Triang Budd Cars?

[n1vets333]

I just picked up a box of Triang Budd passengercars it is a set of 6. They are silver with a black stripe marked CN. It looks to be the entire set, there is an observation, baggage, engine , dummy and passengers. The couplers look nothing like and other ho train ive seen, they are a hook and loop system. Could someone provide me with information on these cars. Also in the box are various triang freight another B&O F3 engine and track and power pack. Are these cars valuable at all, are there collectors of this brand? Any info would be greatly apreciated.

 

[jbaakko]

European couplers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-ang_Railways

 

[n1vets333]

So would it be safe to say these cars were produced before 1964?

 

[AndrewC]

So would it be safe to say these cars were produced before 1964?

Nope. The Triang Transcontinental coaches first appeared in 1956 but weren't done in CN until the 1969 catalogue, and didn't actually enter production unil 1970.

Sadly for collectors a company called Zodiac Toys in the mid 80's flooded the market with a 'rediscovered' cache of new stock and depressed the prices of the later Canadian models. I remember picking up a CP F7 for around £3, less than $6. eBay has a set of 7 coaches listed at £2.42, less than $5. I figure it will finish around $40us.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/let...p3911Q2ec0Q2em14QQ_pgnZ2?_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

This guy has several dozen Triang lots going at the moment. You can see the rare stuff is getting bid on, while the more common items are sitting at very low prices.

 

[n1vets333]

Im wondering if the ones I have are the older ones, there are 6 cars in all, 5 of them are a metal looking silver while one of them is a darker almost greyish silver. Could the grey one be the newer of the 2 and the others older. They are all named for the CN. It looks as though the grey ones plastic shell is also cheaper made.

 

[AndrewC]

Im wondering if the ones I have are the older ones, there are 6 cars in all, 5 of them are a metal looking silver while one of them is a darker almost greyish silver. Could the grey one be the newer of the 2 and the others older. They are all named for the CN. It looks as though the grey ones plastic shell is also cheaper made.

Most likely just different batches. As I said, according to the gurus on the subject, if it has CN on it, then it dates from 1970 or newer. (they have been known to be wrong so I'd take that with a grain of salt)

Prior to that the coaches came in the following: plain silver with 'Transcontinental' in black script, silver with red centre stripe, blue, CP with 'Canadian Pacific' in yellow on a tuscan top stripe, and CP action red top stripe with pacman.

The real expert who literally wrote the book on the subject is Pat Hammond, who can be reached via his website. http://www.mremag.com/ Probably best to email him if you want the definitive answer.

edit: just went through my Hornby/Triang book from way back and it appears they recycled their catalogue numbers. The ones given on that ebay listing I posted show up as the blue cars dating from 1961. Did some more digging and the very first reference to any CN coach is R444/CN released in 1968-1969. Chances are the more plastic looking one dates from the earlier batch and the nicer once from as late as 1973.

Another bit of trivia is that Hornby had actually started the tooling and had built a prototype model of the Turbo Train nearly 40 years before Rapido finally make it a reality.

 

[RJSTAT]

Those Bud Cars and Tri-Ang where imported by Nate Polks of Aristo-Craft back in the mid to late sixties up to 1972. A little work and they run fine have a few myself.