Continental Influence

In the 1930s there had been experiments in 2.5 mm : 1 ft scale on 122 mm gauge track but, while the gauge was successful, the scale was found to be too cramped.

Following the second world war, HP of America produced a TT system in 2.5 mm scale and in 1950 the German Rokal system was developed in a slightly larger scale. Rokal was imported into Britain in 1951 and this rekindled interest in TT scale in Britain. While Peco produced their Minilay track, few others responded. It needed a major company to show its faith in the scale.

In 1953, Walter Lines, chairman of the toy manufacturing giant Lines Bros. Ltd, returning from a trip to the Continent, brought back a train set manufactured by Wesa of Switzerland. He gave instruction that Rovex Scale Models Ltd., who were manufacturing the Tri-ang Railways 00 system, to start work immediately on a Tri-ang TT system.

Many of the TT tools were made in the factory at Margate and the system was launched at the Toy Fair in the Spring of 1957 where two sets were displayed. These were the TA and TB sets and both had a Jinty 0-6-0 tank engine; one with two maroon suburban coaches and the other with four wagons consisting of a goods van, mineral wagon, Shell tank wagon and a BR standard brake van. The early suburban coaches had rather rounded windows and raised running numbers rather than heat printed ones.

Besides the sets displayed at the Toy Fair, the public were able to inspect TT versions of the now familiar four 00 tank wagons for Shell/BP, Shell Lubricating Oil, Shell Fuel Oil and UD milk.

While track in the Spring of 1957 was limited to straights and curves, later in the year points, half curves and small radius curves were also to be bought. More track followed the next year. This early track had a brown solid base not unlike the grey standard track of the 00 system and was later to be referred to as Type A.

The Summer of 1957 saw the release of the TT engine shed and a range of station buildings and, in time for Christmas, ‘Windsor Castle’ (in BR livery) and a pair of mainline coaches - a composite and a brake end. These were available both as solo models and in the TC and TCX sets. The coaches were in maroon livery which had recently been adopted as the standard on the Western Region of British Railways.

All locomotives and rolling stock were fitted with tension-lock couplings which had not yet appeared on the Tri-ang Railways 00 system. To distinguish it from the larger gauge system, the new TT products were packaged in yellow boxes with red printing and these would soon become a very familiar sight in model shops. Sets were available either with a battery box or a mains controller. The latter carried an ‘X’ suffix to their code.

As with many of their ventures, Lines Bros. were determined to give their new baby a fighting chance. This meant producing a sizeable range of models to demonstrate their confidence in the system. Only by doing this could they persuade both the public and retailers that Tri-ang TT was here to stay and therefore worth buying.

This confidence was demonstrated by the 1958 catalogue which showed nine new wagons and a new coach as well as a level crossing, footbridge, signals etc. The new coach was a maroon restaurant car and the new vehicles were a cattle wagon, horse box, bogie bolster, meat van, fruit van, well wagon, low sided wagon, ore hopper and grain wagon.

1959 saw the addition of three new locomotives. The greatest excitement was shown for the Merchant Navy Class ‘Clan Line’ in unrebuilt form (the prototype was not rebuilt until September that year). Like the Castle Class locomotive of two years earlier, this had not yet been modelled for the 00 system. Another model which appeared in TT scale before 00 was the A1A- A1A (Class 31) diesel electric which required the development of a motor bogie in the new scale. The third new locomotive was the 0-6-0 diesel shunter which used the Jinty chassis, and, like its larger counterpart, had no outside frames.

The mainline coaches could now be bought in green as well as chocolate and cream and the suburban coaches were also available in green. Three green mainline coaches and ‘Clan Line’ formed the new T1 set. Another new set (T4) contained the diesel shunter and three wagons - the mineral wagon, low sided wagon and brake van.

Strangely it was not until 1959 that a 7-plank wagon appeared in the TT range. There was also now a red ICI bogie tank wagon and a number of loads for wagons had been tooled-up. The latter lead to the 7-plank wagon, ore wagon, mineral wagon, bogie bolster and low sided wagon being released with loads to generate a further eight models.

A second type of track was available in 1959 which was a cross between Series 3 and the yet to be introduced Super 4. Called Type B it had a simple sleeper web in black plastic. With the use of Type B track in the train sets they were all recoded. The Castle set was now T3, the Jinty suburban set T5 and the Jinty goods set was T2. The latter now had a new selection of wagons consisting of the grain wagon, cattle truck, UD tanker and brake van.

In 1960, the TT and OO systems both received a model of ‘Britannia’. In both ranges this was the most accurate model to date. The only new coach was the utility van in a choice of green or maroon but the existing coach stock was upgraded with the addition of interior units. These were available for both mainline and suburban coaches and could also be bought separately so that you could improve existing stock built after 1st January 1960, i.e. those with screw fitted roofs.

The only new goods vehicles were a Conflat L with three ‘L’ type containers and the bogie tank wagon as a bulk liquid chlorine transporter in a livery not seen in the 00 range.

The new diesel depot proved to be a very popular addition consisting of a diesel locomotive shed, a refuelling point with storage tanks and a proposed diesel horn unit which never reached production. There was also a rubber tunnel which was the only rubber accessory to be made for the TT range. At the same time, point beds were added to the range of elevated track foundation units and a set of three lineside huts was made available.

In 1961 it had been planned to add a GWR Prairie tank locomotive and a DMU, with a centre car, to the motive power range and while the BR lined black 2-6-2 tank appeared in the Autumn, the DMU was not seen until eighteen months later.

