30v and 491 Electric Dairy Van 'NCB' (1949-60)

With reference to the picture published in the October 2014 issue of The Journal, The N.C.B. company has been renamed Smiths Delivery Vehicles Ltd. and it is for this manufacturer that Meccano made this promotionnal model and not for a milk company.Today, Smith is the world's largest company producing zero emission vehicles, the emissions are made somewhere else by the power stations. Their range includes vans, trucks, buses and special vehicles. They have developed a world wide network of agents and are ready for the developing market of electric commercial vehicles.

The item you show here Jacques was auctioned by Lacy Scott & Knight, in Bury St Edmonds on Saturday 16th August 2014. I was in the auction room when this item was sold. I stopped bidding at

Hi David, More than 1000

The price may be worth it - who knows? What I am certain of is that I had reached my limit and had to stop. It was in a glass cabinet and was never removed, almost certainly because the label on the box is in a very fragile state. There was nothing to be gained by trying to take a photograph. Dave

Incredible, to pay such a lot of money for a poor, dirty piece of cardboard! Rare it may be, but not something to proudly display ... better hide it in the back of a cupboard. Well, it may benefit from some basic restoration. Kind regards, Jan

I just received a very nice 490 Electric Dairy Van 'Express Dairy', but was advised in the pdf listings to post here under the 30v listing, which also includes 491. In the past, I had the grey and blue NCB version, then earlier in the year I found a very nice Jobs Dairy Van. A few weeks later I came across the cream NCB version, which gladly joined my collection. Then very recently, I spotted a near mint Express Dairy van in cream, so here are a few photos of it, along with the others. Best regards, Terry

Browsing through the MM's I encountered this interesting article in MM of July 1951 about The Battery Electric Vehicle, of which the Dinky Toys Electric Dairy Van No. 30v as equivalent was issued from 1949-1960. Dinky Toys 30v Electric Dairy Van in MM July 1951. The Dairy Van with 'Express Dairy' on the front was intended for the home market and were in 1954 renumbered to Model Number 490. Dinky Toys 490 Electric Dairy Van 'Express Dairy' creme-red. By courtesy of QDT. Dinky Toys 490 Electric Dairy Van 'Express Dairy' grey-blue. By courtesy of QDT. The Dairy Van with 'N.C.B.' on his front was intended for the export and were in 1954 renumbered to model number 491. Dinky Toys 491 Electric Dairy Van 'N.C.B.' creme-red. By courtesy of QDT. Dinky Toys 491 Electric Dairy Van 'N.C.B.' grey-blue. By courtesy of QDT. Here are my 2 main export versions without box. Dinky Toys 30v Electric Dairy Van 'N.C.B.' 2 main versions. As also shown in TMT I add pictures of this model out of the various catalogues. Dinky Toys 30v Electric Dairy Van 'Express Dairy' in Meccano price list UK March 1951. Dinky Toys 30v Electric Dairy Van 'N.C.B.' in Dutch catalogue september 1951. Dinky Toys 30v Electric Dairy Van 'N.C.B.' in USA catalogue 1951. Dinky Toys 30v Electric Dairy Van 'N.C.B.' in Universal Internatonal colour catalogue May 1952. Dinky Toys 30v Electric Dairy Van 'Express Dairy' in UK catalogue 1953, equal to USA and Dutch catalogue 1953. Dinky Toys 30v Electric Dairy Van 'Express Dairy' - without text on front - in UK and USA catalogue 1954. Dinky Toys 30v Electric Dairy Van 'N.C.B.' in Dutch DT price list September 1954. As you can see is the naming 'Express Dairy' and 'N.C.B.' in the catalogues not always consistent and corresponding with the pictures of the model in the catalogue. At the end a Dutch street vieuw in the 60's. Milk factory on the Raiffeisenstraat in Enschede in the 60's with battery electric milk trucks. Jan Oldenhuis, 29-10-2017.

Nice to see this fine documentation, Jan. I wonder what difference made Meccano decide to make the respective home-market versus export choices for this model. As a child I assisted a friend's father occasionally on such an electric driven milk float! Browsing through my photo files I found the one below, representing the present state of my dairy vans. The grey 'Express Dairy' is a candidate for replacement and the grey with maroon 'Express Dairy' is still wanting. Remarkable that the 'Job's Dairy' came in a later plain NCB box only. Does this mean that the 'NCB', was longer in production than the 'Express Dairy', or that there was simply a residue of NCB boxes left over? It is known that the die gave problems during production of the Job's Dairies promotional. Kind regards, Jan

How many of us remember when our milk was delivered on a horse-drawn float? I was no more than five years old when our outer suburban London milk arrived courtesy of United Dairies. Drawn by a horse called 'Bluebell', the classic orange with white lettering liveried float was almost identical to the MB7 Lesney model. I don't remember the milkman but I do recollect the milkman's 'boy' due to his owning a penknife, with which, if asked, he would whittle a stick into a boat for the village pond. This was before I had ever encountered a Dinky Toy. John

Nice account, John. My memory of the electric van is from my birth place. Paradoxically, when we moved to another town, around 1960, our milkman had a horse-drawn float too, and so did the greengrocer! Kind regards, Jan

Thanks Jan. In 1960 I went to Grammar School and discovered that one of the boys in my class was the son of our milkman! After that I used to 'help' the milkman when he delivered in our locality. At that time many milk floats were, for taxation reasons I believe, three-wheelers (one at the front and two at the back) but there was enough room for two in the cab. My reward for this help was usually a bottle of chocolate milk. Happy days!.

This is a rare 30V darker grey body with maroon inner and hubs, plain black rubber tires of which a received a picture from Jose Heraud. He sent me this picture with 2 other pictures of his 30V vans with the following email: 'I also saw the Electric Diary van you contributed earlier. To add to the existing variations, there is a darker grey body with maroon inner and hubs, plain black rubber tires that was probably a test sample or a promotional commercial model, for an unknown client. There has been several models sold in the last few years on eBay or auction houses(QDT, Vectis). I found mine on eBay several years ago. A bit chipped but still a very rare model. I have a photo with two other typical models to compare colors. The tampo transfer in front of the van is 'Express Dairy' in blue. I include some photos if you want to place it on the 30v/491 thread of the forum. Some experts say this was a later model color scheme by Meccano using 'left-over' paint but it has never appeared with an individual box. So, probably sold in packs of six, thus earlier issue? Cheers, Jose.' Jose added also these 3 links that also shows this rare 30V variation: unsafe links deleted

www.vectis.co.uk/dinky-no-30v-electric-v...;collections_id=past

www.vectis.co.uk/no_161765?search_string...;collections_id=past

Jan Oldenhuis 10-11-2017