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WANTED
SELLING
YOUR TT?
I'm happy to give Tri-ang or any other TT gauge trains a good home, if
you're in Australia, but due to budgetary constraints, don't expect me
to pay a lot unless in very good order.
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bc |
It all happened one birthday
back in the 1950s.
My parents gave me a bright red box about SO big ( holding
out arms like a fisherman describing the catch of the day)
lettered with unique yellow printing and, best of all, a
colour illustration on the box top showing a huge
train layout! Those two lucky boys admiring their model
railway sure had something to smile about. The top was
quickly lifted to reveal a realistic looking steam tank
loco with several goods wagons. My train was soon running
around its simple loop of grey ballasted track, to my
great delight. Everything else was forgotten for the
moment, even the Meccano set which would eventually be
put to use, constructing girder bridges. Soon after a set
of points, level crossing and station added interest to
the loop, still put together when required on the
(suitably) green Feltex-covered lounge room floor.
Eventually a Transcontinental
silver-grey diesel A-B-A set and matching US-style cars
necessitated an increase in space; to a baseboard which
was to again prove too small. Mum and Dad kindly donated
the closed-in rear verandah, about 12ft by 8ft, and we
began constructing waist-high baseboards with storage
cupboards below. Dad was a fine carpenter so all supports
were really solid, being 4x3 inch oregon. One could
safely stand on the finished 5-ply baseboard which was
about 2ft wide, apart from the removable section near the
doorway, which ended up fixed to improve the look. I
doubt if I would be capable of ducking under the board
nowadays as I did nearly half a century ago. One
Christmas the bright yellow Transcontinental diesel
switcher arrived, and this would become my favourite
loco, despite Princess Elizabeth arriving somewhat
earlier. All four locos were good runners but the A unit
was the best performer, if memory serves me correctly.
I often made the long
trek from my home in Bankstown to the both helpful and
cheerful Tri-ang agent at Yagoona. (O'Brien's, on the
Hume Highway; a combined sports store/toy shop which sold
bicycles and the like. In Australia, it was common for
shops to handle both genres. When I spent time travelling
the countryside looking for obsolete Matchbox models
decades ago, most of my good finds came from sports
stores which still had old toys pushed away in a corner
or stored out in the back room.)
So what happened? The
only item apart from a run of catalogues and a grey
diamond crossing (!) which survives is the cover of the
original REX train set box. The box was used to store the
Dinky and Corgi MIB diecast collection, the disposal of
which still brings pangs of horror. To save space, the
top of the box was removed and stored under many other
things, where it lay almost forgotten for 20 years. Like
the majority of kids from the 1960s, I sold most of the
collection and moved into slot cars (shock and horror).
But only 1/24th scale, which were run at the local slot
car centre at Yagoona. With the demise of the local track
in the 1970s, (Yagoona Straightaways, run by Jim?) the
cars disappeared and the thought of model trains again
filled my fertile brain. But, I'd bought Lima (it being
far cheaper at the time than the now Tri-ang-Hornby) and
also Minic Motorways. A layout was constructed but
somehow Lima lacked the character of Tri-ang. It just
didn't give the same pleasure or perhaps, the motors ran
TOO smoothly. And who can forget that familiar SOUND of
the early Tri-ang power bogie?
Various memories have
popped up while typing these notes. There was a toyshop
in Pitt Street, Sydney - Searle's. They were one of the
few, maybe the only, toy shop selling off new trains at
discount prices at the time. One can find ads for them in
early issues of AMRM. I purchased a Lord of the Isles set
(similar to an R640 set but including driver and fireman)
for the pricely sum of 2 guineas (about AU$4.20). This
brings to mind another memory of selling this set much
later; during the 1990s. I'd advertised the set for $95
in the Trading Post; and that was a big ask. But a chap
turned up to view it. I had the loco in a display case
and when I removed it, the money was dropped into my
hands as he took the Lord lovingly while I looked
frantically for the box which still contained the
carriage and figures! I found it, turned around but he
had dashed outside to his car and departed. Amazing!
