Floating Dock M 885 Triang Minic Ships 1959-64

Price: NZ$75.54

Code: BH307

Floating Dock (220mm long) A model in metal made in the 1960s by UK maker Triang Minic. From the original ‘built in Britain’ series. A big impressive model, in good original finish light grey, Complete with its original cranes, only one of its gates in place. A very nice model in played with condition. Unboxed model.

We have a very large collection of minic pieces to list if you are looking for anything in particular please email through the contact page on this site.

This model is based on the Admiralty Floating Dock (AFD) design of the Royal Navy which was deployed throughout the British Empire to provide maintenance facilities in support of the Fleet. AFDs were used extensively in the Pacific Theatre during the Second World War to provide repairs for ships damaged in battle.
Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richarsdon Ltd were the leading builder of AFDs for the Royal Navy including AFD 10 with a 50,000 ton lifting capacity which was built for the major Royal Navy base at Singapore. One of the largest ship wrecks in the world is the 80,000 ton AFD 23 which sank on 8th August 1944 when a buoyancy tank broke loose while the 30,000 ton battleship HMS Valiant was in dock off the coast of Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ).
This model with a scale length of 850 feet and internal clearance of 112 feet 6 inches between the wing walls represents one of the larger AFDs with a lifting capacity of around 30,000 tons.

This section of the shop is about the amazing original series of diecast metal ships and harbour playset accessories, produced under the Tri-ang Minic Ships name in England between 1959 and 1964. As well as the later series of models produced under the Hornby Minic name during the early 1970’s.

The “TRI-ANG” trade mark itself resulted from a play on the truism “three lines make a triangle” the “three lines” in question being the brothers William, Walter and Arthur Lines who founded Lines Bros Limited just after the First World War.

The Tri-ang Minic Ships name comes from the original manufacturer Minic Limited a subsidiary of Lines Bros Limited, owners of the famous “TRI-ANG” trade mark.

The models were produced by Lines Bros Ltd’s Tri-ang Works at Mordon Road, Merton, London SW19 with production moving to Minic Limited at Market Way, Canterbury, Kent during mid 1960.

The original range of ships and harbour accessories are waterline models manufactured to a scale of 1:1200 scale, where one inch is equivalent to 100 feet, the same scale that was used in the manufacture of ship recognition models for training Allied naval and airforce personnel during both the First and Second World Wars.

When Lines Bros Ltd was broken up in the late 1960’s the “TRI-ANG” trade mark remained with Tri-ang Pedigree, another Line Bros subsidiary which was also active in New Zealand and Australia, while the “MINIC” trade mark was transferred to Hornby together with the tooling for the Minic Ships models.

All of the models produced under the Hornby Minic name were produced in Hong Kong after Hornby moved their manufacturing in the early 1970’s. Hornby produced only a limited selection of the original models but also introduced four new models of famous battleships – USS Missouri, IJN Yamato, DKM Bismarck and DKM Scharnhorst.All of the ship models produced under the Hornby Minic name were fitted with a red plastic base equipped with plastic rollers.

The original Tri-ang Minic and Hornby Minic series of models are no longer in production and to the best of our knowledge the tooling for these models no longer exists. So the original models have become quite collectable as they were only made for 6 years and being mainly children’s toys, many sadly have not survived. What has is in various states of repair! Still they are an incredible early 1960’s toy which can be arranged in attractive displays, and enjoyed in many homes or businesses where a nautical theme is desired.