TT3 Posted September 7, 2010 Share Posted September 7, 2010 Finally, after 25 years I finally have a decent set of Triang Sydney Suburbans. Although boxed, these are not entirley orignal as 4 cars have been slightly modified and detailed. The fifth car with no pantograph was bought by me in about 1985 for $12 from a guy in school, then misplaced in around 1990 when I got out of models for a while. The guy I aquired the 4 Suburbans from, my best friends father, thought he only had 4 but discovered another one while cleaning up and put it in the the box of Triang. For some unexplained reason that spare one was the original one I bought back in 1985. The funny thing is it was the only mode I regretted getting rid of. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRman Posted September 7, 2010 Share Posted September 7, 2010 Isn't it nice when you can achieve something you really wanted? Those are now worth quite a bit on the market. To think that at one stage they seemed to be quite common, locally (I'm in Melbourne!). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TT3 Posted September 7, 2010 Author Share Posted September 7, 2010 I had known of the existence of this set for a while, it came from the same place as my TT collection. The most amazing thing was getting back the original one I had all those years ago - it was an amazing stroke of luck. I wont say how much these will cost me but it will be a fair price none the less. I have notices something very annoying though, those serrated wheels wont even run on code 100 track! Now to do a rewheel just to run them......and build an 00 layout.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 I had known of the existence of this set for a while, it came from the same place as my TT collection. The most amazing thing was getting back the original one I had all those years ago - it was an amazing stroke of luck. I wont say how much these will cost me but it will be a fair price none the less. I have notices something very annoying though, those serrated wheels wont even run on code 100 track! Now to do a rewheel just to run them......and build an 00 layout.... Or use Tri-ang track? No? Thought not! Nice! I'd like a set of these, but, here in the UK, they are as rare as hen's teeth! (Not that I have much Australian stock - a Lima C38, a coach and an open wagon.) Are they 00 or H0? or the usual Triang 'variable'? (Not that they were/are alone in this). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brixham Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 The drive wheels on the power car are the same as on the Triang dmu. Occasionally, fine scale dmu wheels can be found on ebay. The trailer wheels have rather large flanges, and the back to backs are rather tight, but with some work the units could run on 100 track. I first got a couple of cars in pre internet days, by mail order. Then a friend in Sydney managed to source some more, including a very battered pair, which I've since repainted in the Tri-ang proposed but never made fictitious VR livery. The units are quite stark, without interiors, however, there are resin kits available in the uk. This really does improve the look of the units, upgrading them from 'toy' to 'model'. A long rake of these was seen at the tcs spring event this year, check out TEN! car Sydney Suburbans! Malcolm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyman7 Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 I remember hankering after a set of these after seeing them in the 1979 Hornby Book of Trains. It took me until around 1999 to find a set, as has been said, rare as hen's teeth in the UK! As made they do need Tri-ang Super 4 or earlier track to run (code 120). I've kept the set all original; these days I have two fleets, 'model' and 'toy train' and this belongs in the latter! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Tri-ang track is actually code 150, but code 120 should be OK (They'll run on code 125 3 rail Dublo, if a bit bumpy on the pointwork). The later smooth wheels seem happy on code 100 however. As stated, finer replacement wheels are available on eBay, but are a bit expensive, especially if you add the postage to Australia. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FINE-WHEELS-4-TRIANG-BLUE-PULLMAN-DMU-EMU-MOTOR-FPOST-/160477775896?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item255d388818 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TT3 Posted September 9, 2010 Author Share Posted September 9, 2010 I remember hankering after a set of these after seeing them in the 1979 Hornby Book of Trains. It took me until around 1999 to find a set, as has been said, rare as hen's teeth in the UK! As made they do need Tri-ang Super 4 or earlier track to run (code 120). I've kept the set all original; these days I have two fleets, 'model' and 'toy train' and this belongs in the latter! This will be the 'running' set as the cars have been modified. For instance the solebars have been painted on 4 of them, motors fiddled with so they run very smooth/quiet, one power car has the wrong motor bogie so more than happy to lose the original wheels. I also have 3 motor coaches and 2 centres with no unpowered trailers. Luckily there is enough triang catenery in the box for a decent indoor layout. The resin UK sets look very good. I am half tempted to buy a couple of unpowered power cars and some more centres to make the sets up right. 2, 5 car sets would not look to bad on the proposed garden railway. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushrat Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Finally, after 25 years I finally have a decent set of Triang Sydney Suburbans. Although boxed, these are not entirley orignal as 4 cars have been slightly modified and detailed. The fifth car with no pantograph was bought by me in about 1985 for $12 from a guy in school, then misplaced in around 1990 when I got out of models for a while. The guy I aquired the 4 Suburbans from, my best friends father, thought he only had 4 but discovered another one while cleaning up and put it in the the box of Triang. For some unexplained reason that spare one was the original one I bought back in 1985. The funny thing is it was the only mode I regretted getting rid of. Hi Guys, I can tell a bit of a tale about these models. I found a set under the christmas tree in 1962, and had them for years until I went into the Army, I left them with a bloke from the model club I was a member of, who was going to put fine scale wheels on them for me and repaint them - he was very good. Unfortunately, while I was away, he died, and his wife "got rid of" all his trains - along with mine! DAMN! I have been looking for a set ever since, without much success, they are very hard to get at a reasonable price. So herin lies the story................. Some years ago, I decided to try and find out what happened to the moulding dies, and after months of searching around, finally tracked down a guy who was a foreman at Lines Bros. in Melbourne. This company has long gone, but what he told me made me sit up and take notice..... 1: He said they only made about 1000 of each, spread over a few years. 2: In the 1963 (?) catelogue, there were blue painted ones for sale. It was commonly thought that these were not released for sale, but he told me that "a few sets" were sold. 3: He then said to me, after I made the comment that they would be worth a small fortune " yeah, probably, but not as much as the green ones" "Wot green ones?" said I, then he proceeded to tell me that they had a bloke loading the injection moulding machines with plastic pellets who was colour blind, and one day.... yep, you guessed it, out came a whole bunch of green NSW suburbans. Most were shredded and the plastic re-used, but he said that "several" sets actually got assembled, boxed, went out and were sold. He also told me that the injection dies were sent back to England to Tri-ang (Hornby) So, if anyone wants a "holy grail" to go looking for that would be it, who could put a price on a set of these in green?! This was about 20 years ago, and I reckon he's long gone by now, but he sounded quite matter of fact about the whole thing. Interesting, is it not? Bushrat Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollywoodfoundry Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Slight correction to that, the company in Melbourne, Australia was Moldex, not Lines Bros. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushrat Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 Slight correction to that, the company in Melbourne, Australia was Moldex, not Lines Bros. I stand corrected! From memory the cattle dog that I have says something like "Moldex - a Lines Bros. Company" Now you've got me thinking, I will have to ferret about and check exactly what it says................ All that aside, these things are damn near impossible to get, even rough examples bring big bucks, and even if they arent true to scale, dammit, theyre just .......NICE! They were good runners too, even if the notched wheels were a bit clunky and noisy! If you compare them to the current models being offered by Bergs Hobbies, there is a huge difference in detail, but the current ones, whilst more accurate to scale just seem to lack the "Charisma" of the R450's - Dunno, maybe it's a boyhood thing.................. Bushrat Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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