Backscene
There’s nothing new under the sun. Chris Leigh remembers the first time ‘TT3’ was launched.
So let’s talk ‘TT’ or ‘TT:120’ as it’s now called, to distinguish it from the original ‘TT3’ launched by Tri-ang. There are few scales/gauges that I haven’t dabbled in since I started in this hobby with a Hornby-Dublo train set in 1955. True, I haven’t worked in ‘EM’, ‘P4’ or ‘S4’. I like ready-to-run and kits, and frankly, building my own track, as one has to in those precise scale/gauge matches, would bore me to tears! I don’t have the skills or patience to take track-building in my stride, so I live with the scale/gauge compromise.
However, ‘TT’ never required me to build track. The two or three ready-to-run models which Tri-ang produced in the scale, particularly the Brush Type 2 diesel, and the DMU, were decent models. Indeed they were arguably better than their ‘OO’ counterparts at the time. Plus, in the late 1960s, when we at the Egham & Staines Model Railway Society were building our clubhouse in Egham, the society had two members who championed ‘TT’ right from the outset.