Trix TTR train set

[damndublo]

Hi all

Last year I was trawling through Ebay looking for a few bits for my Hornby Dublo layout when I came across a mixture of HD stations, platform extension, level crossing etc. together with a boxed Trix TTR train set - 040 with tender and three blood and custard carriages, another TTR box with nine trucks in it, a transformer/controller, Bakelite track system and other various treasures. For this lot I paid less, including the postage, than a good condition HD platform extension, that would normally make plus - minus £35 excluding postage. Like the idiot I am, instead of selling it for a profit, I've added more to the TTR set up. Another two sets, carriage’s, trucks, electric signals etc. For everything in my collection so far, it's cost me about £130, admittedly it's old, I've bought well and had a bit of luck for this amount. But then I couldn't buy much Chinese made plastic for that money and the way things are going, even less in the future. However, it's never going to grace “How realistic are my Models†because it's a 1950s train set, nothing more, nothing less. Fifty, sixty years ago people would have argued it wasn't. But it's nice to see my sixty three year old green LNER 040 with tender pulling a rake of teak tin plate carriages round the track. Now the question is, do I build scenery the modern way around it. Or do lay it on a green baize surface as in 1950. The little Imp on the left shoulder says keep it as a 1950s set up. The little sod on the other side says it's 2012, so wake up. You've got all this stuff to utilise today, whereas it wasn't available then and they would have used it if it was. So what are your thoughts out there, they will be appreciated. Because I really can't make my mind up. It's obvious which is the easiest, but that's not the problem.

 

Brian

[Kris]

Go with the devil on the 2012 shoulder.

[edcayton]

If it were me, I'd go for the "train set" approach and exhibit it. There is plenty of HD and old Tri-ang, but I have never seen a Trix Twin layout.

 

Ed

[kintbury jon]

You could always consider joining the TTRCA. My father is an avid collector of Trix. He picked up around 8 table top boards made by Vono for Trix. They measure 3'6" by 5' with some smaller ones at 2' by 5'. Idea of the large board is you could run a double track circle round it.

 

Trix layouts are not often seen out and about though there is usually one represented at a vintage exhibition. Certainly a Trix layout has been requested at the Bassett Lowke anniversary exhibition at Swindon in May and he is hoping to do a large layout with all 8 boards (as he did at Warley in the late 90's).

 

I quite like the idea of seeing a 2012 version of a Trix layout. A bit of landscape would enhance the set up, tinplate buildings might be nice though as it would match the stock. Perhaps a 'glossy' finish to the scenary might make it match the glossy trains?

 

I picked up a cheap lot for £40 myself. My dad told me I had about £100 worh of stuff. Did I sell it for a profit? No, every now and then it gets laid out on the floor and some entertaining AC twin running is undertaken, usually with a crash at some point, or a loco careering off the track at a corner!

[damndublo]

See what I mean. The replies are the same as the problem I set myself. I do like the idea of 2012 but quite not the full job but with shine.

[Oldddudders]

Elsewhere on RMWeb, two guys are sharing a table-top layout, with a backscene that bisects the available space. You could try a bit of both of your ideas - one each side of the backscene. I suspect you would quickly learn which was more to your taste, and the backscene might disappear as the favoured effect took over.

 

It is always good to hear of heritage models being savoured and used, rather than gathering dust in boxes or sitting on display. TTR was "different" at the time, and offered features that neither Tri-ang nor Dublo could match. Great to know that advantage is being appreciated in 2012.

[damndublo]

I thought I would post a couple of pics for the uninitiated. They may be a bit chipped and look primitive by todays standards in comparison with todays models which do look pretty. There is absolutley no disspute on that score. But it will be interesting to see in 2075 ( not that any of us will be here to see it ), how many will still be around with all their little fiddly bits of plastic for heritage modellers to play with.

[BR60103]

The Great British Train Show regularly gets Trix Twin layouts. (Our president is a fan).

We have one that is designed to be disassembled and rearranged during shows. It runs on a black rubbery surface with slots for wiring.

Mostly they are more to the toy end.

 

(Also see my thread where I propose the Twin pickup system with wheels and track to P4 standards.)

[28XX]

FWIW I say go for the '50s approach. Green baize and buildings made from firewood. If you go down the 2012 route you will end up weathering the stock.

