As has already been said in this thread, the Hornby Dublo running rails were not insulated from each other and so you could only run one train at a time. It was also impossible as the Dublo loco wheelsets did not have insulating bushes on one side. This also applied to the Dublo passenger coaches and goods wagons at least up to the time that Dublo launched their 2 rail system. So you couldn't use the Dublo items on a Trix layout even though they both used the same style coupling, the Peco simplex.
In the Trix three rail system, the running rails were insulated from each other and so could run two trains indendently on the same track, both using the centre rail as the common return. That dates back to its inception in the 1930s, that's why it was called Trix Twin, i.e. two train under independent control on one track.
You could run two train independently on Triang if you had their catenary system.
Trix went one better as with their EM1 locos and catenary system you could run 3 trains independently on one track.
Despite launching their version of the AL1/Class 81, Hornby Dublo never launched their own catenary system, so you could never run two trains independently on any Dublo only layout. Indeed Michael Foster's book on Dublo shows a publicity photo of their AL1 on a layout equipped with the Triang catenary! After Triang bought Meccano in 1964 they dropped their own plans to make one of the early AC electrics themselves, (it was described as an AL1 but looked more like an AL2), and modified the tool for the ex-Dublo AL1 and relaunched it as a Triang-Hornby model. The Triang Class 81 was dropped from the range in 1971 and the name Triang also disappeared in 1971 after its parent company, Lines Bros, went broke, becoming the Hornby Railways we have today. Thus the Class 81 was denied the chance to have started and ended its life as a "Hornby" model.
I'm surprised at the comment that Trix was sometimes seen as more upmarket than Dublo. Trix was originally imported into England from Germany by Bassett Lowke and sold as the Bassett Lowke Twin Train Railway. Perhaps it inherited some of the kudos of the Bassett Lowke O gauge range. I think Trix was also more expensive than Dublo whic was itself more expensive than Triang. The Pre and Post war Trix 0-4-0 tender locos were hardly prototypical even though they do have a charm of their own, very like the Hornby O gauge 0-4-0 tender locos of the 1920s and 30s. Also once Trix started making models that were more prototypically correct, the models were to 3.8mm scale, too big for HO, too small for OO. They only moved to 4mm scale a few years before their demise.
The price you get for secondhand/pre-owned/vintage model railway kit depends very much on what you're after, as rarity increases market values significantly, and the number of people who are interested. If you want premium prices look at Dublo AL1s and their Watford line Class 501 EMUs (OK so they wer painted green to look like SR), Trix EM1s, and Triang EM2s and AL1s, and most Wrenn items, particularly their Brighton Belle EMU motor car sets and matching carriages.
Keith.
In the Trix three rail system, the running rails were insulated from each other and so could run two trains indendently on the same track, both using the centre rail as the common return. That dates back to its inception in the 1930s, that's why it was called Trix Twin, i.e. two train under independent control on one track.
You could run two train independently on Triang if you had their catenary system.
Trix went one better as with their EM1 locos and catenary system you could run 3 trains independently on one track.
Despite launching their version of the AL1/Class 81, Hornby Dublo never launched their own catenary system, so you could never run two trains independently on any Dublo only layout. Indeed Michael Foster's book on Dublo shows a publicity photo of their AL1 on a layout equipped with the Triang catenary! After Triang bought Meccano in 1964 they dropped their own plans to make one of the early AC electrics themselves, (it was described as an AL1 but looked more like an AL2), and modified the tool for the ex-Dublo AL1 and relaunched it as a Triang-Hornby model. The Triang Class 81 was dropped from the range in 1971 and the name Triang also disappeared in 1971 after its parent company, Lines Bros, went broke, becoming the Hornby Railways we have today. Thus the Class 81 was denied the chance to have started and ended its life as a "Hornby" model.
I'm surprised at the comment that Trix was sometimes seen as more upmarket than Dublo. Trix was originally imported into England from Germany by Bassett Lowke and sold as the Bassett Lowke Twin Train Railway. Perhaps it inherited some of the kudos of the Bassett Lowke O gauge range. I think Trix was also more expensive than Dublo whic was itself more expensive than Triang. The Pre and Post war Trix 0-4-0 tender locos were hardly prototypical even though they do have a charm of their own, very like the Hornby O gauge 0-4-0 tender locos of the 1920s and 30s. Also once Trix started making models that were more prototypically correct, the models were to 3.8mm scale, too big for HO, too small for OO. They only moved to 4mm scale a few years before their demise.
The price you get for secondhand/pre-owned/vintage model railway kit depends very much on what you're after, as rarity increases market values significantly, and the number of people who are interested. If you want premium prices look at Dublo AL1s and their Watford line Class 501 EMUs (OK so they wer painted green to look like SR), Trix EM1s, and Triang EM2s and AL1s, and most Wrenn items, particularly their Brighton Belle EMU motor car sets and matching carriages.
Keith.
