Pylon King

Coventry power station.

Early PL1east of Edinburgh.

132kV polon models together .

A few more photos from the book.

Arrived in the post a couple of days ago , looking forward to reading this one plus a large selection of great photos .

1:76 scale : 132kV Portal utility polon (maximum height variant ) which can be found across Britain.

Byfleet and New Haw station to the left .

Here are a couple from 2018.

Amazing footage , you should post this one on ‘The Pylon Appreciation Society’ Facebook group.

The process for producing commercial photography back in the sixties was very expensive which meant only a few shots were taken for each catalogue. Rovex never really envisaged the long term aspects for creating an archive and after a while would dispose of these colour masters . Fortunately Richard Lines managed to save some of the best photos . The following photos show the process in reverse from publication to the studio master colour transparency.

Sorry no TT transparencies, the archive consists of Triang/Hornby , Hornby Railways, Model-Land , Minix and Minic Motorways . The process for producing commercial photography back in the sixties was very expensive which meant only a few shots were taken for each catalogue. Rovex never really envisaged the long term aspects for creating an archive and after a while would dispose of these colour masters . Fortunately Richard Lines managed to save some of the best photos . The following photos show the process in reverse from publication to the studio master colour transparency.

National Grid still trying to locate ongoing power issues.

132kV Trident terminal utility pole deep in the Oxfordshire countryside.

Just completed : 1:76 scale model 132kV Trident terminal ‘polon’ . Over the last forty years the Trident design has been steadily replacing traditional lattice pylons .

The Triang pylons were definitely a design compromise , the original PL1 designs were larger with different designs for tension , deviation and terminal . Using the original CEB blueprints this 1:76 scale PL1 D30 model was constructed , the prototype is located just behind Hornby’s Margate headquarters.

Dapol also acquired the Factory Production building tooling . Sadly it was never used.

The late seventies old style stations /engine shed/signal box series was definitely a step backwards and although still in production in many respects are more dated and toy oriented. Regarding the Model-Land range there certainly were a few gems . The factories and Victorian shops/town houses command high prices and still look great to this day . Marketed alongside the Triang/Hornby range and regularly featured in the catalogues they are generally more elusive to locate .

Old Central Electricity Generating Board map from the late 1960’s early seventies.

It also extended to their 1970’s in-house built shop display layouts as well . I recall wanting several Model-Land figures which were glued on the Bentalls department store layout , to my amazement the sales team popped a few off free of charge .

The very first print run (quite hard to find) from ‘73 contained numerous errors , the original photo featured the ‘son’ lying while the background was dark blue . Subsequent editions amended him to a seated position while superimposing the backdrop to light blue.

The original 1967 studio photo featured in this publication.

Although the Wiring Plans Book never went to press much of it’s content was featured in the 2nd edition Hornby Railways Track Plans book from 1972 .

This one is probably the most featured of layouts throughout Rovex history and so memorable. It featured on/ inside British (1971/72/73) , Australian ‘71/72, Canadian ‘71 catalogues as well as the R408U turntable box lid , R002/003/004/005/006 station set lids as well as the 1st/2nd edition Track Plans books. Hours if not years of studying and wondering where the double left hand side track disappeared to were put to rest by the accompanying photo.

Wonderful photos , thank you for posting these . Although cropped out , the original studio photo (taken in autumn ‘72) ‘9F cement wagon/valley scene’ page 2 1973 catalogue also featured an extensive upper station with additional lower level sidings .