[damndublo]

I am tending to go towards the 1950 approach plus a bit of retro looking modelling. Might have ago at producing some building designs on the computer and make with card. As I think I will have to wait along time for John at Scalescenes to venture back to the 1950s for me. At least if I go down that route the buildings will be reasonably simple if kept in character.

Oh, by the way, I am told that weathering is a capital offence on TTR. They will probably put an 040 tank engine in a thick woollen sock and batter you to death with it, knowing the engine would not be damaged.

[Steven B]

I'd be tempted to go retro and to stick with 1950s materials; Tinplate and balsa wood construction, no modern plasticard etc.

 

You just need to find some early copies of Railway Modeller for some inspiration!

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

[Catkins]

As Trix and TTR was before my time, I would go with the 1950's inspired scenic treatment.

 

But then I would enjoy the research into the methods used anyway.

[Colin]

Definitely retro - why not look out for some genuine '50s scenic accessories (Mastermodels & Crescent ranges spring to mind) and maybe a couple of the wooden building kits (Anorma?) which occasionally appear for sale at exhibitions - check the club's own sales stand. Failing that, go for making some card buildings in the '50s style - Edward Beal's books (if available) could be a real source of inspiration here.

IMHO Skaledale etc (or decent structures scratchbuilt to modern standards) would look at best rather incongruous, at worst plain silly!

[damndublo]

You are probably right Colin. I think the general consensus is to go 1950s. I have a book on home carpentry that belonged to my dad when he was young man. It has plans for loads of model railway buildings, signals etc. These were O gauge if I remember rightly, but the scale could be halved for this project. Just can't locate it amongst all the cr@p in the loft yet. I will see if I can find E.Bs. books, it will probably be easier than the loft

 

Brian

[edcayton]

Is this the stuff with mains voltage on the track?

 

Ed

[damndublo]

14 volt AC, none of this mamby pamby 12 volts DC. When men were men and women were grateful. (The wife does not read this forum).

[Il Grifone]

I'd go for the fifties approach (as I did with my Dublo layout - see photos on my layout thread on the Collectable/vintage section). There are plenty of vintage accessories about, though Master Models and the Britains Lilliput* series are pricey. If you use the fibre based track with the universal points (not all fibre points are) then makes can be mixed. (Tri-ang is no problem, but Dublo might not like the tighter radius (Trix large radius is similar to Dublo normal radius.)

 

* Particularly appropriate as some of these were made for Trix.

 

Trix will run just as well on 12 volts DC - the motors are universal (Don't tell the TTRCA, but most* of my Trix locos have been converted to DC with diodes to avoid the 'Which way is it going to run?' problem.)

 

*I do have an example of the US switcher made for export with fine wheels and a DC motor and I still have to do my Scotsman.

[sagaguy]

Memories,memories!!,my first electric train was a TTR outfit in about 1947/8.My dad not knowing much about electricity & me at the age of 5 knowing even less,would spend hours packing up the bakelite track until we had electrical contact at the rail joints,not realising at the time,all he had to do was clean the contacts!!!.By the way,these locos would run on 12v DC as they were a universal motor but you couldn`t reverse them unless in later years,you had a H&M Powermaster controller & that little green boost button would give a full voltage burst & operate the relay in the loco!!.

 

Ray.

[Il Grifone]

The Trix reverser operates when the current is interrupted. The brush tension is supposed to be adjusted so that the motor will start with 6 volts applied (not necessarily the point at which the loco runs best) and the reverser relay cuts in with about 4 volts. Thus the train can be stopped with current still flowing (the automatic signals use this feature to stop trains). Each time the relay cuts out the reverser rotates 1/4 turn in the sequence off - forward - off - reverse. All OK so far, but dirty contacts etc. cause loss of voltage and intermittent operation and direction becomes a matter of chance.

 

Märklin* use a simpler overvoltage two state relay and two field windings wound in reverse polarity. (These only need two diodes to sort out!)

 

EDIT to spell Märklin properly

[sagaguy]

Bit like the whistling TTR Meteor which used to woo-woo in allthe wrong places if the track was dirty.

 

Ray.

[damndublo]

Unlike my whistling parcel coach that does it in the right place, but burp-burp instead and I can't adjust it to woo-woo. Another little job.