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On 09/06/2019 at 22:52, CKPR said:

 

Why does this look so authentically mid-1960s in a way that so many finescale efforts can't match ? I write as a finescale EM gauger...

 

 

... because it was copied from life, to sell to a public which saw them every day, so the overall impression would have been critical, fine scale detail less so. 

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On 29/03/2017 at 21:39, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Don't know if this has been asked already, but were the Tri-ang station buildings based on any particular prototype?

 

I’ve long since assumed that they were based on architects’ General Arrangements or Concept Drawings, given the general style 

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On 04/12/2016 at 17:19, russ p said:

Were the transcontinental sets cheaper than the domestic styled ones?

It always seemed odd to me that when I was a kid so many of my friends had TC sets which didn't resemble anything you had seen before when you could have had a familiar looking brush type 2 in the freightmaster set

 

This is undoubtedly a reflection of Post-War attitudes. Emigration to the White Dominions and USA was HUGE in the post-War era, my late father was immensely disappointed that the long-term effects of his war injuries prevented him from settling in Australia. For that generation, “no return to the 1930s” was central to their thinking, and many people had relatives who had emigrated sometime between 1880 and 1938 and were now prospering as never before. 

 

Britain had been a nett exporter of population since the early 19th century and the population were well accustomed to the idea. I remember being entranced as a child, by photos of my mother’s visit to relatives in Canada in about 1935, and the visit of Australian relatives in the 1960s. 

 

For the prosperous professional middle classes, the early “jet set”, and for the skilled trades, new opportunities were everywhere. Even semi-skilled trades could do well, and entry thresholds were low for the fit and able. EVERYONE knew someone in Australia, Canada or the USA

 

There’s much nonsense talked about immigration being dictated by shortages of labour resulting from wartime losses. Losses to the labour force in the 1946-1960 period far exceeded them; Empire Windrush didn’t arrive until 1958, after all. 

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Good summary from the British Library website:

 

Exacerbating the labour shortages, the total working population had fallen by 1.38 million between mid 1945 and the end of 1946, as many married women and older people who had delayed retirement left the jobs they had filled in the war. People were also leaving the country. In the later 1940s and into the 1950s, many families emigrated to parts of what was then known as the ‘Old’ Commonwealth (including Australia, New Zealand and Canada), countries that were themselves short of labour and anxious to encourage white settlers from the United Kingdom in an effort to maintain their old colonial links and European notions of citizenship and identity. As these territories were recruiters rather than sources of white British workers, attention turned to citizens of ‘New’ Commonwealth countries, especially, in the early post-war years, residents in the Caribbean, as a potential source of new employees.”

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Thank you for the background information about the transcontinental range.  Coming back to Peter Kazmierczac's post three years ago on 29 March 2017 I don't think anyone knows if the Tri-ang station buildings were based on a prototype. 

 

According to page 242 of Tri-ang Railways The Story of Rovex Volume 1 1950-1965 by Pat Hammond Joe Hunt built a range of balsa wood buildings over a weekend at his home in Elstead (near Godalming, Surrey) and painted them red in 1952. These were developed into plastic models the same year and included the following models:

R60 Ticket Office

R61 Signal Box

R62 Waiting Room

R66 Porters Room

 

A picture on page 5 of Pat Hammonds' book shows the unpainted balsa station buildings and platform on a Rovex layout.

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6 hours ago, Wolseley said:

Well, I just finished lubricating the mechanism and wheels and it's starting and running well.  It's still a bit noisy, but at least it's noise is down to an acceptable level.  Perhaps a bit of continuous running will see further improvement.  The bogie, with its Dublo wheels, is no longer derailing on points, although they do look rather small under the Tri-ang body.  I don't have any other wheels I could use at the moment though.

 

Noise aside, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it runs.  By itself, it draws about 0.45 amps at just over half speed - any faster than that and it looks ridiculous and, if I turned the speed up much higher, it would beat Mallard's record comfortably.  I put four Hornby Dublo Gresley coaches behind it (no pin point bearings there - and they need a bit of a clean and oiling too) expecting the resistance to be too much for it, but it started, albeit a bit shakily, and proceeded to pull all four around the layout for several circuits.  This is good enough for me, as my layout is 8' x 4' and more than four coaches looks a bit silly.  Much better performance than my Tri-ang streamlined Coronation, which can't pull more than two Dublo coaches.....

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3 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

I’ve long since assumed that they were based on architects’ General Arrangements or Concept Drawings, given the general style 

 

The original Tri-ang Railways station buildings and signal box were based on models made by a staff member.

Possibly based on his local station.


To my eyes, they have quite a L.B. & S.C.R. appearance, with the round topped windows.

