Trix trains

[sagaguy]

I`m in the process of restoring a couple of Trix Mk.1 coaches.I`m spraying the Rail Grey first then masking off the waistline to spray the Rail Blue.My question is, has anyone got any tips for masking off the cantrail line as it`s got some pips in the moulding,(they are supposed to be there!)to stop paint from bleeding under the tape at these points.I normally use Tamiya 6mm & 2mm masking tape for these jobs.

 

 

                     Ray.

[sagaguy]

Finished articles.Iv`e been given four more,i have to confess i do like these coaches.

 

 

                           Ray.

Edited March 12, 2017 by sagaguy

[Il Grifone]

They are nice coaches - better than Tri-ang's IMHO. It was very unfortunate (and financially disastrous for Trix) that they chose to make them in 1:80 scale. They obviously were hoping to increase sales by making their wheel standards compatible. Other makes were to make the same mistake....

 

Long and OT waffle warning! Most of you probably know all this already. (My excuse is that Rivarossi collaborated with Trix Express (late 50s/early sixties) and incorporated some of the Trix models in their range (ignoring the scale difference!). Their take over of Pocher*, at about the same time, also introduced some H0 models (mainly beer vans - the Continental version of our fake P.O. liveries. I do have a few....)

 

Italy had the same problem. After starting in 00, Rivarossi switched to 1:80 (possibly to get their bulky motors in) except for their U.S. models which were/are H0. Since they were the only serious maker of model Italian trains this didn't really matter, though it must have hampered sales of their French and German models, as it certainly did with their 'Royal Scot' in the eighties. There were various other Italian makes, but most of these were really in the toy train category and some of the early German models tended to be around 1:82 ('getting the works in' isn't just a British problem. though the larger loading gauge of their prototypes gives the Continental (and even more so the American) makers an advantage**). Then along came Lima who decided to improve and improve their range in 1:87 scale. The incompatibility of their couplings*** might be a clue, but Italian modellers seem either to be unaware of or not care about the scale difference and happily mix them  . It took around forty years (1990s) for Rivarossi to switch to 1:87. (This means I couldn't buy any of their latest offerings - not that I could afford their greatly increased prices anyway!) The merger and sale to Hornby followed in the next decade or so.

 

* Pronounced Poker like the card game (from which it took its name) and from Turin like my wife (and less importantly FIAT).

 

** both motors and wheels/valve gear - even some American models are not immune from being a trifle on the wide side.... (I'm still not sure about Rivarossi - the Drawings I have of Italian locomotives lack the end views/dimensions. I have a feeling their class 835 0-6-0T is a tad wide (see below). It's not helped by Rivarossi setting their buffers at the H0 spacing, unlike Trix who set theirs at the 00 or even slightly over. (British Trix that is: Trix Express are H0.) Trix Express couplings are also set high, but their coupling is of a slightly different design - similar to the later pre-war Trix Twin coupling with the uncoupling dropper.

 

*** Though they are both examples of the standard loop coupling, Lima's are mounted higher than the others and Rivarossi's uncouple magnetically. Rivarossi offered an optional delayed uncoupling feature. (I still haven't fitted all (make that most) of my Rivarossi models....

 

EDIT

I have now found that the Gr.835 is 2890mm width (almost exactly 9' 6") Under Archivio Rotabili

 

https://www.archiviofondazionefs.it/

Edited November 27, 2019 by Il Grifone

[5050]

In my stash of 'vintage' catalogues and brochures I have a 1956 Gamages Model Catalogue illustrating trains and boats and planes and road vehicles and steam engines etc. etc.  Very comprehensive to say the least.  One section, which I have scanned for your delectation, is devoted to Trix Twin as follows -

 

First, a preamble and the operating accessories.

Then Train Sets.

Baseboards and Track.

Locos and Rolling Stock.

Some 'Exciting Accessories'.

Manyways Stations.

And last but not least, my favourite - the 'Amazing (their description, not mine!) Trix Junior Railway' - which I reckon must have put more kids off than encouraged them!  I tried it once in a local shop and even with frantic amounts of winding could hardly get the loco to move.  It was so tiring (and cramp inducing!) that the train could only proceed in fits and starts.

 

Prices are a lot higher than the closest equivalent from Triang - and the detail appearance a lot less.

[kevinlms]

In my stash of 'vintage' catalogues and brochures I have a 1956 Gamages Model Catalogue illustrating trains and boats and planes and road vehicles and steam engines etc. etc.  Very comprehensive to say the least.  One section, which I have scanned for your delectation, is devoted to Trix Twin as follows -

 

Trix Twin .11.A.jpg

And last but not least, my favourite - the 'Amazing (their description, not mine!) Trix Junior Railway' - which I reckon must have put more kids off than encouraged them!  I tried it once in a local shop and even with frantic amounts of winding could hardly get the loco to move.  It was so tiring (and cramp inducing!) that the train could only proceed in fits and starts.

