Mea culpa,

I AM on SQL 12 server, however, I was in a database running at compatibility level 9.

Changed to 12 and got the expected result.

Got the same result, an error

Tried SELECT TRY_CINVERT(FLOAT, 234523) and got

Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 2

'TRY_CONVERT' is not a recognized built-in function name.