Thursday 8 January 2009

Triang Countryside Rubber Buildings














If you are of a certain age, or have spent time looking at photographs in venerable wargaming books or magazines, the chances are you will have seen these buildings, the Triang Countryside series. To what Triang described as OO/HO gauge they were used by early wargamers and are fondly remembered. They are still available, like many things, on e-bay, at a cost; and often they will now have hardened or cracked - if you can find a mint, fully flexible example you are in luck. I have a number of these, all acquired in the last couple of years; they give a pleasing old school feel to a table.

7 comments:

Hugh Walter said...

As someone who used a Thrashing Drum (Marshall's of course!) only a few years ago, two summers running, I know how high hay-stacks are in real life, so collect all of the mostly 54mm ones by Britains, Taylor, Hill and co in metal and plastic, the only time I got a look at the Tri-ang ones they had had doors cut in them by some Zulu wars war-gammer...Boo Hoo!

There were also the little Lone*Star buildings, which were around N-gauge, they too are stating to perish, originally vinyl they are now shatter'able!!

Our childhood is slowly desintergrateing.......

Stryker said...

Clive

Thanks for posting this picture and stimulating the nostalgia lobe of my brain. I remember buying the church in a model shop in Whitton High Street (Hounslow) in about 1963 for my model railway. It was very quickly transferred for use with my toy soldiers!

Ian

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Not only do I have a couple of the haystacks (without doors!) I also have the forge (and I never knew it was part of this range) - no signs of brittleness in them yet, and they still occasionally make an appearance on the game table. The famous one is the church though - always wanted one of them - the famous picture is this one:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_EkwLNxL4tkE/R4Uy6hCnSSI/AAAAAAAAAuA/Vgb_tziWZuU/S740/ablogscaplatteville%252Bvalley.jpg

Vintage Wargaming said...

Steve

This picture is from a seventh edition Triang Railways catalogue, dated 1961 and priced ninepence. I'll post some pictures of the buildings I have when I've looked them out. I can't quite remember what I've got but if by any chance I have two churches I will let you know....

Stryker said...

Clive - I also remember that I had some rubber trees, possibly Poplars. Any idea who made those?

Ian

Vintage Wargaming said...

Ian, at the bottom right of the catalogue page pictured, listed but not illustrated, are large and small fir trees, and large and small conker trees. Might they have been some of the fir trees?

Given the burst of comments on this post. I'm going to try and look out the buildings I have to photograph and post. Talking of trees (not rubber) there were of course the Merit ones. I may look these out too.

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Love the photographs of all those old Triang buildings and Merit trees! Wish I could find some of those poplars and alders at a reasonable price. Thanks for posting them.

Best Regards,

Stokes