NOTE: I wrote the paragraph above before I discovered an obscure website, which may or may not last. In case it does not, here are some really interesting notes about the model the manufacturer calls the "bank vehicle", and they give a much better account than my vague guesswork: "Guy Arab Mk V AC4717 started life as a single decker in 1965, and [was] converted to a double decker during … 1970, and receive[d] a fleet number of S10. It [was] converted to a fare box transporter in 1983."
The picture of the inside of the upper deck shows that nearly all the seats had been removed. This detail didn't bother the modelmakers (Best Choose), who have left the upper deck of the model fully equipped with seats, no doubt as an economy because they market another model on this casting — but we've found them out.
The website shows a picture of another, similar vehicle, with: "AC4726 (S22) also have a same history as the AC4717(S10). (2000/12/24)" I am certain the webmaster wouldn't mind if I repro'd his pictures of this vehicle:
There's one interesting detail I'd like to know more about. In one of the front views you can see that the original headlamps, which were originally close-in to the radiator grille, have been blanked-off, and new ones fitted further outboard. (The left-front mudguard is not the standard shape, so it's been easy to mount a headlamp in it instead of on it.) I wonder why they bothered to do that? (You can see the standard headlamp position on this Guy.)
(Return to the Arab Mk 4 models, Red CMB)
Mobile pie stall
Hattons were selling one very good model, a 1940s Daimler utility double decker operated by Douglas Corporation, very cheap at £7. I bought three and made a single-deck mobile pie stall out of one of them. (I still don't know what to do with the left-over top deck, but I'm thinking of a railcar.) It was difficult to paint over the beautiful paintwork and transfers, but, at £7, I could afford it. The model looks quite authentic because the paintwork is rough, and the whole thing looks knocked-about and daggy, and the access door is hanging off, just like these stalls always were when I saw them by the side of the road in the 1960s. I simply cannot write small enough to make genuine signs, but the writing on the blackboard and the sandwich boards looks better in real life than it does with this camera's close-up lens.
Heavy road tractor
This is an example of how you can use up bits and pieces you have left over from cutting up other models for other projects. I had a tank transporter trailer, the floor from a builder's truck (with tools, tarp etc.), a radiator grille, a pair of double mudgards from the rear wheels of a 6-wheeler, six wheels taken from cheap plastic supermarket toys, and the roof from a WW2 military ambulance. Everything else is thin cardboard, bits of paperclips or other odds 'n ends. The pictures at the top shows how I painted it to match a standard Lledo Scammel heavy haulage tractor.
Soft drink pallet truck
Like the pie stall and the heavy road tractor, this is an example of my building my own body on a model designed for something else. I bought a 50:1 Corgi removal van, removed the body, and built this body from scrap. The end bulwarks and the side panels below the waist are sanded from balsa, the pallet dividers cut from cardboard, the pallets from matchsticks and card, and the crates from balsa wood. It took many tries to paint the Coca-Cola white wavy line, and it's still not right. I cut the "Coke" and "Coca-Cola" signpainting from the plastic labels on Coke bottles thoughtfully cast aside by young people. The paint scheme is based on the original truck in Hong Kong (below), but I did my own front-panel color scheme because it was too difficult to do theirs. Now I see them together, I think mine is better.
I wanted this type of vehicle because I was the fleet sales manager of the Bedford dealer in Hong Kong from 1969 to 1979, and sold plenty of these, many to Swire Bottlers, the local Coca-Cola bottler. I sold the one in the picture, a 1970 Bedford KHL diesel, early in my career there. Later, Swire Bottlers asked me to supply trucks with the American Alison automatic gearbox. The Bedford factory in England said they couldn't do it, so Swire bottlers bought an Alison gearbox from me, and, to prove a point, their local mechanics fitted it perfectly after a few experiments. I went to England to tell the factory that this was a bit embarrassing, especially as none of Swire's mechanics had even been to school, and would they try harder, please? Bedford got down to it, and the Alison automatic gearbox became a regular production option after a few months.
Bedford was once one of the world's best-known commercial vehicles, and I find it hard to believe that the factory no longer exists. Their trucks do, however, especially in India and Africa.
Do-it-yourself tractor
I bought three 76:1 tractors as a set for only $6. But they were modern-looking and wouldn't fit on a 1950s railway layout. You can see the original design (green). I sawed the entire top off the red one, then drilled a hole from each side to give me a straight-through drivers floor, then a hole directly into the back to make it open like the old tractors were, then stuck a broken plastic man in the "seat". I chopped off one arm and arranged it in a natural way, then fitted a steering wheel, which is a rivet glued to the end of a piece of wire. Awful, right? But it fits.
BMW m/c + sidecar
The only reason I included this is to show just what good value you can get for $6. (Pity about the front wheel spindle, though.) And it's 76:1!
AEC (ex-STL) tower wagon
One of many types used for servicing trolleybus and tram powerlines, and made up from decommisioned buses.
