Headstock controls: 1 and 2 = spindle-speed selection levers. 3 = high/low speed range selector. 4 = electrical start/stop lever combined with brake or clutch engagement lever. 5= electrical reversing switch. The unnumbered short lever with a black knob to the left of lever 5 was used to reverse the direction of the leadscrew and power shaft.

The 2 1/16" (53 mm) bore high-tensile steel forged spindle carried an American-type long-taper key drive size L1 and ran in "Gamet" super precision bearings that, unusually for a lathe manufacturer, were produced in-house and supplied to other machine-tool makers (Gamet are now a separate company within the 600 Group) All the headstock gears were hardened and ground and moved by two levers on top of the headstock and one on the front; 8 speeds were provided that could, on the first models, be specified as either 30 to 600 rpm or 40 to 800 rpm; originally a single-speed 3 hp motor (later 5 hp) was fitted but within a few years machines were being offered with either an 8-speed 50 to 1000 rpm speed range or a two-speed motor that provided 16 speeds from 30 to 1200 rpm. Some late models (with the single-lever safety apron) could be ordered with a top speed of 1500 rpm.

A very early Triumph with the headstock end of the machine supported on a box-section, cast-iron base and with the motor fastened to the back of the bed. This machine, one of the first production batch, did not have the spindle brake fitted as standard on later models. Some even earlier models are known to have been fitted with a motor and gearbox reduction unit mounted close to the headstock-end leg

A later-model Triumph with the motor held within the cabinet stand on an adjustable plate. With the cast-aluminium changewheel cover removed from its two securing studs the whole of the end of the machine became available for inspection and maintenance.

Bed of early Triumph

Unlike early versions of the Student and Master, the Triumph's No. 3 Morse taper tailstock barrel was locked not by that pet hate of the author, a slit in the casting closed down by the action of a screw thread but with a proper "split-clamp" that acted directly on the barrel at a point just before it emerged from the casting - a system that continued to work well no matter worn the components become.