Trix Twin .12.A.jpg

 

Prices are a lot higher than the closest equivalent from Triang - and the detail appearance a lot less.

Love the 'controller' for the junior set. That will stop them chewing up batteries by the box full!

[EddieB]

Pure nostalgia!  I started out with a "Trix Junior" set consisting of two of those chunky tank locos, and the two trains shown.  No fancy generator, however, power  came from controllers that screwed to the tops of those big Ever Ready square batteries.

 

Actually seems quite expensive at 63/- for a single tank loco.  If I remember correctly, a Triang "Nellie" cost 29/- in 1962.

Edited March 15, 2017 by EddieB

[sagaguy]

The great thing about Trix is that a lot of it is still available through Ebay although at inflated prices for some items & through the links on the TTRCA site for sales.I `ve often thought about a Manyways station which is reasonably comparable to a Hornby Dublo city station.Spares for these & other Trix items are easily available through the TTRCA although you have to be a member to buy them.

 

                            Ray.

[Il Grifone]

Pure nostalgia!  I started out with a "Trix Junior" set consisting of two of those chunky tank locos, and the two trains shown.  No fancy generator, however, power  came from controllers that screwed to the tops of those big Ever Ready square batteries.

 

Actually seems quite expensive at 63/- for a single tank loco.  If I remember correctly, a Triang "Nellie" cost 29/- in 1962.

 

Trix always were the most expensive of the 'Big three'. You had to pay for the complex and expensive sequence reverser as well as the metal body. The cheaper rolling stock is not much more than the other two. The lights and fancy operating features were extra of course.

 

The Junior (later Cadet - sounds more grown-up?) loco is 6 volt DC and has a plastic (now invariably more or less warped) body. Possibly the loco driven by the generator was 12 volt or maybe the generator was faulty. These things have spur gear drive and should go like the proverbial 'bat out of hell', with considerable overrun as the motor functions as a flywheel. The generator didn't last long. Later sets had a conventional power supply.

 

There's a Junior set on eBay at the moment, but it is notable that the generator is missing....  (You get a couple of extra coaches instead - much more useful.)

 

It looks like Gamages lifted their information straight out of the Trix Twin Year Book.

 

The 'Manyways' stations were designed for the very deep base of the Trix bakelite track and sit a bit high for other makes. That said, I used their components with my Dublo. I can remember we bought some loose parts from a shop near my school (there were lots of 'proper' toy* shops then), but when we went back for more they refused to sell on the grounds they had had to break up sets. I bought quite a lot of the Trix copy of Meccano from them - it was being cleared at a good reduction. Unfortunately it has all been lost over the years, as also happened with my Meccano (Errors of youth!)

 

* And not only toy shops!

Edited March 15, 2017 by Il Grifone

[TT3]

Only have a little bit of trix, but it is nice stuff, the standard 5 is a pure nostalgia loco from my friends father's layout of 30 years ago.

 

 

Always liked the trix western for some unknown reason given the compromises

 

[sagaguy]

My Trix AL1 arrived today .It`s a 2 rail version but since i want to run it under catenary,3 rail conversion will have wait.It`s pictured here with my Triang AL1.model.

 

 

                       Ray

 

             

 

             

 

             

[Il Grifone]

I assume the claim in the German blurb on the box that she is exact 1:87 scale is, in fact, incorrect.

[Golden Fleece 30]

I did not know it had been sold with the darker blue and all yellow ends, but it was the best one of the 3 made.  The BTC (?) film of the Channel Tunnel used Trix on their layout but with Dublo coaches amongst a lot of other items.

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

Only have a little bit of trix, but it is nice stuff, the standard 5 is a pure nostalgia loco from my friends father's layout of 30 years ago.

 

20170316_2132071.jpg

 

Always liked the trix western for some unknown reason given the compromises

 

20170316_2132481.jpg

Here is one of my Trix Standard V's on parcels duty.  At the end of the clip not how fast the coaches are prpelled backwards including 4 and 6 wheelers.

 

 

Garry

[GoingUnderground]

I assume the claim in the German blurb on the box that she is exact 1:87 scale is, in fact, incorrect.

It is incorrect. The model always was 4mm as it wasn't designed by Trix. They only acquired the rights to it 2 years after it went on sale. I'm very curious as to why it is in a "german" box. Liliput made the original mould, but according to Tony Matthewman, it was always assembled and sold in the UK, right up to the end of production in 1988. He makes mo mention of Austrian produced boxes being used. It was being turned out in very small quantities between 1974 and 1988 by Liliput Model Railways (UK) Ltd.

