70's kid

Thanks for another great episode TMTV.

Discussion time... How many modelers here were tinplate kids?

I didn't grow up with tinplate, but I did have meccano.  My first train set was the Tyco Chatanooga Choo Choo figure eight, and I have sure fond memories of it!

Triang

Was that supposed to be an RS-3?

I had one in green and a CN version of their F-unit, with the depressed flat, a stock car and cabooses, as well as a tunnel that looked like a loaf of green bread.

Fun!

Thanks for the great episode on our tinplate origins.

My dad had a Lionel set from the 30s that his father bought for him but my grandfather ended up having more fun with the set than my dad – just like they portrayed in the video. 

I also had to chuckle at the Sir Isaac Newton reference to 1976. Talk about longevity! Somebody must have inverted the 6 to a 9. (1676)

And, those Lionel catalogs are absolute classics in marketing and graphic design. None better. 

I could have watched a video on this subject twice as long. Thanks again!

Triang RS3

The Triang unit was meant to be a new South Wales Government Railways 40 Class which was a modified RSC3. They just used the same mechanism as in their "B" Class and "F Unit". Rovex which was they toy division of Lines Bros. and owned the Triang line which eventually purchased Hornby to form Triang-Hornby had a factory in Australia and they produced models for the Australian Market and for Canada and South America. this was the so-called Intercontinental line.

I started with Triang as a kid and had 2 of these usnits one decorated in the "Trans Australia" scheme and one in CN wet noodle.

In the picture below you can see the 40 class, F Unit and "B" class. only the F unit was actually a 4 axle unit the 40 class and B class where A1A.

Triang

I started with Triang too. It had a funky looking F unit painted for CPRail. 

Another Triang kid

Hi Barry & all,

I started with the yellowand black Traing road switcher in the early 1960's as well and wore it out to the extent that there was so much slop in the wheel bearings that the wheels lost electrical contact with the wipers. That loco came in a set with 2 depressed centre flat cars and a Triang steel sided caboose. Australia had Guards Vans that looked nothing like US/Canadian cabeese. The set was similar to this one, but with a different load in place of the cable reels  http://www.vectis.co.uk/Page/ViewLot.aspx?LotId=65273&Section=141 The red version of the loco posted by Barry was a later re-run of the original yellow/black version in the mid 1970's. (At least that was when I bought mine). It may have been an attempt to look like the New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) livery of the time that was Indian Red with Chrome yellow lining. Like the 48 class Alco in the photo below

The Triang set I really wanted as a kid was the Transcontinental "Hiawatha"  freight set with a Pacific steam loco with lights and "smoke". It looked nothing like the Milwaukee Road Hiawatha but more like a Pennsy K4. From memory, iIs set came with a couple of box cars, a stock car and the same caboose. That set looked like http://www.vectis.co.uk/Page/ViewLot.aspx?LotId=65282&Section=141&Start=20  , but I can't remember the car carrier being in the earliest Aussie versions of the set.

Triang's double-ended B class came in a set as RS34. It was intended to look like Victorian Railways "Spirit of Progress" long-distance express that ran overnight between Sydney and Melbourne. Have a look at http://tri-ang.weebly.com/transcontinental-sets-rs34.html to see the full set. The "Spirit" had been running between Melbourne and Albury on the Victorian 5'3" broad gauge tracks in the blue-gold livery since the 1930's;  firstly with dedicated streamlined steam locomotives and then later with the Victorian railways A and S class diesel-electric locos. At Albury It was "All out, All change!!" in the middle of the night to the NSWGR express to Sydney until a standard gauge track was pushed through to Melbourne in 1962 which enabled through running of the Blue and Gold Spirit cars to Sydney. The set contains a vistadome car. These were never used in Australia because of our lower height rolling stock profiles. 

The whole Line Brothers/Rovex/Triang/Hornby/Meccano/Wrenn saga of who bought out who,when, where stuff was made and who got what dies is interesting model railway history. A lot of it was driven by events in the UK and is probably not known about in North America. In some cases the same train has appeared under 3 different brand names, which just adds to the confusion. And the Triang brand is mixed up in the thick of all these corporate games. And there was Joueff and Rivarossi mxed up in there later as well, plus probably some others that I don't know about.  

Lionel here

I remember back when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade having a Lionel trainset and a bunch of buildings on a couple of 4x8 sheets of plywood set up in the attic of a rented duplex.  Yes, it was hot in the summer and freezing in the winter.  I do remember once, taking it all outside and setting it up in the backyard where it stayed for a couple of days.  Parents got divorced and it all got packed up where it sat forgotten until I found this thing called model railroading while in the service.  Came home only to learn that all the train stuff got sold at a garage sale.  Not a happy day since I found all my old comic books, baseball cards, and old toys were sold as well.

1976 - 1676: We can fix that

Hi Scott:

I caught that myself this morning, while watching the segment. I wrote the script for this segment and either I typed "1976" or our terrific narrator, Gerry, saw 1676 and said 1976.

Either way, I called Barry about it this morning and Gerry happens to be in the studio today - so he'll re-record that sentence, Barry will edit, and then the segment will get reposted to the TMTV website. It's one of the advantages of streaming video...

Cheers!

