Lines Bros Ltd was a British toy manufacturer of the 20th century, operating under the Tri-ang Toys brand name.
31-459: The Hastings Miniature Railway is a 10 + 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 260 mm ) gauge miniature railway located on the seafront at Hastings , a seaside resort, town, and ancient cinque port , in East Sussex , England . Opened in 1948, it remains a popular tourist attraction. The line was re-opened in the summer of 2011 after a period of reconstruction and restoration, which coincided with
62-458: A car-carrying wagon in the Tri-ang railway system. The basic track sections contained two slots, though single-slot pieces also existed. They permitted quite complex road layouts, and included a crossroads, a 4-section roundabout, forks to create dual carriageway sections, right-angle junctions, single-track forks to allow lay-bys, and later a crossover from the left to the right track (with a break in
93-657: A commercial system under the name the Tri-ang Minic Narrowgauge Railway, or T.M.N.R.. Commercial companies also build bespoke locomotives or in the case of the Exmoor Steam Railway a standard design of 2-4-2T. Rolling stock was normally supplied in the form of seaside coaches. However the more growth in narrow-gauge style railways shows that fully enclosed coaches seating two adults side by side are possible and preferable for commercial railways. This United Kingdom rail transport related article
124-522: A demand beyond his capacity to fulfill, Francis sold his company to Tri-ang in 1958. With their mass-manufacturing capability and know-how with plastic, the Rovex subsidiary of Tri-ang converted the metal cars to plastic and extended the range. When Meccano Ltd faced financial troubles and was acquired by Tri-ang, it also acquired the Dinky Toys range. Tri-ang's own range of model cars, Spot-on , had competed with
155-505: A few different types are commonly seen. The most common are the red-bonneted tipper lorry, the bonneted Shell tanker, breakdown lorry and the London Transport double decker bus, with a couple of cranes and a few Puff Puff railway engines. The full selection of pressed steel vehicles including the different types of cranes and trains consisted of over 200 different types. There were actually nine different series of lorries together with
186-599: A forced closure of the eastern part of the line, to facilitate building work on a new art gallery adjacent to the railway. The railway entrepreneur Captain J.E.P. Howey, who built and owned the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway , had a great interest in miniature railway locomotives generally and acquired several locomotives of assorted gauges. One was a 10 + 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 260 mm ) gauge model Great Western Railway pannier tank which Howey had rebuilt as an 0-6-0 tender locomotive named 'Firefly'. He also acquired
217-460: A quarter inch gauge Ten and a quarter inch gauge (or X scale ) ( 10 + 1 ⁄ 4 in / 260 mm ) is a large modelling scale , generally only used for ridable miniature railways . Model railways at this scale normally confine the scale modelling aspects to the reproduction of the locomotive and with steam locomotives the accompanying tender . Rolling stock is generally made to carry passengers or maintenance equipment and
248-470: A scale model Royal Scot engine of the same gauge. Although these engines were of too narrow a gauge for his railway, they did briefly operate after the second world war on a short length of track re-gauged for the purpose, near New Romney. They also operated (particularly Firefly) near Dymchurch, on a section of 10 + 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 260 mm ) gauge track established alongside the main 15 in ( 381 mm ) gauge running lines just before
279-456: A series of buses, cranes and trains. Tri-ang was one of the largest toy producers in the world and their range of toys reflected this. The nine different ranges of pressed steel toy lorry were: The pressed steel (and occasional wooden) trains and pressed steel cranes were made during the same lifespan as the lorries, although up until the mid-1950s, most trains were made of wood. The steel buses were manufactured from 1957 up until around 1970. In
310-448: A small wheel (called a Gimbal Wheel) on their underside, which was divided into two halves by an insulating flange. At some time in the 1960s this mechanism was replaced by a pair of vertically sprung sliding pickups. These differed from that of electric racing car systems such as the same company's Scalextric , in which the electrical conductors were spaced more widely apart on each side of the guide slot, and were hence more stable. There
