Seafront/Seaside Miniature Tri-ang Electric Railway

[Mike]

Hello all,

It has been suggested, and therefore I wonder if anybody can help me trace photographs or information about a possible Tri-ang Minic Narrowgauge Railway that may have resided near the seafront at Hastings?

They were made in the 1960's, and where plastic green "ride in" Golden Arrow locomotives, with either Pullman coaches, or a "toast track" style coach, normally operating in an oval, running with electric through the rails.
There are pictures on my website should anyone want to look at www.tmnr.co.uk of other locations.

Any help that anyone can give regarding this rare minature railway system would be most gratefully received.
With best wishes,
Mike

[Anonymous1]

Nice site_ _ __ _ _..I don't remember Hastings having one, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one.

[peter_simpson]

Writing as a fellow enthusiast for all things Tri-ang that have flanged wheels (and one-time TCS member!) i have to say that I, too, cannot recall their being one of these in Hastings - and had it been post-1965-6 I'm pretty sure that I would have remembered it given my interest in such things. The only possibility I can think of is tat there was a 'toys and models' exhibition near the Fishmarket about this time; maybe it was part of that_ _ _

[Terry]

I found this old Beaties ad for the railway system Tri-Ang marketed under their Minic brand in the mid 60s. It comes from the July1966 edition of Railway Modeller. This product doesn't appear to have been very successful, but I'm sure I have other pictures (I cannot recall seeing one in Hastings), if and when I can find them, I'll post them. The Colonel mentioned is Colonel Beatie himself. Beaties didn't have a shop in Hastings, the nearest branch was in Brighton. I hope the picture can be seen, I had to shrink it to come within the 1Mb limit.

[img://www.hastingsforum.co.uk/forums/sf_attachments/IMG.jpg]

[Mike]

Hi Terry,

Thank you kindly for the message and attachment - I always wondered who the colonel was as I have a smaller scan of this particular article and am keeping my eyes peeled for the original magazine.

I reseach so many leads I forget who said what but maybe there wasn't one in Hastings afterall?

Interesting enough the photograph/article shows Broome Garden Railway - My holy grail of TMNR! Tony Palin Evans was the most enthusiastic collector of TMNR at the time of production and there are some wonderful publicity photographs that were taken and used by Tri-ang of his railway. Sadly it was replaced a few years later with a Cromar White 7 1/4" system and I've never managed to find what happened to his original railway as both he and Roland White are deceased.

With kind regards
Mike