- Trevor

Big Big Train

My first trains were clockwork Hornby models in HO, but the ones that really hooked me on the hobby were the Big Big Train from Tri-ang. I think one of the department store chains here in Canada (Eaton's or Simpson's) brought them in at Christmas.

They were battery powered, O scale, running on red plastic track. I used to get up early in the morning and build layouts on the floor in the living room.

There's a website about them (isn't there one about everything?) here...

Big Big Train

... on which I found this image of a typical Big Big Train layout:

(Click on the image for a larger view)

Cheers!

- Trevor

For Barry

Hi Barry

I have never seen a green Triang model of their road switcher, but the NSWGR 40 Class as originally delivered were a light "verdant" almost apple green, 2 of them were repainted into Royal Blue to haul the Royal Train during a 1954 visit from the Queen. By the 1960's those that were still running were repainted into the Indian Red scheme.

Some photos and their story is at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_Wales_40_class_locomotive  The link also has some photos and outlines some of the differences. These were an A1A-A1A wheel arrangement with the centre axle on each bogie being unpowered. I did hear that was one of the things that led to their withdrawal - the outer wheels wore beyond what could be taken up in the suspension and led to them being effectively able to use only one traction motor per bogie because they rocked on the centre axle. By the mid-1960's, higher horsepower Co-Co locos with all axles powered were coming into service. The appearance of these new mainline locos hastened the 40's end out here. In many cases the 40's had been cut up before the last of the steam locos had been withdrawn from service. 

The Triang locomotives smelled great.

After running them for a few minutes you could turn them over and smell the motor.  Was it burning oil or ions?  Who knows?

OMGosh! The smell!

Yes, Barry, I remember that! Good memories... LOL

Mine was Lionel and Mantua

But surprise it was HO scale. The Mantua was a dual motor F-7 in the fancy B&O scheme and would pull everything I could hook to it. Over time I put together enough cars to stretch all around the outer loop on the layout with the caboose about an inch in front of the locomotive, I liked long trains even as a child. The Lionel was a pacific that had a working headlight and smoke generator. The cars that came with the Lionel unit or arrived at the same day Christmas many years ago, were a side dump car with coal load, a white refrigerator car that would discharge milk cans onto a platform, a log car that would dump the logs into a tray on the layout if it was not full of coal, the logs always looked like those straight pretzels to me, and a Santa Fe caboose that had windows and lights.

This layout had metal folding legs and the Lionel power pack as well. It was a dual track oval and had Plasticville structures as well as some Atlas and Revell kits on the layout. One of the models was the plastic version of what I later found out was the Jack Work coal mine.

My parents worked on that layout and built it for me when we lived in a 2 bedroom garage apartment, interstate 70 runs through the location of my first home now. It was set up in our living room year round. I would sit on the coach and run the trains. My parents passed away several years ago but I always think of them when ever I am around model trains or when I do something for my now grown children.

Probably ozone???

from the sparking commutator - Who needed headlights with all of the blue flashes from the cab  Model train motors have come along way, but those old Triang motors were just about bulletproof. They also had "Magnadhesion" with magnetised iron wheels running on plated steel track to put enough power down to move rolling stock running on plain bearing axles. Pinpoint bearings into plastic bogie frames were still years away in the future. As Greg says "Good memories"  

Yep! Ozone it was

I remember it well. The ozone was produced from the arcing on the motor commutator. I did not have a tin plate full size set. I had the Lionel olive drab colored center cab with sloping front and back electric switcher. My father got it for me from a second hand store. Five or six sections of 3-rail track, a transformer and the loco. This was in 1950/1951 and I had almost as much fun turning the wooden pencil graphite rod across the terminals red hot as I had running the loco. No, the transformer did not die, but it sure got warm.

I'd like to share two points

I'd like to share two points or opinions, first the cost of playing trains or model railroading is not as expensive as it used to be, despite claims by doom sayers the hobby is out or reach for most. Do a head to head comparison on what you can/could purchase for hours worked at minimum wage and the results will tell you we are better off today than before. That is a very positive thought.

Have we lost the element of play with imagination? Those models back in the day were detailed to the nines,  You just imagined it and all was grand. The old shoe box building made a great detailed factory, didn't it?  Alas, as we get older the imagination seems to slow down or stop working all together. Ah to go back and play with imagination on those endless summer days. thanks for the memories.  Have a great weekend all!

Steve

Disposable income - not a barrier

I agree we need to use our imaginations to fill in details, much as we used to, even if the details are different or more intricate details.

But with regards to purchasing power, between the fact that wages have not matched inflation, and the fact that as a result a much higher percentage of disposable income today has to go to housing, food, transportation, plus our addictions to internet, cable, cell phones, vacations, etc., the reality is that what is left of disposable income for many is so much smaller a percentage of income that it actually will afford less in the way of trains. But the lesser remaining disposable income need not be a barrier.

Our imaginations coupled with a few newer items and a bunch of bargain older stuff from the days of our roots in the hobby can make a wonderful railroad in my opinion. After all, those roots are what got us into the hobby and our memories of those roots for those of us with a gap of years in between are probably what led some of us to come back to the hobby.  So I am a big fan of enjoying a mix of those roots plus what I can afford of some of the cool newer stuff.

-Ed