In the beginning

There was Derek.

That was his name. I’ve forgotten his surname now. But Derek introduced me to TT. The old TT. The Triang-Hornby TT. This was back in the mid-1980’s, so TT had been consigned to the scrap heap of history for 20 years or so then. I wasn’t even born when TT was first released. 

Derek was having a clear out and sold me some old bound volumes of Railway Modeller from the 1970’s, and one evening I went round to pick them up. He had a vast collection of old Triang-Hornby TT and was passionate about it. He enthused about many things. But when he talked about TT his eyes lit up, and he would laugh and chuckle as he told you stories about his experiences with the scale. I was curious about TT and he showed me some of his collection. This was pretty basic stuff even by 1980’s standards. But when I placed that locomotive in my hand, something was triggered in my brain. The size and feel. It was, there’s no other way to put it, “just right”. I was immediately captivated.  Generous to a fault, he gave me some of his duplicates. A Jinty, some wagons, some track. Enough to make a start. 

One of the volumes of Railway Modeller he sold me contained articles on Stan Roberts Bakewell layout. This was a great model railway and there was a full set of drawings of all the railway buildings in articles spread over the year. You guessed it. I built them all in TT for the layout I was going to build. It wasn’t going to be Bakewell, just a small town branch line terminus using the buildings. I was so fired up by the project. I joined the 3mm scale society. I built all the buildings over a summer holiday. 

Then life and the reality of the project got in the way. The track I had was showing its age. I needed to build track. Should I build it in 3mm scale? I’d need to do a whole load of re-wheeling, scratch building of stock and such like to build my layout. With no experience in any of these elements of the hobby, momentum came to a grinding halt and I never thought about going back.

Until June this year, when PECO announced their TT:120 track. My interest was definitely piqued. All the memories came flooding back. I immediately asked myself, “What’s going on?” PECO wouldn’t be making all this effort for themselves. I wondered who would follow suit. Heljan are dipping their toes in the water with the announcement and pre-production pictures of the Class 31 (Brush Type 2 A1A A1A) loco. One of the first diesels made by Triang and a favourite of mine. But it still wasn’t much.

Then on Monday October 17th Hornby landed their news like the Incredible Hulk having jumped off a skyscraper. A whole range of train sets, locomotives, coaches, wagons, track, buildings. The whole nine yards. Now I was excited. 

I immediately thought about returning to the world of TT. Being an ex-Pat Brit in the USA, modelling the railway scene of the home country is always fraught with problems. Buying items can be very difficult. There are only a few select retailers in North America selling British outline stock. I very often end up buying little items when I go back to the UK to visit. Hornby are doing things differently with TT:120. You order directly from them. No retailer to go through. Right now that seems like a very good idea, and a bold move. Perhaps postage charges will be too much. I don’t know yet. 

Right now I’m just enjoying being excited by TT again, and we will see where this blog and experience goes. Those who know me know I’m a prolific model railway blogger. Each layout, failed or successful, has a blog. This is no different. Hop on and come for a ride.