30g Caravan trailer (1936-50)

I searched and did not find a dedicated thread on this delightful pre-war Caravan. Year ago, I bought a blue and fawn version, that had slight fatigue and was quite scratched up. Then a couple of years ago, Keith Harvie had a much nice one for sale, so I acquired it. This one is chocolate brown and light tan or fawn, and is totally fatigue free, and the paint is in wonderful condition, very bright and shiny, but does have several chips. I have never seen any documentation as to the real prototype, and since I am working on my own Dinky collection catalog, I decided to try searching for an image. Preliminary searching led me to pursue the 'Royal Winchester' line of caravans, and I was able to find several images dating to 1935, that are very close to the Dinky version. It appears that they probably made these in several different models, of varying length, which would explain the minor differences. Meccano first made it available in 1936, in several colors, and it was discontinued due to the war in 1941, and then never re-issued, as many other models were. Richardson's books state that later versions had the roof windows filled in; both mine show them still open, so not sure when that took place. Likely due to die wear. The Dinky model shows what appears to be glass in the upper half of the door, and a closeup photo of a real one shows that they used leaded glass in exactly that same pattern.Best regards, Terry

 

Hi Terry. You are right, a lovely model, and one it took me many years to get, here's my Red / Cream, not so nice as yours unfortunately..

Chris Warr.

I apologize for posting such an un-interesting topic......I will be more careful next time. Regards,Terry

There is no such thing as an uninteresting topic Terry. Some items such as Fodens will always attract lots of interest and discussion but we have to try to encompass the whole range of Dinky. This is an excellent example of a fairly rare model being covered very well. Dave

Terry, Please carry on posting such 'un-interesting' threads. There are interesting points and photos in the most un-interesting threads and one never knows what will come up from the discussion. For example, did you know that before the war the caravan has been exported to France without tyres and fitted with Dunlop tyres ? The tradebox is not known yet but it is very likely that as some other boxes exported to France, it has a blue stamp IMPORTE D'ANGLETERRE and is without the label on the box top.

Here is mine, only very minor cracking in the hubs, the rest of the casting is superb.

As I have the original drawing in my collection, I can add some information on the Caravan. Probably Meccano intended to bring out the model again after the war. Two changes were made on the drawing. First the holes for the axle changed as thicker axles would be mounted. This of course was done on all models after 1945. Second the roofligths were filled in. On some models after 1945, open windows were deleted to allow faster casting of the body. See also streamlined bus No 29b. As we know now the caravan never was produced again after 1945. Pictures of parts of the drawing show the changes. Job nos with date, holes for axle, roof ligths. John.

John---Nice to see that you have those wonderful drawings, listing the various chances that occured. You mentioned it not being made after 1945, but I always thought that pre-war production was halted in 1941, but drawings continued to be updated with proposed changes. I would be interested to know if any Caravans were produced after 1941. Best regards, Terry

Wonderful to be the lucky owner of this drawing, John! I hope to see it some time with my own eyes! Unfortunately I am not the owner of even a no. 30g Caravan model! But last July, visiting some book stalls with Jacques at a bus rally near Derby, I managed to take this mobile phone snapshot from a book illustration below. By the way, talking about Dinky caravans and drawings: whoever knows anything about the cryptical reference in the GBofDT, page 182? >> 40? Caravan? Hook for Trailer Caravan - job no. 13493 - small - date 1.7.49 - no significant changes <<. Kind regards, Jan

Hello Terry, Never say never, however I am quite sure that the 30g Caravan was not produced after 1945. Perhaps a few were left over from pre war production and sold 1945. I have collected pre war models for over 40 years and always was hunting 'strange' variations such as smooth hubs and thick axles. I have never found a Caravan with thick axles in all those years during my many trips to UK swapmeets. Probably one reason is the fact that the wire hook for the 30g does not fit very well to the cars. As long as the hook is fitted tide on the Caravan there is no problem, however if loose, the Caravan front or end is on the ground because of having no front wheel. Despite this it is a very nice model. John.

Have been following these posts to answer my question was this produced after the war, the reason I ask is I always considered it not to be but on page 168 of the 17th edition odf Ramseys they have stated it to be produced post war 1948-50. All the price lists I have checked it is not included. Is this a mistake by Ramseys? David