7mm Road Vehicles

Dave

Dave

Western Thunderer
I've got this diecast Ford Thames van by Oxford. I bought it second hand for £3, boxed and with a limited edition certificate. Unfortunately it was bright green and red with Christmas 2011 lettering. I pulled it apart and repainted it a suitable 1960s colour and added a bit of weathering. I've still got to make a number plate for it and paint the indicator lenses.
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Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Nice work, Phill.

Trivial Pursuit points: 939 EXU was the single example of the Austin A35 in GPO livery. It operated for a short time in the Portsmouth area around 1962. The GPO was trying new vehicles in the postal and telephones fleets, but like the Commer Cob, Ford Anglia and Standard 5-7cwt, the A35 wasn't adopted as a replacement to the Morris Minor van already in service. Full marks to Oxford for producing a one-off, though.
 
Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Dog Star said:
Tidy that, a nice anorak Heather.
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Road fleet vehicles of the 1950s and 1960s is one of my specialist subjects. Apart from just being interesting, there are lots of groovy specialist vehicles in such fleets, which feed my kit-bashing and scratch-building habit. :thumbs:
 
Dog Star

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Just asking... might you know how many brothers there were in the haulage firm "Reads" of Longhope? In business by mid 1960s and still going today... probably still in the same base.

regards, Graham
 
Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
By way of what I mean by "specialist", here's one I made many years ago.
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Airfix Matador, Langley whitemetal wheels and fifth wheel coupling, trailer from plastic sheet, strip and spares from the bits box. The GPO had thirty of these beasties for moving cable drums around London. Originally they would have been in the GPO bronze green, as this model, but later they were repainted in the pillar box red when the Road Haulage Fleet merged with the Stores Department in the mid-50s.
 
Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Dog Star said:
Just asking... might you know how many brothers there were in the haulage firm "Reads" of Longhope? In business by mid 1960s and still going today... probably still in the same base.
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That I can't help with, sadly. When I say "fleets" I tend to mean stuff like BR, GPO, BRS/Pickfords. Private concerns, while equally fascinating, tend to be a little outside my orbit of interest.
 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Heather Kay said:
By way of what I mean by "specialist", here's one I made many years ago.
View attachment 17871

Airfix Matador, Langley whitemetal wheels and fifth wheel coupling, trailer from plastic sheet, strip and spares from the bits box. The GPO had thirty of these beasties for moving cable drums around London. Originally they would have been in the GPO bronze green, as this model, but later they were repainted in the pillar box red when the Road Haulage Fleet merged with the Stores Department in the mid-50s.
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Ah - but should it - or should it not - have a propshaft on the front axle? I've been led to believe they were supplied as 4 x 2 not 4 x 4, but some or all had the driven front axle case as you have modelled just to befuddle us.............
 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Sorry Heather, I didn't word that very well.

The point I was trying to make was that some or all of them were supplied with the driven front axle just as you have captured the vehicle, but (if I have recalled the discussion accurately) none of the front axles were in fact driven as the trucks had been supplied as 4 x 2. I believe there was no front prop and maybe no transfer box? Bizarre or what? The AEC anoraks have no answer for it, other than using up surplus driven front axles during post war shortages.

Whatever and why, that is a delightful and unusual model! :thumbs:
 
Dog Star

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Same thing with Landis, some where supplied as 4x2 in which case the "2" / "4" wheel drive dog clutch was omitted (hence no prop shaft) and the hi-lo shift was omitted (to preserve the integrity of the rear diff and half shafts(. I cannot remember if the front axle case had a diff fitted or the diff case blanked off.
 
Dave

Dave

Western Thunderer
Dog Star said:
Same thing with Landis, some where supplied as 4x2 in which case the "2" / "4" wheel drive dog clutch was omitted (hence no prop shaft) and the hi-lo shift was omitted (to preserve the integrity of the rear diff and half shafts(. I cannot remember if the front axle case had a diff fitted or the diff case blanked off.
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The 4x2 series one and two Land Rovers simply had a plain tube for the front axle.

Speaking of The World's most versatile vehicle...

Here's the diecast series 2 88 that I converted to the Lincoln arc welder.
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DSC00885.jpg
Welder and frame made from plasticard and plastic bar/strip, tilt made of card and paper, welder cables from copper wire. The Land Rover anorak will observe that the sills are post-1968 but the front end of the motor is pre-68 with the lights in the grille and not the wings (although you can't see that in the photo but take my word for it they are).

This is the Rover Company brochure for the conversion.
arcwelder.jpg
Whatever the job someone made something to bolt to a Land Rover - http://landrover.vlothuizen.nl/show/special-approved.html
 
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