255 Mersey Tunnel Police Van (1955-61)

Hello all,Now an old question of mine, which has not been anwered satifactorily since I put it for the first time, almost five years ago.In 2001 I was in Liverpool, for visiting the 100th anniversary Meccano exhibition over there, and in order to do some research in the Meccano archives. An old desire of mine was to find and get photographic material concerning the original Mersey Tunnel Police Van(s). The Mersey Tunnel Police were apparently that surprised by a foreigner being interested in the MTPVs, that they kindly provided me with ample interesting documentary material, sent to me by mail some weeks later. I was surprised to see that, besides the red one, also yellow vans, Land Rovers Mark II, existed in various appearances, apparently in the 1960s. So, inspired by that image material, I could not control myself and I succeeded to create two new versions, in nave Dinky style, and of course based on two MTPV wrecks (and by that as Mark I versions, without the later more or less pronounced waistline). I am very happy with the documentation provided and the results of my yellow van experiments, but now still one question remains. The Mersey Tunnel Police could not find any image of the familiar red Dinky Toys prototype, be it in colour or in black & white. So I put my old question here again: could anybody of you give information about the earlier red one, or, preferably, provide me/us with a photo of that original 1950s red Mark I Land Rover version?Kind regards, Jan Werner

I was born in Liverpool in 1938 and lived there until 1969. I remember the Mersey Tunnel Police vehicles which I understand were made by Sandon Engineering (who were possibly the Land Rover agents). Their works was in Kind Edward Street near the J Bibby & Sons factory, not far from the Liverpool Mersey Tunnel entrances. I seem to remember the vehicles as red and later a beige colour with brown wings not red & yellow as your drawing, but I could be wrong!! Regretably I do not have any photographs of them.

Thank you very much for this comment from a genuine Liverpudlian! Interesting to learn these local details. In addition, and for further clarification, I may quote some text which accompanied one of my pictures: 'During the late 1950s and early 1960s recovery vehicles based on the series II Land-Rover 88 inch chassis were used by the police force of the Mersey Tunnel Authority. The distinctive colour scheme for these vehicles was cream (not yellow as apparently shown on the colour plate) with red front wings and roof, with special bodywork being carried out by the firm of Noel Lacey Ltd.'. Of course this text refers to the yellow/red one only, but still it's peculiar that no reference is made to the earlier red Mark I Land-Rovers, which were made so well-known by the Dinky miniature. But as we all know, Dinky seems to have been specialized in modelling rather unsual, hard to find prototypes. Still, I keep hoping that some time someone will produce some visual evidence of its existence! Kind regards, Jan Werner

With regard to the Mersey Tunnel Landrovers and Jan's research, I was born in Birkenhead (at the other end of the tunnel!) in 1948 and can remember seeing the the cream body and brown wings version quite often and think I can vaguely remember seeing red ones prior to that but, as I was a very young boy, I can't be sure. Sadly no photo either. Great stuff though. Regards Don Bugden(356)

Thanks Don, I realize more and more that the red ones were active in an era in which black and white photography was usual and colour photography was very incidental. But, again, as you do not remember having seen the red version, this confirms that Meccano chose another rather unusual prototype version for modelling. Perhaps, though the real red one was rather unusual, Meccano must have thought a red one to be a more attractive colour for a toy than a boring cream with brown one. Nevertheless, let's keep hopefully waiting for someone who can show a picture of the red prototype! Kind regards, Jan Werner

At last .... I found it today, included in the nice magazine accompanying the British Cars & Lifestyle event, which takes place in Rosmalen (NL) this weekend! Regards, Jan

Jan, What a fantastic picture and well done for eventually finding it. It is wonderful to see the outgoing all red Land Rover (upon which Meccano based the Dinky Toys) standing next to the new cream and brown version. I can clearly remember the cream and brown Land Rovers patrolling the Birkenhead/Liverpool tunnel but can't remember the red ones as well. It is also nice to see one of the old wooden toll boxes in its original position between the lanes. There is still one old toll box located near the Liverpool entrance today which has been preserved together with a short section of the original narrow rectangular recessed light units which were set into the tunnel side walls to remind us of the tunnels history. Many thanks for a great reminder of days gone and for the photographic proof of the origin of the Dinky model. Regards, Don Bugden (356).

Well done on finding this elusive evidence at last - ity shows that perseverence truly pays off! it's an added bonus that the picture is so attractive, so thanks for posting it.