 

The signal box has quite a Scottish feel, and some Tri-ang Railways models have formed the basis for Scottish signal box models.

 

There was also a goods shed model made it seems, but that never made it to actual production.

 

The second series Signal Box is based on a B.R. Standard design.

This was a development of a pre nationalisation design, L.N.E.R. ?

 

The 1962 onwards Ticket Office is also a modern, at the time, building.

 

Interestingly, there wasn't a second series goods shed either. Only the goods shed from the Minic Motorways range.

 

Apart from the Pola based kit, I believe that the first goods shed was the Hornby third series model.

 

Both the Aluminium, and plastic kit Hornby Dublo buildings were based on concrete Art Deco type buildings.

 

The Locomotive shed being a B.R. type design, certainly the roof...

 

Playcraft Railways had some kits, possibly made by Pola, of the modern station buildings being erected on the West Coast Mainline, during the electrification. These were, of course, to HO scale.

 

EDIT: Robin posted while I was typing...

 

 

Edited by Sarahagain
typing while another posted...
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48 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Good summary from the British Library website:

 

Exacerbating the labour shortages, the total working population had fallen by 1.38 million between mid 1945 and the end of 1946, as many married women and older people who had delayed retirement left the jobs they had filled in the war. People were also leaving the country. In the later 1940s and into the 1950s, many families emigrated to parts of what was then known as the ‘Old’ Commonwealth (including Australia, New Zealand and Canada), countries that were themselves short of labour and anxious to encourage white settlers from the United Kingdom in an effort to maintain their old colonial links and European notions of citizenship and identity. As these territories were recruiters rather than sources of white British workers, attention turned to citizens of ‘New’ Commonwealth countries, especially, in the early post-war years, residents in the Caribbean, as a potential source of new employees.”

 

Interesting, about the loss of older workers and married women. I’d not thought of that. It’s difficult to correlate these figures, but it looks as though around 1m British residents (meaning, at that time, white British nationals of English, Welsh, Ulster or Scottish parentage) had left by 1960, almost 1.7 m by about 1980. That’s a very high percentage of the workforce. 

 

There were other issues, too. Many British workers were well aware of the chronic under-investment in their industries, and had little faith in management to rectify that. There was little value embarking on a career in steam railways, since that was clearly approaching the end of the line - but the railways were still predominantly steam. Mining was a closed shop, faced with mechanisation and declining labour. Ship building and steel were plainly in decline - the great North Sea development owed much to redundant steel and shipyard workers. 

 

Vocational training needed to be taken up by the new education service, but wasn’t. 

 

What Canada and the other places DIDN’T want, was people like my mother’s parents - minor Colonial officials and military personnel, approaching retirement and with their health compromised by years in harsh climates. Those were England’s problem... my mother arrived in a wet, rainy Island she had been taught to regard as home, but knew little about, having largely grown up in British India, to be with her parents. She never really settled here, although she would live to the mid-1980s. She had no employable skills, and couldn’t stand the climate. 

 

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1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

You really should join the TCS ....... you get to see all sorts of weird and wonderful model/toy trains that way, and the spring and autumn meetings are held at Leicester, which would be good for you, I guess.

 

Now on my list! I’m going to have a seriously busy time when this lockdown nonsense ends...

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6 hours ago, Sarahagain said:

The second series Signal Box is based on a B.R. Standard design.

This was a development of a pre nationalisation design, L.N.E.R. ?

 

 

Both the Aluminium, and plastic kit Hornby Dublo buildings were based on concrete Art Deco type buildings.

 

 

Playcraft Railways had some kits, possibly made by Pola, of the modern station buildings being erected on the West Coast Mainline, during the electrification. These were, of course, to HO scale.

Yes, the  'modern' signal box was loosely based on the LMR type 15, first built mid-late '50s in both brick and wooden formats and perhaps showing some Midland Railway heritage in some of the details.

 

The Hornby Dublo buildings seem most like late LNER designs, though these usually had brick or tiled finish rather than render.

 

The Playcraft Macclesfield/Bletchley buildings are compressed, of course, but very recognisable. There was a drawing of Macclesfield's buildings in RM July 1964. As I've got a (not brilliantly built) kit I'll have a measure of it. The doors are 31mm high so wouldn't look ridiculous on a 4mm layout.

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19 minutes ago, BernardTPM said:

The Hornby Dublo buildings seem most like late LNER designs, though these usually had brick or tiled finish rather than render.

 

The footbridge was based on a Southern Railway prototype and I think (but I'm not sure) that the engine shed was based on an LMS one in the north of England.  I don't know about the rest of the range.  They have always looked to me as if they might be Southern, but they could quite likely be LNER (London area maybe?) as you say.

