25f Market Gardener's Van / Wagon (1934-50)

The Market Gardener's Van, also called Wagon, closes the line of the basic pre-war 25 Series. It can be found with any of all four types of grille/chassis combinations in the period 1934-1950. Post-war it was finished in the colours yellow, green, orange and grey, with a black chassis. Pre-war there were more colours available. The Market Gardeners Van was succeeded by the (Dodge) Farm Produce Wagon (no. 30n) in 1950. The former has a moulded diecast fence, the latter has a tin fence fitted, which is clipped onto the diecast back. On a larger scale the Leyland Comet Wagon, a Dinky Supertoy (no. 531) of 1949 shows some similarity. Experiments were carried out on some occasion with a cast fence. Before the Fodens started their advance as Dinky Supertoys in 1947, a smaller-scale prototype of this eight-wheeled truck was made, equipped with a loading platform, but apparently the option of a fence unit was also studied (see fig. 423 in DT&MM p. 248). The French produced the related Plate-forme ridelles, no. 25f, their own market gardeners model, based on the same principle and with approximately the same time-span of availability. Their Ford Betaillre (no. 25a) and (Studebaker) Camionnette Maraicher (no. 25k), in their turn, were the contemporary 1950s counterparts of the (Dodge) Farm Produce Wagon, although their fencing was still fully diecast. Some pictures below. Additions, correction etc. welcome, kind regards, Jan