London Transport 1931 Feltham "streamlined" d/deck tram
In 1929, Union Construction Company (UCC), based at Feltham in Middlesex were asked to construct their first tram — the very successful classic tramcar - the 'Feltham'. A total of 100 cars were built, 54 for M.E.T. and 46 for L.U.T and went into service in 1931. In 1933 they were taken over and renumbered by the London Passenger Transport Board who susequently between 1949 and 1951 sold 92 of them to Leeds. the third prototype 'Cissie' was sold by the L.P.T.B. to Sunderland in 1937. Two of these magnificent tram cars are in preservation and can be seen at the London Transport Museum, Covent Garden (MET car 355) and at the National Tramway Museum at Crich, Derbyshire (Cissie). I used London trams a lot until I was eleven (1952), at which time they were withdrawn. I loved them as they were really fast on the straight, and, when sitting up the front on the top deck, the weaving from side to side was startling, as the distance down to the rails made it look like you were going to go off the rails. Also, when we went to the city, we went down Dog Kennel Hill in Sydenham, and that caused excited expectations as one or two had gone off at the bottom. I think the rails joined there so that, instead of 4 rails (that is, two in each direction), you had 3, so that one tram couldn’t come up if one was going down. I’ll try to find out. I didn’t ride on the Feltham type, which was quite a late introduction. The trams on my routes were the older models for which there’s no model. For the record, they looked like this, and my favourite spot was up the top, bang in the middle under that white square. They had a kind of bay-seat that fitted into the bay window.
Guy/Sunbeam 6-wheeled trolleybus — London Transport (red), and Cardiff Corp (wartime grey)
Information to come.
Sunbeam 4-wheeler trolleybus (Maidstone & District)
Wartime utility body, wood-slat seats.
From Hattons
From 1904 until 1928 Maidstone Coproration used trams for its routes to Barming, Loose and Tovil Road. Trolleybuses replaced tramcars on two routes, but diesel buses took over on the Tovil run. Until 1964 the trolleys seemed reasonably secure, having had several extensions to the system since the Second World War, the last being the erection of wiring along the new Bishops Way. The decision to abandon the system was taken the same year, with replacement by diesel buses scheduled to take place over the next four years. During the transition program buses were slotted into the trolleybus services, and the final withdrawal came on 15 April 1967.This model is 50:1, but Corgi do a 76:1, and the notes from Hattons read thus: "Number 56 (GKP 511), is a Sunbeam W new in 1944 with a Park Royal Utility UH30/26R body, rebodied by Roe (H34/28R) in 1960. This fine vehicle is now preserved at The Sandtoft Transport Centre, near Doncaster." As my model has registarion letters GKN, it's very close to the one described.
R. Parker models (UK) Ford Consul 1956 76:1
You can buy thousands of beautiful 76:1 buses, trucks, railway locomotives coaches and wagons, platform people, and even a few vans. But what about passenger cars at 76:1 scale? Hardly any.
[That sentence was written in late 2006. Now, in early 2008, manufacturers have woken up. You can now get a fair range from Pocketbond, Oxford Dieceast, Base Toys, and just one or two from Corgi.]
R. Parker of Malvern, UK, who is so wonderfully old fashioned he doesn't have a website, also does some the old-fashioned, labour-intensive way, which is why they are expensive. This pic shows how well detailed they are, but also how hard it is top get an R. Parker model looking good. Next time, I'll spraypaint it. Still, it looks better in the flesh, and I have bought a dozen of these models. Good on you, Mr Parker.
Lledo "Trackside" brand 00-scale models
I put these in to show what good value you get from the Lledo "Trackside" 00-gauge range. They're a bit big for the scale, but OK. Typically, you can get them on special at about £3 or £5 and, although some models may never really have existed just like the models, it's a great way to decorate a layout. At these prices, you can buy five or six, weather them, and use them for a brickyard or building scene in a blank corner of the layout.
Base Toys brand 00-scale model trucks
Also a bit big for 00-gauge, mut not much, is another great (new to me in 2007) range of brilliant value-for-money models. They're about £4.5–5.00 (VAT-free) plus a little bit of freight. So far, they're all trucks. An advantage is the screw fixing of body to chassis, allowing you to remove body and modify or replace with your scratch-built one. For example, the first horsebox shown here (a Guy) looks like a bright orange log cabin, so I removed it and made a new one out of paddlepop sticks. Rough, but real wood, and looking worn out (lower pictures).
Few Base models have signwriting. For a railway layout, an ideal way is to buy five or six of the same, say tippers, then heavily weather them and put them to work in a quarry.
Pocketbond, or Classix brand
Having spoken about the value for money from Lledo "Trackside" and "Base Toys" brands, I now find, a year or two later, a new range, absolutely brilliant in the value-for-money stakes. On the model supplier's website, they are listed under "Pocketbond" but the boxes are marked "Classix" (which, I think, was an early name for Base Toys). Each model you see here, at 76:1 scale, cost £3.40 plus postage, an average of about £4, or $A7.