Nope, I regret I disposed of the box, etc., several years
later. Just in case you wondered. Still with Searle's,
they sold off Sydney Red Rattler sets at bargain prices;
I recall a pile of em.
As for Minic Motorways,
there were stacks of the commercial vehicles which no
self-respecting lad would buy. But the lovely black
Jaguar police car and single-decker bus found their way
onto my layout. And once more, no good asking; I sold the
entire Minic Motorways collection to a chap at Mt Isa for
about $20. Sob.
Searle's
also sold off lots of Tri-ang and Rokal TT; sets, single
items and accessories. But I'd moved to N like many
people, and most of this I still have, packed in the
cartons first filled 20 years ago. What a pity I'd not
packed away the Tri-ang, but many others, I'm sure, could
relate a similar story.
THE FIRST
AWAKENING came about in the 1990s, thanks to
Frank Barker, then the local New Cavindish agent, who
sold me a damaged copy of Pat Hammond's first volume,
Tri-ang Railways, The Story of Rovex. I'd done him a
trade for a number of the Hornby-Meccano companion books
and in the NC catalogue which accompanied these was an ad
for Pat's book. One might think I would have read it
cover to cover, but along with the Corgi Book (still
haven't opened it) I put it aside until a couple of years
ago when I had to move house. Once opened, I read it from
cover to cover, and the urge began to manifest
itself, particularly as I'd earlier come across Dave's web site. I retrieved the catalogues and
ephemera, then as a seller of books on eBay, made the
fatal error of putting 'Tri-ang' and 'Triang' in the
search engine.
THE OBSESSION
now is to reconstruct something of the layout I had
almost half a century ago. The two early photos, taken
with an old Brownie 620 box camera, show but one corner.
No doubt even the Airfix buildings and lineside
accessories would be expensive these days. They were
indeed bargains back then. There are a couple of early
vehicles, plastic, I've no clue of the brand. My interest
in Tri-ang fell away with the arrival of Series 3 track.
I've a special love of the grey track; it always looked
nicer with the inbuilt ballast. It still does; Tomy seem
to have copied it for their N set track The trouble of
shrinkage puts the majority of people off it but I'm
looking at ways of hiding the gaps, possibly by cutting
sections from damaged pieces and inserting therein. Any
other suggestions would be appreciated.
SO FAR
I've picked up a relatively early green Princess, lacking
the W'shts valve gear and the two matching 9-inch
carriages, plus a similarly early double-ended
Transcontinental diesel and four coaches. Okay, I didn't
have the latter, but I always wanted 'em! The Princess is
bodily undamaged but the transfers are poor, and gone
from the tender. I've not yet tested either loco but as
they were, according to the seller, stored for 40 years,
they are unlikely to work. Ah, well; it will give me
something to do. A supply of track should arrive soon.
The day I'm typing this, I picked up several more items
on eBay including a Hornby Dublo jinty. I really wanted a
Tri-ang one but this will have to do for now. Well yes,
I've a funny way of working towards an obsession!
UPDATE: May,
2006. Many more items have come my way including
a rake of Tri-ang TT SR coaches. Soon after a Jinty
arrived and it looks as though TT will deplete my
resources even further! ROKAL was mentioned above which
seemed a good enough reason to buy a couple of samples.
So now I have a Rokal German-Jinty equivalent 0.6.0 tank
loco and ONE coach. And a stack of Minic Motorway track
with nothing to run on it. Ah, the joys of collecting!
UPDATE:
September, 2009. Wow, a long time between
updates, but I'm still picking up TT items
in Australia.
UPDATE: March, 2011.
Now
selling off unwanted 00/H0 items on eBay before really getting into
the TT collection.
UPDATE: February, 2016. I've lost interest
selling on eBay and have yet to start on that first TT layout!
UPDATE: September, 2016. Still picking up TT and occasionally
unpacking cartons of 00/H0 to flog.
Use the links to
explore other pages.
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bc |
