Where it began The Horse Box, The Empire Flying Boats, Export Coles Cranes, Dinky Advertising and more.

Image provided by DTCA member John Beugels

Compilation provided by DTCA member John Beugels

A busy little scene with the 752/973 Goods Yard Crane loading a heavy BICC cable drum onto the 934 Leyland Octopus Wagon. The process is being overseen by the pre-war 1c Ticket Collector and the 1f Porter figures. The ‘Toyman’ in the Meccano Magazine frequently used figures such as this to breathe life into scenes such as this with very good effect over a number of years.

A British Railways scene for this quarter with a couple of classic 1950s commercials in the familiar British Railways maroon livery. On the left is the 30w/421 Hindle-Smart Helecs articulated truck carrying four of the French Dinky 849 Packing Cases with removable lids. The Helecs truck was supplied with either maroon or red hubs and the trailer could be uncoupled from the prime mover.

One of my childhood favourites features on the cover of the Journal this quarter, it is the No. 34c/492 Loudspeaker Van introduced in 1948 and it remaining in the range until 1957.

A busy little building site scene with three of the very popular Dinky Toys of the 1950s and 60s. Firstly the 562/962 Muir-Hill Dumper Truck being loaded with some sand, this is being done by the 437 Muir-Hill 2/WL Loader using sand which has been delivered to the site by the 965 Euclid Rear Dump Truck.

For this issue we feature a very nice quartet of ESSO petroleum vehicles including 31a Trojan 15cwt Van ESSO introduced in February 1951, the 30pb (442) Studebaker Petrol Tanker ESSO introduced in July 1952, the 781 Petrol Pump Station ESSO introduced in July 1955 and the imposing 943 Leyland Octopus Petrol Tanker ESSO introduced in March 1958.

Here are a couple of lovely examples of the 159 Morris Oxford saloon in cream and cerise and the 161 Austin A40 Somerset in cream and black.