341-424: A standard livery (they had previously been painted assorted colours since the late 1980s) and a new railway logo was applied. Eleven passenger carriages were then available - seven in the main articulated set, and four spare vehicles. The locomotive Swee' Pea was rebuilt to a less angular design. 50°51′18″N 0°35′19″E / 50.85513°N 0.5886°E / 50.85513; 0.5886 Ten and
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#1732848879050372-426: A towtruck. The most remarkable vehicle was a Road-Railer , an articulated lorry with a pair of pivoting rear axles, one bearing road wheels and the other rail wheels. The semi-trailer could be remotely uncoupled and then collected by a bogie wagon on the Tri-ang railway system. These could in theory be chained together to compose a train. This vehicle suffered from being underpowered. Vehicles could also be driven aboard
403-463: A two 'rail' system, which made reversing loops impossible without an insulated section. The competing German Faller system used alternating current , and had a compatible trolleybus system. Various model boats were made by Tri-ang companies, early yachts were made of steel under the name of Tri-ang. Tri-ang also sold a range of wooden hulled yachts and clockwork motor launches. They also produced early battery powered electric motor launches. Penguin
434-593: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Lines Bros Ltd Lines Bros Ltd, at its peak in 1947, was claimed by the company to be the largest toy maker in the world. Under the Tri-ang Toys brand name, Lines Bros Ltd also made children's bicycles, such as the Unity Dragster TT . The brothers George and Joseph Lines made wooden toys in the Victorian era , their company being G & J Lines Ltd. George
465-713: Is not to scale. There are also a number of railways which use this gauge of track but are narrow-gauge railways. Examples are Rudyard Lake Steam Railway , Isle of Mull Railway and Wells and Walsingham Light Railway . An organisation to promote this gauge of railway has been reformed in May 2010 as The Ten and a Quarter Railway Society, which will also cover the larger 12 + 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 311 mm ) and smaller 9 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 241 mm ) gauges. Generally model trains at this scale are individually hand-made, however between 1963 and 1964, Lines Bros Ltd using their combined Tri-ang and Minic brand names produced
496-535: The Hornby Dublo range, collapsed. Lines Bros. purchased the company, and in 1965 the combined model railway was marketed as Tri-ang-Hornby although the vast majority of the system was all Tri-ang 2 rail. In 1966 a controlling interest was acquired in a smaller rival, G & R Wrenn. Wrenn were then sold all the redundant, 3 rail, Hornby Dublo tooling. When, in 1971, the Lines Bros. empire was broken up, Rovex - Tri-ang
527-523: The Official Receiver . The Group was broken up and sold off. Rovex Tri-ang Ltd (which had the Hornby Railways among its portfolio) was Pocket Money Toys Ltd and then sold as Rovex Ltd , complete with its factories at Westwood and Canterbury , to Dunbee-Combex-Marx Ltd. (DCM). G & R Wrenn , a linked toy railway company, bought itself free as Wrenn Railways. The remains of the Tri-ang brand
558-538: The Dinky range but never had the success of Dinky and its designs were briefly subsumed into the Dinky range. Minic Limited, a Lines Bros subsidiary, produced a range of 1:1200 scale waterline ship and harbour models between 1958 and 1965 which were marketed under the Tri-ang Minic Ships brand. After a reorganisation in the mid 1960s Minic Limited became a subsidiary of Rovex Industries Ltd (later Rovex-Tri-ang Ltd) which
589-548: The Pressed Steel Lorry range there were delivery vans, petrol tankers, breakdown lorries, different types of articulated lorries, rocket launchers, car transporters, circus lorries, mobile shops, Army, RAF and emergency vehicles. Minic Motorways was a system of HO-scale slot cars . The system aimed as far as possible for realism, and therefore the slot was as narrow as possible (about 1/8 in) with brass conductors placed vertically at each side. The vehicles picked up power via
620-427: The conductors). Railway compatibility was ensured by a level crossing and road/rail interchange pieces. Curves could be built with up to 5 parallel slots. Points were manually operated, although third-party electric point solenoids could be fitted. A range of trackside accessories such as a petrol station and a ferry allowed users to build towns around their systems. At a late stage of the system's life, an attempt
651-429: The fishing industry, and the line ran from here along the beach (known locally as 'The Stade') to a railway station near the lifeboat station. In 1959 the line was extended to a new terminus at Marine Parade, provided with a single-platform station and run-round loop, and taking the full extent of the line to a little over 600 yards. In 2008 the railway's old passenger carriages (still in regular use) were repainted in
