Triang Transcontinental Railways

[threelink]

@RT

Eco modelling? Definitely. I came to Transcontinental rather late in life but I love the series. Infinitely reparable - even the split noses. I have never had a problem matching colours for patch painting. I just mix up something to match from standard acrylics but then cheat a bit. I found a childs wax crayon set containing colours that match Triang colours almost perfectly. I patch paint then, when dry, rub a crayon over the patch. When polished off the patch disappears. The wax can sometims darken the paint a tad, so this has to be taken into account when deciding on the paint colour. I expect that finding a match for a full re-spray would be problematical. About the only problem I have is getting the rooves, especially the vista dome rooves, off carriages - sorry, passenger cars - without breaking them. Any ideas?

[Tony57]

Hi Rana

I have series 1 a full sets of all Silver, Silver and Red and Blue with Blue roof and a set of Blue with Grey roof.

Series 2 Blue, Silver and Red, 2 Tone Green, Silver and Black (CN) Bright Silver and Black (CN) Bright Silver and Red (1970 Over Lander set).

The rarer coach sets are the 4 US liveried coaches and the NSWR (AUS) and Blue VR.

[werk2do]

Hello again all. I'm enjoying reading your posts and would like to say a huge thanks for the comments in response to my initial query. Like some of you, I really would like to acquire a train of the two-tone green livery but the prices are OUCH right now! So I'll carry on chasing the blue/yellow and red/silver. Best regards.

[Tony57]

Hi

Why the 2 tone green are expensive is Triang only made just over 3000 of each coach and were only available for a short period of time where as they made 10,000 plus of each of the Silver and Red and the Blue and both were available for a longer period of time.

[81F]

Given that much of the Transcontinental range must have been a bit of a compromise, could anyone tell me what scale the vista dome coach ( the one that has a corridor connection at one and and looks rather Canadian Pacific. wouyld it be 00 or H0?

[HornbyinNC]

Given that much of the Transcontinental range must have been a bit of a compromise, could anyone tell me what scale the vista dome coach ( the one that has a corridor connection at one and and looks rather Canadian Pacific. would it be 00 or H0?

 

 

No scale for most of the range; most are even overly large by OO standards. However, the Budd rail cars and second series passenger cars are reasonable OO-guage facsimiles, as well as better portraying actual prototypes than the earlier models. When put alongside a modern scale HO model, or even more dated ones, the Tri-ang versions look totally out of place.

That said, when run on a layout as a range of single brand models, as Tri-ang originally intended, they all look great.

[ColinB]

I have the blue and yellow set, I have owned it since I was about . I have blue and yellow diesel, I would love to run it but the wheels derail on my Peco Electrofrog points. I keep meaning to change them to some finescale ones. I have the observation coach and coach with the upper observation feature. I would say that the coaches are more HO well the seats in the observation parts are much smaller than OO. I recently added seats to all the coaches as someone on EBay was selling 3 D printed ones. They never had seats from new.

[Rana Temporia]

ColinB, that seller is also selling replacement screw holders for the coaches. grinning

I have replaced the driving wheels on most of mine with the later finer scale versions from scrap dock shunters, the main problem is the rubbish black plastic cogs that disintegrate. I usually swap the axles over so keep the brass cogs with the finer scale wheels. The axles are standard Triang knurled loco axles as used on the steam locos. This doesn’t solve the problems with the other wheels but does make them run better on modern track and they are a lot quieter.

As for scale, none of them can be classed as scale models and many are a mish-mash of prototypes to use chassis etc. what were already available and to be able to represent something from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and the UK or wherever Triang were wanting to sell to and had factories.

The WAB tank is supposed to represent a NZ tank loco but also has features for a SA one. I think the prototype was 3’ gauge, and if you look it up the chassis looked quite different. However, it was designed around a standard princess chassis with a slightly modified rear bogie so must have been cheap to produce. The prototype was black or green, Triang decided to produce them in black and red. Easily my favourite of the transcontinental locos but a very slim link to reality.

[werk2do]

Hello again everybody. I am about to start refurbishing some blue/yellow and silver/red coaches and add seating, and I need some advice please. How do I remove the coach roof without risking damage or breakage? I'm guessing there are some lugs to be dealt with but not sure where they are located. Also, is it possible to remove the clear plastic from the vista dome and observation cars for cleaning? Any help you are able to offer will be much appreciated. Cheers.

[threelink]

@WE

I bought a job lot of filthy Transcontinetal rolling stock much in neeed of internal cleaning. I found that the rooves of the passenger cars were glued on during manufacture. There were no lugs but the rooves had a lip which was glued to the inside of the car sides and ends. The only way to remove them was to score repeatedly along the car sides just below the joint between roof and car side, until the roof came free. Some were more securely attached than others but it was quite a job and the ends were a swine to score because of the curve of the roof. Some brute force was needed on some cars, which resulted in broken rooves. Mercifully they were easily repaired with care and solvent, but the repairs required sanding and painting. The rooves were easily re-attached with solvent applied along the score lines, but it was essential to match the rooves with the car from which they were taken.

The glazing of the vista domes was only removeable by removing the roof of the car. Again, I found that the glazing was glued in place from the inside. Happily I did not need to remove it on most of the cars.

The observation car glazing was clipped in and easily removeable.

Old plastic can be brittle so great care is needed to avoid accidental breakages but the job is not impossible. Careful filling (if necessary) and touching in of repairs and the score lines will render them all but invisible. Scoring is best done with the point of the back (blunt side) of a scalpel blade/craft knife/ Stanley knife. Using the sharp edge tends to result in the scalpel wandering off track.

If fittting seating be sure not to block the large hole in the floor. It allows ventilation and prevents condensation. Good luck with your refurbishment project

[threelink]

@BE

I should have said that the Transcontinental stock I bought was ancient. I do not know whether later items were different.

[werk2do]

Thanks threelink, that's really useful information and has probably saved me a lot of time searching for lugs or clips which don't exist! I take on board the need fort care and patience and have plastic filler at the ready. I'll try to keep you posted. Cheers for now.

[threelink]

@WE

Glad to have beeen of help. There is a mistake in my post: my memory was at fault. Although I carried out repairs using solvent, I re-attached the rooves with a just few small dots of contact adhesive and filled the score line with fine plaster so as to leave the rooves more easily removed, if necessary, at any future date. The factory attachment was with solvent, generously applied, hence the difficulty of removal in the first place. It seemed daft to repeat the use of solvent to re -attach the roooves. I look forward to hearing of your progress.

[Anglia998]

I offer you a list of the Transcontinental models from my database.