Tri-ang Railroads in the USA
- The lines that weren’t price-butchered! -
Lines Bros. in the USA - the early yearsSurprisingly, for such a vast organisation as the Lines Bros. toy empire, very little is actually known about their American operation but what does exist is quite tantalising for the researcher and collector alike. So what do we know?
Lines Bros. had a big stake across the border in Canada, having established a manufacturing base since 1947, but the first reference to a US operation appears in the Deputy Chairman's Report for 1956, where he makes reference as follows: "The establishment of Lines Bros. Inc., New York, has enabled the Group to achieve very much improved sales to the USA." Lines Bros. Inc. was a ‘Selling Company’ created to market the British, and presumably Canadian, manufactured products. Walter Lines makes only passing reference to the US in his book ‘Looking Backwards and Looking Forwards’ (1958). The book was supplied to the Tri-ang employees at that time and in it he did, however, say that from time to time Lines Bros. had been tempted to open a factory there. He says, "We do have a selling organisation, nevertheless, with its own showroom and warehouse. Here we have accumulated the peculiar 'know-how' appertaining to doing the business in the great Republic." Certainly Pedigree Baby Carriages (prams) and Tri-ang Toys were being sold in the US but how much this involved railways we do not know nor do we know when they were first marketed in the US. Early catalogues and pre-1959 stock are readily available today, in small numbers, so it is reasonable to assume that, at least, they were marketed on a limited basis prior to 1959. |
It would seem that the New York showroom was moved to 236 Fifth Avenue, New York 1 in 1958 as the move is mentioned in that year's annual report.
There was a warehouse attached for stock and Walter Lines, the Chairman, refers to the difficulty in selling in America because of high import duties. He goes on to say that the "...dollar markets are now our biggest export customers." |
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Polk’s Hobby Department StoreThe choice of location of the Lines Bros. New York showroom is interesting in that it was very close to the famous Polk’s Hobby Department Store of 314 Fifth Avenue, a giant toy department store which boasted ‘five floors of leisure time pleasures’
Polk’s traded as Model Craft Hobbies Retail Inc. and were a major retail sales outlet which certainly marketed a number of English and European trains of the period as well as other Tri-ang products.
Polk’s had some Scalextric catalogues specially printed for them by Lines Bros. in 1960 and 1961. Original invoices also show that, in 1960, Polk’s were supplying the trade with Lines Bros. products, offering the standard 40% discount on all orders. Whether Polk's were acting as exclusive agents for Lines Bros., at this time, or were just providing a complimentary service to their existing retail clients is unclear. |
The Polk's 24 page general catalogue of 1961 had a complete page dedicated to Tri-ang products; offering Tri-ang TT Scale Railways (but not OO/HO), HO Minic Motorways, Arkitex, Scalextric, Minic Ships, Frog Model Kits, Spot-on Cars and the Spot-on Dolls House Furniture ranges of models.
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The agreement with LionelIn 1961 the reciprocal agreement with the Lionel Corporation, USA appears to have been established. This eventually turned out to be quite a milestone in the expansion of the range of Tri-ang Railways models which would eventually be offered. It appears to have been a rather loose association.
Lionel already had their own HO gauge system and had no interest in marketing Tri-ang Railways but they were very interested in marketing the new Scalextric range of 1:30th scale slot car racing models and carried eleven pages of these in their 1962 catalogue; though most of the range had been dropped for the 1963 catalogue in favour of Lionel's own new system. In return, in the UK, we received the Tri-ang Lionel Famous Inventors and Science Sets which appeared in the 1963 9th Edition Tri-ang Railways Catalogue. More importantly, there was an exchange of technology which gave Tri-ang Railways the action accessories which were an immediate sales success because of their play appeal and which are still very much sought after by collectors today. The Operating Helicopter Car (1962), Exploding Car, Giraffe Car, Side Tipping Flat Car (all 1963) were originally Lionel models as were versions of the fabled Battle Space G-10 “Q” Car, the Satellite Launch Car, Sniper Car and the Ground-To-Air Missile Sites. |
Lines Bros. Railways and Motorways re-launch |
August 1962 appears to be the key date when Lines Bros. Inc. aggressively attempted to re-launch the Tri-ang HO Gauge Railroads and HO Gauge Minic Motorways integrated systems, as well as the TT Gauge Table Top Model Railroads, onto the US market.
So what happened to Lines Bros. attempts to market Tri-ang Railways in the USA? The Chairman’s annual report of 1962 refers to a change in their selling arrangements in the USA and how costs rose. This resulted in a cancellation of the arrangements (it is presumed with Lionel) and Lines Bros. Inc. assuming control of sales in the US. That year was all gloom and doom for the company.
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ATT, Model Power, Precision Miniatures and AmroWhen you think of Tri-ang Railways stateside most peoples' minds will automatically focus upon the range of models imported and marketed under the banner of ATT, the American Train and Track Corp., founded by Mike Tager, between the years of 1967 and 1970.
Later, with the closing of the ATT operation due to poor sales, the remaining stock of Tri-ang American outline models was sold off to PMI Products who repackaged the Tri-ang manufactured models and sold them under the Model Power trademark. |
There was one exception to this: the Tri-ang ATT 0-4-0 Tank Locomotive was repackaged and sold, for a very short period of time, in Model Power boxes and then under the Precision Miniatures Inc. trademark together with the Roco manufactured American outline freight cars.
PMI were not interested in the British outline models and these were purchased by two former members of the ATT staff, Hugh Stephens and his son Michael, who set up a mail order company to sell Tri-ang Hornby Models under the name of Amro, which stood for American Rovex.
In December 1972, Amro was sold to Paul Wagner who owned Paul's Model R.R. Shop in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. Amro Ltd. was moved to that address and continued to be the official importer of Hornby Railways until the summer of 1976.
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