The Big Big Trains were introduced in 1966 as a large scale toy railway system for children. It was intended for indoor and garden use and it’s locomotives ran on battery power. The Big Big Trains were manufactured in the UK by Rovex Scale Models LTD as part of the Tri-ang label. The Rovex factory was in Margrate, Kent.
The locomotives had two switch levers, one on either side. One was the forward-reverse switch. The other was the power switch. Special trip switches could be mounted on the track and make the locomotives stop or change direction depending on which side of the track these switches were mounted. Therefore the track did not have to be joined in a circle but could be laid point-to-point as long as the trip switches were placed at the ends to change the direction of the locomotive.
The Big Big Train concept was sold to the Italian model train manufacturer Lima. They introduced their own version under the name Jumbo (it. Giumbo).
Big Big Train was also sold to the American Machine & Foundry Co. (AMF) who also made their own version.
Big Big Trains were discontinued in 1972 while it was not really profitable due to the high production costs.
Eventually the production tools were sold to Russia and used to manufacture train sets under the Novo label. Novo Toys Ltd was set up in 1975 and was wound up in 1980.
For more detailed information on Rovex Tri-ang and Big Big Train see the second volume of The Story of Rovex, written by Pat Hammond.
Click on the ISBN for a google search.
This volume covers the years 1965 to 1971 and includes several pages with detailed information about Big Big Train.