Tri-ang Railways

Tri-ang Railways was a British manufacturer of toy trains, one of the elements of the Lines Bros Ltd company who traded using the brands Tri-ang, Minic, Pedigree, and Frog. The Tri-ang Railways name was dropped a few years after Lines Bros took over the Hornby name although the majority of the trains were still the original Tri-ang models.

The brothers George and Joseph Lines made wooden toys in the Victorian age, their company being G & J Lines Ltd. Joseph was the active partner while George went into farming. Joseph (or Joe) had four sons. Three of these — William, Walter and Arthur Edwin Lines — formed Lines Bros Ltd shortly after World War I. Three Lines make a triangle, hence the Tri-ang. Arthur's son, Richard Lines, was largely responsible for the Tri-ang Railways system.

Rovex Plastics Ltd was founded just after World War II in 1946 by Alexander Gregory Vanetzian, who made toys for Marks & Spencer. Venetzian was asked to develop an electric toy train set for Christmas 1950. He delivered the product but although the company had found larger premises in a former Brewery in Richmond, it was constrained financially. Lines Bros were looking to expand into railways and so they purchased Rovex. Their products would be sold under the Tri-ang Railways name from 1951. To give room for development they moved the company now Rovex Scale Models Ltd to a brand new factory built at Margate, in Kent, in 1954.

As well as 00/H0 gauge, Tri-ang made TT gauge models from 1957 to at least 1967. The 3mm Society[1] supports those who still model Tri-ang TT.

Tri-ang also manufactured a garden railway system called Tri-ang Minic Narrowgauge Railway, thus being known as TMNR. This was a 10.25" gauge passenger carrying system using 2 rail electric pick-up with motors running at 40 volts DC. This was produced in the early 1960s and not a commercial success, with less than 90 'sets' being produced.

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