across every layout - I'm sure the young Bealman had a slight addiction there). "The faster the locomotive, the more furiously the smoke puffs from the chimney - up to twenty minutes of continuous running on one filling of special smoke oil."

I actually acquired a Jinty in later years with the Car-A-Belle set, which had that feature. It did indeed work, but to this day I don't know how that trick was achieved. 

Anyway, returning to the catalogue page above, industrial locomotives #6, "Connie" and #7, "Nellie were joined by #9, "Polly". Above was a new model - a Co-Co Class E.3000 electric locomotive. Now that's a model I wouldn't mind having in my N gauge collection. Has anyone ever done one?



The crane continued to multitask, and a new powered lifting bridge was introduced (above). An EM2 loco was added to the CKD series, and I think it's the first time I think I noticed a "Y" point. I know I did own one at one point ( ) I always found it funny that the mysterious looking isolating track was just a piece of track with a gap in the rail, the mysterious brown box just being there to accept two wires and their plugs! (Below)



But then.... the remainder of the catalogue was hijacked by an interloper... the dreaded Minic Motorways!!

[crewearpley40]

There was the rare class 81 am1 george. Wrenn micromodel / lima. Made this. This, saying trix and lilliput but overscale and wrong hue shade of blue.

[martyn]

IIRC, and I might be wrong after so much time, there were at least two variations of the synchrosmoke generators.

I'm pretty sure that I had a Britannia which just had a simple tube underneath the chimney opening; inside the tube was a heating element which vaporised the smoke oil. There was just random emissions from the chimney, no attempt at synchronisation with the movement of the cylinders.

And I'm also pretty sure that I had a Jinty with a different arrangement; a fairly big casting in the front of the boiler, which had an oil reservoir and a heating element under the chimney.  I also seem to recall-and here I'm probably quite wrong-that there was some sort of piston which was driven by the motor worm which puffed the smoke out of the chimney in a sort of synchronisation with the loco moving. Or is that a sign of my ageing again?

Some tender locos-the B12 at least-also later had a simple form of 'chuffing' sound; basically a metal tab fixed to a tender wheel axle rubbing on a rough surface within the tender as the wheels revolved.

HTH-and isn't a wrong steer.......Apologies if I'm wrong.......

Martyn

[Bealman]

No, I'm pretty sure you're on the money there. My Brit and Princess definitely only had the tube and heating element. I have a similar unit in the chimney at Skeggles Water on my N layout.

I never pulled my Jinty apart, but I seem to remember reading about something very close to what you describe to produce the "Synchrosmoke".

I'd given the game away by the time the chuff-chuff locos arrived, but once again I've read about the sound generation device, which once again fits your description. Cheers! 

[Train Waiting]

And I'm also pretty sure that I had a Jinty with a different arrangement; a fairly big casting in the front of the boiler, which had an oil reservoir and a heating element under the chimney.  I also seem to recall-and here I'm probably quite wrong-that there was some sort of piston which was driven by the motor worm which puffed the smoke out of the chimney in a sort of synchronisation with the loco moving. Or is that a sign of my ageing again?
Martyn

That's exactly the arrangement that I recall, Martyn.  There was a gear on top of the worm, driving a piston in the smoke generator by means of a short connecting rod.  The faster the locomotive went, the more it 'puffed'.  I think the sound was a bit later, in the Tri-ang Hornby years.  The smoke certainly had a distinctive smell!

Best wishes.

John

[ntpntpntp]

I actually acquired a Jinty in later years with the Car-A-Belle set, which had [sunchrosmoke] feature. It did indeed work, but to this day I don't know how that trick was achieved. 

Very simple: a second gear wheel sat above the drive worm and drove a piston pushing in and out of the smoke unit.

http://www.tri-ang.co.uk/Smoke.html


I remember my 1970s LMS Jinty, in its box with the red "smoke" label above the chimney.  Oh and that smell     I think I still have one of the original vials of oil somewhere.   

These days I have a couple Arnold N locos with smoke units, but they're not synchonised.

[Bealman]

Yes, I'm guilty of wafting the smoke from the chimney on my layout toward me nose even today!