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#1732848879050682-551: The outbreak of war, and continuing there until 1947. They were then relocated to St Leonards-on-Sea where Howey operated a small miniature railway for less than a year. Local complaints led to the line being relocated to Hastings and sold to Ian Allan and Jim Hughes, which was the beginning of the Hastings Miniature Railway, opening in 1948. The railway's headquarters and engine sheds were constructed in 1948 at Rock-a-Nore , an urban area of old Hastings, dominated by
713-463: Was a name that they manufactured plastic yachts and clockwork boats and some battery powered electric boats. Over the years these toys/models were manufactured under the name Rovex, Scalex and Minimodels. B Francis of Minimodels Ltd designed a range of metal model racing cars driven by clockwork in 1952 under the SCALEX brand. To this he later added an electric motor showing the product in 1957. Faced with
744-424: Was a small removable peg at the back of the vehicles to stabilize it when in reverse. Vehicles were controlled by a hand-held controller, which had a thumb-operated speed control plus a rotating reversing switch. The range of vehicles was designed to be complementary to a model railway set, and for instance included a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, a Humber Super Snipe , an AEC Routemaster bus, a Shell petrol tanker and
775-580: Was a trained carpenter, while Joseph was more business focused. Joseph had four sons, three of whom formed Lines Bros Ltd soon after the First World War . They were William, Walter and Arthur Lines. Three Lines making a triangle - hence Tri-ang. Arthur's son, Richard Lines , was largely responsible for the Tri-ang Railways system. At the start of the Second World War , production of children's toys
806-412: Was acquired by Dunbee Combex Marx (DCM) as Rovex Limited after Lines Bros went into receivership in 1971. Rovex Limited reintroduced a limited range of the original waterline ship and harbour models in 1976 together with four new battleships under the name "Minic Ships and Harbours by Hornby" the "Tri-ang" trademark having been acquired by Barclay Securities who purchased Tri-ang-Pedigree Ltd when Lines Bros
837-558: Was deemed non-essential by the British Government . As a result, production facilities were converted to weapons manufacture, specifically the Sten Mk III submachine gun . Manufacture of toys resumed shortly after the war ended. At their peak they had 40 companies world-wide, including the famous Hornby , Meccano and Dinky brands, but as a result of losses overseas they were in financial trouble. In 1971 Lines Bros. Ltd called in
868-591: Was liquidated. The Hornby "Second Series" of Minic Ships, which were manufactured in Hong Kong, did not sell well and was discontinued in the late 1970s / early 1980s. The Triang name and Minic trademark were acquired by Charles Shave of Hong Kong in 2003. The new company reproduced the original 1960s harbour models, together with a good range of modern merchant vessels and US Navy and Royal Navy warships. Production numbers have been low, but these new "Third Series" models have now been on sale for longer than either of
899-477: Was made to update its image and enter the model racing-car market. Racing car bodies were introduced, which contained more powerful motors with worm drive, and with the improved pickups mentioned above. The Minic Motorways system allowed the modeller to animate the roads as well as the railways in their townscapes. Some modellers used flexible track manufactured by Peco to enhance the level of realism. Minic, like Tri-ang railways, used 12-volt direct current with
930-445: Was purchased by Dunbee, Combex, Marx (DCM) but without the Tri-ang brand. Because of this DCM were forced to re-brand the model railway as Hornby Railways . Railway systems: The British range of Tri-ang large scale pressed steel vehicles were produced from the early 1930s through until the mid-1970s. To the casual onlooker or collector in the world of old toys, these toys are of no great interest, are crude by modern standards and only
961-525: Was sold off. As a result, the Tri-ang Hornby system took the name Hornby Railways from January 1972, with the Dinky and Meccano businesses being acquired by Airfix . The company kept producing toys made of wood such as dolls' houses , toy forts , a Noah's ark with wooden animals as well as a small range of wooden soldiers. Lines Bros had its own railway system, the Rovex system, marketed as Tri-ang Railways . In 1964, Meccano Ltd , which manufactured