Lines Bros - Product Lines - Large Road Vehicles

Large Road Vehicles

The British range of Tri-ang large scale pressed steel vehicles were produced from the early 1930s through until the mid 1970s. To the casual onlooker or collector in the world of old toys, these toys (not models!) are of no great interest, are crude by modern standards and only a few different types were ever made or so it would appear.

Everyone has seen the red-bonneted tipper lorry, the bonneted Shell tanker, breakdown lorry and the London Transport double decker bus.

To most people this was all the range consisted of with a couple of cranes and a Puff Puff railway engine or two thrown in for good measure. The actual selection of pressed steel vehicles including the different types of cranes and trains consisted of over 200 different types. There were actually nine different series of lorries together with a series of buses, cranes and trains. Tri-ang was one of the largest toy producers in the world and their range of toys reflected this.

The nine different ranges of Pressed Steel Toy Lorry were:

(All dates are approximations)

The pressed steel (and occasional wooden) trains and pressed steel cranes were made during the same lifespan as the lorries, although up until the mid 1950s, most trains were made of wood. The steel buses were manufactured from 1957 up until around 1970. In the Pressed Steel Lorry range there were delivery vans, petrol tankers, breakdown lorries, different types of articulated lorries, rocket launchers, car transporters, circus lorries, mobile shops, Army, RAF and emergency vehicles. There was quite a vast range of these vehicles and the cab types tended to reflect the designs of those in real life at that particular time that they were being manufactured. All nine different ranges large roadvehicles Tri-ang produced you can find on the below link Triang NL.