Thanks for your comments! Looking in old photo albums I found this photo of one of the Mersey Tunnel booths. It is used as a display for Dinky Toys & related in the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool. I don't know if this display is still the same at present. In 2001 this was. I presume the corridor in front of it was so narrow that I could not make a better picture of the front of it. Some continued browsing produced this picture of a restored characteristic lamppost, the ones you can see on the well-known 1956 DT catalogue cover: And finally a comparative photo and the 1956 catalogue cover: Kind regards, Jan

This post is from 55Zephyr it has been transfered from a duplicate thread. Greetings everybody, there have been several mentions of this model on different threads, but I thought it would be worthwhile to open a specific thread to give a brief profile of this unusual model. The 255 Mersey Tunnel Police Van was first announced in the September 1955 issue of the M.M. (which no doubt, according to publishing practise was available during the last week of August) and was described as being 'ready during September' priced at 2/9d. The first production models were fitted with ridged die-cast hubs painted red which had standard 19/32' black plain tyres; it had a black painted 'mottled' baseplate, and was packed in the standard yellow box with pictures each side (these boxes, and also those of the 261 G.P.O Telephones Van) were printed on highly acidic card stock which became yellowed and embrittled very quickly, and consequently are quite fragile with detached flaps etc.) - and the early castings had a smooth inside to the cab roof, which was later modified with the 'cross-hatching' which has been described elsewhere. Sometime later, for a short time they were packed in plain yellow boxes with text in red on all four sides. Having acquired a good boxed example of this first production version model during the 1990's, my interest in this model lapsed until several years later, when I was reading a copy of Bruce's excellent publication 'Dinky News' (Edition 1, June 1998) in which he started a series of articles on all the models packed in the red/yellow non-pictorial boxes - and the MTPV 255 was mentioned. Needless to say, this prompted my search for an example in this style of box, which took a while - but soon I was the proud owner of this variation. Upon examination it was seen to have not only a different box, but also a different finish to the baseplate (what I call 'Mirror-Gloss', i.e. precoated steel with a high-lustre smooth black gloss finish) - and also, the shade of red seemed to have changed from the original 'pillar-box' bright red to a slightly more crimson red shade, which some people call 'cherry red' (the only trouble with this is that cherries seem to come in a wide variety of shades of red!) - however, it was still fitted with red-painted ridged die-cast hubs, although the tyres were now the treaded black 19/32' ones. By 1958, the catalogue price had increased to 2/11d but the model was still pictured as having plain black tyres; in the 1959 catalogue it was now shown with treaded black tyres but the price had reduced to 2/10d, which was maintained until the end of availability. The last printed reference I can find is in the June 1960 leaflet DT/CF/8 and the 1960 catalogue (U.K. 8th Edition) which I think was printed in August - there seems to be no further listing, so, as most sources state (Ramsays, Richardson etc.) the model was deleted some time in 1961. As my knowledge of Dinky variations increased, and having done much research into model changes, I soon found that the change to 'Mirror-Gloss' bases occurred around the same time as the change from ridged die-cast hubs to Spun Alloy hubs, and subsequently to the models being supplied in the non-pictorial red/yellow panel boxes. I shall post some more detailed information on another thread, but suffice to say that the Mirror-Gloss bases were introduced progressively from around November 1958, Spun Alloy hubs from December, and the red/yellow panel boxes from around June 1959. So of course, the search for an example with Spun Alloy hubs began ! As they say, patience is rewarded, and in 2003 I came across an example on eBay U.K. - one very fuzzy picture, showing a model in a red/yellow panel box, and of indeterminable condition - however, I won it for the grand sum of 37. Maybe all the other Dinky collectors were asleep, or maybe they weren't prepared to take a chance - but when it arrived, I was most pleasantly surprised to find that both model and box were Near Mint - and yes, the model had Spun Alloy hubs and Mirror-Gloss base. Well, where there is one, surely there have to be more? Well, perhaps I have become obsessed : However, not only has my search for these models turned up three models with Spun Alloy hubs, but also I now have a substantial 'Mersey Tunnel Police' fleet which is surely appropriate for any Police Force? You will see from the picture that there are eleven vehicles (only one early version), but I have two more early versions which somehow must have been out on patrol and didn't make it into the picture! Here is a picture of the difference of the undersides - maybe the drivers were out on a pursuit and lost control ? Lastly, I must apologise to all those collectors who have been denied the chance to acquire a scarce example with Spun hubs because of some obsessed Aussie beating them to the draw - but don't give up, there must be another one out there somewhere? As always, I hope you find this profile of interest, and will be pleased for any additional information which can be added. Regards to all, Adrian.

This post is from David Busfield, it has been transfered from a duplicate thread. There is always a surprise out there in the Dinky world, your collection of MTPV is lovely, one of my all time favourites. I suspect Jan will follow up on this as he has done a lot of specific research into the real world vehicle. Dave

This post is from Jan Werner, it has been transfered from a duplicate thread. Hi Adrian, great article and great collection ! You did not mention the lettering variations. In my opinion there are three sizes, but having no collection like yours, I do not know which techniques have been applied, transfer, tampo printing, stickers? What are your findings? My MTPV obsession has a slightly different character, but not less obsessed! Here are some 1960s conversions and I had several communications with the Mersey Tunnel Police about heir history and practice ... and crossed the Mersey (tunnel) many times, of course. Kind regards, Jan