Tri-ang Railways, the first ten years

 

Can you sometimes remember an article, and not be able to recall where you saw it? 

I had this problem recently. I knew that Tri-ang had asked renowned artist Terrance Cuneo to weather a "Nellie" but then couldn't find it in any book on my shelves. Digging online revealed it was in Tri-ang Railways the first ten years, but I didn't (as far as I know) own a copy - so how had I read the article? 

Just over a fiver later on eBay, and a book was in my hands, and it's a very interesting volume. 

A5 sized and with 116 pages, its not just a history of the company, but a useful guide to model railways in 1962. 

We start with a forward written by Dr Richard Beeching (Boo!) and then move on via some waffle, to a chapter on homw models are made, from design, to manufacture. All of this taking place in sunny Margate of course! There are photos of jigs, machine tools and a production line, entiely staffed by women. Men it seems, do design and operating the vans. 

Pick up any item of Tri-ang Railways and look closely: say the EM2 with double pantograph, or the lovely "Lord of the Isles". Superb, aren't they? There's no holding back in the chapter "Perfection in Miniature" discussing scale and how Tri-ang are really really good at making trains. 

We run through different railways of the world, with a lovely photo of a yellow Transcontinental 4-wheel diesel with a snowplough attached. I don't think I've ever seen that accesory attached to this particular loco. 

We also get a lot of information on looking after your models, complete with some really lovely diagrams, normally found on the service sheets. I like the explanation of how motors, smoke units, automatic uncouplings and many other things work. It's pretty densly packed with information. 

And of course, there is Cuneo weathering, which is what I wanted. But you'll have to wait to find out why...