Tri-ang Hornby Book of Trains

Cover of the 1968-1969 Tri-ang Hornby Book of Trains [image info]

Rovex factory, Margate [image info]

A copy of the Tri-ang Hornby Book of Trains, laminated paperback, 64 printed pages, plus covers (published by Ian Allan, 1968).

Although this is a portrait format book, in most other respects it follows the conventions of the original The Hornby Book of Trains, in having a central colour catalogue section showing the company's products, with monochrome pages before and after that deal with subjects relating to real-world railways. Paper stock is matt rather than the glossy "art paper" used in the original series.

Notes

The centre colour pages include some Tri-ang models that had already been withdrawn, and lists the dates at which the models were deleted from the sales lists. It also makes some critical comments about a few earlier models, suggesting that the compilers may have wanted to produce a complete reference work for the Triang Hornby range to that date, rather than just produce a sales catalogue.

Other oddities include the sometimes slightly ambivalent tone of the commentary, and the fact that the introduction says that the last Hornby Book of Trains had been produced in 1939, which ... although arguably technically correct ... conveniently ignores the publication of the Hornby Dublo Book of Trains in 1959.

While this copy is undated, multiple sources list the book as having initially been printed in 1968, and also suggest the existence of a 1969 printing (which presumably would then have had both sets of dates in the front material).

Contents

• 2 ... Introduction
• 3 ... The Fascination of Railways
  • ... British Steam Express Locomotives
  • ... British Tank and Freight Trains
  • ... Observing the Traffic
  • ... Track Layouts
  • ... Signalling

---

• 17 ... Real or Model?
• 18 ... Triang Hornby Locomotives
• 29 ... Inside a Triang-Hornby Britannia
• 30 ... Triang-Hornby Coaches
• 36 ... Couplings
• 38 ... Station Buildings make a Model Railway Live
• 40 ... Track
• 46 ... Model-Land
• 48 ... The Margate factory

---

• 49 ... Continental and American Railways
  • ... Continental Steam
  • ... American Steam
  • ... Modern Overseas Motive Power and Coaches
• 51 ... Modernisation in Great Britain
  • ... Power of Diesel and Electric Locomotives
  • ... Multiple Unit Trains
  • ... Modern Freight Workings
  • ... New Stations
  • ... Modern Signalling