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

Jan. Take a look at this one on Ebay. I think this is one with maroon hubs. This is the link: dead ebay link Personaly I am for a long time looking for a yellow one to combine with my Bedford articulated Lorry, but what I found till now are all heavy chipped overall. Kind regards, Jan O

Yes, the yellow one ... I'm looking for an excellent and affordable example for almost 20 years already, but indeed, most of them are heavily chipped - and so obviously on these bright models. I have eleven large trailers now, except for two identical models from a trade box, all different. Still looking for four variants: the yellow one, grey with black, red plastic, cream and blue hubs ... I am not particularly a variants collector, but the Large Trailers are generally so very cheap to find, very common. Thanks Jan, kind regards, Jan W

A second look at the one you found on eBay, Jan, made me realize that this is another (sub)variant. It is even slightly earlier than the couple I have shown, as it has black rear mudguards as an extra! Kind regards, Jan W

Jan. Indeed the earliest versions usually have black mudguards. At least I know that about the Bedford Articulated Lorry. It is not entirely visible on the photos of Ebay, but it seems me that the support between the rear mudguard and the body of the Ebay one is also narrower than your example. Kind regards, Jan O.

I have just acquired a nice, boxed example of the late 428 red trailer. There is no reference to either Dinky Toys or Dinky Supertoys anywhere on the model. The only markings are 'Made in England' and 'Meccano Ltd.' on the forward end of the turntable. The opposite side, where the 'DT' or 'DST' wording is normally found is totally clear, no trace of any lettering whatsoever. Are all examples of late 428 trailers the same?

Hello Kevin, this changed in 1958, with the arrival of the no. 985 Trailer for Car Carrier, which had to share the bogie with the Large Trailer. To this purpose the bogie text was 'generalized', and individual differences deleted. The Car Carrier Trailer had the wording 'Dinky Supertoys' already cast in below and the Large Trailer lacked it's Dinky Toys brand name since then. Moreover, the bogie got two small reinforcement triangles added inside. Kind regards, Jan

Thanks for that explanation, Jan. All of my 551/951 trailers are marked with Dinky Toys or Supertoys, so now I must look for a grey one without the branding !

The trade boxes previous (natural cardboard) and subsequent (blue) to the nice green one as shown in post #5 above. Please note that the grey of the later models looks much brighter than the previous duller grey of the later forties and early fiftees. Other differences also obvious. Kind regards, Jan

I noticed in Ron F's post (#5) that the wire towing bar in the green trailer has its ends pointing inwards, whereas all the other trailers in the thread have the ends pointing outwards. Was this a deliberate change in the method of assembly and when did it occur? On checking again I saw that Jan W's green trailer has the same arrangement. Something about the colour green??

The change from inwards pointing ends to outward pointing ends runs (approximately) parallel to the change from Dinky Toys hubs to Dinky Supertoys hubs, so that change took place ca. 1952. Obviously mounting the towing bar was much easier when the ends to be crimped pointed outward. Kind regards, Jan W

Thanks Jan!

Inspired by both Jan's in above posts I managed to buy these 12 different large trailers.