280 Delivery Van (1945-54)

Coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Bruce, On the rear doors is the Coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands because on the sides of the van it says 'Leverancier van H.M. de Koningin' which means 'Supplier to H.M. the Queen' if my dutch is right. The motto of Guillaume d'Orange is in French and is 'Je maintiendrai'. Jacques.

dinkycollect wrote: ' Bruce On the rear doors is the Coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands because on the sides of the van it says 'Leverancier van H.M. de Koningin' which means 'Supplier to H.M. the Queen' if my dutch is right. The motto of Guillaume d'Orange in French is 'Je maintiendrai'. Jacques.' Thank you for that Jacques, and of course you should have known anyway! With you showing us the Coat of Arms I can now see what it really is on the back of the van. Kind regards Bruce

My contribution to the thread, in complement of the M&S Richardson books. Cheers Richard

Richard Thanks for posting that, but even in the Richardson books there is scant attention paid to the post war version of the Delivery Van. When Dinky. Re-Introduced it around 1946 or 1947, it is clear that they used the # 28 and not #280. It appears that it has become common practice to now refer to it as a #280, although to me this is not really correct. Terry

Here is a scan of the May 1946 Meccano Leaflet. The number 28 van is listed at a price of 1 Shilling It is the only Dinky Toy without a letter suffix. Dave

Here is a scan of the 1st Frebruary 1950 Dinky Toys price list. Once again it is the only individual Dinky Toy listed without a letter suffix. The number 28 van does not appear in the March 1952 Dinky price list. Dave

Dave Thanks for finding that additional info on the Delivery Van.....I think it is pretty clear that it was likely made from 1946 through 1951. The fact that it does not appear on the 1952 price list and is also not in the catalog would seem to indicate production had stopped. Obviously, there would have been stock already made available for purchase for some time after that. Those records also would seem to corroborate the fact that the 280 number was only a pre-war number, used due to the myriad 28 series vans made at that time. Post war, with only one version being made, it was simple to just revert to the original number, and the model was discontinued prior to Dinky assigning the newer numbering system in 1953/54. Terry

Hi Terry I think you are absolutely right about the catalogue number Terry, I think it was 28 after the war. It is a lovely little model and I still find it amazing that Meccano did not promote it more. Dave

This one arrived this morning : And now, with the black shoes brother Richard.

Hi Richard, Mine came today........... Quite an early Postwar one, ridged black hubs, thick axles, filled rear windows, but NO fillet for the Loudspeaker.....

Timeline wise, earliest left to right? Black Hubs no fillet, Black Hubs fillet, Coloured Hubs fillet.

And with his Brothers.........

Cheers Chris Warr

Here's a very rare 280 Crawford's Promotional Van with a badge. It came in a box with a sampler of the famous cookies(or biscuits).

Oooh Jose that is really nice Dave