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The 'Art Deco' 'Southern Electric' boxes normally had rounded ends (the Triang TT box & Station Building are very obviously Southern inspired) while the late LNER ones had 45 degree angled corners. The old box at Stratford (now demolished) or the smaller Hotchley Hill shows the resemblance. Not exact though with the overhanging roof corners also cut to the angle it would be a much bettter match.

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5 hours ago, Wolseley said:

The footbridge was based on a Southern Railway

 No, BR(E), probably to an LNER design, copied from the SR (LSWR actually).

 

The Dublo aluminium buildings are hard to pin down, but the nearest I’ve found is LMS Wirral electrification period, Leasowe for instance. The canopies with the reinforcing ribs above were a fairly late 1930s innovation in concrete design, and were used by the LMS elsewhere too. The Wirral fits quite well with where a Dublo designer might have commutes from, and the way I read it someone has taken elements of real stations and made them suitable as toys/models, rather than exactly reproducing a particular place.

Edited by Nearholmer
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4 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

 No, BR(E), probably to an LNER design, copied from the SR (LSWR actually).

 

I just checked Michael Foster's book, and you're right about the footbridge, it's based on the one at Weeley, in Essex, on the former Great Eastern main line.  Its similarity to the Southern ones had me fooled.  I had assumed that Meccano must have been catering to the well-heeled London market.  And the engine shed is a downsized version of the LMR main running shed at Chester.

 

No mention in the book of any prototype for the station buildings or goods shed though......

 

Jim

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5 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

The Dublo aluminium buildings are hard to pin down, but the nearest I’ve found is LMS Wirral electrification period, Leasowe for instance. The canopies with the reinforcing ribs above were a fairly late 1930s innovation in concrete design, and were used by the LMS elsewhere too. The Wirral fits quite well with where a Dublo designer might have commutes from, and the way I read it someone has taken elements of real stations and made them suitable as toys/models, rather than exactly reproducing a particular place.

 

I agree.  It's quite likely that they are no more than imagined buildings in the style of the real thing.  The late 1930s buildings on the Wirral line do seem a probable source of inspiration.  After looking at some images on the 'net, I am tempted to add a canopy on the street side of my through station in the style of the one at Hoylake - I do have room for it.....

 

Jim

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10 hours ago, Wolseley said:

 

I just checked Michael Foster's book, and you're right about the footbridge, it's based on the one at Weeley, in Essex, on the former Great Eastern main line.  Its similarity to the Southern ones had me fooled.  I had assumed that Meccano must have been catering to the well-heeled London market.  And the engine shed is a downsized version of the LMR main running shed at Chester.

 

No mention in the book of any prototype for the station buildings or goods shed though......

 

Jim

 

The footbridge is very similar to the one at South Ockendon (ex LTSR in Essex) though this is mounted on the platform (as is usual) and only has two 'bays' on the steps. A real footbridge would have a landing in the middle of the long steps (by law?) as has the the one above. The Crescent model is almost identical, but allows three positions for the steps. It also usually (always?) has a peculiar green colour. I always intend to modify a Dublo one....

 

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fs0.geograph.org.uk%2Fgeophotos%2F03%2F75%2F97%2F3759790_982e406c.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geograph.org.uk%2Fphoto%2F3759790&tbnid=NKvsPw5W1WoCqM&vet=12ahUKEwjM3fzl0eLoAhXOgKQKHZYoAmQQMygPegUIARCHAg..i&docid=XrhIus7COvHjMM&w=640&h=480&q=south ockendon station&client=firefox-b-d&ved=2ahUKEwjM3fzl0eLoAhXOgKQKHZYoAmQQMygPegUIARCHAg

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A few years ago (2014-15??), I wrote a long article for the TCS journal about the history of “moderne” (they mostly aren’t really art-deco) toy/model stations - anyone with the back copy CD who is really, really bored might find it interesting.

 

The best history is probably that of the Trix Manyways, which I’m 90% sure wasn’t based on a station at all, but a range of civic buildings in Northampton called The Mounts. WJBL was chairman of the council committee that oversaw the construction of the swimming pool there, and Winteringham made the architectural models for the project at the same time that they were helping with the Trix design.

 

Google ‘Mounts Swimming Baths’ to see the Trix Station overall roof in reality.

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On 11/04/2020 at 05:44, rockershovel said:

 

This is undoubtedly a reflection of Post-War attitudes. Emigration to the White Dominions and USA was HUGE in the post-War era, my late father was immensely disappointed that the long-term effects of his war injuries prevented him from settling in Australia. For that generation, “no return to the 1930s” was central to their thinking, and many people had relatives who had emigrated sometime between 1880 and 1938 and were now prospering as never before. 