Likewise, two new coaches were planned but only one arrived that year. This was the maroon Mk1 sleeping car which was in the shops by July. The Mk1 standard Pullman car was not available until the following Summer (ready printed with one of three names - ‘Eagle’, ‘Falcon’ or ‘Snipe’).

1962 was a milestone year which saw models of French prototypes added to the TT range. In order to access the European Common Market, which Britain had not yet joined, Lines Bros. built a factory in Calais. Various toy ranges were transferred there and one which the Company hoped to introduce to France was Tri-ang Railways TT. Lines had already purchased the French VB company and added the British TT range to the VB catalogue. In addition, using French and German toolmakers, they tooled-up new TT models for the French market. By the end of the year, difficulty was being experienced in completing preparations for production and it was decided to supply track and chassis from Margate. While other product lines from the Calais factory succeeded, the TT venture was not a success and the Continental tooling was sent to the Margate factory to be used there.

French models appeared in the British catalogue in 1962, presumably with the intention of importing them from the Calais factory, but the failure of the French venture meant a delay in the release of them. It was not until 1963, therefore, when the tools had been transferred to Margate, that the French range became available in the UK. The French models illustrated in the 1962 catalogue had been the Est Class 231D Pacific (with or without smoke), stainless steel coach, Wagon-Lits sleeping car (possibly not made), cattle wagon and mineral wagon.

In the British range, smoke units had been added to some of the Britannias and the Jinty. The former was now named ‘Boadicea’ while the Castle Class model had been renamed ‘Tintagel Castle’. A track cleaning wagon, based on a tar tank, was the only new item of rolling stock that year but two of the tank wagons received new liveries. The bulk chlorine bogie tank wagon received a Murgatroyd’s white livery and the small Shell tanker was updated with twin Shell logos each side.

In 1963 the TT range shared a catalogue with the 00 system. This showed the only new motive power units to be French; these being an 0-6-0 tank which was made and a suburban electric multiple unit which was not. Again, the only new coaches listed were French ones. Those illustrated were a SNCF passenger coach, Continental generator/baggage car and Continental Wagon-Lits Pullman car. Of these, I know that the SNCF coach was made in France and sold in the CT502 train set with the Continental tank engine but it seems likely that the other coaches did not get beyond the pre-production model stage. The Calais factory also made a CT501 train set which consisted of the tank engine with wagons.

There was an illustration of a T504 train set made up of the Est Pacific with a Continental cattle wagon, grain wagon, Primagaz tanker, mineral wagon and a fourgon. A smaller Continental set (T501) was also illustrated containing the 0-6-0 tank and Continental grain wagon, Primagaz tanker and fourgon. By November, according to the price list, these sets were still unavailable and were dropped from the 1964 list; suggesting that neither was made in this country. This may have been because all of the wagons were not ready. Two new sets did, however, appear in 1963. These were the T7, which contained the now ready three car DMU, and the T8 which contained the A1A-A1A with a fruit van, ore wagon, Conflat L with ‘L’ type containers, ICI bogie tanker and the brake van.

The final catalogue was the eighth edition and was once again a separate publication. It showed a system in decline with a number of models now missing from the range. Sales of the TT system had been falling sharply since 1960. In just two years the sales figurers for sets halved. By 1964, total sales were just one sixth of what they had been in 1960.

In 1967, in response to requests from retailers, special runs of the Castle, Britannia, Toad brake van and three main line coaches in brown and cream livery were done and these were advertised in the model railway press by a number of retailers.

Besides the French models that did not materialise, it seems that there were further TT models planned for the British range which did not reach the production stage. In my possession I have the pre-production models for two of these. The first was to be a GWR Mogul in black, which used parts from the Castle, and the other model is of a GWR Siphon finished in BR red.

By 1968, G&R Wrenn, who were another member of the Lines Group, had acquired the remaining stock of Tri-ang TT and were selling it as Wrenn Table Top Railways. The announcement of this was made at the Toy Fair that year along with the proposal to release a batch of blue and grey mainline coaches made the previous year (1967). Only 430 composites, 490 brake ends and 300 restaurant cars were made in this colour scheme. There was also a very small number of blue Class 31s produced and the batch could have been as small as 50 from the records I have found This is undoubtedly the rarest of the TT models.

George Wrenn did not seek to manufacture the Tri-ang TT system, only to sell the remaining stocks. Anyway, he had enough on his plate developing the Tri-ang Wrenn 00 system based on the Hornby-Dublo tools he had bought from Meccano Ltd. Consequently, no further Tri-ang TT was made. According to a tool inventory, carried out in the early ‘90s, the bulk of the tools for the TT system stayed at Margate or, at least, those for the British range did. The only evidence of the Continental models I came across when scanning the tool list were the body tools for the Est Pacific and its tender! So, where did the rest of the Continental tools go to?

Thus passed Britain’s only TT scale system, but it was not the end of TT. It has remained one of the scales still modelled today and much of its success should be laid at the door of the 3 mm Society who have concentrated their energies on the production of models and materials to meet their member’s needs. Many Tri-ang TT models ended up as material for adaptation and improvement for scale 3 mm layouts and, no doubt, there are many modellers who are interested in what will happen to the Tri-ang TT tools in the future, especially if the Margate factory is sold.

In monetary terms the tools represent a substantial investment but is there likely to be a re-established market for a TT system developed in the late 1950s and early ‘60s? Could the tools be updated to the standards expected by today’s modellers and, if so, what is the demand for TT models produced from the tools likely to be? Is there any chance at all that the tools will be used again?