Tri-ang Railways was a British manufacturer of

toy train A toy train is a toy that represents a train. It is distinguished from a model train by an emphasis on low cost and durability, rather than scale modeling. A toy train can be as simple as a toy that can run on a track, or it might be operated b ...

s, one of the elements of the

Lines Bros Ltd Lines Bros Ltd was a British toy manufacturer of the 20th century, operating under the Tri-ang Toys brand name. Lines Bros Ltd, at its peak in 1947, was claimed by the company to be the largest toy maker in the world. Under the Tri-ang Toys bran ...

company who traded using the brands Tri-ang, Minic, Pedigree, and Frog. The Tri-ang Railways name was dropped a few years after Lines Bros took over the

Hornby Hornby may refer to: Places In England * Hornby, Lancashire * Hornby, Hambleton, village in North Yorkshire * Hornby, Richmondshire, village in North Yorkshire Elsewhere * Hornby, Ontario, community in the town of Halton Hills, Ontario, Canad ...

name although the majority of the trains were still the original Tri-ang models.

History

Tri-ang name

Brothers George and Joseph Lines made wooden toys in the

Victorian age In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...

, their company being G & J Lines Ltd. Joseph was the active partner while George went into farming. Joseph (or Joe) had four sons. Three of these – William, Walter and Arthur Edwin Lines – formed

shortly after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Three ''Lines'' make a triangle, hence the Tri-ang. Arthur's son, Richard Lines, was largely responsible for the Tri-ang Railways system.

Foundation of Tri-ang Railways

Rovex Plastics Ltd was founded just after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1946 by Alexander Gregory Vanetzian, who made toys for

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

. Venetzian was asked to develop an electric toy train set for Christmas 1950. He delivered the product but, although the company had found larger premises in a former

Brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

, it was constrained financially. Lines Bros were looking to expand into railways and so they purchased Rovex. Their products would be sold under the Tri-ang Railways name from 1951. To give room for development they moved the company, now Rovex Scale Models Ltd, to a brand new factory built at

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, in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, in 1954. A battery powered plastic 0 gauge range called the Big Big train was sold from 1966 to 1972. The some (but not all) of the molds from these were later sold and used by other manufacturers including Novo in the USSR and

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

in Italy. As well as 00/H0 gauge, Tri-ang made

TT gauge TT scale is a model railroading scale, whose name stands for ''table top''. Its 1:120 scale (from a common engineering scale where one inch equals ten feet) and gauge are roughly halfway between HO scale (1:87) and N scale (1:160). Its original ...

models from 1957 to at least 1967. The 3mm Society supports those who still model Tri-ang TT. Tri-ang also manufactured a garden railway system called Tri-ang Minic Narrowgauge Railway, thus being known as TMNR. This was a 10.25" gauge passenger carrying system using 2 rail electric pick-up with motors running at 40 volts DC. This was produced in the early 1960s and not a commercial success, with less than 90 'sets' being produced.

Expansion and name changes

The success of Tri-ang meant that British competitors Trix and

Hornby Dublo Hornby Railways is a British model railways manufacturing company. Its roots date back to 1901 in Liverpool, when founder Frank Hornby received a patent for his Meccano construction toy. The first clockwork train was produced in 1920. In 1938, ...

were affected. In 1964, Hornby Dublo, a division of

Meccano Ltd Meccano Ltd was a British toy manufacturing company, established in 1908 by Frank Hornby in Liverpool, England, to manufacture and distribute Meccano and other model toys and kits created by the company. During the 1920s and 1930s it became th ...

, had stopped production and Meccano Ltd invited Lines Bros. Ltd to buy them out. Tri-ang purchased the company including a large amount of stock. The combined toy railways was marketed as Tri-ang Hornby although the vast majority of the models were all Tri-ang. The Lines Bros empire itself collapsed in 1971 and was broken up. The model railways, then marketed as Tri-ang Hornby, were sold to the Dunbee-Combex-Marx group, but the rights to the Tri-ang brand were sold elsewhere; accordingly, the Hornby name being established and recognised, from 1 January 1972 the model railways were rebranded

Hornby Railways Hornby Railways is a British rail transport modelling, model railways manufacturing company. Its roots date back to 1901 in Liverpool, when founder Frank Hornby received a patent for his Meccano construction toy. The first clockwork train was pr ...

Australian and New Zealand models

A number of Tri-ang models specific to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

were produced by Moldex in

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during the 1960s, including: * NSW 1955-type suburban electric motor car and driving trailer car. * Victorian B class double-ended diesel locomotive in 'Transaustralia' livery. * A blue version of NSW 1955-type suburban cars pretending to be a Victorian EMU was planned but never produced Other models were manufactured in

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, and were mainly the same as those made in England, although there were interesting variations. The Australian and New Zealand models were produced in 00 gauge only.

Canadian Train Sets and Models

Lines Bros. (Canada) Ltd. was originally incorporated on 24 March 1947. The

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

used in Canada was that of the thistle which had first been registered by Joseph Lines, the co-founder of G. & J. Lines Ltd., in 1910. The main factory and warehouse facility was located at 4000 St. Patrick Street,

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

. The Canadian company struggled to make acceptable profits and it was thought that profits could be increased with a wider range of toys to market. The Tri-ang Railways Transcontinental range of models was devised specifically with this in mind and by Christmas 1954 the first sets began to appear in the shops. However, the models were produced too quickly, without sufficient attention to detail and lacked realism. Without proper consideration to what the Canadian market demanded, the models were not popular although they sold well enough in the UK. Historically, standard train sets were imported into Canada from the UK; initially only the Transcontinental range of models. However, between 1957 and 1974, a number of sets were produced exclusively for the general Canadian market as well as some special sets commissioned by department store chains and / or mail order companies; including Simpsons and Simpsons-Sears, Eaton’s, Woodward’s and the Hudson’s Bay Company. No models were made in Canada but the Canadian company assembled a wide range of sets from both boxed and unboxed models sent out to them from the

factory. From 1965 a new full-colour Canadian catalogue was produced, where previously the UK catalogue had been used and supplemented (up until 1962) by an illustrated price list. Initially, a number of Canadian National Railway (CNR) models were introduced specifically for the Canadian market. Later, in 1967 models representing the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) began to appear. Of note were the representations of the transcontinental passenger trains which have become firm favourites with collectors of Tri-ang Railways.

South African models

A limited number of models were manufactured in Durban, South Africa. These are very rare.

References

{{reflist

External links

Tri-ang Model RailwaysTri-ang RailwaysTriang large road vehiclesOnline database of Tri-ang Railways models, 1959 – 1972 and beyondHistory and restoration of TMNR equipmentHistory of TMNRBig Big Train
10¼ in gauge railways Model railroad manufacturers Lines Bros Toy train manufacturers Hornby Railways Model manufacturers of the United Kingdom