 

Britain had been a nett exporter of population since the early 19th century and the population were well accustomed to the idea. I remember being entranced as a child, by photos of my mother’s visit to relatives in Canada in about 1935, and the visit of Australian relatives in the 1960s. 

 

For the prosperous professional middle classes, the early “jet set”, and for the skilled trades, new opportunities were everywhere. Even semi-skilled trades could do well, and entry thresholds were low for the fit and able. EVERYONE knew someone in Australia, Canada or the USA

 

There’s much nonsense talked about immigration being dictated by shortages of labour resulting from wartime losses. Losses to the labour force in the 1946-1960 period far exceeded them; Empire Windrush didn’t arrive until 1958, after all. 

I personally can attest to the loss of  of my girlfriend Sue  at school to emigration.She lived opposite me and we came an item   .Her parents whisked her  off  to Australia  in her last year at school .I dont think it was my fault !!! .Same happened to my mate and  his girl .Another ex of mine also left for NZ   . Britain lost three good looking girls that no amount of immigration could replace .At least I became a  real  genuine blues singer through the booze ,tears and melanchol y .Oddly i joined Facecbook page from my old school and  one the first postings that came up  was from a bloke now in his 7O's asking where  Sue had gone and what a nice girl she was .Keep your hands off .She is my dream not yours .

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I've never been to Northampton, so I haven't seen or heard of The Mounts before, but it is quite a striking building, and I can see its influence on the Trix station building.  Bassett-Lowke was, of course, no stranger to modern architecture, with his first house being remodelled and the interiors designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his second house designed by Peter Behrens.

 

The term Art Deco is commonly, and incorrectly, used to include Streamline Moderne, but where do you draw the line?  One style merged into the other and there are a considerable number of buildings that show elements of both styles.  Incidentally, the Bachmann "Art Deco" island platform building could quite easily be made to represent Granville station in western Sydney, on the Sydney to Parramatta line, and Granville signal box is remarkably like the one at Wimbledon, but I digress......

 

Jim

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4 hours ago, Il Grifone said:

 

The footbridge is very similar to the one at South Ockendon (ex LTSR in Essex) though this is mounted on the platform (as is usual) and only has two 'bays' on the steps. A real footbridge would have a landing in the middle of the long steps (by law?) as has the the one above. The Crescent model is almost identical, but allows three positions for the steps. It also usually (always?) has a peculiar green colour. I always intend to modify a Dublo one....

 

>SNIPPED

 

I have put up some photos of the Crescent Footbridge kits in a new thread.

 

I did write some articles, a while ago now, for the 'Train Collector', the magazine of the Train Collectors Society on these bridges, and compared to the Hornby Dublo (D1) Footbridge.

 

 

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Unusual Early Tri-ang Railways Station Buildings

 

The first series Tri-ang Railways Station Buildings are quite well known.

 

Dating from 1953, they remained in production until 1962.

 

Over the years the type of plastic changed from Cellulose Acetate to Polystyrene, and the colour changed from bright red through dark brown, ending with a darker brown around 1962.

 

One thing remained the same however; the Station Buildings carried colourful Advertising Transfers for various “Tri-ang” products, and some others for local Holliday resorts and other products.

 

I have acquired two buildings that have unusual transfers.

 

There is a Ticket Office R.60 in Red Cellulose Acetate Plastic with "Durham" Station Name Transfers on the ends in place of the usual advert posters.

 

DCP12593.JPG.ffe1cf1056956b6b90914ffb71d59bb2.JPG

 

DCP12598.JPG.7580a1c86f185a6e6b590f94ca7afe05.JPG

 

DCP12599.JPG.69fdc33195a0a4ef941980e73cc0e02e.JPG

 

There is also one on the "entrance side" (small canopy side) where there is not usually any transfer.

 

DCP12592.JPG.7e695b822b367d270ffea2526848e825.JPG

 

DCP12600.JPG.db45cfc97f20e8898d083a9e0f69e296.JPG

 

I also have a Signal Box R.61, also in Red Cellulose Acetate Plastic, with "Durham" Station Name Transfers in the "usual" place, and also one on the "non step" end.

 

1165780789_R61SignalBoxDURHAMTransfers1.JPG.bc82f079ac61f0b6eb6a20c4e6a49fa4.JPG

 

789352410_R61SignalBoxDURHAMTransfers3.JPG.d71b6e2971c3bc6b401e8a9470b5e483.JPG

 

320689330_R61SignalBoxDURHAMTransfers4.JPG.4b7c1f9dc01d6ebd70faaf3bc262e5f0.JPG

 

Are these unique?

 

I am thinking that there may be a possibility that they were specially made for a trade or exhibition layout?

 

I have never seen or heard of any buildings like these, has anyone else?

 

 

Edited by Sarahagain
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