 

What is the part/catalogue number on the box?

Edited July 26, 2017 by GoingUnderground

[sagaguy]

I assume the claim in the German blurb on the box that she is exact 1:87 scale is, in fact, incorrect.

 

 

Yes,it was supplied in the wrong box for packing for the post.

 

Ray

[Il Grifone]

It is incorrect. The model always was 4mm as it wasn't designed by Trix. They only acquired the rights to it 2 years after it went on sale. I'm very curious as to why it is in a "german" box. Liliput made the original mould, but according to Tony Matthewman, it was always assembled and sold in the UK, right up to the end of production in 1988. It was being turned out in very small quantities between 1974 and 1988 by Liliput Model Railways (UK) Ltd.

 

I would guess that being sold under the Liliput name they sent the boxes over and then packed the models in this country. It was presumably too much trouble to remove the German script.

[GoingUnderground]

I would guess that being sold under the Liliput name they sent the boxes over and then packed the models in this country. It was presumably too much trouble to remove the German script.

But it would sppear that Liliput Model Railways (UK) wasn't owned by Liliput Austria, but by Ernest Rosza to handle his distribution of Liliput Austria's own products as well as Kibri and Vollmer products, and to assemble ex-Trix British outline models. Most of the tooling was in the UK by 1965, including the mould for the body shell.

[roythebus]

As I think I've mentioned on this thread before, the AL1 bogie side frame patters were made by Adrian Swain of ABS Models. I got a lift in his trusty Cortina Estate back in the early 1970s and laying in the front window was one of the brass patterns for the bogie side frame. the wheelbase is slightly over scale to accommodate the standard Trix mechanism.

[Guest spet0114]

Club running night, time for this old-timer to thunder around a bit....

 

[NCB]

Remember once visiting the Liliput UK shop on Bala industrial estate. I was looking to see if some Kibri buildings fitted my purposes. Fascinating place. Had its own exhibition layout which he ran for me; think there was a £1 entrance fee. Now alas no more.

[Wolseley]

I have two Trix locos, a Warship and a green WR 0-6-2T.  The Warship runs very well on Dublo 3 rail track but does have a bit of a wobble when travelling in one direction without there being any obvious reason.  The Warship is also one of my grandson's favourite locos, because it has headlights.  The 0-6-2T is also a good runner, but I'll have to replace the wheels in the pony truck, as it derails when reversing through Dublo points.

[Il Grifone]

I have two Trix locos, a Warship and a green WR 0-6-2T.  The Warship runs very well on Dublo 3 rail track but does have a bit of a wobble when travelling in one direction without there being any obvious reason.  The Warship is also one of my grandson's favourite locos, because it has headlights.  The 0-6-2T is also a good runner, but I'll have to replace the wheels in the pony truck, as it derails when reversing through Dublo points.

 

There's no weight at all in the pony and the minute Trix plastic wheels don't help. IIRC (Both mine* have long since lost their ponies and replacements are like hen's teeth - I'm going to have to make a couple!) there should be a spring under the pivot but possibly I'm thinking of something else. There are two convenient strips of metal** which bend up over the chassis however to which a lump of lead can be attached.

 

* One I lost myself many years ago; the other came my way already having lost hers.

 

** Intended to prevent the pony truck swinging too far to the side or dangling down when the loco is picked up. The fixing is very flimsy and insecure. Plastic keeper plates are not the most brilliant invention....

[Wolseley]

There's no weight at all in the pony and the minute Trix plastic wheels don't help.

 

 

Neither would the massive flanges.  I intend to replace the pony truck wheels with either Dublo or Markits wheels.  There are other jobs that are higher on my list of priorities though.

[Guest spet0114]

Quick question for the Trix cognoscenti....

 

The Trix A2 is reputed to have the same mechanism as a contemporary German pacific (marketed by Liliput?).  Can anyone let me know which model this was?

 

Thanks
Adrian

[Il Grifone]

Neither would the massive flanges.  I intend to replace the pony truck wheels with either Dublo or Markits wheels.  There are other jobs that are higher on my list of priorities though.

 

This must be one of the early ones before they fitted the convertible wheels? They are quite easy to change though. Pushing Trix wheels out on their axles will allow them to go through Dublo pointwork albeit with a bit of a bump.

 

 

Quick question for the Trix cognoscenti....

 

The Trix A2 is reputed to have the same mechanism as a contemporary German pacific (marketed by Liliput?).  Can anyone let me know which model this was?

 

Thanks

Adrian

 

I'm not sure about the later Trix models, but all the pre-war Pacifics shared a chassis with the Trix Express DRG Br 01 Pacific. The latter was also made up to pass as a U.S. Pacific. The result fooled no one.... I would assume a Trix Express Locomotive supplied a chassis for the Later ones too.