Transcontinental train set (TriangRailways RS-13)
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Transcontinental train set (TriangRailways RS-13) |
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in storage 1960 |
A red and silver Tri-ang Railways "Transcontinental" train set RS.13, made by Tri-ang (lines Brothers) in the early 1960s.
The "Transcontinentals"
The "Transcontinental" series may have represented a hope by Tri-ang that they might have been able to sets sell into the US market, but it also gave them "local" sets to sell in Canada (where Lines Brothers had manufacturing and distribution).
Some commentators have said that the paintwork looks Canadian (the colours of the Canadian flag being red and white).
Dating
The set appeared on the market in ~1960, this example includes a Tri-ang Railways Seventh Edition catalogue (1961), suggesting that, if it's the original included catalogue, the set may have emerged from the factory in ~1961/1962.
Some of the individual pieces in the set are supposed to have appeared a little earlier, in ~1958.
Cars
The distinctive rear observation car in the set looks like the Skytop Lounge "solarium" cars designed by Brooks Stevens for the Olympian Hiawatha train, and built by Pullman Standard in 1948.
These were originally run by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, so while they were in the USA, they'd have been familiar to Canadians just over the border ... and the sleeping cars did end up in Canada, sold to the Canadian National Railway in 1964.
