Hello Terry

Nice seeing your new Thread on this great little model!  I bought mine from Vectis in 2013 having had several others in the past, none of which met my criteria! I was intrigued with what the cataloguer meant when he/she wrote "nice bright example in generally yellow carded picture box"!! (What is a "generally yellow carded picture box"? It is either a yellow carded picture box or it is not. Cannot have it both ways!!) Still the model and it's "generally carded picture box" is a fine addition to the collection.

I think the reason the casting never made it to any other brands are the back windows with their "secure mesh"! Cigarettes and mail obviously require great protection!

Anyway, herewith are some more details to compliment your fine Post, starting with the March 1957 Meccano Magazine, and then to the second printing of the August 1957 Australian Price Leaflet, print code 16/757/15 (2P), DT/CF/4.

And finally, my own 265 Morris Commercial Van "Capstan" together with its "generally yellow carded picture box"!

Kind regards

Bruce   (150)

6 January 2016

#745

Hi Terry, Bruce, I believe the 'Capstan' was just an initially unplanned 'incident'. If a series of these Morris vans had been conceived both the casting and base plate of the Royal Mail van would no doubt have been given more general characteristics (without serious concessions). Kind regards, Jan 

Jan

You are perfectly correct with the base plate - I had forgotten to mention this in my haste to submit my Post!

Changing the base plate would have been a necessity which would have involved the least expense. Although only using the new, unnumbered base plate for just one model when at least one other could have been issued, such as a secure document  courier van for instance does not make all that much sense, but I presume Meccano had taken this into consideration.

Still it does not detract from a great little model, whose short production life has meant a small production figure which is reflected in its current value, although this has decreased slightly over the years.  I have the 465 listed in the Dinky Toys Order Form for September 1959, Reference D/T9/15 but not in the Order Form for the following month, October 1959, it being the only commercial van that was no longer available for dealers to order. This then means the 465 was in production for two and a half years, March 1957 to September 1959.

Terry - you are also quite correct when you wrote that Meccano was simply squeezing a little more life out of a model, although the 260 Royal Mail Van itself was also on the way out, with it last appearing in a Dinky Toys Order Form in June 1960 and a price list issued the same month Reference 16/660/100.

Kind regards

Bruce   (150)

7 January 2016

#750

Terry,

Changing the rear windows and door locking system does not mean making an other die but only the small part for the rear doors. This has been done later when the Triumph Vitesse was made in the Herald's die and the scarce Daimler in the Jaguar die. There may be other examples as well.

The reason for the Capstan may of course be to make further use of a die when the sales of the postal van were declining, it may also be an order from Imperial Tobacco to make a code 1 promotional. At that time some manufacturers paid Meccano a small fee to have their name on the Dinky. We know that some vehicle manufacturers paid for the die and had to buy the first 500 models at full price. One known example of a manufacturer paying for the tooling is the 976 - Michigan 180 - 111 tractor dozer.

Once more, we have several possible answers for a question and will probably never know which answer is the right one.

By the way, do you know that this "Express Delivery Van" was a single seater ?

This single seat for the driver configuration was quite normal in the 1950s and 60s. It meant more room for goods and more profit.

Dave

Another significant real-life difference between regular production vans and those for the Royal Mail was the front wings (fenders) and headlamps.

The Royal Mail specified front wings made from rubber (as did British Railways on many of their vehicles) on many of their vans rather than the normal steel versions so as to be more resistant to minor bumps and scrapes. On the Morris J van, this meant securing the headlamps to the cab sides rather than the normal position on the wing tops. This feature, and the security mesh and external locking bar was correctly modelled by Dinky. Most real non-mail vans also lacked the front bumper.

Another possible explanation for the deletion of both models was that in real life, the "J" van had been replaced by the more modern J2 (as modelled by Matchbox as the blue Builders Pickup truck, number 60), and was looking decidedly "old fashioned" by that time.

Nice, Kevin, to see that yellow Foden Tanker in your avatar. Is that a new National Benzole creation of yours? It looks wonderful in yellow (like the Studebaker does). And what reference number did you attribute to that one on the box, 504 or ... ? (sorry to be a bit off-topic here, just curious). Kind regards, Jan 

Hello Kevin, Bruce, et al,

The administrator can move then entire topic, in this case "465 Morris Van "Capstan" (1957-1959)", but not a post within the topic.

If the topic you wish to post in is not there you can create it.

Here are the instructions for

Creating a new topic in the DTCA Forum

1. After logging onto the DTCA website select “Publications > PDF Library.

Click on “DTCA-Forum-Topics”.

Scroll down to find the Topic title for your new posting.

Highlight the title and copy it.

2. Then, click on “Forum”.

Scroll down to the main Forum you want to post in. In this case it is “British Commercial Vehicles”. Click on the link.

Near the top of the page, just under the British Commercial Vehicles title is a link, New topic.

Click on New topic.

Click in the “Subject” box and paste the new topic into it.

You must put something into the “Body” of the posting in order for this new topic to appear in the list.

I trust this information will help you out.

Dave

Note: The reason for the Topic List is so that the topics will be sorted properly.

Bruce,

Above you mention three different posts for the code 3 models :

"However, you do have a number of choices where your Post can go:

DTCA MEMBER INFORMATION AND DINKY TOYS PREFERENCES Forum 

and then DINKY RESTORATION thread

GENERAL INFORMATION AND POSTS Forum

and then RESTORERS

DINKY TOYS TECHNICAL DISCUSSIONS Forum

and then RESTORING DINKY TOYS Thread"

I do not know what is in these but I suppose that the subject is the same and that one thread would be enough for the restoration techniques and an other one called "Code 3 models" could contain posts such as Kevin's above.

If the post can not be moved, Kevin can write it again or copy it in one of the three threads mentioned above and then dellite his post in the Morris van thread by using the edit button.

A couple of images of the Capstan Cigarettes Morris Van.

Dave

Is a sat-nav device available to use this site ?

Hello all, I will no doubt have been sleeping all the time, but I suddenly realize that the header name of this topic is quite different from any name variant Meccano may ever have used when referring to  this model. Just an observation. Kind regards, Jan 

Jan

Have just read your Post above. I have made a comment relevant to some of the names that are listed in the pdf file.  You can read it under the 651 Centurion Tank topic, or as it is currently referred to as the 651 Centurion "Main Battle" Tank topic.

In essence, this is what I wrote:

"I can list countless titles that obviously reflect a collective whim at the time rather than following explicitly the terminology used by Meccano. If need be, the title could have the model's correct designation in brackets in a similar manner to that used by Jacques for another model, although I would prefer to simply leave the title exactly as Meccano had "decreed" it to be."

I have noticed the title of this Topic since it was created, but refrained from writing anything in case I was the only one who queried it. Nice to read your observations though.

Kind regards

Bruce   (150)

20160405/870/1445

There is at least one Capstan van fitted with the baseplate from the mail van. The photo provided was so loosy that I trashed it. So I am looking for an at least decent photo of the baseplate of such a van.