History of TT Scale

    To TTers, Hal Joyce is recognized as the man who invented TT Scale. Armed with a wealth of knowledge gained through his years in the automotive industry, Hal Joyce envisioned applying the accuracy and speed of heavy industry to model train manufacturing. He gave much thought to the idea of producing trains small enough to be carried in the suitcase of a traveler.

    The actual development of TT scale was begun in 1941, but was interrupted by the onset of World War II; therefore, its actual birth was delayed until the war ended. Hal chose the scale of 1/10" to the foot, or 1:120, which was common to American engineering at the time. The track lacked 1/32nd of an inch of being half an inch wide. In 1945, Mr. Joyce formed H.P. Products, Co. and it was in the October, 1946 issue of Model Railroader magazine that the first advertisement appeared announcing the new TT gauge model Trains, They were designed, engineered, manufactured and distributed by Hal Joyce, founder of the company, and shipped to every corner of the world. By the early 1950's H.P. Products had more than 20 different power units available for the TT hobbyist, either in kit form or assembled. These included everything from an 0-6-0 switch engine to a 2-8-8-2 Big Boy to a pair of EMD E7 diesels.

    It was during this period that many other manufacturers joined the TT bandwagon. The list included such names as Kemtron, Lindsay, Gandy Dancer, Star-Line, Jewel and Craftsman. TT track was manufactured by Atlas, Gem and H.P. Products. Numerous other companies produced structures, roadbed and detail parts.

    TT scale became very popular in Europe in the 1950's. The public relations department of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad even had a portable TT scale layout. A major article on TT appeared in the September, 1954 edition of Popular Science Magazine.

    By the early 1960's, OOO ( later renamed N scale) usurped TT's claim to the title of smallest scale. As N scale's popularity increased, TT waned and manufacturers phased out their TT products. Most people in the industry agree that the ready-to-run nature of N scale was a major factor in its success at the time. The H.P. Products line was sold in 1969. However, TT maintained its popularity in Europe, with Zeuke becoming the leading manufacturer.

    In the 1970's, Zeuke was nationalized by the East German government, until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. Following German reunification, the company was turned over to businessman Carlo Parisel. Parisel modernized the manufacturing facilities and brought marketing expertise to the company, intending to market his product to the entire world. His efforts reminded the rest of the world not only that TT scale equipment was available, but that TT is a viable modeling scale. In Autumn, 1993 Berliner TT-Bahnen was sold to Tillig Trains and Track. In 1992 a complete line of high-quality, ready-to-use TT track products was introduced.

    A variety of track, turnouts, motive power, rolling stock and structures are now being produced in Europe and the United States to support TT scale as many in the Model Railroad community have come to recognize that TT is truly the smallest practical scale, especially for the true kit and scratch builder.

Thanks to SIG member Jim O'Brien of Coastal Engineering for the info above.

TT was almost like HO
By Harold Carstens

    The title above was the start of an editorial which appeared in a 1980 issue of RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN and was written by Harold Carstens editor and publisher of the Craftman. He has graciously allowed us to reprint the editorial in its entirety.

    "Following World War II, a new scale called TT started up. It was invented by Harold P. Joyce, a machinist, who was able to produce his own brand of HP Products all-metal trains in 1/10" scale (1:120 proportion). Joyce reasoned that there was a market for a line of trains smaller than HO, and his 1/10" scale locomotives were able to utilize the smaller size HO motors then available. TT was termed an all-American scale, since it didn’t bother with "foreign metrics" as did HO, and (initially) it lacked the detail by then inherent in HO, which apparently appealed to many modelers. Less intimidating, perhaps. Cost approximated HO.

    Not long after that, I met a graphic arts teacher named Sherman Dance, who lived only a few blocks away. Sherm had dabbled in HO for years and did free-lance printing on the side. He’d long since discovered that he could knock out good-looking printed car sides on his printing press, and even provide custom road names.

    Dance finally took the plunge into first with a layout of his own and then with a very extensive line of TT freight car kits manufactured under the Gandy Dancer label. Gandy Dancer was a part-time basement operation, and Sherm even cut most of the wood himself. Special parts came from HP and other suppliers.

    The very first kit to roll off the Gandy Dancer assembly line was a Hiram Walker Gin reefer which Sherm gave to me for assembly. It followed the traditional prewar HO wood-car-with-paper-sides construction technique, a method which can still provide a highly satisfactory model.

    Soon other manufacturers were also making TT equipment, and the Gandy Dancer line grew to a point where Dance finally had to make the decision to give up teaching or sell Gandy Dancer. For personal reasons, he chose to sell Gandy Dancer.

    TT slowly faded to its resent minuscule interest level, a departure hastened by the advent of N scale. N scale possessed the one major factor TT didn’t have: a size sufficiently distant from HO to make a truly different in appearance. (TT cars were about the size of HOn3 equipment. In fact, after leaving TT manufacturing, Sherm went back into HO and HOn3, and many of his HOn3 cars had a familiar look.)"

Thanks to Hal Carstens for his approval to publish this article and member Dennis Martin for bringing the article to our attention and supplying us with a copy.