551, 951 and 428 Large Trailer (1948-71)

An older picture of an Ebay auction showed up again in my documentation. I remember having it stored because of the seemingly odd, never recorded brick red colour. At first is seemed to me to be a no. 551 Large Trailer indeed, an early version with ridged Dinky Toys hubs and grey round tread Dinky Supertoys tyres. But then, looking more closely, and comparing with my own trailers, I realized that its just its French brother, the no. 70 Remorque Bche, the covered trailer, but now as a look-alike, being rather unrecognizable without the hood. The fresh, shiny maroon red of the new model has suffered in all those years, producing a kind of brick red colour, as used for instance for the early no. 501 Foden Diesel 8- Wheel Wagon. And of course this has nothing to do with the real, late red no. 428 red Large Trailer which was available almost 20 years later!Kind regards, Jan Werner

Hi Jan,I can help with pictures of three of your 'wants'. Ron F

An effort to date my Large Trailers: I would be delighted to see if others could show pictures of: the yellow one with red or black hubs, the early light grey one with black hubs, a 951 example with the 551/951 trade box and the later issues with cream or blue hubs or red plastic hubs. Box variants also welcome, kind regards, Jan

That is great, Ron, thanks! Were almost getting complete here. Jan P.S.: Remarkable that the late one with red plastic hubs comes with a much older box, as it seems. And that one appears to have no crimped drawing bar ends either!

Hello Jan and Co., I should have known better than to use the 'wrong' box with the plastic wheeled #428 trailer. The original box was in much rougher condition - plain red and yellow with the end flaps missing. Here is another photo of it without the box. Also a Trade Pack different from yours in green without the multi-lingual description. Finally, the large trailer was copied by Micro Models (Australia/New Zealand), but much cruder depiction of the sides, but it does have dual wheels at the back. Ron F

Lovely, Ron, both the green one and its box! And nice to have the Micro Model copy presented here, for comparison. Boxes are so easily swapped. it's a pity if they get mixed up. Good to know you have the correct box too, albeit in poor condition. Kind regards, Jan

And here is a yellow version, very well played-with but original.

I have just received a 428 large trailer with blue wheel hubs. The camera sure shows up all the chips! Ron F

Thanks, Kevin and Ron, for these additions! Just the cream hubs version to be added ... I found another image of the yellow one, auctioned in 2005 by Peter Davies of Dublo Auctions (then: Collect-a-toy on ebay). Apparently it is hard to find a better yellow example. Kind regards, Jan

Hi all, I have just acquired another 428 Large Trailer with plastic hubs - this one has a correct box I think? Ron F

Wow, that's a nice one, Ron! Condition and contemporary match taken into account they must certainly belong to each other. Kind regards, Jan

Hi, is anybody familiar with this Large Trailer in regular medium grey, but with maroon instead of the regular red hubs? It is a no. 551 (cast in below the bogie) but it comes with an individual yellow illustrated end flaps box, which - in my opinion - does not belong to it. I did not know of its existence, but searching the intermet I found another one (the only other one), shown by Little Wheels Museum. That one with black round treaded tyres instead of mine with block tread. Based on that transition I tend to date this version at about 1952-1953, which would be about the date for this maroon hubbed example, with my example the later one on 1953. Any comments? Kind regards, Jan