The whole Triumph brand is an interesting one, because of the way
that they bought-in so much of their product.  The firm that made
them was Kastner & Co., founded by German émigré Maximilian Kastner
and re-formed with entirely British control at the start of WW1.  The
German Kastner operations carried on as well, the relationship of the
two not being part of the player history that I've seen researched.

The player mechanisms were American-made Autopianos works fitted
in Kastner's London works into a variety of British & German pianos,
including some that were owned by Kastner.  Like most UK-sold Standard
and Autopiano works, these were fitted with Themodist-like accenting
devices.  Even the Kastonome single-note expression player was a
specially-modified Autopiano works.  All in all they were a quality
operation, and successful in terms of numbers sold.  The instruments
are commonly seen for sale these days, although not many enthusiasts
seem to have them.

The rolls were another matter again.  Over the years Kastner imported
many brands, re-labelling most with their own 'Triumph' brand name and
number, notably Connorized, and British Aeolian 'Universal' rolls --
Themodist rolls with no Metrostyle line.  Victoria and Rythmodik rolls
were also imported but labelled differently.  Any make of 88-note
accented roll will work just as well, although if (as in the present
thread) the instrument has been fitted with a suction unit, hand-played
rolls such as Hupfeld or Aeolian's artist-played series drawn from
Duo-Art titles will give a more pleasing musical result than the
normal metronomic 88-note product, which are pretty dull without any
expression added (it is so much more fun to pedal & interpret them as
intended).

It appears that the only rolls Kastner made themselves were for the
Kastonome -- they had to, because nobody else would have suitable
perforators -- and a limited number of standard 88-note titles.
The giveaway of the latter is that they have no accenting perforations
or sustaining pedal, because the space on the roll these usually occupy
was needed for the Kastonome perforations.  They are also conspicuously
less well made than Aeolian's rolls: poorer paper, un-bridged slots
that vary in width, poor tracking, and generally rather unsatisfactory
when compared to almost everything else, although I have strong
suspicions that they were based on Aeolian originals.

Julian Dyer