History of TT Scale (con't.)
A Short History of Tri-Ang TT3
TT3 was introduced in 1957 by the Tri-Ang company,
who were already well established in the OO market. It was intended as
a smaller scale for those who either didn't have space for an OO layout,
or who wanted to have more railway in the available space.
The scale was 3 millimeters to the foot (101.6
to 1 scale) on a gauge of 12 millimeters, giving a gauge of 4 foot. As
such it was more inaccurate than OO. It was a typical British alteration
of an existing scale, done so that there would be space for out-of-scale
flanges, treads and motion, as well as space for motors inside the locomotives.
TT3 was developed from the American TT, or Table Top scale. This was introduced
by Hal Joyce in the early Fifties, and is a scale 120 to 1, or about 2.5
mm to the foot, on 12 mm gauge, which scales up to 4'8.5", which is the
correct gauge. This was in the form of metal kits, and track had to be
hand laid. Triang introduced a ready-to-run system to the British market.
To the left can be seen a comparison of different British scales, which
gives some idea of the actual size of TT. Below is an advertisement for
Triang TT. Although the range was limited, there was potential. Unfortunately,
TT3 was overshadowed by the introduction of N, which is even smaller. Eventually
Triang dropped the range, leaving the 3 mm Society to soldier on and support
the scale.
The images and text on this page are courtesy
of Jacques Gerber of the 3 mm Society. A link is available to the
3 mm Society on the links page.
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Last updated 9-4-2000
